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: February 1st, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Buildings | Tags: architecture, book, design, exhibition, future, ideas, interior, museums | 2 Comments »
In a couple of days we’ll present a book with sketches for future museums. The book “Sketches for a National Museum of History” explores possibilities for museum architecture. Kenneth Frampton and Hans Ibelings wrote essays, researchers at the Berlage Institute made design sketches, and three young European architecture firms, 51N4E, Baukuh and Monadnock, submitted plans to encourage thinking about a new museum architecture. I had a chance to look at the book and I must say it’s inspiring and the designs are daring and different from what you’d expect.
Yesterday we launched a small website to encourage thinking about good museum architecture. It focuses on six themes – connect, show, sense, open, move and site – and hopefully will spark some new ideas about good museum architecture. You’re free to add your ideas (don’t let the Dutch scare you, it’s a bilingual website!).
So, what is good museum architecture?
That, I’m afraid, is a question without an answer. Or, with many answers. The book explores how architecture can deal with certain characteristics of museums. For instance, how architecture influences the presentation of objects (“show”). The two examples below are from the book and show how a church and a museum built on top of a chapel show their objects. I like them both, but believe they’re very different in their architectonic approach.
Pastor van Ars Church (design Aldo van Eyck, photo m.by) and Kolumba (design Peter Zumthor, photo seier+seier).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 2nd, 2010 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Expositions, People | Tags: audience, conversation, exhibition, experience, Interaction, lesson, participation, pilots, use | 12 Comments »
Two months ago the Museum of National History, my employer, launched the National Vending Machine. The interactive installation, currently on display in the Amsterdam Historical Museum, encourages people to discover history through objects. It’s a pilot project and we will use our experiences of the three-month try-out to improve future instalments of the National Vending Machine.
The National Vending Machine is a participatory project. To discover who uses the machine and how these users interact with it, I’ve spent quite some hours observing visitors and I’ve used the website (and especially the visitor part) to get an overall idea about participation and interaction. Read the rest of this entry »
