That's Interesting — June '26
The Case for Physical
Welcome to That’s Interesting, our monthly round-up of the ideas, formats and live experiences shaping audience engagement.
This month, one theme kept surfacing: in a screen-heavy working world, physicality is becoming strategic again.
By physicality, we mean the parts of an experience that ask audiences to use their bodies, senses, surroundings and social presence to understand an idea. How people move, touch, gather, wait, sit and speak can shape meaning as much as the content itself.
As working life moves between screens, live experiences have to earn their place in the diary. The opportunity is to use the room in ways digital communication cannot: through atmosphere, texture, movement, material, conversation and shared presence.
We explored this at The Great Audience Experiment, where audiences used liquids to reveal hidden codes in an escape room. The point was not novelty, but making participation physical and collaborative. The strongest experiences make ideas physically, socially and emotionally easier to understand.
Here are a few things that caught our attention this month.
Fabric as Experience
(1min watch)We’ve been seeing more examples of fabric and soft materials being used not just as decoration, but as a way to change how people read and respond to visual content. We also loved this example that used a photographic image with a fine sheer layer placed over it. It was a simple intervention, but it gave the image more depth, softness and ambiguity. The material did not replace the picture; it added another layer of meaning to it. In a world of flat digital images, even a subtle material intervention can make people look twice.
Recently, we created a gauze-enclosed presentation space that acted as the visual heartbeat at an innovation event. Surrounded by projected content, light and sound, it created a dramatic focal point for keynote moments and big-picture storytelling.
Why interesting
- Physical layers can change how content is interpreted
- Soft materials can make visual storytelling feel deeper and more atmospheric
- Simple material interventions can make familiar content feel more memorable
Analogue Interaction
(1min watch)This Museum of the City of New York installation does something very clever with a very simple rope.
Visitors physically pull to bring down a digital statue of King George III, echoing the real moment in 1776 when New Yorkers pulled down the actual statue after the Declaration of Independence was read aloud. The screen is still doing the heavy lifting, but the interaction no longer feels screen-based. It has tension. It has resistance. It asks for effort.
That is what makes it interesting for live experience design. The rope is not a nostalgic flourish or a low-tech gimmick. It gives the audience a physical role in the story.
Why interesting
- Physical effort can make interaction feel more meaningful
- Designed friction can build attention and anticipation
- The best technology does not always need to feel digital
Experience Design as Participation
(10min read)We’re big fans of Abraham Burickson’s Experience Design: A Participatory Manifesto, and someone has created a handy synopsis. At its heart, the book is about shaping how people spend their time, how they feel and how they relate to one another.
The most effective experiences give audiences a role in that shift, rather than asking them simply to absorb it.
Why interesting
- Experience design should create change
- Participation helps audiences internalise ideas
- Live formats are strongest when people have an active role
Skunk Guesting
(5min read)Physical experience is not only made of space, materials and interaction. It is also made of who is in the room.
Priya Parker’s idea of “skunk guesting” is a useful reminder that guests shape an experience as much as the host does. Sometimes the most valuable person in the room is not the easiest one, but the person who shifts the energy, challenges assumptions or creates a more interesting conversation.
For B2B events, this is a strategic point. Audience design is not just about who is invited. It is about the mix of perspectives, the role people play and the kind of interaction the room is set up to encourage.
The guest list can create alignment, but it can also create productive disruption.
Why interesting
- Audience mix is a creative strategy decision
- Constructive friction can create better conversation
- The people in the room shape the value of the experience
The Tail End
(4min read)Wait But Why's visualisation of a human lifespan is not new, but it remains a brilliant example of data becoming emotional. By turning time into pizzas, weeks and moments with the people we love, it makes something abstract feel immediate.
Audience time is the most valuable material. People are busy, distracted and selective. The experience needs to justify the time people give it.
If we ask people to leave the screen, travel somewhere and spend time with a brand, the experience has to make that time feel worth it.
Why interesting
- Information lands harder when it feels human
- Data can be designed to create emotion
- Audience time should be treated as the most valuable material
Something to go to: Secret Cinema
(3min explore)Secret Cinema’s new Pirates of the Caribbean experience continues the move towards live worlds built around participation and atmosphere. A temporary world with its own rules, behaviours and emotional logic
