Digital

An augmented reality project telling untold stories of Black Britons has gone live at London’s Trafalgar Square.

Visitors to the area can access the Hidden Black Stories project through social media platform Snapchat. 

The immersive history lesson tells the Black British stories behind famous statues in the square. A remote version featuring the story behind a Nelson Madela statue is also available on the app.

The launch follows research conducted by Snapchat, Black Cultural Archieves (BCA) and Research Without Borders that found only a third (32%) of Britons recognise historical Black figures.

BCA Interim Director Lisa Anderson said the opportunity to share heritage with younger audiences is exciting and powerful: “This Trafalgar square lens is a dynamic, virtual sign of recognition.”

A new foundation will focus on facilitating the international exchange of ideas and practices at the intersection of digital art and traditional media.  

Sigg Art Foundation, launched by Swiss collector Pierre Sigg, has already run preliminary residencies in the south of France and has exchanges taking place in Saudi Arabia this month.

“The first residency was so inspirational that I started thinking bigger, wanting to continue to find ways to open up a dialogue between artists working in connected fields around the world. Hence the concept for the foundation was born: a way of linking the residencies and collection that could keep growing, organically,” Sigg said.

Sacha Guedj-Cohen, an independent curator, has been recruited as the foundation's Director. She will help artists in the growing field of digital art to undertake physical and conceptual projects investigating the relationship between traditional and virtual art.

More UK music artists earned "meaningful royalties" from streaming in 2021, the BPI reports.

UK music was streamed 147 billion times last year - a 5.7% increase on 2020.

About 1,900 artists were streamed more than 10 million times in the UK, meaning they could potentially earn a living from streaming alone. This group has grown by a quarter in just two years, according to the BPI.

Its figures indicate streaming now accounts for 83% of UK music consumption, though physical formats' popularity remains: a decline in CD sales has slowed and vinyl sales are the highest they've been in 30 years.

Today, an artist will generate the same revenue from 10 million streams as 10,000 CD sales. BPI estimates twice as many artists are earning significant sums compared to when CD sales were at their height.

"Success today is gauged in the multi-millions, sometimes billions, of streams," CEO Geoff Taylor said.

"This year’s growth shows there is a huge appetite for music and we believe that by working together we can increase the value of the whole music market, so that streaming can support even more artists in the future."

A non-fungible token (NFT) by an artist collective has sold for a record-breaking US$91.8m (£69.3m).

The Merge was bought by more than 28,000 people on Saturday (December 11), potentially making it the most expensive ever work by a living artist.

A Jeff Koons sculpture titled Rabbit sold for $91m in 2019; however, it was only one object.

The Merge, created by collective Pak, could become a single digital work. Buyers receive a single (NFT) with the accumulated mass of units purchased and anyone who sells their units will see them destroyed, consolidating the artwork's value over time.