This paper 1 describes and analyses how the live performing arts sector in Norway adapted to the abrupt change that affected most European countries in mid-March 2020. Based on a mid-pandemic empirical analysis, it argues that the sudden lockdown due to Covid-19 created a real-time laboratory for digital adaptation within the culture sector. In light of this digital adaptation, I ask whether this rapid digital turn represented a disruption in the cultural sector, and whether the sudden digitalization challenged the structures of cultural production. The paper argues that the digital adaptations to Covid-19 in central parts of the cultural sector have represented a temporary disruption. Rather than fast-forwarding a digital development, the pandemic digital turn has even more than illuminated the innovative and transformative potential of the digital, accentuated the value of the analogue. Still, it will be a continuing task for research in the years to come to assess the potential lasting implications of Covid-related digitalizations in the cultural sector.

This article investigates how a digital turn and digital copies have influenced ideas, roles and authorities within a national museum sector. It asks whether digital museums and their digital reproductions expand and/or challenge a traditional cultural policy. Two specific cases are highlighted to inform the discussion on these questions -the Norwegian digital museum platform DigitaltMuseum and Google Art Project. The article argues that there is a certain epochalism at play when the impact of a digital turn is analysed. At the same time, some clear major changes are taking place, even if their impact on cultural policies might be less than expected. I propose that one of the changes is the replacing of authenticity with accessibility as the primary legitimating value of museum objects.

Kulturviter og forsker ved Telemarksforsking. Hun har arbeidet med forskningsprosjekter og evalueringsoppdrag innenfor kulturpolitiske emner som kultur for barn og unge, visuell kunst, musikk, film, museum og kulturnaering.

No abstract

Ole Marius Hylland er forsker og kulturhistoriker med utdannelse fra Universitetet i Oslo. Han har hovedfag i folkloristikk og skrev sin doktoravhandling i kulturhistorie om folkeopplysning på 1800-tallet. Tidligere har han blant annet arbeidet som foreleser ved Universitetet i Oslo og som seniorrådgiver i ABM-utvikling (Statens senter for arkiv, bibliotek og museum). Hylland har arbeidet ved Telemarksforsking siden 2008 og er fagkoordinator for kulturområdet ved instituttet.