This week's best things
Product thinking at the V&A, community value, saving US government websites, a box office AI assistant, Monzo's writing system, a Pittsburg AR experience, a new brand for Paraorchestra, battery technology, Grand Theft Hamlet, the death of Duo, AI in journalism, and a data trust experiment.
This week features lots of culture sector things.
The V&A Academy’s Opportunity Solution Tree
A look at the product- and user-centric shift that the V&A Academy team has undergone.
“We weren’t thinking like product people until relatively recently. We were thinking in this very legacy, museum-like mode,” says Ian Ellard, Head of the V&A Academy. “But now my team - without me badgering them - are doing learner interviews, sharing insights between themselves and pushing to do something about them. Because once you’ve found an interesting insight, you don't wanna keep it to yourself.”
Similarly to the interview with Mike Keating that I shared last week, Ian Ellard's experience is that once you can start down the road of being user-centred, everyone wants to get involved.
And the insights generated can be deeply, and immediately, impactful.
"These interviews helped the team understand that they have two primary audiences.
The first are recent retirees looking to “build a week”. They are looking to fill the social gap that used to be occupied by work. [...]
The second group were pursuing a personal research project. “Our learners do not want an MA. They're not actually motivated by a certificate or anything like that. They are often working on a very personal piece of research.” [...]
Ian says this insight about the two different audiences helped them see that they could serve both groups better. “Our current offer wasn't a super social online experience. And it wasn't super informational either,” he reflects. “So we were perhaps overcharging our informational learners because they weren't that fussed about the social side of things. And we were under socialised for the other group.”"
Matt Walton
The VCU Network
A chaotic-sounding Chrome extension which allows you to chat with other users when you're on the same website at the same time.
"Turning all websites into public chatrooms" sounds like a potentially interesting but probably terrible idea.
Community value
Last week I had a great conversation with Robin Cantrill-Fenwick, we talked about lots of things including ways in which cultural organisations could build deeper and more lasting value for audiences and communities beyond their traditional core constituents.
I referenced a recent post I'd seen from MuseumNext's Jim Richardson where he argued museums should look at hosting Repair Cafes. And Robin pointed me towards an article he'd written last year which looked at ways in which cultural buildings might be a more central and useful part of communities.
Robin's article is well worth a read.
"As services retreat from our high streets, we’re losing pillars quite often before the community truly has no more need of them. There are excellent individual examples but, overall, there is still potential for arts buildings to transform into civic spaces, to anchor a town or city centre. Many existing buildings, particularly newer ones, are well-placed to be daytime civic centres: the local theatre can also be the local health centre, the local bank, court or housing office.
There is open scepticism about the value of funding arts buildings, but we should be careful not to write off such powerful assets. Tying our buildings to public service delivery is not a panacea but it does strengthen the case for funding at local level. Threatening the viability of a museum is one thing, but risking the library, bank and council service desk hosted within it? A whole other matter."
As public funding changes and declines, and populist governments come to power all around the world, cultural organisations probably need to consider ways in which they can buttress themselves against these shifts.
Robin Cantrill-Fenwick Chief executive at Baker Richards and Arts Professional
Deconstructor
If you are someone who, like me, regularly Googles "etymology of <insert word here>" then you'll enjoy this new webapp that computer science student, Ayush Paul has hacked together, probably with some sort of LLM powering it.
Deconstructor allows you to anaylse (almost) any word (in the English language mostly).
Arts Council England review
Last year the UK Government announced that it would commission a review of Arts Council England (the body that distributes public funds to cultural organisations in England).
It has now shared some actual details of how the review will be carried out and its terms of reference.
They are gathering evidence through to the end of April. The review will then publish its report and recommendations in Autumn 2025 and the government has committed to respond in 2026.
"The Arts Council England review is an opportunity to examine how to bring cultural excellence to every corner of the country while amplifying local voices in decision-making. It will consider how Arts Council England nurtures creativity at all levels - from community arts to international masterpieces - and explore ways to enhance this through stronger dynamic partnerships between national and regional stakeholders. At its heart, this review asks how we can ensure this country has a vibrant, accessible arts ecosystem that truly serves all communities and delivers world-class culture at every level."
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Inside the race to archive the US government’s websites
The Trump administration is waging war on the US government, and this fight has a large digital component to it.
This piece in MIT Technology Review looks at the efforts to archive the US government's websites before they're taken offline.
"But as government web pages go dark, a collection of organizations are trying to archive as much data and information as possible before it’s gone for good. The hope is to keep a record of what has been lost for scientists and historians to be able to use in the future.
Data archiving is generally considered to be nonpartisan, but the recent actions of the administration have spurred some in the preservation community to stand up. "
On the same topic, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is fighting eight (and counting) lawsuits related to the new department's access to potentially sensitive data.
Scott J Mulligan
Eric Geller
Karo - a box office AI assistant
About 10 years ago a friend of mine had a startup that delivered a conversational purchase path for ticket buying.
Their results were pretty remarkable, with conversion rates well above those delivered by traditional ticket-buying UX. Sadly none of the main ticket software companies were interested in allowing the product to integrate at the time, and the route to market became impossible.
So it was interesting to see this new product soft launched this week from the folks at SynapTix, "Karo is an integrated AI assistant that effortlessly supports your audiences pre, during and post transaction".
This could be worth keeping an eye on, conversational interfaces for this sort of customer service feel like they hold a lot of potential (although they carry just as many potential frustrations and pitfalls, and the culture sector doesn't have a great track record with the sort of thoughtful service design this type of tool requires).
We Don’t ‘Need’ To Do Anything For Classical Music
A provocative piece from Chris Lloyd which looks at the relatively recent history of the classical concert format, why the classical music sector is resistant to change, and what that might mean for digital practitioners working in this area.
This description will ring true for anyone who has tried to move a classical music organisation towards more contemporary ways of working;
"Those who strive towards evolution do it with the best of intentions — that is, the longevity and re-emergence of classical music as a vibrant art form with relevance in the 21st century. Those opposed to it change say there’s no need to fix something that is not broken; they bristle at every new idea (e.g. digital tools for orchestras, new programming, new concert formats) as a way of cheapening or bastardising the pure concert experience as they know it."
He also, I think, does a neat job of identifying why this change is met with such particular resistance in these types of organisations (to be honest, this description could be applied to most art forms).
"In essence: the classical music industry is run in a traditional, conservative model, which has an existing stakeholder set (audience/administrator/musician) who are more-or-less satisfied with the current set up (even if they say they’re up for a bit of change, the proof is in the lack of any discernible change industry wide over the past decades). These people are largely resistant to innovation, which is understandable because why change something you like?"
But whilst his conclusion is admirable (letting the quality and impact of new ways of working speak for themselves), the finite resources of the sector (and the related need for existing institutions and stakeholders to engage with new ways of working in order for them to actually gain any visibility) mean his viewpoint is - I think - ultimately unrealistic.
Chris Lloyd: Pianist
We’ve made our writing system available to all
Monzo have shared their writing system.
"At its core, a design system is a set of building blocks and standards that help keep the look and feel of products and experiences consistent. A writing system is the same; it’s the word version of a design system."
This is perhaps of interest to and valuable for anyone in charge of content, brand, or tone of voice at an organisation.
"We take words pretty seriously at Monzo. Every word matters when you’re a bank that lives on a phone because what we say, and how we say it, make for a huge part of the customer experience.
It’s not just the Writing team that minds its language either. Everyone who works here knows that language matters. We have a whole page of our website dedicated to our writing principles and every person who joins Monzo – no matter how senior they are or which area of the business they’re joining – completes writing training in their first two weeks.
We’ve got writing guidance for emails, internal Slack messages, technical proposals, social media content, terms & conditions and more. And today we’re making one of our newest resources open to everyone!
Our writing system covers how we write words in our app and it’s now publicly available in Figma."
Read more from Max
Looking Glass
Spotted via Sarah Brin - an interesting-looking AR (Augmented Reality) project in Pittsburgh.
"Looking Glass is an app-based archive of Black life in Pittsburgh. We use augmented reality to connect the present to both the past and imagined futures.
Looking Glass's primary feature is its explore view. Use the map to discover markers where people, events, and institutions are remembered.
At each location, you can examine artifacts like photos and videos and activate site-specific AR sculptures."
AR still feels relatively under-explored (maybe I'm just ignorant of all the good examples - point me to them if this is the case!), particularly with place-based cultural organisations. AR can be a really powerful way to enrich physical 'IRL' experiences with a digital layer.
A new brand for Paraorchestra
It always seems popular when I share cultural rebrands.
So, here is a new brand from Spy Studio for Paraorchestra (the world’s first integrated orchestra of disabled and non-disabled musicians).
What’s going on with battery technology? Why do my chargers keep ruining my phone?
A good read about Lithium-ion batteries, the vital 1970s technology that probably powers many devices in your home.
Adam Clark Estes
Grand Theft Hamlet
The much talked-about actors-performing-Hamlet-within-the-Grand-Theft-Auto-video-game-during-covid film is now available to watch on MUBI.
"With theaters shut during the COVID-19 pandemic, two jobless actors, Sam and Mark, are uncertain about their futures—finding solace in the virtual chaos of Grand Theft Auto Online. Desperate for purpose, they decide to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the unpredictable world of their favorite game."
The film has already won a whole bunch of awards and Peter Bradshaw's 5 star review in the Guardian said it is "A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed; hilarious, surreal and, yes, in its weird way, genuinely exciting... The result is wild, like Baz Luhrmann’s gangbanger Romeo + Juliet or Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead... I mean it as the highest possible praise when I say Douglas Adams would have loved this film. I certainly did."
Duolingo ‘killed’ its mascot with a Cybertruck, and it’s going weirdly well
I have a deep well of dislike towards Duo, the annoying Duolingo mascot.
And last week Duolingo 'killed off' the annoying owl.
This move resulted in a blizzard of thinkpieces about the role of brands on social media, and analysis of the specific approach that Duolingo have taken over recent years.
This piece in TechCrunch is a decent summary of the whole situation, and highlights that generally - on the internet - if you take a big, bold step in any particular direction you will generate fans and enemies at roughly equal speed.
"As any fiction author could probably tell you, killing everyone’s favorite character is not a great way to get people to like you. And what’s the point of Duolingo’s unhinged startup marketing if not to get people to like the company so much that they will help generate that sweet, seductive shareholder value?
But Duolingo pulled off this admittedly cheeky stunt because Duo’s alleged cause of death is so specifically outlandish.
“As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, Duo was hit by a Cybertruck,” von Ahn said in the video. “And it looks like, in fact, every single character at Duolingo is dead.”
Since making this pronouncement, Duolingo’s monthly active Android users jumped 25% year over year worldwide, per Similarweb, a digital market intelligence provider. Similarweb also said that global downloads on Android jumped 38% the day after the campaign, and web searches increased by 58%.
Duo’s “death by Cybertruck” might very well be a distraction, but it gives people a way to channel their anger at Elon Musk’s empire at a critical time."
Amanda Silberling
How comfortable are audiences with AI in journalism?
"A new report on generative AI & journalism by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology brings together six studies - one of which looks at how comfortable or uncomfortable news audiences are with use cases of image/audio generating AI in journalism. From very comfortable (resizing of images) to not comfortable at all (generating a virtual presenter)."
It's interesting and useful to keep an eye on audience comfort levels with this sort of stuff, as I expect this will be an evolving picture.
And while we're on news organisations and AI, the New York Times has started to adopt some AI tools in the newsroom. These tools, you'd assume, should be used in accordance with the AI Principles that the organisation published last year.
Choral Data 'Trust' Experiment
A white paper from the team at Serpentine Arts Technologies which summarises their work on a recent 'data trust experiment' project.
The project focused on 15 UK choirs that each contributed choral recordings for an exhibition focused on AI called, The Call.
The goal of the experiment was to develop a 'participatory data governance framework', exploring the legal and ethical considerations, and the role(s) that institutions might play in, governing AI training data.
The project identified an opportunity for cultural instutitions to act as 'trusted intermediares' around AI training data. But also the need for investment in education, tools, and support structures to help cultural organisations and creative communities participate meaningfully in AI governance (to be honest, this need exists around almost all digital and technical considerations).
It also highlighted the need for "data governance approaches that go beyond individual opt-in/opt-out" and "limitations in current individual rights-based approaches" which are both complex and knotty areas to work through, although they are also areas where institutions could play an active and useful part in discussions.
The whitepaper identifies potential approaches and a roadmap for organisations who may be interested in exploring this area further.
Mike Keating on AI policy development at Art Fund
I wrote up the main points from my podcast chat with Art Fund's Mike Keating, if you're interested in digital leadership, embedding user-centred practices, and developing AI policies, then there'll be stuff in there that' of interest.
Ash Mann
Vacancies
Just a couple this week.
This week's consumption
We watched Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix, which was pretty bleak.
We went to see The Brutalist, which was very long and very good (also, hurray for intermissions), although there were a few gaps in the narrative towards the end that I found a bit frustrating.
I (finally) finished the final season of Derry Girls, which was really really excellent.
We bought a really good cookbook recently from Pasta Grannies which is, as you'd hope, full of recipes from Italian nonnas alongside stories about who they are and lots of beautiful photos. I think Pasta Grannies also has a podcast and YouTube channel if you like that sort of thing. The recipes are very tasty.
I came across The Irrepressibles via some sort of Spotify recommendation (the first time in ages I've come across something genuinely new and good that way). I enjoyed this 'reinterpretation' of their song, The Most Beautiful Boy
See you next week
Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Here is a really well designed website for The Pocket Photographer.
To finish, a quick reminder that I'm a consultant who helps cultural organisations do better digital work - if it sounds like I could be useful, then let's chat.