This Week’s Insights: The selfie-driven museums… Podcasts are hugely popular… As are audiobooks… Is the best new film criticism in streaming video?
- A Trend – Museums Designed For Selfies? Sure. We now have ice cream “museums,” sculptures begging for pictures in front of them. It’s an extension of the idea of participatory art in which visitors can interact with art. But are they “museums?” The content seems… a little lacking perhaps. It’s all about something impressive for your camera. Now there’s a museum in Vienna catering specifically to visitors creating their own selfie art. There are 24 different rooms at the museum. Visitors can take pictures in front of various different-coloured walls for the perfect outfit snap. People love museum selfies, and here’s the logical conclusion of that love: A museum designed expressly for uploading cute artsy self-portraits to Instagram.
- The Evolution Of Podcasts: What started as a quiet digital backwater is now increasingly growing in prominence, drawing the attention of audiences and moneyed interests alike. And the story of how we go here can be told via two major turning points: The first was everything that happened before and after 2014. The second is happening right now. Are we on the verge of a new age of podcasting? The signs say yes.
- Audience For Audio Books Is Exploding: The percentage of Americans who have listened to an audiobook in the past year has doubled to twenty percent. In 2011, that percentage for 11 percent. “Overall, the Pew survey found a gradual reduction in the percentage of Americans who are reading. In 2011, 79% of those surveyed said they had read a book in the previous 12 months, a number that fell to 72% in early 2019. Print remained by far the book format of choice, with 65% or adults surveyed reporting that had read a print book within the last year, down from 71% in 2011.”
- Film Criticism Is Being Reborn In Streaming Video: And why not? Unlike in print, on video you can run clips, examine pieces and nuances and debate. Critics break down scenes through clips and show how lighting, sound, or other effects add to the emotional and intellectual resonance of a movie, is now moving into a more mainstream form, and a lot of it is as good as criticism gets.
Image: Pixabay
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