Discovering digital cultural capital in London’s events of art and technology: reviewing the last decade

This paper is based on a five years’ research focused on the measurement of cultural contribution of events of art and technology to London. Developing the concept of ‘cultural capital’ devised by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, it was possible to identify their ‘forms’, such as ‘embodied’, ‘objectified’ and ‘institutionalised’ as parameters to a cultural measurement system. Applying this system to evaluate the cultural potential of events of art and technology brings the ‘cultural capital’ concept to the ‘digital age’ and results in the discovery of ‘digital cultural capital’. The objective is to find out how much these events can contribute to cultural arts organisations and venues, artists and curators as much to the public experience. For this evaluation, London’s most important events of art and technology were identified and analysed through case studies and interviews with specialists in the field.