Afterword

In theoryKhaire, M., we startedStrandgaard Pedersen, J. the process of thinking specifically about putting together this volume on how technology interacts with the processes of creation, commerce, commentary about, and consumption of cultural goods, only after the papers in the Standing Workgroup sub-theme for the EGOS 2017 conference came together. In reality, however, the topics covered in this volume, and indeed in the ‘Call for Papers’ for that EGOS sub-theme, have been of relevance to scholars and citizens for some time now—how, if at all, does technology, associated with machines and insentience, affect the very things, viz. expression and symbolism, that make us humanHuman? While this question has been relevant for several decades now, as Sgourev shows in this volume in his historical study of painting, the scale and speed at which digital technologiesDigitaltechnologies change and evolve is such that the topic gains special significance today as the digital medium has permeated every stage of the value chainValue chain in the creative and culturalValueculturalindustriesCulturalindustries. This was shown in the various chapters, like from pitchesPitch(es) for crowdCrowd funding, in the chapter by PershinaPershina, R. and Soppe, over professional strugglesProfessionalstruggle in CulturalJournalismculturalJournalismCulturaljournalism, in the chapter by PlesnerPlesner, U., to new ways of reaching audiencesAudience, as shown in the chapters by Romanelli on museumsMuseums, on visualArtvisual art by Hartmann, and on film distributionFilmdistribution and film exhibition by Solidoro and ViscusiViscusi, G.. Our attempt in this volume was to shed light on some crucial aspects of this relationship between technology, creativity, and markets for cultural goods by drawing on a multitude—organizational, institutional, sociological, and cultural—of perspectives.