Tales of temporary disruption: Digital adaptations in the first 100 days of the cultural Covid lockdown

Hylland, Ole Marius

This paper describes and analyses how the live performing arts sector in Norway adapted to the abrupt change that affected most European countries in mid-March 2020. Based on a mid-pandemic empirical analysis, it argues that the sudden lockdown due to Covid-19 created a real-time laboratory for digital adaptation within the culture sector. In light of this digital adaptation, I ask whether this rapid digital turn represented a disruption in the cultural sector, and whether the sudden digitalization challenged the structures of cultural production. The paper argues that the digital adaptations to Covid-19 in central parts of the cultural sector have represented a temporary disruption. Rather than fast-forwarding a digital development, the pandemic digital turn has even more than illuminated the innovative and transformative potential of the digital, accentuated the value of the analogue. Still, it will be a continuing task for research in the years to come to assess the potential lasting implications of Covid-related digitalizations in the cultural sector.