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

9 May, 2019 • People • 13778

When your museum isn’t attracting people
It might be that they do not know about you

(Which probably doesn’t have to do with the number of advertisements you put in front of them. People may not care to know about you.)
- Because the story you tell is not essential to your audience
(The fact that your peers think your story matters doesn’t mean it matters to anyone beyond your immediate peers. And they may be lying.)
- Because you are telling your story to the wrong people
(There is a vast difference between a story that matters to tourists, locals, designers, businessmen, activists, students, job seekers, etc.)
- Because the story you tell is not something people are buying right now
(You may be selling a product (contemporary art, local history) while your audience wants an experience, or an experience when they’re looking for connections, or relationships when they need a place to be alone.)
- You may be telling your story in the wrong place
(Your building may be a barrier to success.)
- You may tell it in the wrong way
(You may be authoritative when you ought to be humble, explaining when you need to be listening, doubtful when you’d better take a clear position.)
- You may tell it at the wrong time
(Most people work during office hours.)
- You may not be the one who is supposed to tell your story
(In which case it isn’t ‘your’ story at all.)
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28 Mar, 2019 • Technology, Thoughts about museums • 8204

A museum for humans

“Prohuman art and culture question the value of pat narratives. They produce open-ended stories, without clear victors or well-defined conflicts. Everyone is right; everyone is wrong. The works don’t answer questions; they raise them.” — Douglas Rushkoff in Team Human

Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human is a quick and compelling read about how our technology, our markets, and our major cultural institutions have become embedded with an anti-human agenda, and how to fix this. The book reads like a manifesto and comes packed with catchy quotes (“Engagement through digital media is just a new way of being alone.” “The very purpose of the capitalist operating system is to prevent widespread prosperity.”).

Earlier, I wrote about what a museum for robots may look like. One possibility was that robots would keep museums around merely as a way to entertain the large groups of humans who they have replaced. Rushkoff may concur. Yet he sees another role for museums. In Rushkoff’s analysis, cultural institutions should be places where we rediscover and strengthen our humanity and ability to work together as humans—against robots and the anti-human values that are embedded in them.

Art and culture, in Rushkoff’s world, are at the frontlines of an uphill battle for the future for humanity.

The anti-human agenda

In Team Human, Rushkoff posits that after an initial wave of optimism about the internet, its “tremendous social and intellectual potential was surrendered to short-term market priorities, turning a human-centred medium into a platform for manipulation, surveillance, and extraction.” This has happened with every medium.

The added problem with digital technologies is that they are so pervasive, that they have already begun to change the world. Instead of having technology serve humans, we now serve technology and the values and interests of a tiny group of people that are embedded in them, which are not at all in the benefit of all of us.
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15 Mar, 2019 • Inspiration • 10343

The digital museum in times of direct messaging

In the 1990s, I ran a website about my Klik ’n Play projects, including a somewhat popular piece of free software that allowed other people to build real-time strategy games. I do not remember the URL, but it sounded like users.mywebhosting.com/~jvis/klikplay/index.htm.

At the time, there was no SEO, no social media, no influencer marketing. I couldn’t register a fancy URL. The only way to get people to visit my site was through the laborious process of link building. A link between two websites – which was almost always reciprocal – signified trust and relevance. It meant a real relationship, often forged through long conversations on IRC. My website was reasonably successful for the time, into the 100s of visits per month, but it is safe to say I knew most of the visitors by their nickname. The web was a small, private, and familiar place

Then, the internet changed. Blogs, social media, algorithms, and a host of other innovations made the web humongous, devoid of privacy, and highly unpredictable. This is the internet that most museums have embraced; a web where you can talk to everyone, advertise everything, and fame is always only one viral video away.

Direct messaging

Now, however, it seems to be changing again. Mark Zuckerberg has placed his bets of direct messaging. Twitter’s latest new redesign also emphasizes conversations, albeit in the public space (“to facilitate public conversation”). If your workplace has embraced Slack, your family WhatsApp, your children Instagram, or your neighborhood NextDoor, you have seen that the web is changing. We’re moving from massive public debates to direct relationships between limited communities. The experience of privacy and control increases. It makes the internet feel like the web of yesteryear when you knew everyone by their nickname.
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4 Mar, 2019 • Thoughts about museums • 8020

Dealing with conflict in your museum community

Recently, I was facilitating a conversation with some twenty people from a loosely-knit community. A little bit into the programme, when we touched upon a value the group said they shared, I noticed one participant in the far end of the room looked away. While the other participants eagerly wanted to move on. I took a few minutes to test whether the value was really shared. After a few attempts, the group split in two over different perspectives. What everyone assumed was shared, actually divided the group. The temperature in the room went down. Some people looked away, uncomfortable. We had a conflict on our hands…

Anyone who has worked professionally with communities knows that there is always a chance of conflict. People may interpret the same value or purpose differently. They may fight over old insults or oppose individuals because of their behaviour. Some communities are rife with conflict, while others hide it under a layer of politeness. Few cultural professionals are trained to deal with conflict—in any form. And we hardly talk about it.

I’ve worked with communities for almost two decades and encountered my fair share of conflict. At workshops and conferences, I notice, the interest in the topic is increasing. While (or: when) we are getting better at working with communities, we also face more conflict.

Conflict is inevitible

In communities, conflict is inevitable. No matter how strong the bonds in a community and the degree to which they share the same values, ideas, or purpose, communities are never homogeneous and thus home to different perspectives. This diversity is the strength of communities, and the reason why working with them is so enriching. The potential for and presence of conflict is what makes a community such a valuable concept.

That is not to say that conflict is fun. Typically, it is not. It hurts. It may hurt the individuals in the community, and if you’re facilitating a group in conflict, it may reflect on you. You need to be thick-skinned when dealing with a community in conflict.
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9 Jan, 2019 • Inspiration, Strategy • 14038

The role of culture and community in the development of smarter cities

“Without cognitive deconstruction and analysis, cultural events, knowledge products, and intellectual achievements run the risk of being reified to little more than signifiers of a market economy.“

We may underestimate the role of culture in the effective development of societies and cities. On the individual level, the impact of cultural expressions is often crystal clear. Sergei Polunin’s famous interpretation of Take me to church, for instance, is creating a life-long fascination for ballet in my young son. On any other level, alas, the impact of culture is more opaque. When positioned within a framework, however, cultural development can go beyond a series of symbolic events and gain systematic importance in the development of smarter cities.

In their paper The Triple-Helix Model of Smart Cities: A Neo-Evolutionary Perspective, authors Loet Leydesdorff and Mark Deakin propose the triple helix model as this framework. I first became aware of the work of Loet Leydesdorff when I heard him referenced at a culture and innovation conference. As he is also my father in law, I have been especially keen on studying and understanding his work, which regularly relates to my work and interests.

The triple helix model of innovation refers to a set of interactions between academia, industry, and governments, to foster economic and social development (says Wikipedia). The model goes beyond simple market dynamics. Instead of the market, communities of policymakers, academic leaders, and corporate strategists are the drivers of innovation. When these communities are successful, they can help cities to become smarter.

Thus, to develop smarter cities, policymakers need to create the conditions that enable communities of different people to be successful.
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