Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

The COVID-19 epidemic, which limited our social activity by locking us in our homes, has led to unprecedented activity in the digital sphere, not only forcing entire areas of culture and education to embrace the virtual, but also to look for new ways to engage and strengthen participation in this realm.
With the traditional channels of consumption and participation in events closed, education, tourism, the conference industry as well as artistic practice had to find new ways to reach their audiences. These actors focused not only on the flat screens of media consumption, but increasingly tried to build a new space for the audience to be immersed in and transported by.
The development of new technologies has accelerated to the extent that it is difficult to keep up not only with what is new, but above all with the possibilities of their use. There is a shortage of specialists who would help cultural institutions to operate, educate and meet the needs of their audiences in the new, virtual dimension, but, more importantly, there are no (human) resources for training staff.
This paper discusses Extended Reality (XR) projects which respond to the urgent need to enrich the existing educational programs for researchers and artists aspiring to connect with their audiences in the digital space, developing an educational offer for these groups in the field of XR, and ways of using these media to engage audiences. More specifically, the paper discusses aims at increasing the skills and competences of the participants in designing and evaluating immersive experiences in order to effectively manage, disseminate, and produce culture in the digital sphere.