Posted: October 25th, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Thoughts about museums | Tags: data, googol, information, myriad, numbers, overload | No Comments »
Photo by Éole Wind on Flickr.
Sorry for being quite quiet lately; I’ve been busy writing, preparing and giving workshops and lectures, closing down projects and experimenting with business models and gamestorming. All this, for the future, which I will tell you all about, in that same future. Also, I’ve been reading.
In ancient Greek the highest number with a beautiful name was a myriad, or μύριος, in their script. Myriad represented (and in some forms, still represents) the number ten thousand. Apparently, apart from Archimedes who used the myriad myriad, there was no need for larger numbers. In this advanced society, there wasn’t that much stuff.
When I was young, in the 80s, the highest imaginable number was a billion. After that, everybody but a handful of mathematicians confused the number of zeros. A really big number therefore became a million billion as in, “My father is a million billion times stronger than yours.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 13th, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Inspiration, Thoughts about museums | Tags: change, innovation, jim collins, moore's law, organisation, strategy, structure | 4 Comments »
Photo by John Ryan on Flickr.
Ten years ago Jim Collins published a book that would change the way many organisations would do business: Good to Great. You’ve heard about it, maybe you even read it. The book gives a recipe for sustainable success, businesswise, based on a number of companies that outperformed their competitors over a long period of time. Jim Collins told millions how to be Great, as opposed to simply Good.
Quickly, a prequel for startups (Built to Last) and a special edition for the social sectors were published. For many consultants, Jim Collins was God.
The ten years since
Unfortunately, the years since 2001 brought trouble: The web 2.0 revolution, financial crises and the never-diminishing effect of Moore’s Law. The world changed, and not all of Jim Collins’s great companies managed to stay on top of things.
This week I spent some time with Anders Sorman-Nilsson, an expert on the disruptive nature of change for business. In a recent video on his blog, he explains how the years since 2001 have made some of the great companies become obsolete, or even go bust.
It very much seems that although you were brilliant the entire 20th century, it can be a matter of months in the 21st to have your organisation disappear into oblivion. What made you great in yesteryear might make you obsolete today.
And I don’t think this is limited to the moneymakers of the world. Museums, theatres and even social causes can become obsolete just as easily if they’re not designed to deal with the menacing effects of Moore’s Law and the like.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 8th, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: People, Thoughts about museums | Tags: community, Interaction, participation, questions, simple, thoughts, wine | 4 Comments »
Photo by Wendell (lurking) on Flickr.
This week I did a wine tasting with a Dutch wine critic. That was fun. Of course we talked about the difference between supermarket wines, new-world wines, old-world wines etc. Regardless of tasting over seven thousand wines per year and obviously having a very refined taste in wine, our host applauded the simple unpretentious wines most people drink. He mentioned how his very first wine came from a carton. It’s simple and cheap wine that might be the first step of a life-altering journey through the wonderful world of wines.
(He also repeatedly mentioned that a lack of knowledge about wine is completely unrelated to a good taste for wine. Even beginners easily distinguish the good from the bad when testing blind. I think the same applies to (all) arts and culture.)
I recently fell in love with Codecademy. Not, because I’m keen to learn JavaScript, but because the very first thing their website does is to ask me to participate in the simplest way possible: by writing my name. Then, five or six of the simplest tasks later, I have earned a badge, connected my Facebook account and become addicted to (learning how to) code.
For an expert it’s tempting to ask challenging questions, “What is your favourite Monet painting?” or “Which historical figure do you think is represented on this vase?” Challenging questions might provide new insights (to the expert). The answers to simple questions rarely surprise. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 31st, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Expositions, Technology, Thoughts about museums | Tags: art, exhibition, ideas, immersive technology, installations, london, roundhouse, thoughts, tool, unusual | No Comments »
Photo by Esther Simpson on Flickr.
One of the most important lessons I learned about the use of technology in galleries is that when using it, there’s hardly a middle road. (Hardly… there is maybe one.) Either the technology should be immersive and unobtrusive. Or, it should be overwhelming, in your face, undeniable.
Either technology (and media, etc.) should be used as a tool, or be art in itself.
The moment people notice tech (because of an unintuitive touchscreen, a distracting beamer, flickering lights) it should be part of the artistic experience, or be unplugged. In the V&A I stumbled upon a plague that said it quite nicely, “Only when the technology is invisible is it of any use” (Jonathan Barnbrook, 1990). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 18th, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Inspiration, Thoughts about museums | Tags: advice, blogs, community, recommendations, video | 3 Comments »
Photo by John Manoogian III on Flickr.
I find myself writing the same email over and over again. It’s the email with a bullet point list of blogs I recommend to read and video’s I recommend to watch to get a sense of the world of museums, technology and media. Here’s some of that list, stuff well worth the hours it will take you to find your way through it.
Read the rest of this entry »
