Apple has teamed up with New York's New Museum to launch [AR]T, a series of interactive AR tours in several major cities. The initiative comes as brands and museums look to harness tech in a bid to make cultural experiences more immersive and accessible for younger generations.

Museum ticket prices are often a barrier to entry in the US, but SFMOMA is letting people view its collection of over 34,000 pieces with the tap of a button. By sending a text saying 'send me' followed by a keyword or emoji, culture vultures can enjoy art no matter where they are.

Gen Zers are a tricky yet intriguing generation to grasp – they’re offline-shopping, eco-conscious, genre-defying, values-defending mavericks. As they grow into adolescence and adulthood, what do Gen Zers actually think is cool and how can brands appeal to this cohort’s unique mindset?

When author Kyle Chayka explored 2010s minimalism inLonging for Less, a very different world existed. Today, a polycrisis-ridden and digitally saturated society finds people yearning for more. Whether you chalk it up to post-pandemic release or a general sense of impending doom, people are now looking for a new maximalism of feelings, dimensions, and possibilities to reinvigorate them and make their lives feel full. While people are craving memorable, visceral, and immersive experiences, there's no longer a singular definition of what this might look like. Some are embracing maximalist hedonism throughclubbing,extreme tourism, and different kinds ofsensory overload, while others are tapping into more gentle, inward-looking, and contemplative experiences likelistening barsandcommunal spas. It signals the emergence of the'Introvert Economy' of cosy, home-adjacent spaces andactivitiesor seeking soothing and quasi-spiritual encounters through hobbies likebirdwatchingandforest bathing. The desire for deeply captivating and emotionally engaging experiences extends beyond the physical world –social media,VR,AR, and evenimage-based interactionsmust now resonate to the same degree, creating truly memorable moments and environments. In this consumer and cultural universe driven by exploration and immersion, the boundary between experiences and material goods continues to blur. We're less likely to see them as a dichotomy, as people are increasingly interested inexperiential qualities of thingsand consuming commodified 'thing-like experiences'. This discovery-oriented mindset is opening up new avenues for fulfilment, gratification, and transformation.