Building our community of objects with visitors of the Uitmarkt

Last weekend my museum presented itself at the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam. The Uitmarkt is an annual festival that opens the new cultural year. Instead of handing out flyers about our upcoming expositions, we decided to ask the visitors to contribute to our ongoing project the National Vending Machine. The National Vending Machine is a travelling exposition that tells the historical and personal story behind everyday objects. All these objects and stories together we call our ‘community of objects’.

I thought it was a perfect chance to put one of the ideas in Nina Simon’s book The Participatory Museum to the test. Her case study about Structured Dialogue in the Signtific Game in chapter 3 describes a project where people engaged in conversation online about wild ideas. For me the beauty of the Signtific Game lies in the way people are guided by a select number of possible responses to a wild idea. This structures dialogue and makes it more productive.

We translated this online game to an offline activity around everyday objects. I believe it worked brilliantly. Over the course of the weekend a small team (three people each day) engaged in conversation with hundreds of people, individually or in groups and encouraged them to contribute to our community of objects with personal stories and new objects.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Lego-factor: Checklist for new media and technology project proposals

Photo by Oskay on Flickr.com

While checking proposals last week for new media and technology projects, I devised a checklist to understand myself why I like certain proposals, and others not. I call it the “Lego-factor”. Lego is one of the greatest things ever invented, in my opinion. A project that scores well on the Lego-factor, therefore, might be great too.

(The checklist is under construction, as I try to put my finger on why certain proposals are great and others not. For me this often comes down to a gut feeling, rather than to be something tangible I can name and rate. Please add your thoughts, so we might build a useful checklist. Thanks!)

Checklist for new media and technology project proposals

1. Does the proposal sparkle my imagination?
   Lego is all about imagination, about creativity. Design cars and houses, play stories, live in other times. A proposal based on the audience’s creativity and imagination is a good proposal.
2. Do I immediately think about what else I could do with what the proposal offers?
   Before I opened a new box of Lego, I had already thought about a hundred ways in which I could use the new bricks other than to build the thing pictured on the box. A proposal that keeps enough options open to do other things with it is a good one.
3. Is the proposed project as simple as it can be, but not any simpler?
   The basics of Lego are really simple: bricks that can be put together almost in any thinkable way. However, it’s not as simple as regular bricks. The studs on top of a brick give strength; the hollow design keeps your buildings light but sturdy.
4. Can I use the proposed project both alone and together?
   You can play with Lego on your own and it’s great fun. You can play together with friends and it’s great fun. Neither is more fun, though. Every good new media project should provide value to the individual user and be just as fun to do with others.
5. Does the proposal add value to other things I have?
   When you buy a new box of Lego, your old Lego increases in value, as you can do more things with the collected amount of Lego. A proposal that adds value to existing things (and gains value by using other things) is a good one.
6. Is the proposed easy to use, but endless in its uses?
   Everybody can use Lego. However, the more you use it, the more interesting it gets. It’s never boring, neither for a beginner or a pro. New media and tech projects that achieve the same are good.
7. Is it ageless?
   Recently I played with Duplo (Lego’s younger brother) with a one-year-old and it was fun, for both of us. I think that, even if you aim at a specific age group with your proposal, it should be fun for everyone to work with it.
8. Does it answer a need or unobtrusively create a reasonable new need?
   This one is tricky. It might be better to ask, “Does the proposal not create irrelevant new needs such as virtual farm land?” I really believe that unless you have a really great and innovative idea a proposal should be aimed at answering existing needs rather than creating new ones.

Read the rest of this entry »

Users and use of the National Vending Machine – 7 lessons about participation

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 »