Culturography
A new digital visualisation approach that empowers organisations to understand communities and create societal change.
What is Culturography?
Culturography visualises how people interact around different topics of interest and form communities online. Culturography maps the differences and interconnections between cultural communities across society and how they develop because of external or internal influences. The method maps online conversations to show how cultural communities engage in society’s pressing issues. This helps organisations visualise and understand how they should position themselves to spark further engagement among their target groups.
Video: Roskilde Festival
“The challenge for organisations who look to engage is that communities are shifting all the time, as the issues we care about are shifting. We need to be there to map the changes as they happen.”
– Anders Munk
At Grasp Festival, associate professor Anders Munk – partner in Backscatter – presents how the method has been used by Roskilde Festival. Roskilde Festival is looking to transition from fossil fuels to green energy and hopes to engage the festival-going audience in the process. The platform shows how their commercial partner, Andel, was able to become a part of the conversation surrounding Roskilde Festival and green energy. The presentation inspired members of the audience to think of alternative ways Culturography could be used, and the wide array of communities that can be mapped using the method.
Culturography offers a new approach for organisations to dive into the distinctions and correlations between communities, to learn which communities have the potential to interact with. Climate change, gender equality, sustainable urban development. What societal agenda is your organisation committed to? How do you take a stand while mobilizing communities around your cause?
The platform is open source and shared under a CC-BY-SA licence which means everyone is free to use the platform and adapt the code as they like – providing the Culturography project is cited. All users can visit the platform and explore the results of the partnership between Roskilde Festival and Andel. You can experience it for yourself at Culturography.com
Culturography is funded by the EU, Øernes Kunstfond, & Bikubenfonden. The method is developed by Backscatter and Aalborg University in collaboration with Roskilde Festival to study festival goers’ online conversations about topics such as climate, green energy, and activism.
