This post should have been a video. I was planning to go into my garden with the ipad, to tell you, in the company of my dog Rufus, how important video is in contemporary art communication. And not a good, beautifully shot and rap edited video, but wonky, home-made, not very to-the-point video. Which is very personal, though. Because that's what I learnt from The Guardian. And it's true. Because you must have thought for a moment: would love to see it.
On Wednesday 8 October, there was a live Q&A with some experts on online video. It was about art. The challenging question was, what art institutions of Pewdiepie can learn. When I asked that question here, in a pre-announcement, I got one response:
@culturepress give me a break!
- Museum Martena (@museummartena) October 3, 2014
This pretty much sums up the problem.
The British and Americans are further ahead than we are. At least, the British and Americans who attended the Afternoon online debate on video and arts communication. Not that we don't have great examples in the Netherlands, but in general we still look too much at the successes of new YouTube channels as phenomena from another world. A world that, as an art institution, you should want nothing to do with. A museum is not going to get 35 million subscribers with videos about the latest exhibition.
The question is: why not? Because it is not that difficult. Indeed: we think too much in traditional images and presentation forms. This much became clear. Because what Pewdiepie can do, anyone can do. Indeed: that's why we look down on them.
Marc Kirschner, founder and CEO of the online culture channel TenduTV/Cultureband, summed it up as follows: 'People are not turning away from the arts, they are just turning away from the traditional way of getting to know them. For us, YouTube is a way to rekindle that engagement. In the US, about half a million people search for 'ballet' every month. So people start searching there.'
Storage
That means you have to start taking YouTube seriously. And we don't right now. For many arts organisations, YouTube is a convenient way to store video, agrees Sarah Green: 'YouTube is a place to store video, then link to it from your own website. But while a tremendous effort is made to make the videos look nice and good, they were watched by hardly anyone.'
Sarah stopped working at museums, and founded her own company on, which makes videos more in tune with its audience.
Tip: Make up a plan. Or rather: don't make up a plan at all.
If you work in the performing arts, video should be your natural habitat. But things aren't really going well there either. Many trailers of well-known theatre groups do poorly in the Netherlands in terms of reactions and ratings. According to Marc Kirschner, this is also down to the planning: 'Many companies do a trailer two weeks in advance, and that is way too late to get your audience involved. Moreover, it's also too little time to let YouTube's algorithms do their job, which means your video also appears in other search results.'
Moreover, videos about preparation often only reach people who are already interested anyway. With trailers, you have a chance of reaching new audiences, says Chris McGill of Dusthouse.
Marc Kirschner takes this even further: 'Arts organisations consider the trailer as 'content'. The only problem is that this type of content doesn't go well with the ultimate goal of the conversation you want to start with your film: you want to sell tickets, recruit donors. 99% of the audience you reach via YouTube will not be able to come and see your show, or visit your museum. So you need to create 'content' that in itself tells the whole story. And keep it as clean as possible. So no date information, because as soon as people see a date they think the information is out of date. And so they don't join the conversation you actually want to have.'
If this piece did not become a video, it is because I find myself too ugly, the sound of my selfie video equipment is lousy and I simply find that I am better at writing than talking. But we should all overcome these fears, because in the end it is not about form at all, but about content. So says Chris McGill: 'Ik have always found it strange that art institutions are afraid of having someone on camera speaking, someone who tries to make a direct connection with the viewers. That is a format that has now become quite dominant on YouTube and surely you would say that this sector is not shy of people who dare to perform.'
So try it this way:
And now for the tips from the experts:
Do:
1: be authentic
2: Use annotations and other calls to recruit subscribers
3: Talk to your audience about reactions and other forms of interaction
4: Stick to a broadcast schedule
5: Be part of the YouTube community. Comment on other people's videos with clear opinions and add something to the ecosystem.
6: Use credits that direct people to other relevant content.
Don't:
1: Creating content that takes too long. Be reasonable. Not many people have time for a 20-minute interview. So keep it short and sweet, although exceptions are possible.
2: adding metadata that you want to use to bend the system to your will. After all, that doesn't work.
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