Someone makes a choice and the image changes. Another person joins in and it changes again. For a few minutes, strangers shape what they see together, watching how their decisions affect the result.
This is what happens in Diffuse Control by Beeple, which opened on 19 September 2026 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in the United States. The installation brings together images from the museum’s collection, artificial intelligence and visitor input in a composition that evolves in real time. What appears on screen reflects the artist’s decisions, the curator’s selection and the actions of the people in the room.
For those of us designing exhibitions, brand experiences or experiences for sports fans, it raises an interesting question: if the audience made different choices, how much would the experience change? The answer says a great deal about the role we give people.
Giving people a meaningful choice
Choosing a perspective or contributing a memory can change how someone connects with a story. But the invitation needs to make sense. People should understand what they can do and be able to see how their contribution affects the experience.
Imagine an exhibition about a changing city where visitors follow the lives of different residents. One follows a woman through the streets where she grew up, the place where she worked and the changes that eventually led her to leave. Another follows someone who arrived in the city around the same time. When they meet at the end, they have seen the same place through different lives and have something to talk about.
In a sports museum, a supporter might add their memory of a match to a shared collection. The account of that day grows to include people who were in the stands, those who listened to the commentary at home and those who grew up hearing the story from a parent.
A brand experience could let people explore how choosing different materials affects a product’s weight, durability or repairability. Their decisions help them understand something about the product that might otherwise be difficult to explain.
These possibilities share a common idea. Participation becomes meaningful when it leads to discoveries beyond those anticipated at the outset.
But not every invitation to participate creates value. Participation only strengthens an experience when people understand why they are taking part and can recognise the consequences of their actions.
Where AI enters the picture
A UNESCO–ICOM study presented on 17 September 2026 found that 57% of more than 400 participating museums across 90 countries were already using artificial intelligence. Their applications range from research and documentation to exhibition development and visitor engagement.
That figure shows how widely AI is entering museum practice, although it does not tell us how many institutions are using it to create participatory experiences.
For experience designers, some of the possibilities are easy to imagine. A visitor’s question could lead to an unexpected line of enquiry. A contribution could change what the next person encounters. A story could respond to someone’s interests and choices as they explore it.
Making those possibilities work takes careful editorial judgement and the team needs to decide which elements of a story can change and which must remain consistent. In a heritage setting, visitors should be able to distinguish documented information from AI-generated interpretation without having to work it out for themselves.
The relationship between action and response also needs to remain clear. If visitors cannot tell whether their input made a difference, they may struggle to find a reason to continue.
An open-ended experience still needs carefully designed rules. Those rules help give people enough freedom to explore while keeping the content coherent and the interaction understandable.
Leaving room for people who prefer to watch
Spend a little time beside an interactive installation and different ways of engaging become visible. Some people walk straight up and try it. Others stay back until they have seen someone else use it. A child might experiment while an adult watches, and a visitor on their own may take time to explore before making a choice.
A good experience makes room for these different approaches. The invitation should be easy to understand, but people should also be able to enjoy what is happening without feeling obliged to take part. There is plenty to discover by watching. Another person’s reaction might draw attention to something unexpected. A conversation nearby might reveal a detail that would otherwise go unnoticed.
This social side of an experience deserves as much thought as the interface. People sharing a space can compare choices, recognise a memory or realise that they have understood the same story differently. What happens between them can become part of what they take away.
What stays with people
At Unloop, we begin with what we want people to understand, feel and remember. That gives us a starting point for decisions about the story, the space and the technology.
When we consider an interaction, we think about what someone might discover by taking part and how they will recognise the effect of their actions. We also consider what the experience offers someone who chooses simply to watch.
These questions help us decide when to invite a contribution, when to guide the narrative and when to give people time to look.
The experience may continue in a conversation on the way out or in a memory someone shares later. It might leave a question that stays with them after the details of the installation have faded. Those are useful things to think about when deciding what participation is meant to achieve.
The next time you visit an exhibition, attend an event or take part in a brand experience, consider how your choices shape what happens, both for you and for the people around you.
That brings us back to a simple question:
What difference does your being there make?
Hélder da Rocha Pereira, Founder and Creative Director