Interview with Kate Stone

So our digital devices, our smartphones and our computers have become the front line of our digital experience. What if we can think about a post-smartphone world where everyday things around us that we touch, we walk past, we sit on, all become ways of access in the digital world. And what if all those things can have a digital soul inside? And a digital soul is touch, connectivity and data. Because that's what makes a digital soul, a digital thing, a digital essence. It doesn't have to be in these physical devices like smartphones. It can be in everyday things, whether it's a cardboard box, whether it's a wall or whether it's my hat. So my hat connects to my smartphone and triggers the air horn noises, which is kind of fun. Can you give us some examples that you just did, but can you also give some examples that are pretty tangible of brands or companies that utilises these possibilities? Yeah, sure. So we made something for IKEA. I'll try and show you this. So IKEA were opening a new store in Memphis in the USA in December. And so we created this box and we sampled sounds of the home and made a remix that's... I've forgotten now. Hang on. Sorry. And we sampled sounds of the home and we made a remix. It's a blues remix. So I'll try and play it. And it's just in this box. And this box was the invite. Yeah. So that's tapping a glass and then some water and then we added some guitar. I'll stop that. And then coat hangers and then a kitchen drum kit. And then you can mix it all up. So we're trying to take all the different aspects of that. We're thinking about the brand. So actually when you look into the box, it's Beale Street in Memphis. But when you look through the windows, you can see images of IKEA homes. So you can see the different rooms. And then we sampled the sounds of the home, which is IKEA, and we turned it into the blues remix, which is Memphis. So we tried to think about all the different aspects and pull something together that's magical and surprises people and puts a smile on their face and just makes them have this that connects both with where they are and with who the brand is. And it's fun to think about all of those different aspects rather than one big thing. Amazing. What would you say is the reason? What's the reasoning behind that companies, that brands need to move into this and take advantage of these possibilities? Because I think that so much when we have technology, technology is a layer that stands between people and the thing. So I mean, you think about VR or things which are great, but really the role of technology is to disappear because if that technology stands there like a veneer between a person and the object and the experience and the brand, it can inhibit that connection. So if we can allow the technology to just disappear and it not be about technology, but it's about pure experience, then we can directly touch people and brands together that have an experience that's related to what the brand is all about. Wow. So how can brands start doing this? What do you think is the first step for someone who hasn't really experienced this area? So I mean, I guess the first step is to talk to us. But what we've put a lot of effort into is creating a very easy to use platform where we can create samples and demos of things that work. So actually this IKEA box, anyone could make that using our kit because we don't want the technology development or the process to sort of get in the way. So for example, last year at South by Southwest, we did five installations for Bud Light and we made a 50 foot wall and an eight feet wall and all of these things. But the reality was an agency spoke to us about the brand that we're working with, which is MediaCom, spoke to us about Bud Light. I met with them and then I said to them, we can get you a demo within one day for you to show to the brand. And we had a working demo. So just talk to us. We can instantly make a demo and we communicate through the objects and experiences that we make prototype very quickly rather than promising things about an experience or about data. It's like we'll make something instantly. And what happens is, is the agency, when they show the brand, they don't get to finish the pitch because it just gets filled with a million people playing with things. And the samples that they make never leave the building and they end up in the hands of the CEO. So this is more a question on the side. Based on the technology and based on what you are developing at the moment, what do you see as the future in like three years? What's the dreamy perspective? How does it look and how far has this been stretched? So, okay, so think about how to answer that. Maybe I'll answer that by saying a question that I get asked a lot, which is what is the one thing I could make if I really wanted to make something, what would that thing be? And I say that because I don't know the answer to the question. Because what I want to make is a platform that's really easy for people to use and for us to manufacture, to enable these experiences to be created. So I want brands and agencies to be able to come up with the ideas inspired by what we create, to come up with ideas of their own and for us to be able to use our platform to instantly make those things. So for us, if there's a platform that could ultimately enable anybody anywhere to touch anything that has a piece of our technology in, that's what we want to happen. We want this to be so easy to manufacture that it can be manufactured anywhere in the world to democratise manufacture. We want it to be so easy to design with that anyone can design with it to democratise design. There's so many devices and things at the moment, say like take a smartphone, designed by probably 10,000 people in one city, kind of, made by one million people in another city in Asia, and it has to be one size fits all. We want this to be whatever anyone wants to dream up, they can create and have it made wherever they want to have it made. That's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's a pleasure.