“Experiential is eating the world.”
— Damian Madray
Happy Friday. When I started thinking about experiences as a medium 5 years ago, it wasn’t in the mainstream lexicon quite yet. One artist even laughed at me when I referred to my “social gatherings” as an experience. Like digital product design, over a decade ago, I believe experiential design is the future of design. Today, we can hear the word experience being used in almost every context in our consumeristic lives. Not only will the experience be a medium, but it’s a growing category like TV, Film, Entertainment, or Games.
Let’s explore…
Everything’s an experience
Animatronics have been a key part of Disney parks since their introduction back in the 1960s - the OGs in experiences. Currently, Disney has about 6,000 animatronics throughout its parks worldwide… with the vast majority of them needing an upgrade.
Free-roaming robots are set to hit Disney parks
Imagineering, Disney’s secretive development division is working on two different animatronic projects that could revolutionize how guests interact with park characters. Dubbed Project Kiwi and Project Exo, the projects hope to bring Disney’s smallest and largest characters to life using robotics and AI, which may transform waiting in line, or even walking around the park into an experience.
Mickey Machine
Disney Imagineering has declassified two game-changing robotic projects that could remake the Magic Kingdom.
Project Kiwi: a prototype for a “small-scale, free-roaming robotic actor” that uses built-in cameras and sensors to make choices about what to do, say, or emote in real-time.
A working Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy is already completed.
The project is moving on to the “playtest” phase — a “short, dry-run” at an undisclosed park to start collecting guest reactions.
Project Exo: a “full-body exoskeleton” that allows cast members to portray large characters like the Hulk, whose suits would otherwise weigh over 40lbs.
To avoid crushing cast members, the exoskeleton redistributes weight through the suit and to the ground.
Even with the new robots, Disney stresses that it doesn’t plan to replace human cast members who portray characters like Mickey Mouse or Cinderella. The robots are only meant to fill in for too small or large characters for a human costume.
Disney is already making moves to turn its parks from a “locked-down” passive experience to something more immersive. This June, Disney introduced “WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure” at Disneyland in Anaheim that includes a “stuntronic” — a robot Spidey that performs aerial tricks outdoors.
PairPlay augments reality through sound stories
An app called PairPlay is turning imaginary games into reality through audio-powered role-playing. In the same way, AR glasses layer a new visual plane onto our own, PairPlay hopes to do the same without the screen. This could mean we spend less time staring at our screens and more time interacting with each other in the real world.
Listen together
PairPlay is crafting imaginary role-playing games.
Developed by Jonathan Wegener, the app allows two people to participate in an audio-based scene via their Airpods.
Each player is given a role to play and a separate set of instructions on what to do or accomplish.
For example, participants could play as two hosts of a TV who try to understand each other’s views on a topic.
Hear a new world
PairPlay’s functionality is meant to expand a user’s reality in the same way that AR lenses are “building layers or ‘lenses’ for phone screens and smart glasses.”
Wegener explains that “we basically consider this screen-free AR. It’s a much more compelling experience than holding a screen in front of your eyes and pretending there’s a monster on your floor. We want to work within that constraint of, ‘OK, put your phone away and play with your partner and use your imagination.’”
For Wegener, a former designer for Snap, role-playing games are just the beginning. He sees PairPlay expanding into business development or human-resource-related training, potentially leveraging the tech to administer anti-bullying or sexual harassment training. That being said, you and I both know the potential here to create a transformative experience is incredibly powerful.
Read More → wired
Kids find the fun in learning through metaverse video games
Video games are being used to teach kids science, math, and logic concepts. This falls into the category of experiential learning - the highest form of human learning. Between education outreach from Fortnite creator Epic Games to efforts from independent boot camps, video gaming could soon revolutionize homework in schools across the country.
Curriculum challenge
Games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox demonstrate that kids can have fun and learn simultaneously.
Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, opened up an education outreach program headed by Steve Isaacs.
It runs a “boot camp” to teach teachers how to use the game (and its game engine, Unreal Engine) for learning purposes.
Epic also released a “sandbox” version of Fortnite, allowing users to modify the game to create islands, mini-games, and other elements.
Video games for homework
Isaacs is also a teacher at Fleming Tech Camps, which teaches around 1,300 campers computer science and STEM concepts through video games. Interestingly, while boys made up the vast majority of attendees when the camp first started in 2003, girls now represent 40% of campers — and are typically the only ones enrolled in Roblox courses.
Read More → fast company
Odyssey Works celebrates its 20th Anniversary
For the past twenty years, Odyssey Works has been innovating experience design methods and have trained, lectured at, and offered workshops to institutions like Stanford, MICA, and Pratt, to companies like Facebook, Adobe, and Apple, to arts groups, religious groups, and design organizations from around the world.
This year marks the 20th ANNIVERSARY of Odyssey Works, two whole decades of genre-breaking experiences, empathy-centered design, and transformative education. With this landmark moment, Odyssey Works has launched a 10-month, Experience Design Certificate Program.
Apply to join a tight-knit cohort of experience designers for a 10-month, low residency certificate program designed to help you transform your field, your work, and yourself. Bracketed by two on-site weekend intensives, the program consists of once-a-week, online sessions covering experience design fundamentals across a broad range of disciplines. Working both in collaboration and individually, students will develop portfolio pieces that expand what is possible in their fields and will join an ongoing community of like-minded designers.
In 2022, they are offering two full scholarships for BIPOC individuals. They also have two need-based partial scholarships. When you join us, you become a part of the Odyssey Works community, a group of remarkable boundary-breaking artists deeply committed to doing meaningful work. You’re most welcome to mention that Damian sent you.
Learn more → apply now
Design Science Studio, Call for Artists
The Design Science Studio is an educational incubator for art that empowers creators to imagine a regenerative future that works for 100% of Life.
The first cohort of the Design Science Studio was even more impactful than we could have ever anticipated. It transformed the lives of many creators who committed to moving the needle with us. We are beyond excited to put out this call for this cohort of (r)Evolutionaries to join us.
Our curriculum is designed to build the capacity of the creators of the program. It touches on the following themes: Futurism, Planetary Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions, World Building, Gamification, Culture and Art that Changes History, Participatory Design, Biophilic Design, Bucky's Principles, Creative Application Strategies, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Social Change, Ontological & Experience design, Decolonization, Living Systems, Systems Change and more!
We are calling all creators: fine artists, designers, performers, philosophers, ecologists, fabricators, systems thinkers, data scientists, and others to apply to the second cohort of the Studio.
Learn more → apply now
Ubisoft may load up theme park
Video-game giant Ubisoft is thinking of getting physical. The company is looking into creating a theme park based on its wide-ranging IP, including Assassin’s Creed, the Tom Clancy series, and the Far Cry Series. Ubisoft has partnered with Storyland Studios to explore the potential theme park, which, based on the IP, will probably be very adult-themed. In 2015, Ubisoft explored opening a “next-generation” park in Malaysia, but it never came to pass.
Read More → inputmag
Norway’s oldest publishing house debuts first multimedia “Instabook”
Top Norwegian publisher Gyldendal and author Alexander Kielland Krag tested rolling out a story via Instagram Stories, and it was a hit. Using multimedia to tell the tale, Krag is now adapting the story for various social platforms. This is the case for what I refer to as ‘experiential media,’ which entails making existing media more immersive, interactive, or even participatory. This is the future of digital content.
Stories book
If teens are too focused on their phones to crack open a book, books may need to be written in a language that teens understand.
Gyldendal, Norway’s oldest publisher, is behind what may be the first-ever Instabook — a book told in small snippets on Instagram Stories.
The chapters include text, visual, and audio elements.
The story, titled This Stays Between Us and written by Alexander Kielland Krag, follows a gay man who finds love for the first time. It hits the universal theme of falling “head-over-heels in love with someone.”
Gyldendal EVP Tom Christian Gotschalksen said that people watched the Stories for an average of five minutes every day, with 75% of the audience watching every Story for 45 consecutive days. Better yet, the same audience was then going out and buying the physical book. In other words, they’ve created an interactive teaser on social media.
Read More → fast company
The Netflix of wellness
When Peloton closed a $550 million fundraising round, the company declared that it wanted to build “a media company akin to Netflix,” positioning the treadmill as “a portal for experiences.” Internally, classes are described as “mini-shows that [get] more and more branded to who the instructor is.” Cotter takes it a step further, wondering, “are we the Netflix of wellness? Can we tell stories outside of class?
Read More → hollywood reporter
KFC fires up pop-up hotel
Not convinced that experiential content is eating the world? Well then, there’s this - KFC pop-up hotel. Have you ever wanted to sleep inside a Kentucky Fried Chicken? Well, here’s your chance! (Kind of.) The fast-food chain is opening a pop-up hotel in London, dubbed House of Harland, for 11 days this month — a nod to the 11 herbs and spices that make its chicken tasty. Rooms are an eye-popping $154 a night… but if you smash the “press for chicken” button included in the room, you can eat $139 worth of chicken. That's a lot of chicken.
Read More → inputmag
I hope that this reaffirms your work and belief in experiences. Soon, we will shift away from these consumeristic experiences. The world will want experiences that give them more meaning in their lives - think community, connection, belonging, purpose, and so on. The more of these experiences we push, the sooner experiences will become a tool for transformation.
Until next time and have a great weekend
Damian.
PS: If you love this, please invite friends to join.