S5:E7 The Google Arts and Culture Lab... Freya Salway, Head of the Lab

Guest

Freya Salway

In conversation with

Hilary Knight

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Our host, Hilary Knight speaks with Freya Salway, Head of the Lab at Google Arts and Culture Lab which engages artists, institutions and audiences through experimentation with new digital technology. They discuss the lab’s mission, collaborations, and approach to R&D and partnerships.

Date of Recording

9 June 2025

Date of Publication

2 July 2025

[00:00:00]
Freya Salway: You can't be an expert in everything. And this is a fast moving space, but I think it's about being engaged with it, and having an openness to the possibility whilst also being aware of and considerate of some of the challenges as well that are presented.

[00:00:19]
THEME MUSIC

[00:00:24]
Hilary Knight: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is one of a series brought to you by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network in which we explore what's happening around the world on those busy and sometimes congested intersections of cultural and urban life. The series and supporting materials can be found at www.thethreebells.net. If you like our content, please subscribe and review us wherever you find your podcasts.

My name is Hilary Knight. I'm a senior associate with AEA Consulting, and my guest today is Freya Salway. Freya is head of the lab at Google Arts and Culture, where she develops collaborative programmes and experiments that explore the application of advanced technologies for arts and culture.

Her collaborators include some incredible names like Es Devlin, Wayne McGregor, MIT Media Lab, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Serpentine Galleries, the United Nations and CERN. She and her team work with artists, cultural institutions, engineers, and research scientists around the world to reimagine how we engage with culture online.

So, hi Freya, and welcome to The Three Bells.

[00:01:31]
Freya Salway: Hello! Hi, Hilary.

…

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External Links

• Google Arts and Culture

• The Lab

• Experiments with Google

• Google Arts & Culture and British choreographer, Wayne McGregor developed an AI capable of predicting dance moves in his particular style

• Jonathan Yeo’s large-scale bronze sculptural self-portrait entitled Homage to Paolozzi (Self Portrait)

• Future Relics, A collaboration between Google Arts & Culture, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai and the British Museum in London

• Dr. Elizabeth Harmon on mining the Smithsonian Institution collections for stories of women in science

• One Minute Guides, with Cleveland Museum of Art

• Talking tours

• NotebookLM

• Es Devlin’s Please Feed The Lions interactive sculpture in Trafalgar Square

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About our Guest

Freya Salway is head of the lab at Google Arts & Culture, collaborating with artists, technologists, curators, scientists and cultural institutions globally to explore the application of advanced technologies for arts and culture. +