The Horror Show, The Strangest People of 2022, and What Young People Think About Climate Change

Hi All,This is Matt, standing in for Hugh this week, which is always a big pair of shoes to fill. We’ve read a lot of stories this week about how brands are moving away from the big social platforms and are starting to build direct relationships with their audiences. We’ve been helping clients do this at Storythings for years, and we’re testing some new messaging about our strategy and services. We’d love to get feedback from a few friends before we go live with it - if you’d be willing to answer four questions to help us, let me know and we’ll get in touch.This has been that weird week when we’ve moved to winter time in the UK, but our many US clients are still on summer time. So here’s a suitably weird and occasionally spooky collection of links to help you into the weekend.

The Horrow Show (exhibition in three parts)

How an unwilling illustrator found herself turned into an AI Model (5 min read)

How much press are you worth? (5 min interactive)

The strangest people of 2022 (11 min read)

What young people think about climate justice (big report)

The CIA’s terrible fake Iranian websites (10 min interactive)

Pack your bags, we’re moving to Roku City (3 min read)

How Moneyball has changed American Culture (5min read)

Channel 4’s 40 best shows (5 min read)

Robert Longo’s video for Bizarre Love Triangle (4 min dance)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas. Here's 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial. 2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

The Horrow ShowWe’re big fans of artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, whose work connects modern culture with deeper rooted myths and legends (you might know them from their excellent Nick Cave movie 20,000 Days On Earth). They’ve curated an epic exhibition for Somerset House in London that is organised in three sections - MONSTER, GHOST and WITCH - featuring some of our favourite artists including Tim Etchells, Rachel Whitread and A Guy Called Gerald.How an unwilling illustrator found herself turned into an AI Model (5 min read)Andy Baio interviews both the creator of an AI image tool and the illustrator who’s working he used - without permission - as training data. A fascinating insight into the ethical dilemmas behind the astonishing progress of AI creative tools.

How much press are you worth? (5 min interactive)If you went missing, how many news stories would you generate? This brilliantly executed interactive shows the gender and racial bias in how media sites cover missing person stories. I would only generate a handful of stories, btw.

The strangest people of 2022 (11 min read)We love this great article from our friend Deborah Carver on how the strangest people in 2022 are those still think that blasting people with content is a good strategy. Carver argues that we need to think about audience consent a lot more, and we wholeheartedly agree - “If we automate our content and forget about the user on the other end, we’re forcing a 20th century broadcast mindset on a 21st century medium, one where we never hear the audience respond or complain.”

What young people think about climate justice (big report)We’re working with a couple of clients at the moment on projects about young people and societal change, so this big report from Climate Outreach on attitudes to climate change is a really useful read, not just for the subject, but wider attitudes to change.

The CIA’s terrible fake Iranian websites (10 min interactive)This fascinating Reuters article about how the CIA endangered spies they recruited in Iran is a gripping read (and surely worth a movie/TV series). But the bit that stuck out for me were the terrible websites the CIA built to enable secret communication with the spies, including one on Rastafarian culture and a very cheesy fansite for Johnny Carson.

Pack your bags, we’re moving to Roku City (3 min read)I can watch the Apple TV drone-footage screen savers for hours, but this article made me wish I could get Roku in the UK so we could visit Roku City. It seems like a nice place to hang out.

How Moneyball has changed American Culture (5min read)I’m not sure I agree with Derek Thompson’s suggestion that more data has made culture more homogenous, but it’s a thought-provoking article to read, comparing trends in Baseball and Basketball to changes in TV and movies. Perhaps sometimes we’re too misty with nostalgia to recognise the amazing things that are happening right now.

Channel 4’s 40 best shows (5 min read)Talking of nostalgia, as someone who was 10 years old when Channel 4 launched in 1982, The Guardian’s 40th birthday celebration listicle brought many happy memories. I was lucky enough to work there in the 2000s, so owe a lot to Channel 4. Happy Birthday Channel 4, and hopefully the government will abandon their privatisation plans and give us another 40 years of brilliantly chaotic programmes.

Robert Longo’s video for Bizarre Love Triangle (4 min dance)One Channel 4 show not on the list was Ghosts In The Machine, a late night compilation show of 80s video art produced by Jon Wyver at Illuminations. I watched it as a working class kid living in the suburbs who didn’t know anything about art, and it inspired me to go to Art School. So thanks Jon for changing my life! One of favourite videos from the show was US Artist Robert Longo’s fantastic promo for New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle. Start your weekend by turning up the volume, getting out of your chair and having a little bit of a dance.

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.