An automatiek type vending machine, or trekmuur – “pull wall” – as we call it in Dutch, is a traditional piece of robust technology used to sell deep-fried snacks. Many visitors to Holland might have seen it, especially late at night when they’re popular places to get something to eat.

Over the last years some machines started to sell other stuff than traditional Dutch snacks. There are ones that sell Chinese food and even sunglasses, but that’s about all the innovation the machines have seen. The Museum of National History and Mediamatic decided to take the vending machine to the next level. Yesterday we launched the pilot of this project.

The National Vending Machine

The National Vending Machine (Nationale Automatiek in Dutch) is place where visitors to a museum can buy historical objects. The objects are both historical and recognisable, like a light bulb or tulips. Each object tells a story about Dutch history, which visitors can read on an attached label, see as a video or discover on the project’s website.

The idea is to build a community of objects. Visitors can contribute to the exposition by telling their story about the object they bought or by suggesting new objects. The pilot of the National Vending Machine is in the Amsterdam Historical Museum, but after a few months the machine will start travelling around the country. Every time with other objects and improved interaction with the visitors.

Logically, the traditional vending machine did not suffice for all these new forms of interaction. The museum and Mediamatic had to reinvent the machine.

Reinventing the vending machine

From right to left: registration booth, vending machines and video booth in the National Vending Machine

A traditional vending machine is used by paying with coins directly in the machine. This unlocks one column in the machine and the user can open any of the compartments. There’s no way of knowing which of the compartments is opened, who the visitor is or why he or she chose a specific compartment. There’s no way to follow up on the visit.

We decided to make the flow more personal, and a bit more complex. Sensors for each compartment are used to determine which one is opened and visitors are identified with personal RFID cards. This is how it works:

• A visitor pays with coins for the object of her choice at a registration booth (far right in the photo above). The money becomes the visitor’s credit for the vending machine.
• After inserting the coins the visitor can give her name, take a photo and do a little “hot or not” quiz about historical images. We use this information to create an online profile at our website. After the pilot, this will be the starting point for users for a journey through history online.
• When the visitor completes the registration procedure, she gets a RFID card. This card in personal and can be used at other activities of the museum. It’s also a free entry ticket for the future museum.
• With the card, the visitor can unlock one of the 10 columns with historical objects (in the middle of the photo above). Each compartment uses magnetic sensors so we know which of the 8 compartments of a column the visitor opens.
• The chosen object is added to the profile of the visitor. The ID of the card is the unique identifier for the visitor.
• The visitor can take the chosen object home. A label gives the story behind the object.
• Finally, the visitor can use the card to play a movie about the object she bought at the National Vending Machine (in the far left of the photo above). These short movies add images and movie to the story on the label.
• If the visitor wishes to buy another object, she can add credit to her card and profile at the registration desk.

After the visit, the visitor can continue the experience with the National Vending Machine online. An email is sent after registration, which gives access to the personal profile of the visitor. On this profile the visitor can find additional information about the object and links to online sources.

Online each visitor can add personal memories, opinions, images, etc. to each of the objects in the National Vending Machine. This way we build files on each of the objects. Also, the visitor can suggest new objects to be put in the vending machine.

After the pilot…

Visitors of the National Vending Machine read the label of their object and watch a video

The current edition of the National Vending Machine is a pilot project for a series of vending machines at other locations in the country. The Museum of National History and Mediamatic will use the experiences from this pilot to improve the vending machine, the visitor flow and the online environment.

I’m curious what you think about this project. How could we improve future editions? Does this offer additional opportunities we have missed so far? Your input and the input from visitors and users will be used to strengthen the project and continue reinventing the vending machine. Of course, I will regularly write about the project on this website. Let me know what you think!

Photography by Fred Ernst, who’s an amazing photographer!

Nieuwe groeten uit… (“New greetings from…”) is a crowd-sourced, crowd-curated exposition in the city of Arnhem in the east of the Netherlands. Last Thursday my museum opened the last part of the yearlong project. In many ways it’s a special exposition and project, I think, and worth sharing.

Somewhat over a year ago FOAM photography museum Amsterdam, the ANP Historical Archive and the Museum of National History of the Netherlands came together to find a replacement for the traditional postcards. Most postcards show an old-fashioned image of Holland: cheese, cows and wooden shoes. The Netherlands has changed significantly over the last years, and Nieuwe Groeten Uit… was a search for new postcards.

The general public played a mayor part in every phase of the project: gathering the photographs for the postcards, selecting the best post-cards and even putting them on display.

The process from idea to exposition in 10 steps

1. May 2009 we asked everybody in the Netherlands to send us photos that according to them gave an image of the Netherlands. They could upload their photos on a special website and put them in four categories. All photos were welcome, from those taken with mobile phones to professional shots.
2. In little over a month a wide range of people uploaded 8.000 photos. There was a 3-photo limit for everybody. A professional jury sorted through the thousands of photos to select the best ones for every region and category.
3. In the summer of 2009 a special inflatable exposition space travelled through the Netherlands, stopping at each of the 12 regional capitals. People were invited to vote for their favourite photo of their region, which they did.
4. In every city, special events were organised around the tour. I visited the exposition in four cities and every time it was something special. Hundreds of people cast their votes and photographers from all over the country came to defend their photo as a winner for the postcards.
5. The maker of the winning photo of each region could win a camera. All selected photos were printed as real postcards. This resulted in 48 unique postcards of contemporary Holland.
6. When the tour ended, the Museum of National History began to prepare for the final exposition. Being the first exposition of the museum, people who sent in photos were often proud to be able to become a part of this first exposition of the new museum.
7. Last Thursday we opened this exposition. Not in a building, but in the city of Arnhem. Photos are put on display in shops and many other places (see below). Hundreds of photos are spread out over Arnhem.
8. In a small venue, a multimedia installation allows people to print their own postcard for the Netherlands using the thousands of photos as a starting point. The installation records which photos are selected and will tell us the most popular ones when the exposition is finished. People can do the same process from their homes on a special website.
9. In addition to the exposition, two famous Dutch writers wrote a book with observations about the photos. Hans Aarsman and Anna Woltz selected the best photos for their book.
10. When the exposition ends this summer, all photos and other input collected through the exposition will serve as a document on how the Dutch see the Netherlands in the early 21st century.

The city as exposition space

The number of ways in which photos are and were put on display during the project especially struck me. Just a selection of the options used:

The inflatable exposition space and a photo on display in a church.

Photos on display in a music book store and in a hairdressers.

A photo in a shop and on an advertisement pole.

And finally: photos on a billboard and as table cloth in a restaurant.

What I think was especially nice about the project

Nieuwe Groeten Uit… was the first exposition I cooperated in for the Museum of National History. Although my role in the process was limited, especially in the beginning I’ve spent quite some time working on the project. Some things I learned and think were nice about the project:

• Touring the country with our inflatable exposition space offered great opportunities for community events. The exposition space served as a hub for other activities on more than one occasion. When we were in Arnhem, for example, people organised workshops in photography, tours around the city and many other things.
• The enormous red inflatable exposition space sparked conversation. When the thing was in Enschede on many occasions I saw strangers talk with each other after being “shocked” by the sudden presence of the exposition.
• The cooperation with the partners in the project, FOAM and ANP, left me with some nice contacts in other organisations. On a personal and even professional level we are still in contact to help each other with other projects and ideas.
• The presentation of photos in shops at the final exposition is a thing I truly like. As most of the participating shops are small independent shops, it’s a way for them to reach a larger audience. Some of the shops I visited when going through Arnhem to see the exposition are rare places that I’m happy to have discovered.

Over the past year Nieuwe Groeten Uit… gained quite some attention from different types of people. The audience always played a significant part in the project. The positive press coverage and – more importantly – the positive responses of ordinary people, have made this a very useful project to me.

Nieuwe Groeten Uit… is made possible with a contribution of the BankGiro Loterij.

The most important lesson I learnt when I tested Amsterdam museums with Seb Chan is ‘deliver what your visitors expect’. Last Friday I visited the Ruhrmuseum in Zollverein, near Essen. It’s one of the best museum I’ve ever visited in my life. Most of its success, I think, is due to them delivering what people expect to find in this museum: a full sensory experience that makes you discover the Ruhr area as it really was (and is).

The Zollverein Complex

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a deserted mining complex in Germany’s Ruhr area. When mining stopped in 1986, rather than waiting for it to wither in slow decay, the complex was reformed to a cultural center. It’s on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The complex looks impressive. Enormous buildings, long transportation belts, heavy machinery everywhere. A cultural institution in the the remnants of the industrial revolution to me always is a promising thought.

The Ruhrmuseum building

On top of the surroundings is the actual entrance to the Ruhrmuseum. An orange escalator takes you up some 25 meters to the central hall of the museum. (See pictures at the top.) With these escalators the museum does a great job in taking you out of the usual and into ’something special’. Needless to say, expectations are extremely high when you reach the central hall.

Inside, most of the original construction of the building is still visible. Machinery, concrete and iron are the basic ingredients of the building. The newer additions to the building are either made of original materials so they blend in, or very minimalistic with dark wood and glass.

The redesign of the Ruhrmuseum is done amongst others by Rem Koolhaas. Although the building at times feels like a maze where you can freely wander around the machinery and shafts, there is still a clear route which pulls you towards the main exhibitions. This created a sense of freedom, where it is allowed to touch things, interact and be amazed.

Even the opened doors that led nowhere increased this feeling of being in a creative atmosphere where you’ll discover something worthwhile.

The most beautiful part of the entire building, in my opinion, where the stairs shown above, which gave access to the temporary and permanent exhibitions.

The exhibitions

The permanent exhibitions shows the history of the Ruhr area. It felt more like an art exhibition than a history one, and to be honest I didn’t learn much about the area, happy as I was to see all the beautiful artifacts, photography and other things.

The temporary exhibition was about archeology and I was especially amazed to see how they transformed the industrial building into something that resembled an Egyptian archeology site. All sorts of media (sound, images, videos) and original artifacts were combined in surprising ways that sparked curiosity, discovery and enthusiasm.

The people

A special word of praise goes out to the staff of the Ruhrmuseum. In German museums there’s usually a lot of security and ushers keeping a close eye on the visitors. Often, there’s so many of them and they keep such a close watch, it makes me feel uncomfortable and want to leave the museum. Without exception the staff of the Ruhrmuseum were friendly, helpful and keeping respectful distance to the visitors. They did their best to improve the visitor’s experience, rather than treating them as potential criminals.

Installations and interactives

There are quite some interactive installations in the Ruhrmuseum. Not all of them worked out as well as they could have. Especially the touchscreens did not live up to contemporary standards. The more timeless installations, however, made up for that quite well.

Especially in the permanent exhibition there were quite some appealing installations, such as the above which gave the smells of the Ruhr area. They were strong and recognizable smells. Other installations presented sound and vision. To feel how the Ruhr area must have felt, touching one of the machines or pipes running through the exhibition area was sufficient.

Through its installations, the Ruhrmuseum gave a full sensory experience of the Ruhr area.

Lessons learnt from the Ruhrmuseum

Form and function are in perfect harmony in the Ruhrmuseum. Everything is aimed at delivering a full sensory experience of the Ruhr area. After leaving the museum I felt great and I’m looking forward to visiting again and taking more time to discover everything the museum has to offer.

What I learnt from my visit to the Ruhrmuseum is:

• Great design and architecture help to create an atmosphere in which discovery is encouraged.
• A museum must create a sense of individual freedom to foster discovery. Everything adds to this: the people, the installations, the routing.
• Simple installations that focus on other senses than the ordinary ones you use in a museum, such as smell, can have much more impact than innovative installations that focus on vision and sound.
• It pays off to take quite some time to get visitors in the right mood and mindset before they enter the exhibitions.
• A great museum doesn’t necessarily need great artifacts.

I can definitely recommend the Ruhrmuseum to everyone. It’s a beautiful and easily accessible museum. And if you go, let me know what you think!

Yesterday during the MuseumNacht (Museum Night) in Amsterdam, I had the chance to visit ‘Intimate Strangers‘, a temporary exhibition in the FOAM Photography Museum on the work of the Dutch photographer Sanne Sannes.

The MuseumNacht is an annual event in which 26,000 people visit the museums of Amsterdam at night, often for the first time in their lives. Sanne’s work is slightly erotic and intimate in its nature. On top of that, although photography is a very popular form of art, I think it’s one of the more difficult ones to engage your audience with. It’s easily accessible, but difficult to have people take their time to really discover the layered experience good photography can give you.

In the face of these challenges, FOAM had organised an exhibition in the dark, where two strangers were grouped to share an audio tour. With a little light on our heads we could see the photos, while on our headphones Sanne talked about the erotic nature of his work.

At first I did not really feel comfortable in the exhibition. With sound and sight limited, the only way to interact with the woman I shared the tour with, was by physical interaction. This did feel very intimate, something I’m not easily comfortable with if it comes to strangers. Furthermore, because our headlights shone a very direct light on the piece we were looking at, and most of the pieces were erotic in nature, it felt like being watched watching things you shouldn’t watch.

After a while, however, I realised the woman I was touring with and I had more or less the same way of visiting an exhibition. We could take our time without annoying the other and it even started to become less awkward to be so physically connected. After the audio stopped, we engaged in conversation about the art on display and the way it made us feel.

I think the entire experience took only 20 minutes, but after the initial process of getting used to it, I really had a special and intimate experience with a complete stranger. Ever since, I’ve been thinking about the exhibition and what it did to me. By now, I’m extremely enthusiastic about the set up of ‘Intimate Strangers’.

There’s, imho, a thing or two to learn from this experience:

• To have strangers talk about art in a museum, you might try to get them as far as possible outside of their comfort zone.
• Audio guides especially work if they’re part of a broader sensory experience.
• It can be successful to force people to spend time with art, if you combine it with a special experience.

The queue for ‘Intimate Strangers’ was at least an hour when I visited it early at night. Many people must have visited the exhibition. I’m curious what other people think about it and what it did with them.