A Paradigm Shift and Defining Moment in the 21st Century: Fuelled by the convergence of computational culture, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, arts and culture are experiencing a revolutionary moment poised to change human life and society on a global scale. There is the promise of the Metaverse, with extended reality (XR) and immersive virtual worlds. For the first time, reality and virtuality are merging with these new developments. The proposed book is among the first to address the context, complexity, and impact of this multi-faceted subject in detail - for up close and personal engagement of the reader, while evoking a landscape view. As digital culture evolves to computational culture, we embark on a digital journey from 2D to 3D, where flat computer screens for the Internet and smart phones are evolving into immersive digital environments. This is while new technologies and AI are increasingly embedded in every aspect of daily life, the arts, and education.

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Tula Giannini is a Professor in the School of Information at the Pratt Institute, New York, USA. She was formerly Dean of the School during 2014-2017. At Pratt, she has initiated and managed several successful collaborative digitization projects with leading New York City museums, libraries, and related cultural institutions, supported by the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) and other funding agencies. She has also established a Master of Science (MS) in Museums and Digital Culture. She has co-organized the EVA London Symposium, associated with the annual EVA London Conference on Electronic Visualisation and the Arts since 2016. She co-edited the 2019 book Museums and Digital Culture in the Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Professor Giannini has an interest in musicology and has contributed entries in The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, published by Oxford University Press.Jonathan P. Bowen FBCS FRSA is an Emeritus Professor of Computing at London South Bank University in London, UK, an Adjunct Professor at Southwest University in Chongqing, China, and Chair of Museophile Limited, a UK consultancy company in the field of museums and IT. In 1994, he founded the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp), part of the WWW Virtual Library, later adopted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). He was invited to be the Honorary Chair of the first Museums and the Web conference in 1997 and was a regular contributor subsequently. More recently he has been co-chair of the annual EVA London Conference on Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. In 2013. he was a co-editor of Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture, published in the Springer Series on Cultural Computing. In 2017, he co-authored The Turing Guide, on the life and work of the computing pioneer Alan Turing, published by Oxford University Press and, in 2019, he co-edited Museums and Digital Culture, again in the Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Professor Bowen is a Life Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and an Emeritus Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT).