The Museum of the Future | Museums and culture in times of social and technological change

25 Jan, 2018 • Technology, Thoughts about museums • 8553

Futureproofing the digital museum
The museum of the future is an organisation influenced by social and technological change. Recently, on this blog, I’ve been focusing on social over technological change. This post is different.

Technology is changing the world, and it is doing so rapidly. Advances in technology are also directly affecting museums and other cultural institutions, and the role they play (or do not play).
- Blockchains and similar technologies are redefining trust. Cryptocurrencies may be a fad, but for institutions proud of and relying on being trusted sources of information, the underlying technology is not.
- Artificial Intelligence will replace curators, more or less. Plus deep learning algorithms may use online museum collections to perfect their skills.
- Robots, so far, have only been spotted in staff roles at museums. Give it a few years, and robots will be a museum audience.
- Games. Somewhere between PlayStation 2 – the last console I owned – and PS4 something massive happened, and not just in graphics. Where game reviews used to focus on the hard side of things (glitches, gibs, guns), the ones I watch now on YouTube judge a game by the empathy players develop for the characters and the depth of the story. Wow.
- Privacy.
- Security.
- And good old social media, which is unrecognisable compared to ten years ago when it started to dominate museum debates. (How long has it been since you left a comment on a blog? Scroll down and win a prize!)
None of these and other trends are likely to reverse and time soon. Many of these trends are overwhelming for those of us who are not in the driver’s seat of technological innovation. Most museums are not in said driver’s seat. They’re not even riding on the same bus. Continue Reading
Read More »
2 Jan, 2018 • Case studies, Workshops • 5346

From the archives: a warming up game for 2018
Best wishes for the new year to all my readers! Last year, I received a lot of enthusiastic responses to the free Cards Against Creativity game I shared with you. So, I’ll start 2018 with another free game from the archives, and a much simpler one to play. It’s a warming up game and takes about 60-90 minutes to play.

Potatoes* – The Exhibition

A game of collective storytelling to discover the diversity of stories, ideas, and perspectives in any organisation. Play it with your colleagues as a warming up exercise for the new year or at the start of a new project to get the creative juices flowing.

You need:

Sufficient paper, pens, 6-40 colleagues, empty space (e.g., the floor or a huge whiteboard).

You also need a topic (in the example: potatoes, but (*) it can be anything).

How to play?
- Collectively, decide on the topic. It should be a topic everyone has an opinion or ideas about. For instance, potatoes.
- Ask everyone individually to write down on a sheet of paper one or a few things they know about the topic. This can be a story, a fact, an opinion, a surprising insight. One idea per sheet of paper. (5 minutes)
- Collectively, place together ideas that are related and label these groups of ideas. For instance, “historical facts,” “personal anecdotes,” “applications.” This is called affinity mapping.
- Divide all participants into groups. Each group selects one group of ideas (a topic), ideally something they care or know something about.
- Each group will briefly interview the other groups with the question, “what would you like to know about this topic?” (5 minutes)
- Each group designs a story about their topic, bringing in their ideas and opinions while trying to answer some of the questions in the room. (10 minutes)
- Each group tells their story (in 2 minutes) to the other participants.
- Individually, as a wrap-up, each participant writes down responses to two prompts: 1) Something I did not know before, and 2) Something I’d like to learn more about. Collect these answers, for instance on a flip chart, and reflect on them. What are surprising new insights? To what extent does the collective know more than the individual? How can this experience be turned into better stories for your organisation?
Continue Reading
Read More »
19 Dec, 2017 • People, Thoughts about museums • 5664

Creating with communities / make museums matter
2017, for me, was a year in which I expanded my understanding of and experience with community-driven design processes. My education, background, and recent experience have all involved creating with communities, and this year, I was given the opportunity to go above and beyond:
- In two days in Athens, 150 participants created a vision for the future of libraries in a workshop I facilitated. Wow! It didn’t stop there, though. The ensuing project has already brought together tens of thousands of people from 213 countries in a dialogue about the future.
- In a series of workshops, this year drafted a shared vision for a new museum in The Hague.
- In an exciting and dynamic social context, we co-created a digital strategy for a new heritage centre in the UK together with stakeholders and its community.
- But also, in 90 minutes we developed games to make heritage more accessible, we co-created a thrilling potato exhibition with Polish heritage professionals and brought together some of the smartest people on earth to develop a vision on the future of nature. Etc. Etc.
In addition, I was allowed to visit or sit on the sidelines of many other inspirational projects: Story House Belvedere (image above), the Little Museum of Dublin, and our own Museum of Languages in Leiden.

I learned a lot, but my key take away is, that under the right conditions, every person has a valuable contribution to make. Cultural institutions are near perfect places to create these right conditions. Often we provide safe spaces or meeting zones; we have typically curious staff; and conversation starters in our collections. We can apply these assets to our development as much as to the development of our communities and even societies. Continue Reading
Read More »
8 Dec, 2017 • Case studies • 5678

Three projects from an extraordinary museum that makes language exciting

The Museum of Languages in Leiden makes language accessible and exciting in many different ways. This week I visited some of the latest projects of the Museum of Languages in Leiden and spoke with its project director Pepijn about their recent successes and approach. (The Museum of Languages is a project by VISSCH+STAM.)

1. A game of quartets about new words

When the Museum of Languages launched last year, one of the things they asked their audience was to contribute new words that do not exist officially but are used anyway. The museum encouraged people to think about this with postcards, and invited contributions via idea boxes on various location in Leiden and online. In total, 1,000 new words were contributed.

Then, the museum analysed and categorised the words to create a game of quartets, which was launched just in time for the holiday season. (It is a perfect gift!) Designer Robin Stam made an illustration for each word, and the cards come with a definition. One of my favourites is the “soscussion”, a discussion of which everyone knows the outcome at the start.

In the manual of the game, the museum explains how new words find their place in a language, and how they are typically developed and adopted. The game makes the audience part of the complex and typically opaque development of language.

Continue Reading
Read More »
30 Nov, 2017 • Case studies, Inspiration, Organisation • 5107

Storytelling for social cohesion at Story House Belvédère

Story House Belvédère in Rotterdam uses storytelling to bring the different communities in the city together, and contribute to a happier, more sustainable city. Located in Katendrecht, a part of town that is home to a combination of traditional migrant communities, recent newcomers, and hipsters attracted by the neighbourhood’s industrial look, the place is at the heart of many of the city’s developments and stories. In its short existence (it only opened in 2013), it has made a name for itself as a successful community-driven, innovative cultural initiative.

I finally got around to visiting Story House Belvedere a few weeks ago as part of the new Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museum Projects I am involved in, and I must say I was blown away by the place, its people, and the stories.

Story House Belvédère is a special place. You can feel it the moment you step into their warm and welcoming place. It feels like a living room, where everybody can be a friend. Even the coffee cups and the cookies are in style. The magic, of course, goes beyond aesthetics and is deeply embedded in the organisation.

Before there was a house, the team behind Belvédère organised a community-focused temporary exhibition in the public space in the south of Rotterdam. As this is a deprived part of town, city officials and other professionals doubted this plan. “You will get shot at, and in two weeks everything will be destroyed.” They were wrong, and the exhibition was around for a year and a half.

Continue Reading
Read More »