Commentary

Could ‘artainment’ be ‘Cinema 2.0’?

The creation of ticketed experiences that can travel cities and offer an art appreciation element suitable for the interests of the modern audience is an opportunity that cannot be dismissed.

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July 18, 2022 by Kevin Williams

Recent coverage of the "Van Gogh: Immersive Experience" and other immersive gallery attractions has started a discussion regarding the separation of "artainment" and "edutainment" as a concept to generate ticket sales, and their actual validity in comparison to traditional art exhibitions.

The recent interest in touring immersive experiences, based on popular artists and musicians, has seen criticism from some media for being expensive and fixated more on creating "Instagrammable moments" than offering a serious value for money, as reported in The Guardian.

The reality is that the gallery and museum sectors have been desperate for revenue generation, suffering the hardest from the absence of audience numbers during the lockdowns. The creation of ticketed experiences that can travel cities and offer an art appreciation element suitable for the interests of the modern audience is an opportunity that cannot be dismissed.

The artainment formula

The current crop of artainment installations seem to follow a profitable formula. First offering recreations of the artist's work, along with a retrospective of their history and influences. Then the inclusion of AR or VR elements, usually as an additional cost item to the main ticket, and then finally offering an "immersive gallery" — a space where the work of the artist can be projected, offering a compelling saturation of color and light, placing the audience into the digital recreation.

Also roll in some art appreciation courses and an intensive merchandising store and you have an exhibit. This is a formula best illustrated by the "Van Gogh: Immersive Experience" touring installation.

The dependence on technology has been an aspect of artainment that has been glossed over by many. It is thanks to the latest laser projection systems that can create the immersive gallery.

Also, the deployment of projection mapping on objects, and as decoration of the space, is vital to setting the scene.

Virtual reality experiences

The most up-to-date installations also see the need for inclusion of a virtual reality installation, as with the Van Gogh immersive experience from Fever, a New York City based live entertainment platform.

The separate ticketed VR element has guests using Meta Quest 2 headsets, seated in swivel chair experience, walking alongside the artist and understanding the composition of some of his most famous paintings. This VR element of the edutainment experience can be operated separately, as seen with its pop-up installation at Area15 in Las Vegas.

But where many have seen artainment immersive experiences as a new addition to the gallery and exhibition scene, others are looking at this approach as a brand new aspect of location-based entertainment.

Location based entertainment

This has been personified by the $100 million Illuminarium Experience. This immersive walk-through experience chain saw its first opening a year ago in Atlanta which included its "Wild: Immersive Safari Experience" — an Africa cinematic tour lasting over 45 minutes, costing some $50 a ticket for adults or an all-inclusive family package at $145. The spectacle is stated to have cost some $10 million to produce by RadicalMedia.

Illuminarium sees its second venue opening in Las Vegas and a third in Miami, with an aggressive 30 facility rollout scheduled for the next few years. But this is dependent on audience reactions. Already the shine has come off the promised level of audience engagement with harsh TripAdvisor reviews criticizing the expense and level of immersion, along with suitability for audiences of certain ages.

New experience productions, such as the soon-to-be-launched "Spacewalk," are hoped to address the initial concerns. The immersive venue developments such as Madison Square Garden Sphere and Outernet offer examples of immersive gallery style complexes turned into permanent venues. More contenders for the crowded immersive artainment and edutainment business.

An example of the growth in immersive experiences with an "experiential" element beyond merely being an art installation can be seen with "The Infinite." This is a large arena experience, broken into seven dedicated zones, taking the audience through the birth and future of space exploration, immersing the guest in becoming an astronaut.

The guests navigate the zones wearing their Meta Quest 2 headsets, exploring the International Space Station and even the surface of the moon within this full-on virtual experience. Developed by Infinite Experience, an LBE partnership between Felix & Paul Studios and PHI Studios, the 60-minute experience costs around $45 for adults, and has been touring on the road.

Entertainment versus education?

Some critics question the line separating an edutainment informative experience and the more attraction style immersive approach. Some curators are concerned that the information elements are being dumbed down in some artainment installations.

How much of the new investment is part of the drive for live entertainment experiences which was gathering momentum before the global health crisis? While these installations may not be a surrogate for museums and galleries, some see them as a future incarnation of the cinema experience, as the modern audience thrives a more immersive experience.

The drive for new technology in the cinema scene sees the deployment of more improved projection technology taking hold in the market.

For example, the projector manufacturer Barco, through its cinema joint venture Cinionic, recently signed an agreement with cinema chain AMC that will see the installation of the latest laser projectors in 3,500 auditoriums throughout the U.S. by the end of 2026. This will bring the latest cutting-edge projection technology to the business in a move named "Laser at AMC."

The whole undertaking, a joint venture between service and technology solution providers Barco, CGS and ALPD, is being valued at a quarter of a billion dollars with an estimated 100,000 projectors installed globally.

Consumer streaming feels the heat

The importance of live experiences and out-of-home entertainment in general was underlined with the developments in the consumer streaming business.

During the global lockdowns, consumer entertainment streaming services and consumer game providers saw a major increase in users. But there were questions about how sustainable the model would be.

This was brought home with a bump with the news that Netflix, industry leader in streaming entertainment, has seen, in the first quarter of 2022, a loss of 200,000 subscribers — the first time the service has shed such number of subscribers since 2011.

Netflix expected to see its customer base shrink by some 2 million in the quarter against its 211 million subscriber base. This started a domino effect throughout the streaming industry, with industry estimates indicating that streaming service subscriptions are at a 37% decline across the board in the U.S.

Another victim was new streaming service CNN+ launched by cable news giant CNN. The media service only managed to attract some 100,000 subscribers. As such, it was ignominiously shuttered by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery — after spending some $300 million in the process, beating the record for speed of failure set by Quibi and lasting only six-months.

Could artainment be "Cinema 2.0"?

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by Spider Entertainment and its director, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)

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About Kevin Williams

Along with advisory positions with other entrants into the market he is founder and publisher of the Stinger Report, “a-must-read” e-zine for those working or investing in the amusement, attractions and entertainment industry. He is a prolific writer and provides regular news columns for main trade publications. He also travels the globe as a keynote speaker, moderator and panelist at numerous industry conferences and events. Author of “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities,” the only book on this aspect of the market, with the second edition scheduled for a 2023 release.

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