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

8 Dec, 2017 • Case studies • 5148

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.

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30 Nov, 2017 • Case studies, Inspiration, Organisation • 4565

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.

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6 Nov, 2017 • Inspiration, Organisation • 10674

Three examples of creative collaboration in Dublin

Last week in Dublin, I took part in the kick-off of the follow-up of the Creative Museum Project, the Making Museum. One of the focus areas of the Creative Museum was the collaboration between creative communities and cultural institutions. How can museums create spaces and opportunities for the creativity of their audiences?

In the Creative Museum Project, we both collected case studies of successful collaborations, as well as tools and approaches to make this happen within your institution. We will build upon this experience in the Making Museum Project.

I believe the question of collaboration between different types of organisations and individuals, and how to approach and design this, is one of the big challenges for the next decade. Museums and all kinds of organisations are recognising that the only way to be successful in a hyper-connected world is to work together. As the related trend in Cards for Culture says, “The rationale for sharing resources, people and ideas is crystal clear,” but working together is not easy, and every creative collaboration requires partners to rethink both their practice and the merits of working together.

New creative collaborations are popping up everywhere, and the results of these experiments often result in dynamic new organisations that re-envision the way people and ideas come together. In Dublin, I visited three examples of such creative collaborations, each providing fresh ideas about what this may look like in the future:

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9 Oct, 2017 • Technology, Thoughts about museums • 12566

A museum for robots
It is unlikely that in a few decades humans will be the dominant intelligent, emotional, and learning species on earth. Robots and AIs already show creativity, the ability to learn, and very human emotions, and they will continue to evolve. This may be a good thing, it may be disastrous, but that is not a question I’d like to answer. When I was asked recently to think about museums in the far far future, I wondered: Will robots (and AIs) create museums? And if they do, what will these institutions look like, and what can we learn from them for our human museums?

As always, it is easy to say what a museum for robots probably will not look like: a physical building, limited opening hours, inaccessible collections presented statically. Many human museums are transitioning away from this old model already.

What a museum for robots will look like, is harder to imagine. I don’t think you get there by looking at how museums will change, but rather by looking at the significant trends and developments that are changing the world. These are considerable, ranging from changing climates to digital disruption, and from polarisation to the digital divide and other inequalities. For robots, I would like to focus on three observations:
1. When robots become common, there will be an awful lot of them. Already, there are billions of ‘smart’ devices in the world – watches, kettles, onesies. Add a sensor and/or motor to all the dumb ones, and robots will outnumber humans greatly.
2. These robots will be super well connected, through the Internet of Things, amongst others. Also, they are almost all digital natives, which gives them an edge over some humans.
3. Likely, these billions of well-connected robots will have the ambition to do or make something. Humans that come together in large numbers and are well-connected organise themselves in creative communities that change the world. Robots may do the same, with their speed and ability.
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18 Jul, 2017 • Case studies, Inspiration • 8649

The Creative Museum – Using the creativity of communities in culture

Four years ago I was approached by Cécile Marsan to participate as special advisor in a European research project about creativity in museums. The proposed research was action-based – learning by doing – and the partners came from France, Ireland, the UK, Norway, Finland, Italy and Croatia, as well as the United States (my fellow special advisor Don Undeen). This month, the final meeting took place in Lyon. Time for a wrap-up!

The Creative Museum Project kicked off with a mapping of good practices from across the world about the collaboration between creative communities and museums. Within the project, I interpreted creative practice as the act of involving creative communities (e.g. makers, artists, or active citizens) in core functions of the museum, such as storytelling, exhibition design, research, etc. What we found, was a high quantity and diversity of creative practice in cultural institutions. There are many ways in which museums are opening up their collections and buildings to new audiences. Many of them are guided by notions of a participatory museum, technological innovations or simply a desire to be more audience-cantered.

We found something similar when (as a spin off of the project), we mapped cases of participatory governance in cultural heritage. There are sufficient cases of institutions that genuinely involve their audience, all for their own reasons. Continue Reading
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