I just finished reading Resonateby Nancy Duarte. The book’s promise is bold. According to Dan Post in the introduction, when “applied with passion and purpose, the concepts in this book will accelerate your career trajectory or propel your social cause.” And the book delivers, thankfully.
Resonate is about composing engaging presentations that transform audiences. It provides hands-on advice and compelling case studies to change the 45-minute PowerPoint-dominated ordeals you repeatedly have to sit through into life-altering experiences.
Apart from the inevitable Jobs and Reagan examples, quite some of the case studies are about cultural icons, such as the 2008 TED talk by conductor Benjamin Zander. Watch it if you haven’t already, its message is becoming ever more relevant.
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 »
After the news that January 1st 2012 the Museum of National History, my employer, will cease to exist, I received countless heartwarming and encouraging messages from all over the world. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank everybody for his or her kind words and pats on my back. Thank you, you are amazing!
It’s wonderful to know the international community of cultural innovators (if I may call you that) is a place where people share and care.
Many of you have asked me what’s next for me. Good question: What’s next?
In his wonderful book Where good ideas come from (video) Steven Johnson gives some guidelines – say, life’s lessons? – to stimulate creativity and develop a sense of direction to something truly worthwhile. If you haven’t yet, read the book.
What’s next for me is that I will do some of the things Johnson recommends to prepare for an as yet unknown adventure that will eventually connect keywords such as culture, society, innovation and people.
Some of these recommendations I can do myself; taking walks, writing everything down, making mistakes…
With some others I could use your help. Here’s how:
I’d love to discover how a wide variety of institutions work. Museums, archives, theatres, NGOs… What are your challenges? What makes you unique? If you can, I’d truly appreciate to come by and see what you do. In exchange I’m happy to share everything I know in a presentation, workshop, etc.
I realise that after my last, maybe unsettling post, I’ve been rather quiet on my blog. I haven’t given up on sharing stuff. I was merely soaking up inspiration and information at TEDGlobal, a conference I think you should attend. Here’s the first of a number of posts inspired by some of the great speakers at that event.
Tim Harford, the undercover economist, advocates a radical change in the way we look at change, leadership, management, etc. His brilliant TED talk embedded below is a nice taster for his ideas, but I definitely recommend reading his book Adapt, or: Why success always starts with failure.
Failure and the need to embrace the opportunity of failing to be able to get ahead is a popular topic at the moment. Certainly, everybody agrees we learn from our mistakes. However, few openly acknowledge they’re ‘just trying something’ in order to get ahead. In any uncertain field (such as building a museum for the 21st century) however, Tim Harford eloquently argues this is the way forward. As he writes “Failure (…) seems to go hand in hand with rapid progress.” Read the rest of this entry »
Recently someone used the term critical mass to mean you need a certain amount of followers/friends/fans to be successful in social media. Strength is in numbers, etc. “Of course MoMA can do that, with its gazillion followers.” I dare to disagree.
In primary school they taught me to address specific people when asking for help in a crowded place. An undirected ‘help’ would certainly go unattended. Later I learned this is called the bystander effect. People don’t help when there’re other people around.
A hundred thousand, or even a millions followers/friends/fans is a lot of people. If you tweet a question or Facebook a funding request or e-mail a petition, certainly some small percentage will respond. And maybe a small percentage of many is enough to do the trick. On the other hand, many, many more will not feel any need to respond. Bystanders.
I believe that if you know your audience, are creative and dare to specifically address your questions, you don’t need a lot of followers/friends/fans. Over the last months, every single campaign I did where I specifically asked some outdid those where I generally asked many. Even if “specifically asking some” was semi-automated. Even if the ties between the addressed individual and our institution were weak.
