Pictures of paintings: a virtual art museum

If you can't get to the art museum, maybe try bringing the art museum to you. This independent project presents photographs of select classic, public-domain paintings in an interactive format so you can get the full museum effect from home. Note:...

Museums are updating their approach to wall texts amid 8-second-long attention spans

The explanatory text found next to art in museums has long been integral to the exhibit experience, helping provide context for artists, the piece, and cultural movements. Some institutions are removing the texts to allow visitors to interpret the pieces unaided; others are seeking to optimize length or recruit a variety of perspectives—called "labelists"—to offer less authoritative context for the pieces.

Influencers have changed what music festivals look like

One major criticism of Coachella is that it's a playground for ultrarich people, with celebrities and influencers posing for selfies at a polo club. This article dissects the legitimacy of that stereotype and argues that the backlash to it has altered the festival's cultural standing.

Here is a visualization of the creator economy as an ecosystem

From social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to major advertisers paying influencers to promote their brands, to the consumers watching online content, quite a few engines have to keep firing to make the creator economy run smoothly.

While influencers try to make money off of their posts, that's not always the case for content creators.

Integrating mixed reality has made art galleries and museums more interactive and accessible

The technology bridges the gap between history and modernity in such spaces by attracting new, younger audiences while preserving cultural heritage through risk-free immersion. Mixed reality experiences, such as visiting reconstructed historical scenes or seeing virtual twins of lost paintings, can be programmed with software features for visitors with disabilities.

The creator economy—which is projected to be worth as much as $480B by 2027—is a system powered by people creating online content for monetizable audiences.

The rise of the museum gift shop

While museum gift shops are commonplace now, they weren’t when the Met opened in 1870. Nevertheless, the museum was one of the first to offer copies of several of their paintings for visitors to display in their own homes. Read about how the museum gift shop has evolved and how they decide what to carry with this look behind the scenes from Artsy.

Some art critics believe that Liminalism, a form of art exploring the uncanny yet familiar, defines our present moment

While analyzing images of abandoned malls or empty hallways, art historians and critics argue that this style captures the feelings of this moment in time. Liminalism, they propose, expresses prominent themes in our age like anonymity, alienation, and anxiety.

Some influencers are facing the dark side of being a public persona

From burnout to stalkers, a content creator’s life can quickly become complicated as their following grows. Women’s Health recently spoke with some creators about what they wish they’d known before they started their careers on social media.

Abandoned malls prompt 'liminal' vibes of being stuck in time

A Toronto-area tour of empty malls brings participants face-to-face with the past. Part nostalgia, part archaeology, this meditation on the "liminal" spaces of a bygone era provokes eerie reflections on our relationship to time and place.

Explore a list of the best art museums in the US, including Atlanta's High Museum of Art, New York's Dia Beacon, and more.

People are making careers out of playing claw machines

As it turns out, winning at a claw machine arcade game over and over again makes for great social media content. Influencers like Erik Kane are taking advantage of this—and making money off of it, too.

Social media algorithms are shaping real-life language through memes

The evolution of the internet in the early 2000s supercharged the creation and spread of memetic content. Now, highly tuned algorithms on platforms like TikTok and YouTube influence the language, phrasing, and content of creators, which shapes how we use language in the real world.

Music today is often intended to circulate on social media

Artists are increasingly using TikTok and other short form video platforms as a space to promote their music. One scholar notes this emphasis, and connect it to Taylor Swift's early use of social media to promote her own work and brand.

What is the creator economy?

The creator economy is a system powered by people creating online content for monetizable audiences. These “creators” and “influencers” make money off their digital audiences through brand deals or revenue shares with social media platforms.

Machu Picchu, sacred backdrop for your dating app pic

Anyone who’s been on Tinder or Hinge in the last decade has noticed it: the obligatory Machu Picchu selfie, almost as ubiquitous as those photos of men posing with a fresh-caught fish. How did Machu Picchu, of all places, become a dating-app cliche? This satirical essay from McSweeney’s doesn’t answer that question, but has a great time poking fun at it.

Despite many influencers having loyal followings, creator-led brands often fail when the hype from first-time buyers dies down and doesn't translate into repeat purchases.

Social media platforms benefit not just from ensuring they have satisfied users, but also from the personal data they scoop up and can then sell to online advertisers.

Critics argue social media made 'foodie' culture increasingly superficial

For 40 years, being a "foodie" meant possessing knowledge and expertise about ingredients, restaurants, and flavors. Now, the author argues, being a foodie has more to do with documenting aesthetically pleasing meals than critical consumption. She argues for increased attention toward the complex systems that bring food to our tables.

There's a college course teaching influencing 101

A class at Duke University called Building Global Audiences promises to teach students how to grow their social media followings, master the art of content creation, and, of course, eventually monetize it all. One writer took the class and wrote about what it was like to be a student.

How memes create in-groups

Memes can hop offline, inspiring IRL events ranging from planking to shootings. By nature, memes contribute to the formation of in-groups, ones who are privy to meanings that escape content moderators who don't necessarily recognize what's hidden within layers of references.

An absurd website that always finds a photo of someone pointing at your cursor

Move your mouse anywhere on the screen, and the site finds a photograph from its archive of a person pointing at that exact spot. It's a completely useless and delightful experience, and required a massive trove of tagged photos.

Twelve artworks you'll love zooming into

Zoom in on these famous paintings to see what's hiding up close, then go exploring the rest of Google's incredible Arts and Culture hub.

'Deinfluencing' explained

You’ve probably heard of influencers, but have you heard of “de-influencers?” Basically, the de-influencing trend started when creators began making videos about products you shouldn’t buy, rather than sponsored content promoting things you should purchase. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson recently cracked some jokes about the trend, and its companion “under consumption-core.”

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, contends that children are losing the ability to pay attention as they spend half their lives perusing social media content designed to hook them.

Meet the psychologist who reads people through the art they live with

Dimitrios Tsivrikos, an academic psychologist at University College London, says the art someone hangs in their home reveals as much about them as a bookshelf would. He advises going on a first date at a museum and asking each other about the work on the walls.

Viral pop artists create systems of participation, not just music

Musicologist (and Swift expert) Paula Clare Harper weighs in on the factors that make music go viral. Tracks designed for shareability that feed well into content algorithms on streaming platforms are able to grow in popularity, with traditional human gatekeepers sidelined.

A massive list of wildly specific museums

The definition of a museum varies depending on who you ask and where you find yourself. Need proof? Check out this list of over 80 museums—dedicated to niche interests like hand fans, hovercrafts, and celebrity leftovers (really).

A creator economy timeline

Long before anyone memorized a TikTok dance, the creator economy began with regular people blogging about their personal lives. Eventually, it snowballed into the creator economy we know today. The Washington Post created an interactive timeline to help visualize how the creator economy got from point A to point B.

The theory behind public art

Proponents of public art, including graffiti, argue that its free access and visibility breaks down the elitism and financial barriers of galleries and museums, allowing people to interact or ignore the work as they see fit.

Facebook's internal documents show that though the company publicly plays down Instagram's harms, its own research found that Instagram has promoted mental health issues for teens.

Why TikTok loves fast-casual restaurant Chili's

The company noticed TikTokers posting enthusiastically about its food and began partnering with creators on the platform. The videos include mukbangs, a South Korean trend in which users eat a massive amount of food, and #cheesepulls, where Chili's mozzarella sticks are stretched to their limits.

Haute couture and horses: The Met’s most popular temporary exhibitions

In addition to the millions of pieces in its permanent collection, the Met regularly hosts temporary exhibitions that draw in even more visitors to the museum. This list of the ten most-visited exhibitions includes works from Picasso, Impressionist masterpieces, artifacts from Egypt’s King Tutankhamun’s tomb, and more. What was the most popular exhibit ever, with nearly 1.7 million visitors? You might be surprised.

Estimates say the creator economy market size will reach $500B by 2026

The creator economy, a system powered by people creating online content for monetizable audiences, has democratized fame and influence. Much of influencers' recent power comes from Gen Z's preference for authenticity over the polished approach of legacy media.