This industry op-ed was written by YuJune Park and Caspar Lam of Synoptic Office.
Art is still seen, for the most part, as something that relies on being viewed in person and as a cultural experience largely reserved for a ‘certain type’ of person. The art world can feel exclusionary on many grounds: geography (most larger galleries are in big cities like London, New York, or Berlin), accessibility (little provision been made has historically for things like disabilities and neurodivergence), diversity (of staff, artists, themes), and more.
In the early days of lockdown, many galleries attempted new ways of showing art, often through online 3D walkthrough experiences, with varying success. In the years since, we’ve seen further significant shifts in how we interact with culture: the post-pandemic world is one of ‘phygital’ spaces, augmented realities, and new experiments in the gallery-from-home experience from NFTs to immersive takes on Van Gogh.
Ultimately, cultural organizations exist with a singular purpose: to share information, stories, and cultural works. However, many wrestle with doing so while catering to increasing demands for engaging digital experiences as much as physical encounters. The tension here is around tempo: digital trends and innovations change rapidly, while the nature of art, and especially of art-led archives, is far more slow-paced and meticulous.
Fortunately for such organizations, today, we have rafts of technology at our fingertips to help address this issue. Digital tools can open up countless opportunities to work in ways that encourage viewers to self-curate; they can transcend geographical and temporal boundaries and make art more accessible than ever.
Self-curated digital experiences empower audiences to absorb data and stories in ways that are meaningful to them and encourage active, rather than passive interaction.
Personalized, immersive, and meaningful
But instead of focusing on how or where we interact with culture – physical, digital, immersive, and so on – we must approach culture and how we interact with it by thinking about the who.
Today, more than ever, audiences desire a sense of control when interacting with organizations of all kinds. That means cultural organizations must offer considered experiences that marry the best of all worlds: the remotely accessible gateway of digital exhibitions, the richness of immersive experiences, and giving the viewer agency and autonomy.
It was that issue of resolving the gap between physical art-viewing, online experiences, and user-led interactions with art that was at the heart of the challenge for the renowned Tremaine Collection, which holds more than 700 artworks by the likes of Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, Bridget Riley, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jackson Pollock. We created a new digital experience allowing viewers to peruse at their own pace, with works categorized by parameters like creator, acquisition date, or form, such as sculpture, monoprint, or even ‘Christmas Card.’ Supplementary information is readily available from the collection’s archival documents and ephemera, and the artworks are further enriched using multiple media, such as audio narratives that work much like established physical gallery audio guides.
Self-curated digital experiences enable people to interact with information in a more controlled, personalized, richly immersive, and multimedia-led experience. These experiences empower audiences to absorb data and stories in ways that are meaningful to them and encourage active, rather than passive interactions from viewers or visitors.
The primary consideration should be the story itself: How can it be even more engaging by harnessing digital tools?
Connecting to broader narratives
Through the smart use of technology, we can move on from the nostalgic notion of art as a static object displayed as strictly ‘look, don’t touch’ within a hushed gallery space. By harnessing digital tools such as the ability to show virtual spaces that go beyond our understanding of physical spaces, we can connect artworks to broader ideas around their cultural context, social and political backdrop, and insights into the people who created them.
The Tremaine Collection’s digital experience uses the idea of stacking as if one were sifting through papers in the archives. In 3D space, this allows the artworks to be manipulated in a way that is not possible physically. For instance, showing how the collection grew over time reveals insights into the mind of the collector and the artistic climate of the time.
Tech should be seen not as an augmentation to the physical gallery site but as an extension of our senses – enabling us to connect the dots between individual artworks and the overarching narratives that informed their creation and help explain their impact.
However, the primary consideration should be the story itself: How can it be even more engaging by harnessing digital tools? Tech-first approaches – deciding to use AR but without a clear picture of exactly why, for instance – rarely succeed. Story-first approaches rarely fail.
Lessons from galleries for brands
Brands, too, could benefit from shifting their mindset beyond the concrete ‘realities’ gathered from data analytics and preference cookies of digital marketing (their gallery walls, if you will). Consumer-facing brands tend to use analytics to capture efficiencies and tailor customers’ experiences primarily to encourage them to stay on their site longer and spend more.
Today, people increasingly seek to connect more deeply with the brands and platforms they interact with. TikTok’s popularity is a testament to its algorithm, which tailors content to people based on their preferences and prior interactions with content on its platform.
When brands look towards personalization, they need to think beyond their product or service to how they connect with people in a way that supports their worldview and understands their needs. Any corporation with a story to tell can consider ways to personalize experiences rather than relying solely on the cold, hard doctrines of the algorithm.
Opportunity for serendipitous experiences
Often, we find our favorite artwork, song, movie (or brand of cookies) through serendipitous experience. Breaking down the gallery walls creates space for joyful chance encounters. There’s something incredibly powerful in the human sense of discovery – whether that means meandering into the Tate Modern’s Rothko room on a school trip, ‘Shazaming’ your new favorite track at a bookstore, stumbling upon a new coffee shop, or encountering a beguiling pop art painting you’ve never seen before online.
Discovery means memorability and resonance, which are as crucial for brands’ success as they are for cultural institutions to have a real, meaningful impact on people. The most successful brands merge widespread appeal with personal connection, and arguably, the best cultural institutions achieve something similar.
By slackening the reins of tightly curated presentations of information and art, the viewer takes on some of the curatorial responsibility, enabling them to enjoy art when, where, and how they want. Away from the white cube space, people can take the time to study an artwork they love forensically – or just move on immediately from one they don’t.
It’s the difference between going to a library and using Google search. The latter is about capturing and enhancing efficiency and using precise metrics to generate revenue. The library, however, is joyful precisely because of its ‘inefficiencies’: that’s where the powerful, serendipitous moments are found – the ones that impact our lives and which we remember forever.
We’re in a hugely exciting time for art galleries thanks to ever-expanding opportunities to bridge physical and digital visitor experiences and open their archives in newly dynamic, accessible ways. However, all types of organizations can learn from these innovations: in broad terms, these shifts are about interrogating how we surface and communicate information – something as relevant to brands as to culture centers. When we consider how best to use data beyond capturing efficiencies, we can start to deliver self-curated, discovery-led experiences that people genuinely want to engage with, now and in the future.
Synoptic Office is an award-winning design consultancy founded by Caspar Lam and YuJune Park. It works globally with leading cultural, civic, and business organizations to communicate ideas, build experiences, and cultivate new audiences. The studio’s work has been honored by Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards, The Webby Awards, Design Week, the Art Director’s Club, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Synoptic Office was selected to participate in BIO23 and BIO26, the Biennial of Design at the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana. They have exhibited at the Ningbo Museum of Art in China, the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, and at Palazzo Mora with the European Cultural Centre in collaboration with the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. Synoptic Office is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).
All imagery © The Tremaine Collection.