See Things Differently

This week we are exploring the rise of immersive art, and I could think of no better person to speak with on this subject than Dorothy Di Stefano who joined me in the fabulous setting of the Pullman Hyde Park Hotel in Sydney for a conversation about where this space is heading.

Dorothy is one of Australia’s leading voices in the global phenomenon of immersive and interactive art

As the founder of Molten Immersive Art, she leads a collective of international experiential artists and researchers.

Together they work at the cutting edge of new technology and art as creators, cultural strategists and site-specific, digital immersive experience designers.

Dorothy has a seemingly never ending roll call of achievements but current and most recent projects include:

Curator, Noor Riyadh Festival a new citywide annual festival of light and art in Saudi Arabia and a Founding Circle Member of the World Experience Organization

She was recently names as a Top Voice on LinkedIn and she has nearly 50,000 followers that tune into the incredible content she shares from around the world on immersive art.

If you enjoy our conversation, Dorothy also features on a live panel exploring the future of Immersive Art in Australia which is featured in another episode of See Things Differently

In this episode I delve into the future of hotels, travel and tourism. Successful Creative entrepreneurs are highly attuned into the trends that are driving (and reshaping) industries

To get the latest download of trends in this space I found myself sitting in the luxurious surroundings of the 5 Star Pullman Sydney Hyde Park Hotel where I met with Grant Alchin Head of Asset Management Australia for Capitaland Australia

Grant is a respected travel expert with ver 25 years experience in the hotel industry working for international operators and hotel investors. He is currently heading up the lodging asset management division for Singaporean property giant Capitaland in Australia with properties operated by Accor, Marriott, The Ascott and Quest Apartments.

I hope you enjoy our wide ranging conversation

Episode 11 of See Things Differently is a special live show and features a panel session with the deliberately provocative title “Is Australia missing out on the Immersive Experience revolution?”

The session features myself, leading global immersive curator Dorothy Di Stefano and James Boyce the Founder of experience design agency Grumpy Sailor who organised the event as part of the It was part of the Visiting Entrepreneur Program organised by the City of Sydney.

It was designed to bring together a wide range of practitioners in the immersive and experience economy space to consider the best ways to grow this sector in Australia.

If you want to experience REMIX in the flesh then our next live event in London has just been announced - https://www.remixsummits.com/ldn-2022/

Episode 10 of See Things Differently features an interview with Mary McGillivray a TikTok Superstar who also goes by _theiconoclass and is helping make the arts accessible to a new gwen

TikTok might only be 5-years old, but the short form video-focused social networking service is a big deal these days with over 1 billion active users each month. That’s pretty significant in itself but in July 2021 it became the first App other than Facebook to reach 3 billion downloads. It’s also growing much faster; with users up 45% on a year ago compared to just 7% growth by Facebook in the same period  (Techcrunch).

TikTok is often associated with a younger demographic with Gen Z making up the biggest group of users (16-24) although the app is used by more and more millennials (25-44) who make up the next largest user group.

It’s best known for viral memes and lip-synched songs but the range of content these days is incredibly broad. There is an increasing amount of educational content, and this is where Mary McGillivray aka _theiconoclass fits in.

She is what you might call an Art TikTok Superstar. An Australian currently based in the UK, Mary describes herself as a Video Essayist making visual culture analysis accessible for the next generation. It turns out she is pretty good at it. Despite only starting on TikTok at the start of the pandemic she has already amassed close to 400,000 followers, over 8 million Likes and her content was viewed over 3 million times in the last 60 days. In her videos she explores everything from individual works of art to different art movements. Her style is light-hearted, extremely witty and engaging but crucially she knows here stuff and has an academic background in the subject matter.

Her success at engaging a new generation in art and art history has seen her courted by multiple cultural institutions from the big guys such as the NGV (Australia’s most visited cultural institution) to smaller players such as Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Mary and her partner in crime Julian O’Shea (also a popular TikToker and YouTuber) as she is part of the Alchemy initiative, a project REMIX has co-developed with State Library Victoria to develop a series of innovative new in-person and digital experiences at one of the most visited libraries in the world.

Her work with cultural institutions has also brought them exposure beyond the engagement on TikTok with Mary being featured in everything from The Australian to the ABC.

In this interview she demystifies TikTok, talks about how cultural institutions can engage new audiences through the platform by exploring the work of a range of different creators on the platform. She also delves into the entrepreneurial side of the being a content creator.

Find out more about REMIX Summits and the other Episodes of 'See Things Differently' on our website - https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Episode 9 of See Things Differently features an interview with Michael Eavis of Glastonbury the creator of the Glastonbury Festival

So it’s a big one for this episode. An interview with none other than the legendary Michael Eavis of Glastonbury with Guardian Music Editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas recorded at a REMIX London event a couple of years ago.

The good news first. As mentioned, it is an interview with the legend that is Michael Eavis. The bad news is there were some serious technical gremlins on the day that meant we had to rely on our backup audio recording which was less than stellar. We decided to throw this one in as a bit of a bonus pod therefore and if you are prepared to bear with the dodgy sound I think you will get a great deal of pleasure from this.

Michael Eavis is an English dairy farmer by trade but is of course best known as the creator of Glastonbury Festival, which takes place on his farm in Pilton, Somerset.

One of the most iconic music festivals on the planet it is attended by around 200,000 people and has featured some of the biggest names in music from Davie Bowie to Beyonce.

It all began in the late sixties; after a casual visit to the Bath Blues festival with his girlfriend Jean, Michael decided to have a go himself in 1970. The Festival did not make a profit for several years, but when it did, Michael began to look for good causes to support both locally and internationally. Nowadays, the Festival aims to raise two million pounds each Festival year in aid of Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid, as well as hundreds of local causes.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Episode 8 of See Things Differently features an interview with Sir Tim Smit, Co-Founder of the Eden Project

In this episode we will hear the incredible story of the creation of the Eden Project by the Co-Founder Sir Tim Smit.

I remember walking into what was once a disused clay pit to lay eyes on the Eden Project for the first time and it is truly an unforgettable sight. It is a globally iconic piece of architecture that has even featured in a James Bond movie. Many things have been called the Eighth Wonder of the World and Eden stakes a claim for me.

After my visit I subsequently read Tim’s book, The Eden Project from cover to cover which tells the story of its creation. If you don’t have time for that however, he condenses this story for us in a 40 minute talk he gave at REMIX London a few years back.

We decided to pull it from the archives at this time as part of a series of talks and interviews we are sharing that connect to the incredibly important global conversation that is happening at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow. The mission of Eden is to help protect the environment and they want to do this by creating a movement that builds relationships between people and the natural world to demonstrate the power of working together for the benefit of all living things.

Prior to his Eden adventure Tim spent ten years in the music industry as a composer and producer in both rock music and opera before moving to Cornwall where he ‘discovered’ and then restored the Lost Gardens of Heligan which is a whole other story in itself.

The Eden Project began as a dream in 1995 and finally opened its doors to the public in 2000. More than 19 million people have visited and it has Eden has contributed over £1.9 billion into the Cornish economy.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Episode 7 of See Things Differently features an interview with the founders of Darkfield who produce critically acclaimed audio experiences

David Rosenberg and Glen Neath are creative entrepreneurs and the geniuses behind Darkfield.

They create immersive experiences at the forefront of technology and theatre.

Over 250,000 people have stepped into the strange worlds unfold behind the doors of shipping containers that they have deposited all around the globe. One the audience step inside they might find themselves on a commercial airliner, at a séance or in a bed that could be in a hospital or maybe an asylum. You are asked to put on a set of headphones and from they you enter an immersive audio adventure which utilises binaural 360-degree sound, complete darkness and a variety of sensory effects, where you are situated at the centre of intense, evolving narratives.

During Covid, Darkfield rapidly pivoted being unable to deliver public experiences. They pivoted to create Darkfield Radio which is an app based immersive audio experiences to audiences at home that provided an innovative new form of entertainment directly responding to the new age we are living in. Darkfield Radio immerses audiences in strange and curious worlds, bringing new meaning to the familiar spaces we inhabit.

The first season of shows launched in July 2020 to critical acclaim, featuring in major film festivals such as Venice International Film Festival, IDFA and Raindance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and winning Columbia’s Digital Storytelling Lab’s Breakthrough Award in recognition of the year’s most innovative narrative. Season 2 was recently released.

Darkfield Radio was described by The Guardian as "unsettling audio that turns your home into a sci-fi dystopia"

Darkfield experiences are built on an App interface called Wiretapper that David is also a Co-Founder of which delivers immersive audio-based shows directly to you via your Android or iPhone. The events take place in public spaces and at home which fits the requirements of the different Darkfield experiences.

They are influential serial creative entrepreneurs in the UK and as we find out Darkfield was not their first rodeo.

Before the likes of Punchdrunk, Secret Cinema and more latterly organisations such as Meow Wolf and TeamLab mainstreamed immersive experiences, David was a member of a creative collective that founded Shunt Vaults (which Glen was also involved in later on) which was hugely influential in kicking off a movement that is now sweeping the world. In a series of cavernous spaces at London Bridge station that have since been transformed in a multi-million dollar redevelopment they helped pioneer site-specific performance which was what immersive experiences were know as back in those days. The format was extremely entrepreneurial where the team operated one of London’s largest and most edgy hospitality venues that helped underwrite the immersive performances and experiences that were hugely popular with the patrons.

In our conversation we explore what lessons can be learned from their experiences at Shunt and how they could be applied to cities as they emerge from the pandemic. We investigate whether collectives could be a model to nurture bold new ideas before we fast forward to the present and delve into the incredible work they are doing with Darkfield.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Episode 6 of See Things Differently features an interview with Pip Jamieson, Founder, The Dots

Pip Jamieson was named in the Sunday Times' Top #100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs and was also named as one of the Inspiring50 Top 50 Women in Technology in the UK. She is the Founder & CEO of The Dots, which is a professional network for creatives (or for people who don’t wear suits to work as the website jokes). It has been dubbed “The next LinkedIn?' by Forbes and it could probably be best described as a LinkedIn for creatives. The Dots already has over 500,000 members and has raised nearly £10 million in venture capital funding. Pip has put promoting social responsibility and helping businesses build diverse teams at the heart of everything they do! 68% + of The Dots community is female, 31%+ BAME & 16%+ LGBT+.

Her background includes time working for the Brit Awards then as Head of Business Strategy for MTV Australia. In 2009 she launched The Loop in Australia, a visual networking platform that was used by 67% of Australian professionals.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

This month the 2020 World Expo in Dubai finally opened following delays caused by the pandemic. The theme is very REMIX - Connecting Minds & Creating the Future and the expo will also have three sub-themes: opportunity, mobility and sustainability. With the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference concentrating minds about the Climate Emergency, we wanted to share a recent interview with john bull who is the director of 'Terra' the Sustainability Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

It’s truly a Science Centre for the 21st Century which seeks to engage audiences to make them part of the solution as well as to educate them on the unfolding catastrophe that humanity faces if we don’t make rapid and dramatic changes going forward to limit the impact of climate change.

He is also responsible for managing the post-Expo transition of the pavilion into a permanent structure to continue this mission beyond the event itself.

Over a 20-year career, John has developed visitor experiences within many museums including the London Transport Museum. He moved to the Middle East in 2011 from the UK where he focused on start-up visitor experiences. He talks about the use of technology to creative interactive and immersive experiences for audiences and he shares some challenging provocations regarding the future of museums during our discussion.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Holly Tucker is founder of Not On The High Street a unique curated marketplace that’s home to 5,000 of the UK’s best small creative businesses. Founded in 2006 it now employs 160 people and has generated more than £1 billion in sales for its partners since launch

Her latest is venture Holly & Co. Using her experience from her journey with notonthehigh street she is developing a new home for small business advice and inspiration. She is creating a community of like minded founders and entrepreneurs, each walking their unique path, but together on the journey.

With a passion and commitment to cheerleading and championing small enterprise, Holly believes in injecting creativity and colour into business. An advocate for building businesses with purpose at their core, Holly believes that creativity and passion will define the future successful businesses as we enter an age of automation.

Holly was awarded an MBE for services to small businesses and enterprise as part of Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2013 and was appointed as the UK Ambassador for Creative Small Businesses by the Prime Minister in 2015.

This talk was recorded live at a recent REMIX Summit at the Google Town Hall in London so there a couple of moments where Holly refers to images on the screen but it was such a good talk we did not think that would spoil your enjoyment to any great degree.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/

Founded in 1968, many of us know Time Out is an iconic brand that helps us discover the best things to do in over 328 cities and 58 countries, reaching more than 217 million people.

One of the reasons I wanted to chat with Julio is that in a challenging and rapidly changing media landscape he has been able to not only build its media business but develop a series of new Time Out concepts that have transformed the business but in a way that remains faithful to its roots and founding mission.

The biggest example of this is Time Out markets that were born in 2014 when his Lisbon team came up with an idea to transform a disused building in the city into a concept that brought the best of the city under one roof.

The Time Out market in Lisbon market quickly became the most popular tourist attraction in Portugal with 4 million+ annual visitors.

The success has led to further openings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Montreal, with Dubai with London and Prague to follow next.

A Spanish national based in London, Julio previously held senior positions at companies such as TripAdvisor, Energizer and Diageo and his varied business, cultural and life experiences have helped him make connections that have led to new ideas and innovations for Time Out and are a key motivation for him. It is clear from our conversation that for both Julio and Time Out that the company’s social purpose is as important as business success.

Julio is incredibly open and candid about the impact of the global pandemic on the business which was devastating for both Time Out and the community they represent. What does a brand that helps people enjoy going out do when the world is in lockdown? Sometimes Necessity is the mother of invention as the philosopher Plato wrote and their response was ingenious as you will hear. For me it is one of the best pivots performed by any organisation in the lockdown. As Julio explains, in an amazingly short space of Time, Time Out became Time In and he and his team set about a whole new mission to create a million pages that helped us make the best of being stuck at home!

Finally, Time Out and Julio as you might expect have a lot to say about cities with thousands of readers contributing to their polls covering subjects such as the coolest neighbourhoods and the best cities in the world (it’s Nørrebro, Copenhagen and San Francisco in 2021 by the way) and we end our chat by exploring the opportunities and challenges for our cities as we emerge from the pandemic.

At the time of the interview Julio was the Global CEO of Time Out but hevhas since moved on from this role.

https://www.remixsummits.com/podcasts/