MuseumNext 2013 Fringe
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Red is the Colour to go with the District!
A new approach to MuseumNext conference tonight with a fringe event brought by N8 - the 20 somethings who bring Amsterdam Museums Nacht every November. They spoke at MuseumNext in Edinburgh and I have since mentioned them to many people as a model that is different, challenging and yet seems to be working. Here's MuseumNext's take on them via blog. Tonight, they put together three speakers of very different projects with the theme, Heritage Pays and below are my understandings and the links. Apologies to the speakers if I have misinterpreted anything.
New to me and those sitting in my row, an online museum. This, one year old project is a real inspiration. Initially, I was cynical, but they really are doing a museum on the Internet and capturing/cataloguing the 'objects that have defined where the Internet currently is. I immediately thought of the Internet Time Machine which archives web pages, was doing the same thing but it's not, it is the difference between the British library collecting books under the Legal Deposit Act and the British Museum collecting printing presses, ink, books and the devices that you read books on - bad analogy.
Dan Polak and two colleagues from an Ad agency felt the need to create the museum and over three/four nights a week and a day every weekend they now do just that. Admirably answering every email and also reviewing every suggested submission they are building a collection based on loose rules; 'everything is correct', 50% is information and 50% is entertainment, and 50% is handled like it's a museum and 50% is Internet. There is no business model for money making, it's ad-free and supported by generous benefactors. What would you like to see in the museum? they will listen to all submissions, I've already found the best entry ever...how to know who looks at your Facebook page .dare you click it?
Smart Replicas
Next up was Maaike Roozenburg to talk about a project she is doing with a museum, university and others while she is a technical designer. She was interested in handling objects held by a museum, both those on show and also the 95% hidden in stores to be brought back into the original locations. She used the example of 17th century drinking glasses or tea cups and the chance to have them back in the home, dishwasher proof and usable.
She has prototyped scanning objects (CT-scan) and then producing a 3D printed version and/or a porcelain version - I was not clear if the porcelain was produced via a mould or was it generated by the 3D printer. Anyway, the final version is white and not decorated, but it maintains the chronology of the piece, design/decoration which has impacted the surface is picked up by the scanning process, any cracks or damage are also picked up and the slicing process of the scan can be noted too. Rather than produce an age appropriate replica the product is true to the whole history and experience of the object, The current phase is to make the porcelain version 'smart' by adding layers of augmented reality which can then be viewed using a smart device. Obvious content could be an image of the original glass or tea cup, showing the colourful designs, or makers-marks, however there is also other ideas for content like; illustration of the contemporary manufacture, provenance, museum catalogue information, stories, etc, Maaike has a blog which has more info and she and the partners will be prototyping the AR in the museum next month.
Double Denim
The third presentation was less defined and was a conversation with Joachim Baan from Anothersomething & Co. My understanding is Joachim has a collection of denim and is also a designer/marketer and has managed to include items from his denim collection in the design and display of a denim shop in Amsterdam. We heard of the early marketing by Lee which involved having dolls wearing denim,(Go Mizzou or Michigan!) I may have dreamed that but if it is true, then that's intriguing.
His next project is potentially using historic money bags from banks to inspire the designing of a store. While I didn't really understand what was the benefit of historic storytelling within current commercial goods or translate it to a more UK/US based stiore, Baan is an intriguing individual who using historic artefacts of all sorts to inspire and influence contemporary designs, something all museums could do with promoting more with the advertisers and designers of their neighbourhoods.