The folks at Trendwatching.com see a lifestyle trend coming around again this year, which they’re calling insperiences. As opposed to ‘experiences,’ this trend has consumers bringing more and more high-end leisure and entertainment inside their homes. Says they:
”In a consumer society dominated by experiences in the (semi) public domain — often branded, designed, themed and curated to the nines — INSPERIENCES represent consumers’ desire to bring top-level experiences into their domestic domain.”
The lure of home entertainment, home exercise, home spa equipment, and other amenities has long been a point of panic for arts organizations that require a crowd. Back in the ’90s, we called it cocooning (as described by trendspotter Faith Popcorn). Over the past decades it’s been labeled a number of different ways — from hiving, to nesting, to retreat.
Fortunately, Trendwatching doesn’t see the emerging trend as an alternative to experiencing the world with other people, but an extension of it:
Mind you, INSPERIENCES will be as much about extending these experiences as flat out replacing them: consumers will still choose to visit a ‘real’ Crunch gym on the weekend, they will still hang out in bars with friends, they will still stay in hotels, and they will still come to the office for meetings and human contact.
Still, the renewed dominance of this trend (confirmed by Faith Popcorn herself as making a comeback in 2006) suggests that arts leaders will need to work even harder to differentiate the live, social experience of arts and culture from whatever might be available at home.
Doug Fox says
In last paragraph you write that “…arts leaders will need to work even harder to differentiate the live, social experience of arts and culture from whatever might be available at home.”
Is an “arts leader” different than an artist? From my perspective, I think that artists – especially performing artists such as dancers – should be exploring ways they can bring their work to the ever improving home entertainment systems that more and more people are installing. Why should a performance artist be limited to stage performances when there are millions of people who can enjoy stage and other performances right in the comfort of their own homes?
Carl Herstein says
The logical direction of this trend is to provide more artistic experiences in the home–truly a “back to the future” approach, with chamber music played in a living room not a concert hall, or singers in the family room, not an auditorium. For those of us who have already experienced events of this kind, they are truly extraordinary. They create an intimacy between artist and audience that is unparalled, making a performance a different type of shared experience.
While the economic and logistical feasability of such events is obviously such that they are “niche” productions, they make sense for building relationships with higher-end donors and they are also excellent forums for new talent to begin to make connections with audiences.
Jerry Yoshitomi says
I agree with both Mr. Fox and Mr. Herstein. I hear that home concerts are very much on the rise and thriving in most communities.
Arts organizations and artists can develop strategies to take advantage of the economics of scope and become the “store” through which people buy their products for both insperiences and experiences.