An open data layer for cultural life.
CultureBlocs is a shared, open way to record creative and cultural activity as small pieces of data. Making work, putting on a show, watching, reading, visiting: anyone can publish it, and anyone can build on it.
Making and experiencing both count
create · share · perform · present · curate · host
watch · listen · view · read · visit · take part
An exhibition and the people who saw it. A film and everyone who watched it. CultureBlocs records both, in the same format.
Every record is a bead
A bead is one small record: who did what, with which work, where and when. Each one is tiny. Published together, by artists, venues and audiences, they show cultural activity that no single platform, venue or box office can see today.
What people do with it
An artist
Publishes a CreativeID, then a bead for each new work. Her own website, a gallery's site and an open-call portal all read the same records, so she updates once.
A venue
Publishes its season as event records. Visitors who choose to share an "I went" bead point back to the event, so the venue can count who came without collecting anything itself.
A listener
Lets a scrobbler turn plays into listen beads. They stay on her own machine until she picks which to share.
A festival or researcher
Reads published beads across a city or a weekend to see participation beyond ticket sales, using data nobody had to hand over to a platform.
Say who you are, once
Artists and cultural practitioners can publish a CreativeID: a short public profile of who you are and what you do, made in the Persona Studio. It's yours, in your words, and readable by any app that uses CultureBlocs.
There is no CultureBlocs platform
CultureBlocs publishes three things. There is nothing to sign up to, and anyone can build something with the data.
The lexicon
Open schemas for creative and cultural activity, under
com.cultureblocs.*.
Publish where you already are
AT Protocol: Bluesky and the wider Atmosphere
ActivityPub (Mastodon and the fediverse), Solid pods, linked data on a plain website
Your records, your choice
Records can live on your own devices first. Nothing is public until you publish it, and precise location and device details are removed when you do.
Start somewhere
Keep the doors open
CultureBlocs rests on the idea that everyone's cultural life counts. I support Arts Emergency because access to the arts and creative spaces matters most for people who would never normally consider them for themselves. If CultureBlocs is useful to you, please think about giving to them.