Hello and welcome to the Digital Snapshot, bringing you all the latest digital news, inspiration, tips and guidance for the arts, culture, museums and heritage world.
Good news, everyone. Tickets for our Let's Get Real conference are now on sale and we've announced the programme. It's at M Shed, in Bristol, and this year we're exploring how digital can add value for cultural audiences, communities and organisations. Our morning keynote will be Trish Thomas, Head of Digital Innovation at London Museum. I've shared lots of Trish's thinking and insights around digital innovation in this newsletter over the last year, so it'll be great to hear her thoughts on London Museum's transformation journey IRL! Exciting stuff. We'd love to see you there and you can get your tickets (currently from £99) on our website.
Latest news 📰
- Get your tickets for the Let's Get Real 2025 conference - we've announced the programme and we'd love to see you there!
- Australia will soon introduce legislation to ban children under the age of 16 from using social media. How that would work is anyone's guess and the pros and cons are a bit of a minefield - but it's probably better than burying our heads in the sand... maybe.
- Russia has fined Google more money than there is in the entire world (two undecillion roubles). In other news, this is the first time I've heard of the number 'undecillion'.
- A number of cultural heritage organisations have uploaded their 3D content to Sketchfab over the years and Epic Gams (current owners of Sketchfab) have recently announced that they'll be migrating Sketchfab to Fab, which seems to be more about creating assets for video games and is moving away from their original ideals around supporting the preservation of 3D cultural heritage. Here are some thoughts on the changes from ex-Sketchfab employee, Thomas Flynn.
Useful / shareable 🤓
- My colleague, Stephen Miller, has written an excellent article for Arts Professional on the AI revolution in the cultural sector. In it, he answers a number of the most common questions that he's asked about AI.
- On the theme of AI, Jonathan Talmi recently launched The Living Museum, which uses Claud AI to bring life to collections on the British Museum's database. You can ask the objects questions, and they'll answer them. It's a very interesting concept, one which has sparked a lot of conversation in the sector. What do you think of it?
- The MERL recently joined Bluesky and Joe Vaughn (Socials and Marketing Lead) has shared some initial insights on their move to the platform.
- Unesco has warned that AI could rewrite Holocaust history.
Distracting / entertaining / inspiring 💥
- On the theme of 3D cultural heritage this 3D digitisation of the Endurance is quite impressive, using hundreds of images of the shipwreck taken at 3km below sea level. Ernest Shackleton's ship sank more than a century ago.
- The Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Rufus Norris, has said that a TikTok style dynamism should be embraced in theatre, focusing on fast-paced storytelling.
- And speaking of fast-paced storytelling, The Globe was nominated for a Lovie award, as a finalist in the Viral Video category.
- Have you heard about The National Gallery's 200 Creators project? They're building a network of digital creators to help celebrate their 200th birthday this year.
- A couple of weeks ago, The Tank Museum reached 1million YouTube subscribers - an incredible milestone. Here are some thoughts on that achievement from their Head of Marketing and Engagement, Nik Wyness.
Something good 👍
- Some months I struggle to find 'something good', not through want of trying. It's mostly because I've made a rod for my own back in that a lot of what I share in the sections above are often 'good', but fit better up there than they do down here. So this month I thought I'd make a podcast recommendation, instead. I've recently started listening to Adam Buxton and Mei Mac's new podcast 'Up In Smoke', which is a fictional true crime podcast. Up In Smoke is a slow burn, but it's super engaging. It's been described as 'Twin Peaks meets Serial', which I'd agree with.
And that’s all for this edition.
Don't forget we're here to support you with training, research and consultancy, so please do get in touch.
You can find all past editions of the Digital Snapshot here.
The Audience Agency
