From ICT to E-culture

Advisory report on the digitalisation of culture and the implications for cultural policy

A couple of years ago, ‘ICT and culture’ was the usual phrase in any discussion of policy relating to digitisation or new media in the field of arts and culture. By 2002, when the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science (in charge of Culture and Media) submitted his request for recommendations on the subject, the term used was ‘e-culture’. This was no coincidence. The term e-culture implied the need for a new type of policy. The Council for Culture fully endorses this. In fact, we would strongly argue that, when it comes to cultural policy, developments surrounding ICT and digital media must be considered within a broad and integral perspective. E-culture is not just ‘something to do with computers.’ The cultural implications of digitalisation are far greater than the mere instrumental exploitation of technical opportunities. E-culture is all about a new, digital dimension; a new and – until recently – undreamt-of medium with which existing culture must seek to interact and in which new culture is being generated. But e-culture is also more than just a new medium. Digital technologies and the Internet are opening the door to new forms of expression, changing the roles played by cultural institutions, and placing the audience and user increasingly centre stage.

Netherlands Council for Culture Submitted to the Netherlands State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, June 2003. English edition August 2004, The Hague

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