This paper explores a paradigm shift in work culture in the contemporary art sector due to digital transition and the introduction of AI. New ways of working with AI and digital software are embedded and normalized in everyday Chinese artistic practices. This work includes new forms of creativity and efficiency, yet, simultaneously includes new types of digital labour. This paper conceptualizes this as “digital art work,” which draws attention to the often-overlooked aspects of artists’ work, particularly their everyday artistic practices that increasingly include digital software and AI. What is the role and position of the artist in an environment where digital software and AI are becoming more central in artistic creation? How do artists creatively (mis)use AI? What does this paradigm shift in work culture mean for the future of the artist’s role and the future of the contemporary art sector? This paper draws on 48 semi-structured interviews with visual artists and arts professionals, including painters, sculptors, mixed-media, and internet artists as well as contemporary art gallery owners, museum project directors, curators, and culture policymakers living and working in China during 2023. The findings show how Chinese artists are mastering AI and opening up new spaces for creativity and how the contemporary art sector in China has already transitioned to a new “digital way” in artistic creation. These findings can help to create policy around AI globally and provide solutions for the sustainability of the artist profession and the future of the contemporary art sector.

Cultural professionals in the art and cultural sector in Hanoi, Vietnam, are carrying out digitization projects and utilizing digital platforms, tools and applications in order to curate their own narrative on Vietnamese art and culture. This can help to counter digital orientalism by redressing the imbalance in the amount of accessible content online as well as control over the production and circulation of cultural content. An increase in the amount of digitized cultural content can help to engage local audiences and introduce a contemporary image of Vietnamese culture to an international audience. Today, Vietnamese cultural professionals are able to decide what to digitize, what to make publicly accessible and how to curate it online. This paper presents findings from a case study on Manzi Art Space, including a digital ethnography of an augmented reality public art project entitled ‘Into Thin Air’ and 20 interviews with art and cultural professionals working in Hanoi. The findings show how digitization allows cultural professionals to shape the narrative on contemporary Vietnamese art and culture. However, the findings also show there are particular challenges faced by cultural professionals in Hanoi, including lack of human resources, technical resources and funding as well as concerns around copyright law and government permissions. These challenges are hindering the ability to utilize new digital technologies.

This study examines the digital and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation in the contemporary art industry in China. This industry in China is undergoing a distinct digital transition and is “ahead” of other countries, having fully integrated digital technologies and AI (digiAI) into policies, regulations, organizations, and professional practices. A systematic, large-scale national integration of digiAI has led to its widespread adoption by artists and arts professionals. However, little is known about how or when this rapid and extensive integration and subsequent adoption occurred or about its impacts on professional practices. This study draws on research conducted between 2023 and 2024, including 30 interviews with contemporary Chinese visual artists, 23 interviews with arts professionals, a survey of 110 professional contemporary visual artists, and a systematic review of government policy. Findings indicate that the government began integrating digital technology into the contemporary art industry in 2016, further promoted digital technology integration in 2021, and introduced regulations to support AI usage in 2023. The data reveal a significant spike in the adoption of digital technologies by professionals between 2019 and 2020, followed by a rise in AI adoption in 2023. DigiAI has been accepted and now used across different kinds of arts professions, various types of visual artists, and several age groups. Digital and AI tools are now being applied in both creative and non-creative aspects of arts practices.

The ability to publish and provide access to cultural resources via free, open source digital platforms is empowering Vietnamese cultural professionals to promote their culture to local and international audiences. Digitization projects now include the use of 3D, VR, and AR digital technologies for the purpose of being published on digital platforms. This is creating an emergent digital culture in Vietnam, with an increasing amount of available resources online. Digitization projects are now used to preserve cultural heritage as well as to present and promote contemporary art and culture. This reflects a change in practices amongst cultural professionals in Hanoi, in terms of how digital technologies are used and the value placed on making cultural resources publicly accessible online. However, as new content, knowledge, and voices are able to participate in the online discourse on art and culture, the question remains as to whether this digital transition is creating greater equality and inclusion in the cultural sector or if it is exacerbating already existing forms of digital cultural colonialism. This paper presents findings from 50 interviews with cultural professionals working in the cultural sector in Hanoi about their digitization projects and digital work practices, the developments in digitization in Hanoi’s cultural sector over the past five years, how cultural professionals are utilizing the opportunities afforded by digital technologies for cultural preservation and promotion, as well as the challenges they face in carrying out digitization projects.

This paper draws on findings from a systemic review of work published globally on museums’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and recommendations for future development in the museum sector. This can be used to determine the best practices for museums, including how to create engaging digital content, boost cultural tourism using digital technologies, create new business models, and manage copyright and legal protection of digitized content. It can be used to inform museums across Vietnam and beyond about the best practices internationally for Covid recovery by showing what published studies globally state about future practices to ensure the sustainability of museums. It also outlines an ethics of digitization concerning access to digital technologies and general understandings of the ‘correct’ use of digital content. This can be used as a ‘roadmap’ for museum professionals and fills a needs gap in Vietnam on digital culture policy, digital skills, and knowledge on how to manage legal and copyright issues with digital content. Overall, this paper can assist the national museum sector navigate a digital transition.

This article explores the embedded and embodied ‘culture of geographic mobility’ across contemporary visual artists’ careers and its impacts on their feelings towards mobility and home. This article uncovers the under-explored aspects about artists’ lifestyles, for whom geographic cross-border mobilities across Europe are a necessity throughout these artists’ careers. In addition to changes in mobility patterns, pace, motives over their careers, there are also changes in their feelings towards mobilities and home across their careers and as they become older (career and age wise). Mobile careers can often start with feelings of freedom and comfort in having mobile homes. However, the effects of having mobile careers long-term can result in feelings of ambivalence, tensions and anguish towards mobility vis-à-vis home. This longitudinal study draws upon two sets of interviews conducted eight years apart with the same fifteen contemporary visual artists from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. They were first interviewed in 2013 at the emerging stage in their career and they were interviewed again in 2021 at the established stage in their career. The nexus between careers, mobility and home helps to expand the ‘mobilities paradigm’, by sharing new knowledge on contemporary visual artists’ mobilities and its effects on feelings of home across their careers.