Focusing on completing my thesis rather than blogging has left a long silent spell on the blog, but here it is: My completed master thesis report Webudstillingen kortlagt(Eng.: Mapping the Online Exhibition)

It’s in Danish, but has an English abstract for those interested.
It has been a very interesting project for me to work on, and thankfully it was also well received by both my examiners and Diamanten – I received a top grade (12/A); a great completion of my M.Sc. degree in IT/ Digital Design and Communication. I really feel that I have gained a sound understanding of how museums communicate through social and digital media, and not least of how these media could be used even more extensively and interestingly to promote the collections and knowledge held my museums. Still, I feel that I have only scratched the surface, and am itching to pursue the topic further, academically and/or practically.

Emerging from the slump, its time to get all fired up again; its time for a declaration of intent, a creed, a manifesto (or something) (trumpets, cheerleaders, confetti, the works)!

Setting out on this project, I had the naïve idea that the concept of doing web exhibitions was a newly found and yet unexploited territory, and that I would be able to shine some light on the potentials for developing this rich seam of digital delights. This, of course, turned out not to be the case. The reality is that web exhibitions emerged with the dawn of the world wide web, and since then, pretty much every avenue of www development has also been exploited in an exhibition context. Accordingly, today’s museum audience can visit virtual reality exhibitions in Second Life; revisit augmented physical exhibitions online; remix digitalized cultural heritage to their hearts’ content (licenses allowing); download podcasts and print out personalised plans pre-visit; rummage through endless ressources; engage in online museum communities; contribute content and explore 1001 storylines; vlog, tag, digg, zoom, tweet, share and more. And everybody’s at it, in Denmark and abroad.

So what’s the point? What’s the problem? Luckily, I still have one. My problem is, that for all the weird and wonderful web exhibitions I have been exploring in the last few months, I still haven’t found one that really, truly did it for me. I can think of quite a few that I liked, there’s lots of great stuff out there. But none of them really stuck with me, I was never truly engaged, and trying to recall them I end up with a blurred mish mash.

Now, I don’t expect to find the holy grail of web-exhibitions; I don’t believe that I will come up with a concept so brilliant that it will give others the experience I wish I had found. (I still wish I could, and I will give it my best shot). But I think my frustration pinpoints the problem of web exhibitions: they just add to the online noise, when what we crave is music.

My lack of engagement, no doubt, has a lot to do with the superficial mental browser mode I was in whilst surfing the net for great examples, and less to do with the actual content or format of the exhibitions. Still, isn’t this what museums are up against? Isn’t this the reality of life on the net, just as the reality of the physical museum is that visitors spend an average of just 3 seconds on a piece of art?

The modern day wealth of information and entertainment, available at a click, has made us rather blasé. Yet all this relentless surfing, all this killing time online is perhaps fuelled by a hope or desire to find something worthwhile. Something that slows us down, stops the browsing. Perhaps the creed of web designers – and museums – shouldn’t be ‘Don’t make me think!’ but rather ‘Do make me think!’. Make me feel, make me wonder or marvel, provoke me. Don’t just inform me.

Sometimes, of course, we are looking for specific information, and need this information and relevant ressources to be as readily available and easy to find as possible. To this end, advanced search tools, functional meta-data, accessible taxonomies and a focus on usability is the key to making digitalized cultural heritage a usable ressource for the public. But this functional approach to online museum content is only valuable if we already have a quest, if we know what we are searching for. In order to engage us, to sow that seed of interest, the web exhibition must go further than to just present us with representations of objects and related facts.

Original objects and works of art are powerful things. Taking my son to see Solvognen for the first time actually brought tears to my eyes; seeing Van Gogh’s paintings live made me realise what the fuss was all about. Here was something that even the best coffee-table reproduction could not capture. In this light, the online iteration is no match for the real thing, the physical exhibition.

But instead of lamenting the loss of aura, the lameness of the reproduction, maybe we could see it as a liberation? Perhaps the physical museum is too bound to the objects themselves (not to mention restricted by how these precious objects must be treated in order to survive being on display). Perhaps online instead we can put a microphone to the stories they hold, and turn up the volume, free from the hushed reverence of the museum halls?

It’s all been done before. But it’s still worth doing again and again until we begin to get it just right.

Another interesting conference coming up (just passing on information here, I myself probably won’t be able to attend, alas): the Virtual Systems and Multimedia Society / VVMS 2009 in Vienna this September. Lots of great – and museum relevant – topics, including Virtual Heritage: Cultural heritage interpretation and entertainment, Virtual Heritage and Museum Environments, Digital Storytelling, Collaborative Environments, Virtual Reality technology and experiences, Application of Serious Gaming technologies etc.

crossposted på Formidlingsnettet

Museums and the web er en helt elektrisk forsamling af hele spektret af museumsfolk – teknikere, akademikere, administratorer og designere; studerende og professionelle som var med til at etablere koblingen mellem web og museum. Selvom vi hver især har vore kæpheste og særlige interesseområder kommer vi først og fremmest for at lære af hinanden, og snakken går livligt mellem sessionerne. Det er en helt utrolig ressource af praktiske erfaringer, visioner og reflektioner, som heldigvis også er åben for andre i kraft af at hele kataloget af papers ligger frit tilgængeligt på nettet. Men online findes ikke den meningsudveksling og sparring som sker på konferencen.

Amerikanerne er naturligvis i overtal, mens også Canada, Australien og New Zealand er godt repræsenteret. Fra Europa kommer især mange englændere, men i år var der også hele 29 repræsentanter fra en lang række institutioner i Holland.
Gang på gang blev jeg spurgt, hvorfor der ikke var andre danskere, og jeg vil gerne stille spørgsmålet videre. Er det (pludselige?) besparelser som gør, at de danske museer ikke har råd til, eller ikke prioriterer, at sende repæsentanter? Er det mangel på innovation der gør at vi ikke har noget at præsentere? Har tidligere års deltagelse ikke levet op til forventningerne? Eller mener vi at have nok i os selv og vore nationale og nordiske netværk?

Mens jeg sad på konferencen kunne jeg læse at Politiken – og Det Kongelige Bibliotek selv – præsenterede den nysåbnede portal ‘Kulturperler’ som intet mindre end en verdensnyhed. Jeg må indrømme, at mit hjerte sank. Her havde jeg netop hørt om det fantastiske og ambitiøse finske forskningsprojekt ‘CultureSampo’ som gør kulturarven tilgængelig gennem det semantiske web – om hollandske ‘Images for the Future’ som inviterer offentligheden til at annotere og skabe metadata i et fælles multimedialt arkiv gennem spil og leg – om ‘Digital NZ’ som ikke alene samler den digitaliserede new zealandske kulturarv men også giver råd og reskaber til hvordan man kan bruge materialet gennem widgets, remixing og skræddersyede søgemaskiner der kan embeddes i egne webapplikationer.

Jeg synes også, at det er skønt, at vi i Danmark får digitaliseret kulturarven og samler og gør den tilgængelig online. Jeg må indrømme, at jeg har svært ved at forstå hvorfor man har valgt en lineær ‘web 1.0′ model for portalen, der end ikke tilbyder et søgefelt (er det brugervenligt? er det inspirerende?) men jeg kender ikke til baggrunden og mit ærinde her er ikke at nedgøre det store arbejde, KB har gjort. Men når portalen præsenteres som enestående i verden synes jeg det lyder som om vi trænger til at få skyklapperne af og komme længere frem i skoene. Vi kan nu hiige og søge i gamle bøger – men vi er ikke ene om at dyrke kulturperler. Der er masser af inspiration at hente og erfaringer at trække på ude i verden, ikke bare på MW men på hele WWW. Så hvem skal med til Denver i 2010?

crossposted på Formidlingsnettet

Fredagen bød på en hel række af ‘Interactions’; et mix af præsentationer og mini’workshops. Her kunne man vælge mellem en introduktion til det sociale tagging projekt steve.museum og indføring i iTunes U potentiale som distributionskanal for webcasts; instruktioner i hvordan man bygger en API til sit museum (og hvorfor det er en ide at gøre det!) eller deltagelse i ideudvikling af forretningsmodeller for åbne mediearkiver.

Gail Durbin fra V&A fortalte underholdende om hvordan sociale medier og aktiviteter kan skabe engagement med kollektionerne og værdifulde brugeroplevelser, for eksempel ved at hjælpe folk til at producere egne bøger og objekter gennem eksisterende nerservices som Blurp og Qoop, eller ved at opfordre de besøgende til selv at bidrage til museets indsamling som det for eksempel sker i V&As kommende brudekjoleudstilling.

I Handheld Handbook sessionen splittede tilhørerne op i en række diskussionsgupper omkring både praktiske spørgsmål og ideer for vejen frem – hænger vi for fast i traditionenen for audioguides; hvor meget eller hvor lidt – og hvis, hvordan – skal vi guide de besøgende; hvorfor ikke lade mobile applikationer gå ud i det offentlige rum eller på tværs af insitutioner; kunne vi udnytte smartphones potentiale ikke alene som multimedial informationskanal men også som redskab og et legetøj? Hvis du eller din institution har palner om at udvikle dette område er der inspiration at hente i Koven Smith fra The Metroplolitan Museums’ paper, eller på thehandheldconference-wikien.

Brooklyn Museum vandt den overordnede ‘Best of the Web Award’ for deres innovative brug af sociale medier; se også de øvrige vindere og nominerede; der er masser af inspiration at hente.

Lørdagen startede med demonstrationer fra både ‘Best of the Web’ vindere og en række andre interessante projekter.

I sessionerne kunne man blandt andet høre om strategier for og erfaringer med opbygning og brug af online kollektioner, med interessante projekter fra både Finland, New Zealand og Canada.

Vincent Puig fra Centre Pompidou præsenterede en case study rapport om brugerrespons og -bidrag i den – for nogen provokerende – udstilling Traces du sacré og kom blandt andet ind på synliggørelsen af forskellige polemiske positioner i forhold til værkerne.
Darren Peacock præsenterede sit og Andelina Russos akademiske studie af hvad det indebærer for institutionerne at søge at engagere publikum gennem brug af sociale medier. Meget spændende læsning for de, der er interesserede i den problematik.

Interesting discussive session on the how-to and future of handhald devices in – and around – museums. Great wiki ressource for knowledgesharing +. Ended up in very interesting post session conversation, bouncing of ideas for how smart phones could be utilised as tools and toys adding value to the experience.

Jolly good fun with Gail Durbin of V&A’s presentation on how to get people to engage with your collections using existing social online services. Encouraging people to create aesthetic object such as wrapping paper, stickers, moo-cards or even books from photos taken in the galleries or from the online collections. Also sending postcards, submitting family photos, sharing personal stories and images and make them part of the museum collection.

Today it’s time for interactions. Just attended a great presentation/mini workshop on a Dutch initiative called Images for the Future; a project concerned with digitization of national archives of sound, visuals and moving images. The project is not only about preservation, however, but has a strong focus on how to distribute the content and making it relevant. Strategies include using channels such as Flickr, applying CC licences and facilitating remixing. One interesting idea was to turn tagging and annotation of videomaterial into a two player game, thereby pulling the public in to help produce metadata for this vast material and getting views in the process.

Perhaps a combination of Flickr and some sort of tagging incentive could be a way for Det Kongelige Bibliotek to engage the public and help metadata production for their huge photographic archive?

The session included a mini workshop for developing a variety of business models for use of the content, very inspiring group collaboration!

crossposted på Formidlingsnettet

Konferencen Museums and the Web 2009 åbnede med Max Anderson fra Indianapolis Museum of Art ’s inspirerende keynote ‘Moving from Virtual to Visceral‘ , som opfordrede museerne til at tænke i oplevelser der ‘går i kødet’ på de besøgende. Han mindede om, at betragtningen af de enkelte værker eller objekter kun udgør en del af den samlede museumsoplevelse, og pegede på hvordan museernes netsted også bør medvirke til at åbne onsite-oplevelsen for de besøgende online. Hos IMA sker dette blandt andet gennem en site arkitektur der lader brugerne udforske samlingerne og forlænge besøget og ved at skabe gennemsigtighed til museets processer og ‘vital statistics‘. (Sitet er iøvrigt bygget i Drupal; konstruktionen beskrives indgående her.) Og mens hovedsitet især har værdi for de, der også besøger det fysiske museum, fungerer IMAs selvstændige site Artbabble, som samler videokunst og videoer og kunst, som et rent netbaseret socialt site.

Tilhørernes respons på Andersons tale kunne følges på det realtime Twitterfall der projiceres op under plenum sessionerne og som også kan følges på Twitter; og her er virkelig tale om et aktivt twitter-community, som deler viden, links og kommentarer. Et fint kik ind i de sesssions, man går glip af, og et godt supplement også til de sessioner man selv deltager i. Alle papers ligger iøvrigt tilgængeligt på nettet, og der er oprettet en slideshare gruppe hvor oplægsholdernes præsentationer forhåbentligt bliver lagt op.

Eftermiddagens unconference pitches/ breakout sessions samlede en hel række små og store grupper om alt fra in/outsourcing, funding, storytelling og diverser teknologier og aspekter af sociale medier. Vældigt spændende at høre alle pitches og mærke hvordan langt de fleste blev mødt af et ‘åh, ja!’. Der skulle komme referater fra de forskellige breakouts på konferencens blog. Mange af gårdsdagens samtaler vil givetvis blive ført videre under den uformelle ‘Birds of a feather breakfast’ her til morgen.

Reading through Jørgen Brøndlund’s diary entries was a moving experience. As a Greenlandic dog sleigh driver, he took part in Danmark Ekspeditionen to North East Greenland in 1907, but died trying to make his way back to the expedition base camp. His final entry is a laconic record of the death of his two fellow patrolmembers, written as he himself had settled down to die. Although his writing was not fueled by literary ambition, his straight forward style conjures up the beauty and harshness of the landscape as well as Brøndlund’s joys and trials, and makes for a gripping tale. Knowing the tragic ending does not diminish the reading experience.
Let me give you a sample (although you won’t really get the significance of this fortunate episode without the build-up of increasing threat of starvation):

25th [August]. In the morning, Mylius and I walked inwards and reached the shore without problems. We continued inland for hours without seeing anything. We didn’t know what to do if this day’s journey too would turn out to be of no avail. When Mylius turned back, I made no objections, as the soles of his boots were so poor that it was as if he was walking in just his socks. Also this day we decided to slaughter a dog. I decided to go a bit further, as I deeply craved to land just a single grouse. I wandered for a long time, but had to return, as once again I didn’t find anything. On my way back I caught sight of a hare by the beach; it was like seeing a giant reindeer. And when I had shot it, I flung myself at it with a wolfish appetite, cut it open and quickly ate the heart, liver and kidneys. And, imagine that, a little later I caught another three! As I walked back with four hares over my shoulder it was as if my exhaustion was lessened by the joy of having something to eat. On my return my friends were very pleased by the prospect of having something other than lean dogmeat to eat. Still, as they had already killed a dog, we stuck to dogmeat that evening. These days the weather is very beautiful, no clouds in the sky and no wind. All day long it is frosty, and in the night it gets even colder, although the sun still doesn’t sink below the horizon.

(own translation after Karen Nørregaards Danish translation from Greenladic in Vagn Lundby: ‘Omkom 79’Fjorden’, Borgen, Kbh 2006)

Although this story is famous in Denmark, it is not quite common knowledge. I for one had not really heard about it before starting this research. Knowing that my view may be tainted by the fact that I was hoping to find such a rare quality in the story, I also know that I am not alone in believing this is a story that is worth telling, and I would love to somehow include it in the online exhibition. The original diary, a national treasure, even belongs to the Royal Library and has been digitalised for online availability.

Now I read it in one go, couldn’t put it down. And letting oneself get absorbed in a story in this way can be great – immersion does not necesitate virtual world stereorama.
But I also think that as the diary is precisely that; a story told in so many individual entries over a period of time, by nature it classifies as a ‘time and space distributed narrative’ of real events. Therefore it would be interesting to reflect this in the online distribution. I have yet to look into the theory on this up-and-coming literaty convention, so bear with my unscholarly musings here.

But even though the diary format and the inherent cliffhanger qualities of this particular adventure fits with the some of the ‘T&S’ concepts, the story was of course not tailored for modern media. Only some of the entries are short enough to fit into an SMS message. My original idea therefore was to publish the diary as a blog on the webexhibition homepage. But offering an RSS feed would only really work for those who happened upon the blog in the very beginning, for latecomers the inverted chronology would be just plain wrong. Offering the full diary as a plain pdf download would count as an online ressource, but the museum would lose out on the chance of engaging its visitors in a novel and prolongued way. Instead, the website could let users register for a subscription via e-mail. A server could be set up to distribute a series of e-mails at intervals for each registered user at individual times. The email – also readable by smartphone – could either contain the whole entry or contain a link to the unique webpage of this entry. The former approach would perhaps feel more like a personal mail, but the graphic presentatiton would be limited by the mail software; the latter would generate traffic to the museum website and could be tailored visually etc., but with perhaps risk being trashed as a simple link wouldn’t have much appeal unless you were already waiting for the next installment of the tale. Perhaps a combination of the two, offering readers a choice of access preferences, would be the go. Still, distributing across platforms, as in including updates for not-so-smart-phones would be interesting. Hopefully I can find inspiration in other experiments with this format.

Another question is the timing. Retaining the distribution of the original – 80-odd entries over a period of 8 months – might be asking too much of the patience of the readers. So finding some way of condensing the time distribution, whilst retaining all the unique entries and some of the narrative tension derived from long timespans with no updates, would be necessary.

Finally, the version I read included notes by the author of the book in which the diary was included. These notes were very useful, especially as Jørgen Brøndlund was relying on the journals of his fellow adventurers to document their journey (as their bodies and diaries have never been found, the author Vagn Lundby has pieced together the story from other sources). Similarly, it might be useful to combine Jørgen Brøndlunds narrative with the scientific reports from his fellows, whilst taking care not to smother the original story in information overload (hyperlinks could be a solution here) and jazzy technology.

So although I think the story suits being published in an innovative way, the question remains exactly how to do it.