Things I discovered this week on a blog.

Like many people plugged into the Internet I subscribe to blogs on topics which interest me. One of those is Moosha, Moosha, Mooshme which explains itself to be "exploring the intersection of digital media and museum-based learning". where i was captured by one word 'pterosaur'. Like many small boys anything with 'saur' in the name has fascinated me since being four years old.

The blogs introduced a project at the American Museum of Natural HIstory working with teenagers on #scienceFTW program who were helping create a card game to raise awareness of pterosaurs and clarify they were not dinosaurs. A few posts down the line they had released the game and their relief was obvious. Even though AMNH is in New York they wished the game to be for everyone and made it available as a downloadable PDF.

I am not used to playing these card games and roped my friend to have a go with me. The instructions were one page long and I felt missed some important details, however we agreed rules between us when there was any confusion, for example 'can a card serve in multiple food chains?' we said yes. We also picked up three cards on each turn as we felt if making three plays per turn needed more cards. It all added to our enjoyment and I suspect experienced card game players will get into it very quickly.

The blog's next post showed them at an Games for Change event with the game and also shared some photos and videos of the day. It seemed that everyone was enjoying the game - looks like they are onto a winner.

In addition to the PDF there is an iOS app "Pterosaurs: the card game" which doesn't add any game play but has wowed me on two fronts. The first is the simplicity, constructed of three screens, three button choices and one of those links out to AMNH other apps. The opening and most important screen uses augmented reality on the pterosaur cards which have black diamond shape on them. view the card through the phone screen and you will see the pterosaur come to life and tap the screen to make him fly.

Screenshot of pterosaur soaring in AR

The AR is slick, no delays and allow the user to have an almost 360 degree view of the pterosaur on the ground or in flight. An excellent experience with AR is not that common and certainly not on free apps. It also shares the images produced for other areas of what looks a major exhibition, more examples on the exhibition webpage.

During the game I was beaten and remain confused to the extent of how the Event cards should be played but it was a great experience and I have now donated the cards to a family with dinosaur-fan children to spread the fun. I highly recommend having a go at it and if you have an iOS to download the app for the extra wow factor. The other playing cards also had symbols and I hope this signifies future AR features will follow.

Personalisation of the Museum Experience

It was six months ago I investigated PhD topics and came up with one which was accepted, but it was not possible to do without financial support. The experience has been rewarding and I plan to do some amateur researching and reading to develop the idea;

Personal space in the museum: the role of technology in the gap between viewer and object

The area between the museum visitor and object is where the object is viewed, it is where the curator communicates with the visitor and it is where the visitor engages, therefore it is the most important space in the museum. It also equates to the four feet ‘personal space’ or ‘personal distance' as classified by Hall (1969) founder of the study of proxemics. 

My aim is to investigate what impact using technology in this gap has, and consider what impact emerging technologies have on the viewer and curator.

Rather than propose the introduction of a physical barrier of technology between the viewer and object, this research will investigate and evaluate the role of technology in this space and its effect on the respective relationships between the viewer, object and curator.

I have been using the term "personalisation of a visit" and the practicality and possibilities of this were confirmed at Google I/O in May 2013, where they announced a new version of Google Maps which would make restaurant, shop, destination suggestions based on the user's previous locations, as noted by The Next Web below: 

The Next Web summary of Google I/O

We take our devices everywhere and if you tell it what you thought of the experience when seeing Sunflowers 1 by Van Gogh in London and then see Sunflowers 2 in Amsterdam three months later, the smart device could remind you of seeing Sunflowers 1 and repeat what you thought, helping you remember the experience, reflect, build on the learning or review what you actually do think of the work, artist, subject, etc. 

The revised Google Maps app has been released this week but doesn't mention the personalisation yet. It may be because such an ideas is ubiquitous already through search results being tailored to our web behaviours.

Still, I am interested to see how this would work for my topic in the museum and will share the research and plans as I progress and would be interested to hear of any projects out there which may be considering similar lines of enquiry. 

MuseumNext Keynote - Seb Chan, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Slide 1 @sebchan presentation

@SumoJim introduced Seb Chan as having the blog everyone in the room should be reading, are you? His keynote at #MuseumNext was inspiring, intimidating and informative. Slides are at slideshare and rather than regurgitate the talk here, this post will be key bits I found as new, useful and how they may be useful. 

The past 10 years has seen a noticeable shift in control of content, from museums to the visitors and is an area I definitely agree with Seb and strongly believe more people need to acknowledge and start building their museum offer with that in mind. Museums can remain an authoritative source, encyclopaedic in their specimens and as repositories of knowledge, but visitors can add to that and need to have options open to share such information.

Seb made the observation of all Cooper-Hewitt had achieved was with done only 75 staff, his previous museum Powerhouse had over 300. This point generated good debate in later conversations and the question debated of whether the size of organisation had a Dunbar number equivalent point which saw dynamism or flexibility reduce as the staff number increased, people thought 100 was possibly the tipping point.  

Technology acts as an amplifier - TOTALLY check that point - along the "vectors of scale" of geographic reach, temporal persistence and deepening context capture this well. 

Slide 97 @sebchan presentation

These rules or strategy are followed at Cooper-Hewitt (C-H) and have contributed to the huge amount which has happened since Seb has taken over, I find it intimidating and hugely impressive. Key is the staff and two great points were made which have to be adopted everywhere. "hire people smarter then you. Invest in training" and as digital audience grows so too should the digital audience facilitating and delivering that! *hands up those doing either of those* 

A theme seen in later presentations is the idea that the prototype is the product, getting things out the door and improving iteratively is the lesson of the week for me. Borrow/link to data already provided, that is why the Internet is a network, surely. For the 93% of objects not digitised or with poor records then C-H has worked a system that creates links to places with more information; Wikipedia, other museums, etc. And the search facility had two days of work on it which created a Josef Albers effect to the default image to help scan them and ascertain more data, simply through colours and shapes designed dependant on the known data on the object versus what is missing, genius. 

Slide 82 (detail) @sebchan presentationUsing the building as an object and a user of the API is an idea I am not 100% clear on, that said better use of the building as a player in the experience is important. You choose whether it is a 'shouter' or a 'helper,' e.g. the Rijksmuseum is the helper, it's galleries are designed to show off the art (help), while the corridors are providing more visual pleasures (shout) as you move between the curated ages. As the collections begin to catch up on how they are being catalogued, stored and displayed in the digital age so too will the buildings be able to provide more information for the visitor's personalised tour(s). 

Finally Seb talked of metrics and they were 'simple' and nothing unexpected, it just shows simplicity does pay of. Great kick off to the conference and had delegates buzzing the rest of the day. 

I just have to blog about this app!

ArtLens iPad app available from App Store

For all the irreverent comments made by friends over the years about Cleveland, OH there is now something to entice me to visit and see the place for myself. Just as the director tells me to in his TEDex presentation.

Sitting on my couch 3524 miles from The Cleveland Museum of Art I can be transported to a world class art collection thanks to the new iPad app ArtLens. Hat tip to @amyldale for bringing it to my attention.

The app is so good I had to blog about it. It has a good cross section of an impressive encyclopaedic collection amassed since the museum's foundation in 1913.

It is easy to be critical about apps, there are so many, they have great things that make us use them, but generally one BAD thing that infuriates and makes us complain. For example, the Reminders app will not let me see all my categorised lists in one place so i have to review each list each time. But it does sync with Outlook, not many others do that!

Carrying an iPad around an exhibition is not ideal and the irony of me singing ArtLens praise is how great an experience it is from my front room. I hope the developer and museum do not deem my enthusiasm as a failure, in the space I am sure the experience will be awesome but never must technology get in the way of the real object.

The reason I am evangelising is twofold;
1. This app has things I have been wanting in a museum guide for ages: tailored tours, self-build tours, optional extra context on works beyond labels, sharing buttons and augmented reality. Multiple methods of learning more with videos, audio and 'similar works' links.
2. It looks great and is easy to work.

Just this morning I was telling a colleague of the options technology provides to enhance the visitor's experience and benefit further from what they do and do not know. ArtLens gives choices and at no extra intrusion to other visitors.

Recommendations
My recommendation to ALL iPad users is to download and enjoy getting close to this great collection. Museums, take note, an app can be done well with enough thought and dare I say $$$$$.

To the CMA I say; include a note to say the additional download when first using the app will take "approx 10 minutes" to give the user a choice when to do it.
Add a feature to allow audio to be recorded to personal tours. Have a look at Soundcloud, Audioboo and Digisocial for good implementations.

WELL DONE!! You have restored my faith in apps in museums, they can be done well and can be incredible in the museum or in my pyjamas.

Update on 2013-07-26 11:51 by Museum Follower

Jake Barton, Local Projects presents at Wired 2012 talks on four projects, including Cleveland Museum of Art's Gallery One. Begins with 9-11 Museum and then 11 minutes in CMA. Insightful, clear and further details of the leap being made by this project. Hat tip to Museums Association for the link .