Investigation study for the “smart-art” project ofThessaloniki as an innovation-strategy element

for the promotion of art and cultureO. Psomadaki, G. Kalliris*, P. Tsarchopoulos, G. Paschalidis

School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle Universityof Thessaloniki, 54625, Thessaloniki, Greece

*Corresponding author: E-mail: gkal@jour.auth.gr, Tel +30 2310 994280

AbstractCities are complex, networked and continuously changing socialecosystems, shaped and transformed through the interaction ofdifferent interests and ambitions. Cities are places, wherevarious aspects of past events are projected and expressed troughpersonal memories and narrations - urban memory. Cities alsorepresent a promise for future: A vision of freedom, creativity,opportunity and prosperity. At the same time, technology iscurrently promoting unprecedented changes in urban areas, whichare often labeled as smart city developments. Our researchincluded qualitative and quantitative methods and was focused ontwo different groups of participants i.e. a group ofprofessionals employed in the field of arts and a general groupof art lovers. The results indicate that Thessaloniki needs totake drastic steps towards the effective promotion of its artofferings and cultural heritage. A vital dimension of our smart-artproject regards the participation of the public in the process ofits actual design through their active involvement in all thecritical stages its preparation, testing and implementation. Keywords: innovation strategy, smart cities, arts participation, heritage experience, culturaltourism

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, due to the rapid evolution of technology, theterm smart city is becoming increasingly popular and is adopted invarious ways by many cities around the world. There are manyexamples of smart cities which solve their citizens’ problems.Problems, that people face in their daily lives. The concept of

smart city has been applied successfully, due to the fact that itservices human needs and improves living conditions of residentsin the urban area. Smart cities are typically created by thecombination of local innovation systems (technological districts,technology parks, innovation poles, clusters) with digitalnetworks and the applications of information society. Their valuelies in their ability to collect and combine three forms ofintelligence: City population, collective innovation statute, andartificial digital networks and applications [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].

Unfortunately, in Greece, we could say, that there are fewefforts approaching sufficiently the successful efforts ofrelevant foreign smart cities. Indicatively, one of those few effortsis the case of Corfu. Collective City Memory, Corfu’s version of city, ispresenting innovative elements, regarding the activity thatprovides communication between the human factor and the digitalenvironment. This innovation is the recording of personalnarrative and reflects these in Corfu’s map [6] [7] [8]. The smartcity projects that have taken place abroad do not focus theirattention on memory but instead, they focus mainly on everydayhuman needs, such as information for the weather, for cleaningservices, parking, etc. There are many cities with similarimplementations, such as San Carlos (California) Barcelona(Spain), Song do (South Korea) [9].

Thessaloniki’s Municipality has expressed great interest in thecreation of a smart city. Nevertheless, from 2011, when therespective notices were announced, until now, there were noproposals that are feasible in the implementation of such aneffort. Within the framework of a doctoral research [10], it wasdecided to create a digital environment that will cover allcultural events of the city. Moreover, this effort will offerinformation services for the historical monuments of the past,which are located to the historical center of Thessaloniki.Residents and visitors of the city will actively participate inthis effort with their direct involvement in the development ofthis digital environment with daily updates and new data. Themain goals of this effort are summarized in the following:

• Enhancement of the cultural heritage of Thessaloniki.• Promotion of contemporary art spaces.• Supporting the citizens’ needs in cultural services and

activities.• Establishment of an interactive dialogue between art -

culture and human resources.• Promotion of cultural tourism.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods, ourinvestigation is focused on two different groups of people, whichare the two communities primarily addressed by our project. Thefirst group includes people employed in the field of arts, whilethe second group consists of art lovers in general. In bothcases, the age range extends from 18 to 65 years old.

2.1. People involved with cultural institutions and art galleriesof Thessaloniki

The sample of the first category consists of 25 executive staffof public and private museums of Thessaloniki, responsible forpromoting the culture of the past and contemporary art. Theyrepresent 17 art spaces- art galleries both public and private-which have a sustained presence in promoting city’s culture.(These art spaces- art-galleries had co-operated under somespecial circumstances with some of the city’s museums.) In thefirst category were also included 6 owners and 4 managers of artspaces, which are hosted in nightlife bars and diningrestaurants. And finally, in the referring sample, 5 independentgalleries of the city were also included. The questions chosenfor the questionnaires, were mostly “closed type” (quantitativeresearch) with only a few “open-ended” questions. Once thequestionnaires were completed by the above respondents, a shortinterview followed, in order to collect some additional data.(Qualitative research) [11].

The focus of the questionnaire concerned the interest of allthese executives and managers in the creation of a cultural

digital environment. We sought to investigate if these peoplewant to advertise in it, what expectations they have and whetherthey could support not only financially but especially morallythis project with their active participation.

2.2. Art lovers of Thessaloniki

The sample of the second category consists of 198 individualsinterested in contemporary art and the cultural heritage. Thissample includes an equal number of men and women. The sample gavesignificant answers in questionnaires with “open” and “closed”type questions. 20% of this population included the rate ofcity’s students, 28% were self-employed, 29% were privateemployees, 21% were civil servants and the remaining (2%) waspensioners. The objectives of the questionnaires concernedpeoples’ familiarity with new technologies, their relationshipwith social networks and their degree of their involvement withart. In addition, we sought to gather peoples’ impressions aboutthe smart - art project. Respondents were asked to answer in“closed-ended” questions about their expectations of such aventure, and what kind of services they needed most out of it.The questionnaires also included “open-ended” questions, so as tocollect people’s suggestions. The population approached for theresearch expressed an impressive degree of excitement thatexceeded our expectations for the impact of this effort to thepublic.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. The influence of smart - art project in culturalinstitutions.

With regards to the sample of executives and managers of culturalorganizations and Thessaloniki’s art spaces, the major are thefollowing: There is a positive attitude from the 82% of thepopulation in terms of their cooperation and advertising in thisdigital cultural environment. A minority of them expressed theirconcern (22%) about art lovers’ participation through socialnetworks in the smart-art project, proposing current and permanent

exhibitions to prospective visitors. They also expressed theirconcern about malicious web visitors, who want to discredit theirinstitutes’ exhibitions. The majority of them, however, (78%)argued that the kind of promotion promised the smart-art project isvery important for the sustainability of their websites.

Another important factor that is worthwhile noting is thepositive attitude of, mainly, private art spaces –galleries,which expressed their desire to support economically this effort,if a sharper advertising banner would be provided in the smart -artproject’s homepage. Of course the amount they prefer to spend isquite small, but nonetheless important for the sustainabilityof our effort.

3.2. The influence of smart - art project to art lovers.

With regards to the sample of art lovers in Thessaloniki, ourfindings are also quite interesting. The size of the public thatparticipate frequently in city's art festivals and events isquite low. The reasons why, they do not show a greater interestare: 1) lack of information from social networks or fromadvertising leaflets, 2) lack of free time (Figure 1). But whenthis sample was asked about their activities in their free time(at least 1-2 hours a day) a large percentage of them answered“Internet navigation”. In their free time, the majority prefersto visit art galleries online rather than, in their reallocation. The majority of the sample has a more than satisfactoryrelationship with technology (Figure 2), and also, they use smartdevices to search at least one to two hours daily internet. Theirinterests, during navigation, are varied, but the issues that arethe most popular are about culture and different ways ofentertainment (Figure 3). The majority is positively inclinedtowards our smart-art project, which will inform them mainly forcultural events in the city (this also includes the promotion ofsites that host these events and their entry costs) and iswilling to provide information about the significant buildings andmonuments of the city. Quite a few, expressed an interest inhaving interactive communication with the art spaces and museums,

associated with these monuments (e.g. Byzantine Museum-churchesof Byzantine period). Finally, the monuments, which attracted themost interest of the sample, are the buildings and monuments ofByzantine period (40% of sample) (Figure 4).

In short, the smart-art project, according to the expectations ofart lovers, should provide a map with bookmarks on the landmarks(buildings-monuments of Thessaloniki as well as places thatpromote art and culture through their exhibitions). Anotherimportant request of them, was the opportunity to speak withother guests, with whom they could exchange opinions about art,upload related material, vote their favorite works (those thatwill be exposed to such art spaces) and post them to socialnetworks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram).Therefore, people want to have interactivity with art websites,monuments, artists and art works. In this way, users will not bepassive receivers of art information, but they will have anactive role affecting information related to cultural elements ofThessaloniki.

Figure 1. Reasons for not visiting cultural monuments and artspaces frequently.

Figure 2. Relationship of art lovers with technology.

Figure 3. Preferences of art lovers while navigating theInternet.

Figure 4. Preferences for city’s cultural monuments.

Having thus ensured a sampling both of art professionals and art-consuming/art-lovers citizens, we complement our project with aSWOT analysis. (Table 1)

Table 1. SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

-Attractiveness for industry, tourism, cultural heritage -Lacking coordination among government -Regeneration and urban planning of historical centre departments -Leading role of City Hall -Local entrepreneurship level -Strong, mobile innovation oriented cluster -Not so advanced ubiquitous wireless infrastructure -Strong level of collaboration government- business -Low level of private sector participation in -universities financing innovation activities -Prominent role of user driven, open innovation -Insufficient visibility and valorization

-Innovative policy instruments of research results - Innovation-friendly citizens -A critical mass of institutions and initiatives that support innovative activities (business, educational and research Institutions) -Significant experience of developing and implementing innovation activities - High degree of networking of institutions -A significant degree of openness of the local production system

Opportunities Threats

-Potential to attract companies, museums, art galleries, -Economic crisis severely limits public funding entrepreneurships related to art (bookshops, Music Hall, of initiatives TIF - Helexpo S.A.) -Low level of private investment in R&D -Services to enhance local entrepreneurship and (Research &Development) related to future innovation internet technologies and solutions -Services that help people to stay informed about the art -Weak institutional environment for technology events and innovation, especially user- driven innovation - Development of solutions for saving in energy and other -Vulnerable business models for the long city utilities term sustainability of public sector initiatives -Strengthening competitiveness of local economic clusters -Unclear and ever-changing institutional by user-driven innovations initiatives framework (taxation, management of research - Push for creation of new business sectors results etc) -Strong innovation driven collaborative networks -Investments in education and human skills -Investments in research and innovation -Easier acceptance of new innovative products from the market

4. CONCLUSIONS

Aiming to maximize arts participation in a way that gives thepublic an active role, our project enables citizens ofThessaloniki to communicate with each other about what is goingon in the city related with art and history of art. Our start-upimplementation has already begun with the design and evaluation

of the user interfaces. An open source content management systemhas been chosen as the main implementation platform. A vitaldimension of our smart-art project regards the participation of thepublic in the process of its actual design through their activeinvolvement in all the critical stages its preparation, testingand implementation. The smart-art project requires thecollaboration and communication among all the variousstakeholders (arts organizations and associations, artists, art-managers/marketeers). According to above peoples’ reaction, thecreation of a new start-up is seen as instrumental for theinnovative promotion of arts participation and heritageexperience, as well as a vital contributor to the enhancement ofthe cultural tourism of Thessaloniki.

References

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