Digitalization exacerbates uncertainties for cultural professionals

Artists have to assert themselves in an increasingly international environment, as the Foundation for Technology Assessment (TA-Swiss) noted in its report presented on Tuesday.

Hardly any art or its dissemination today can do without digital means, as the foundation emphasized in its 500-page report. As a result, digitalization is creating new means of expression and new opportunities to make works accessible to a global audience.

However, the advantages of digital technologies are only available with additional time and financial investment, often borne by the cultural practitioners themselves. For example, social media such as Instagram or Tiktok would create a new platform for artists and cultural practitioners, enabling them to reach a low-threshold and targeted audience.

"To do this, however, they have to constantly provide social media with content," said Nicolai Ruh from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts at the presentation of the report. This is also a psychological burden. The researchers wrote in the report that artists who do not use this stage risk being excluded from the cultural market.

Digitalization exacerbates precarity

In addition, more and more cultural professionals are working in so-called atypical employment relationships, with frequently changing clients or multiple jobs with small workloads. Social insurance is inadequately equipped for this sometimes very international work in projects and on social platforms.

A third of self-employed people in the cultural sector have no pension provision, TA-Swiss emphasized in the report. Under the conditions of digitalization, the situation of artists is likely to deteriorate further.

Artificial intelligence not legally clarified

In commissioned art in particular, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) also call into question the market value of the human factor, as the TA-Swiss report shows. This was demonstrated by the months-long strike by actors in Hollywood in 2023, in which they campaigned not only for fair wages but also to avoid being replaced by digital doppelgangers in film productions.

In Switzerland, too, such issues have not been fully clarified. However, artists have the option of taking civil action against the exploitation of their work. "However, this is far too expensive for most artists," said Christoph Hauser from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

More training and faster adaptation of legislation

According to TA-Swiss, political decision-makers, cultural organizations and artists must actively support the development of digital technologies in order to take advantage of the opportunities they offer. This requires investment in the training of artists, for example. In addition to mastering certain tools, this also includes marketing and legal skills. Furthermore, according to the study, legal principles should be adapted more quickly and, above all, more regularly. In music, the streaming issue in particular needs to be resolved.

It is up to the artists to play with the new technologies and up to the politicians to create the framework conditions in which this pays off in favor of art, said Martine von Arx from TA-Swiss.

In addition to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Swiss Music Council and the Dezentrum think tank were also involved in the study. TA-Swiss has the legal mandate to assess the consequences of new technologies. The aim is to provide parliament, the Federal Council and the general public with a basis for decision-making. (SDA/swi)