My son likes to collect things. He’s six. And his pockets are usually filled with stones, leaves, feathers, pinecones, and shiny things. He loves the natural world and collecting is his way of being part of it. Which I think is lovely. So I’m encouraging his fascination and desire to categorise and keep, even if it does mean my pockets are also full of sand and bottle caps. Collecting is fun.
And in usual me fashion, noticing this got me noticing other similar occurrences across my world of work and research (scrolling through interesting articles and YouTube videos is research, promise). I’ve been seeing lots of little references to how we collect and keep, and it’s got me thinking. Let’s dive in…
Actually, before we do. I’m celebrating and reminiscing this week because my consultancy Green Raven is 5 years old *blows party whistle*. I won’t dwell here, but I wrote a mini retrospective of some personal highlights on LinkedIn. It really is worth taking stock at these milestones. Here’s to the future!
Anyway, from 5 year olds back to 6 year olds. Collecting! Let’s get into it.
A Musical Universe
So, my son is a bit a magpie and it got me thinking about what I collect and keep in the digital world. It led me on to music, as these things often do. I’ve always explored musical genres and love rooting out connections between bands, finding the origins of different sounds and subcultures, and ultimately discovering new music.
So I was very pleased to stumble across a new BBC Introducing project which toys with the idea of music discovery in a visual, naturalistic way. It’s called Orbit, and it’s a web app which serves up a constellation of musical tasters from new artists. To navigate you push a digital joystick (which is super intuitive) to listen instantly to snippets of music from (for now) anonymous bands. The cool bit is the artists are grouped into little solar systems linked by genre, but without any words or labels to guide you. Just visual dots and the music itself. In this way it encourage exploration and very quickly establishes the rules of this method of discovery.
The cool bit is once you find a sound you like, you can choose to collect it and reveal who the artist is. From there you can add their song to your chosen streaming service and hopefully go on to discover more of their music. You can reveal 5 tracks a day which encourages a daily snacking routine to find new things, which is also super interesting. Like Wordle for new music.
So, what do I like about this? Orbit is a digital tool that is accessible on the web, is full of relevant, curated content, and is quick, easy, and snackable with a neat recurring mechanic. If this was built into my streaming app, I’d use it all the time to connect the dots like I already do in a slower, more manual way. It leans into my existing digital behaviour (playlisting, saving music for streaming later, discovering related artists) and puts it into a product package. I don’t have to type anything, read anything, or do any heavy lifting. I discovered five new bands in 5 minutes.
It’s also exactly the sort of project we would have spun up during my years with the BBC Digital Guerrillas content innovation team. Creative + Audiences + Insight + Data = Cool Stuff. Good work BBC Introducing and BBC R&D. You can read more about the project on BBC Taster.
Life Through A Lens
And then in another serendipitous discovery, I stumbled across a neat little solution for collecting physical objects digitally called Lens, developed by and for ACMI (formerly Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Melbourne.
It’s a free, handheld, cardboard disc with an NFT tag in it that lets you tap on exhibits in a museum or art gallery to ‘collect’ it and look at later. The Lens has a code on the back that links you to your digital collection of things you’ve seen, liked, wanted to look up later, or didn’t want to miss. I think it’s such a cool idea. Watch the video to get a sense of it.
What I love about it is similar to what I love about Orbit. I love that it is hyper-focused on doing one job really well by removing any barriers to engagement (It’s a similar refrain to my last newsletter about paring back the frame, I’m clearly on a simplicity tip right now) and reducing the distance between the audience and the outcome.
When I visit an art gallery, I remember lots of my visit through senses. Awe, scale, wonder, sometimes confusion. And to have a neat way to collect those memories without having to get my phone out between me and the object or art, is a great thing. It also encourages some audience loyalty, return visits, and it gamifies the space in a simple way. And the best part is, the Lens is also recyclable, so there’s a values win too.
Here’s what ACMI said about developing the Lens:
The Lens was designed to be unique to ACMI. The Lens does just one thing and it doesn’t beep or send you unnecessary notifications.
We feel that the Lens is a part of helping you remember your time with us more effectively than an app.
The Lens never runs out of battery or disconnects from our wifi. It also doesn’t leak your information to other companies.
Thanks to Lucie Paterson for turning me onto this via their post about ACMI’s approach here.
Over the last year I’ve been advisor to Horniman Museum & Gardens in South London who are embarking on a similar mission to engage people with their collections digitally, but crucially by using the physical space as the way to leverage new ideas and attention.
It would be fantastic to see more of this clarity in project briefs and initiatives. Doing something digitally does not mean doing everything digitally. The way we interact with the physical environment should never be overlooked. It can be a blended approach.
In Another Timeline We Got He-Man NFTs
Digital collectibles have been though a rollercoaster of emotions in the last few years. The rise and fall and sort of rise and kind-of-not-sure-what-to-make-of-it-all journey of NFTs springs to mind.
In theory, I should love NFTs. Digital collections of art to keep, own, and express yourself. Yet every time I have investigated them I am turned off the idea.
Set up a wallet. Choose a platform. Trade. Is this an investment? Am I buying to sell? So it doesn’t stop people copying it? I might get scammed you say? And how do these severs run then? There always seems to be a million hoops to jump through and at the end of it all I don’t have an intuitive way to collect cool things, share them, and express myself. I’m sure there are good use cases, but for now, I’m out.
Which brings me to digital clay dinosaurs. I was reading about Claynosaurz, which are cute animated dinosaurs that started out as NFTs but are now morphing into a commercial IP across games, TV, film, and toys. As someone born in the mid 80’s, it sounds like He-Man all over again.
Claynosaurz are available as thousands of iterations of cute dino critters you can collect as non-fungible tokens or whatnot. But the partnerships are already beginning to pile up with games licensing and film trailers generating buzz. I’d expect to see more of these dinos very soon, but also more IP following this model of collectible > social content > film/tv/games > probably world domination.
I, meanwhile, will probably wait until they are on Netflix rather than discovering my collectible cartoon dinosaurs are in fact illegal, unregistered securities.
Final Thoughts
People like to collect things. That’s it.
And there are some very clever ways to enable people to collect things through some brilliant thinking, considered design, and clear-headed strategy.
For me, it’s all digital behaviours. If we can hone in on what we do with available tools, both off- and on-line, we can make products and services that help us do them better, with potentially rewarding returns on attention, loyalty, and satisfaction.
Now all I need is for Lens to sync up with Orbit to soundtrack my digital exhibit collection.
About Me
I’m Ian Ravenscroft. I am founder of Green Raven. I help cultural organisations to create innovatively and innovate creatively. I apply new and emerging technologies to creative ideas to engage your audiences. I’m often an advisor, consultant, or producer, helping you make smarter decisions, informed by experience and cross-sector knowledge. Visit my website to see who I’ve helped across arts and beyond.