This week's best things
Digital project failure report out next week, June webinars, artistic beauty and abstract thinking, viral museum videos, brand messaging tips, compressed music risks, AI search impact, museum digital trends, AI in dementia care, TikTok ad breaches, Disney plans, AI agent confusion, and art adverts.
I've been travelling this week so this is a shorter edition than normal.
I'm currently in Aarhus in Denmark, at ILT, the city's international performing arts festival. Last night we saw Perfect Show For Rachel which reminded me why theatre is so great (and made me weep a load), a total joy. I want to feel like that walking out of a show more often, as the review I linked to says "why can’t more theatre be like this? Open, relaxed, fun and full of love".
Here are some more good things...
Beyond the Promise released next week, also - webinars
The report on the research I carried out earlier this year into why digital projects in the cultural sector fail or fall short will be released next week.
Subscribers to this newsletter will be the first to get access.
I will be releasing the full report alongside several tools, summaries, and suggestions, some of which will only be available to subscribers.
I will also be holding three webinars in June, during which I will be explaining and discussing the report's findings in more detail with the lovely and smart Chris Unitt and Tash Willcocks.
Pondering artistic beauty encourages ‘big picture’ thinking
Some Cambridge University research indicates contemplating beauty can affect how we think.
"A psychological experiment conducted at Kettle's Yard suggests that actively considering the beauty of art increases abstract thinking and “transformative” emotion – helping us escape the “mental trappings” of day-to-day living."
YouTube inspiration for museums 22 viral videos
A good share from One Further.
"We’re not saying the videos included are good or bad – they just have a LOT of views, and represent a range of different approaches to common museum subject matter. Enjoy! We’ve divided them up into:
- Collections
- Artists
- History
- Shorts"
Figuring out how the hell to talk about your organisation: a guide
More useful thoughts from the brilliant Lauren Pope. And something that many, many cultural organisations struggle with.
"in smaller organisations, start ups, or those building their comms and marketing capabilities, there’s often no brand team and a glaring blank space where the messaging guide should be. A blank space that everyone wants to ignore, because it’s really, really hard to fill."
Lauren Pope
Compressed music might be harmful to the ears
Neil Young was right!
Tests have been carried out on guinea pigs (actual guinea pigs), testing the effects of compressed music on hearing (they were played Adele songs).
"Tests of the cochlea, damage to which is the leading cause of hearing loss, showed some mild temporary impairment in both groups immediately after the tests, as would be expected. But compression caused more lasting damage to the middle ear’s stapedius muscle, which contracts to protect the inner ear from loud noises. At just 1mm long it is the smallest skeletal muscle in the body.
Both normal and compressed music reduced the strength with which this muscle reflexively contracts to 40% of its pre-Adele state. Though the animals who heard the standard track recovered fully within a day or so, those that endured the compressed version did not. Their stapedius muscle reflexes we"
The Economist
Google AI Overviews leads to dramatic reduction in clickthroughs for Mail Online
In an extremely unsurprising and predictable development, the Mail Online's Director of SEO has been talking about the impact of Google's AI Overviews in search results.
"She said: “On desktop, when we are ranking number one in organic search, it [clickthrough] effectively is about 13% on desktop and about 20% on mobile. When we are still ranking number one organically but there is an AI Overview present, that drops to less than 5% on desktop and 7% on mobile, so a pretty profound change in clickthrough.”"
Now whilst we maybe won't shed too many tears that fewer people are falling into this particular hate-filled hole, this sort of behaviour is what a number of people predicted would happen when Google first introduced this feature, and its bound to affect traffic to lots of other types of websites too.
Charlotte Tobitt
Annual Museum Survey: Five year trends analysis
Some trends analysis from Arts Council England's annual museum survey, which contains some digitally-focused bits and pieces. Including:
- "On-site visits are still down on pre-pandemic levels, but digital audiences have seen significant growth"
- “Use of TikTok has increased by three times over the last 5 years—from 5% in 2020/21 to 14% in 2023/24.”
- “Whilst use of X/Twitter has dropped off in recent years—from 72% in 2022/23 to 65% in 2023/24.”
- “It appears that some museums temporarily adopted different digital methods of engagement in response to the pandemic.”
- “90% used video conferencing for external audiences in 2021, now down to 60% in 2024.”
- “27% used virtual 360 tours in 2021, now down to 15% in 2024.”
Exploring AI's creative potential in dementia care
Some more Google AI experiments, they've shared a bunch of these recently.
"Synthetic Memories explores the potential of a new prop: using AI to generate synthetic memories. In cases where memories lack tangible records or have limited visual and auditory aids like photos and music, AI may offer new ways to enhance reminiscence therapy by generating a wider range of detailed and personalized recollections. These AI-generated visualizations are intended to complement existing reminiscence therapy techniques and can be revisited and explored repeatedly, offering a more interactive experience. It's important to note that these visualizations are not intended to be perfect recreations of the past, but rather prompts to aid in recalling memories and sparking conversation.
"Reminiscence therapy is a powerful tool, but often relies on specific photos or objects that simply may not exist for memories going back 50, 60 or even 70 years," says Alex Mihailidis, Scientific Director of AGE-WELL and Professor at University of Toronto. "This research explores how AI can help fill that void by generating personalized visual cues for these older memories lacking tangible records, potentially offering a more dynamic way to engage individuals with dementia and support their connection to their past.""
Alex Mihailidis
TikTok breached EU advertising transparency laws, commission says
"Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), large internet companies are obliged to publish an advertisement library, detailing ad content, users being targeted and who paid for the publicity. The commission said TikTok did not provide this information, nor allow the public to search for it. The advertisement repository is seen by EU officials as a vital tool enabling researchers to detect scam ads and coordinated campaigns that aim to disrupt elections."
Jennifer Rankin
Early Disney Imagineering maps show the ‘lost lands’ of Disneyland, new book reveals
Ever since Annette Mees shared this picture of Disney's strategy from the 1950s with me, I've found Disney as a thing quite interesting.
So this article in the Los Angeles Times about the (often quite strange) designs and plans for the original Disney Land only exacerbated that fascination.
"Of particular note here is the second photo, unearthed in “The Happiest Place on Earth” for the first time. The focus is on merchandising locations, but those who study the image will spy an opera house and a general store, believed to be the first time such concepts appear. There’s also a spaceport, a haunted house and a re-creation of London’s Tower Bridge. Shops are said to be themed to properties such as “Cinderella” and “Pinocchio.”
“It shows the holistic thinking, too, of not just the attractions but commerce,” Hahn says. “Where the stores would be, where the cafes would be, and kind of a guest-experience mentality. That was a real theme-park innovation, where you’re transported in time to Frontierland but the food and the costumes add up to Frontierland as well. You see the beginnings of that in a map like this.”"
Todd Martens
Even a16z VCs say no one really knows what an AI agent is
I recently shared some thoughts on more specific ways of talking about 'digital', because when noone really understands what you're talking about...that's a problem.
And on that subject, is this article in TechCrunch about how noone really seems to actually know what an AI agent is.
"So, unsurprisingly, no one really knows what an AI agent is. Even people with software engineering backgrounds who work for Andreessen Horowitz, one of the premier venture capital firms madly funding AI startups, say that there’s no agreed-upon definition.
Three a16z infrastructure investment partners — Guido Appenzeller, Matt Bornstein, and Yoko Li — tried to come up with their own definition of agent during a recent podcast episode called “What Is an AI Agent?”"
Julie Bort
You gotta have art
The inimitable Rebekah Ford sent me this advert for the Detroit Institute of Arts from the 1970s.
Lesson? More cultural organisations should have a jingle.
Digital Works Conference 2026 - want to help?
I am exploring the possibility of holding the next edition of the Digital Works Conference in Gothenburg, next May (2026).
Now that I am not working within a company/agency environment, even thinking about doing this on my own feels...foolish.
So if you're interested in contributing to conversations about what the conference could or should be, and/or if you could lend a hand with some of the organisation, please drop me a line on [email protected].
At the moment I'm looking at the idea of a 1-day event with a mix of Nordic and international speakers focusing around the theme of 'change'. I have some starter ideas about what a programme might involve that I'm happy to share and get input on.
Initial conversations I have had with folks in Sweden and the UK indicate there is still very much a gap and need for bringing people together to talk about the breadth of things that this event would be focusing on and exploring.
Here's a photo from last year's event at Leeds City Museum (organised when I was at Substrakt), taken by the wonderful Thom Bartley.
This week's consumption
We saw Dear England at the NT, it was really great. I'm not a follower of the England football team, and my wife doesn't like football at all, but it was really enjoyable - funny, moving, good stuff. The giant group of teenagers sat near us seemed to love it.
I've started reading Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors which is - thus far - excellent.
See you next week
Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Please enjoy a whole load of Owls in Towels.
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.