We’ve recently been involved in in a proposal for a brand new museum, putting together ideas for a large number of different interactives which address a number of gallery needs and look at a wide range of content.

We always hit the same problem with these projects: that the ambition of the work far outstrips the available budgets. And one of the reasons for this is that we seem to re-invent the wheel for each new interactive.

I can’t talk about the museum in question for obvious reasons, so let’s invent one for a thought experiment. Let’s call it The Ian Museum.

It opens next year and has four main galleries - Piano Heroes, Tea,  Why Football is Dull - and Ian: the Man, the Myth. So that’s a wide range of topics that will typically require a wide range of interactives.

In the traditional model we look at each of the galleries, identify the gaps that could be filled with digital content and then try to come up a wide variety of interesting routes through that content. Let’s have some games, some digital microscopes, a huge electronic encylopedia, a virtual film studio, a massive interactive timeline, a live ‘Video Nation’ style board, a large image of me… the list can go on and on.

Here’s the thing. Why should we re-invent digital content delivery from gallery to gallery? We don’t re-invent the signage or images, beyond gallery or thematic styling, so why do it when bits and bytes are involved.  ‘Hey, we used English in the last Gallery, that’s old hat - let’s write these signs backwards!’

Maybe a better way forward is to create a more standard set of interactives for a museum, the ‘bread and butter’ digital access points to more content. And maybe we shouldn’t give users access to vast swathes of content, maybe we should concentrate on smaller areas and really do them justice in terms of storytelling, design and on-screen/on-wall/on-PDA/on-whatever interaction. Maybe less is more.

Let’s be clear here. I am not advocating a reduction in digital content in museums. For one thing, I’d be doing myself out of a job. There is still room for ‘big ticket’ items in each gallery (that Big Experience thing I’m always going on about) but if we can streamline a large chunk of digital delivery and exploit the efficiencies inherent in this approach then there is more budget left in the pot for the ‘wow! factor’ installations we all love and want.

With that in mind, here’s my Less Is More Manifesto (drum roll…)

We should spend more time doing a smaller number of things really, really well

We should not provide endless amounts of information that the general public don’t want.

Let’s not provide high production value study areas for students and academics. Give them the content they need but deliver it in a more straightforward (i.e. cheaper) manner.

The average museum visitor (and yes I know there probably isn’t one but I never said my manifesto was perfect)  does not expect to come out of a gallery suddenly raised to the level of subject expert, so there’s no need to bombard them with too much information.

The onus is on museums and companies like Cogapp to provide simple and compelling digital experiences that concentrate on the key information, the most relevant stories.

Digital storytelling is a fabulous and flexible way to impart information and just because it can show a million pictures, doesn’t mean it has to.

Finding common ways to distribute information around a gallery or museum frees up budget and time for The Big Experiences. And every gallery needs some of those!

Finally, free 3G iPhones for all museum developers would be nice. But I might be out of luck with that one.

Of course this approach doesn’t work for every gallery and there is always a place for digital collections (at which Cogapp are notable practioners cough cough) but perhaps if we can find some simple but engaging ways of delivering smaller amounts of premium content, which can be duplicated and distributed around a gallery/museum (with due reference to gallery styling etc.) we can free up limited budgets for fewer, but perhaps more successful, big installations. It won’t work all the time, but it might work for some of it.

Right. I need a cup of tea. Now which museum would tell me about that..?

To celebrate its 90-year history, BMW has recently opened a Museum in Munich, showcasing 125 exhibits of BMW at its finest. One that certainly caught my eye was the fascinating kinetic sculpture made up of 714 metal spheres. Suspended from the ceiling by string, the spheres dance in a hypnotic fashion to create stunningly satisfying waves and curves. The mechatronic structure is a perfect example of abstract art, which is successful at engaging with its audience. Watch the video carefully for the finale, as the structure arranges itself into a silhouette of a classic BMW:

My attention was also drawn to other creative structures in public spaces such as BA’s Troika installation in Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Taking inspiration from train station departure boards in the 70s and 80s, the sculpture comprises of 4638 flip-dots, which interchange between black and silver to create beautiful ripples. A great concept, which relieves the stresses of an airport, well that combined with the therapy of the retail kind! View the interactive:

Not only are these installations a creative use of technology; they capture the audience’s attention and complement the environments in which they are installed.

NESTA invited me along to the launch of a report on User-Led Innovation (ULI) by the University of Brighton’s CENTRIM and University of Sussex’s SPRU research centres.

The insightful, and timely, report focuses on how users, at individual and community levels, are changing the rules of innovation.  Though user-led innovation is nothing new, proliferating digital technologies and networks are serving as tools for users to power further innovations, and to connect with each other to share tools, techniques, ideas and feedback, to an unprecedented degree.

Focusing on video games, music, social networking and music software industries, the researchers have explored case study firms that are harnessing ULI through close and collaborative relationships with extensive user communities, such as music notation software company Sibelius, or that have emerged directly from communities of user innovators, such as games developers Splash Damage.

With companies based on ULI, such as Bebo and Last.fm, being sold on for millions just a few years after their creation, it’s hard to argue against the commercial value that ULI can potentially generate, and the social and public value of ULI is pretty easy to grasp too. However, the report’s authors go on to argue that policy-makers remain somewhat sceptical about the importance of ULI, noting that UK policy still suffers from a linear model of formal R&D ‘hangover’ and has only just begun to recognise the importance of users in innovation.

Realising the extent of user creativity and invention can perhaps only begin by adopting a policy of promoting ULI or, at the very least, thinking creatively around issues such as copyright law that currently serve as barriers to its take up.

Download the report here.

Yes, it’s that time once again when we roll up our sleeves, plunge our hands expectantly into the digital tombola that is the Cogapp internal blog and pull out exciting prizes for all…

Social networking for your Gran
Spotted by Gavin

This is from a research project created by Middlesex University. In their words the project - known as Jive - is ‘a range of devices that you buy your grandparents. To let them keep up to date and stay in touch with you.’

An intriguing idea linking physical objects and digital communication and one that could clearly be adapted for museums and galleries. One to watch!

‘I’m looking for the mouse’
Spotted by Tristan

According to the always interesting Clay Shirky, that’s what one little girl said when asked by her father what she was doing rooting around behind the telly while watching Dora the Explorer.

Listen to this heartwarming - and thought provoking - story of a digital native, and other thoughts on the ‘cognitive surplus’ in this video from Web 2.0 Expo 08:

Web apps make anarchy easier
Spotted by Gavin

With the current petrol shortage (see how up to date we are?) what better way to find out where the juice is running low than this nifty Google Maps mash-up:

Social hysteria aside, it’s a good example of audience engagement and collaboration and at a very low cost.

And finally…

From Gizmodo, a good example of why you should always take your digital camera with you, spotted by Ian. It’s a twister!

http://gizmodo.com/5016814/why-you-should-carry-a-digital-camera-at-all-times

That’s it for this time. We’ll be back soon with more winning tickets from the Cogapp raffle.

I’ve just got back from the Future Trends: Innovative and Interactive Museums conference held by Heritage365 at the Wellcome Collection yesterday. Colin, Joe and I had a great day, full of insightful talks and a great selection of interesting and interested delegates.

Due to a last-minute change, I was asked to give a presentation and then participate in the end of conference panel, along with Ailsa Barry from the Natural History Museum, Dave Patten from The Science Museum and Robert Simpson from Electrosonic. You can find a copy of my presentation here: Making the most of it - pdf file (1MB).

I think a few themes emerged from the talks and panel session and I’ll try and summarise them here.

Technology enables visitors

Well, duh. But after a talk from Jane Burton at Tate Media a delegate asked whether providing a PDA with built in drawing tools was fundamentally any better than visitors bringing their own paper and pen. The response from another delegate was intriguing: she would never think to take paper and pen to a gallery but when presented with them in electronic form she was delighted to start drawing what she saw. In other words, the technology provided her with a new way to interact with exhibits that she would never have considered, an experience she would otherwise never have had. And that must be a very good thing indeed.

The more of these tools we can develop for users, the wider the range of experiences we can provide. After all, The Big Experience is surely a key element of the museum visit. Visitors might not use all of these tools - they might not use any of them in a lot of cases - but if the tools are there, the potential is too.

Content is still King

Again, this sounds like a no-brainer but it’s easy to get blinded by the headlights of new technology (lovely image, that) and try to build exhibits around cool gadgets. Multi-touch is a classic example of this; everyone seems to want it but no-one has yet figured out what to do with it. As the screenwriter William Goldman once said, ‘the script’s the thing.’ Start with the idea, build from the content - then add the technology.

Our industry is full of great stories and storytellers; museums, galleries and agencies must remember to make the most of them.

Thanks to Ben Gammon for hosting the panel session - and many thanks to the lovely Dave Patten for bigging up this here blog in his fascinating presentation. Cheers!

For me, Shelley Bernstein from the Brooklyn Museum was a highlight speaker in this early session.

Shelley spoke about the agile and creative online projects that the small team at the Brooklyn Museum are creating to attract new audiences.

Cutting through some of the user research demographics, she simply stated that the Brooklyn Museum treats their online audience as a “single, credible group that has value in it’s own right”.

This was supported by the quality of projects they were producing such as the Facebook app Artshare: a new way for users to share their collection and display their favourite art works in their Facebook profile.

She went on to present the results from their youtube competition launched in October last year. The quality of the content was superb, fresh and low-fi. Shelley noted a good point about the importance of clear rules for their online competitions and the importance of letting the user know what the brief is and what they are being asked to do.

The Brooklyn Museum seems to be a small, confident leader in this field, where larger museums find it harder to be reactive and agile in such a high octane web 2 environment, Shelley and her team seem happy with the model of “begging for forgiveness when the project has launched” rather than “pleading for permission to go ahead”…

A refreshing and confident attitude that is attracting a credible, sustainable and engaged fanbase.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/click/

photo by thornj

I’ve just returned from MIPTV the AV and digital content market held each year in Cannes. It’s a vast event – over 13,000 delegates attend – and the buzz of trade inside the Palais des Festivals is matched, if not outstripped, by that of the deals being struck and contacts made in the many coffee shops, bars and hotels along the Croisette.

While there to build on Cogapp’s links with TV indies and broadcasters - and to explore the creative opportunities of convergence and multi-platform - I made sure I found the time to attend a number of conferences. The MIPTV programme gives a useful insight into what are currently felt by the industry to be some of its most pressing challenges and opportunities – and so I’d thought I’d pick up on and summarise a few themes that kept cropping up: the growth of online video, monetisation and how to measure engagement. Or, media, money and metrics…
Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I took my family to Portsmouth and up to the top of the Spinnaker Tower. On the first viewing level, some 100 metres above the harbour, is probably the simplest and most effective interactive exhibit in the UK. It’s a hole in the floor, covered in glass - and you walk on it. That’s it.

It is straightforward. You can’t get much more straightforward than a hole in the floor.

It is easy to understand. The only instructions are ‘please take off your shoes’.

There is no unnecessary information. It would have been tempting to place a touchscreen nearby but that would have ruined the simplicity of the experience.

It is absolutely thrilling. Your brain tells you the glass must be safe. Every other part of you screams ‘get off it now!’

It is interactive at a fundamental level. You don’t change it, it changes you (see the screaming above).

Visitors use and enjoy it their own way. My toddler ran happily over it, blissfully unaware of the massive drop below him; a young boy lay on it, drawing the view below; teenagers dared each other to stand on it and jump up and down; and adults tried very hard not to be too chicken about the whole thing.

The view from the tower is astounding. There is a nifty interactive map on the second viewing level and there are all sorts of readouts and videos as you wait to ascend. But the thing everyone talks about is the hole in the floor. It is simple and brilliant.

It takes full advantage of the single most thrilling aspect of the Tower - that you are a very very long way up.

It gives users a unique and dramatic experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else. And that must be a good thing.

Most people use Flickr to say, here I am, here is this object or building and tag it so people can find it. I think I like the reverse more though.

A good friend Trevira is one of those people who collect the interesting and bizarre, mostly for aesthetic reasons alone, with out knowing what it is.

Flickr provides the perfect universe of Miss Marple’s and Dr.Watsons to do your detective work for you without having to resort to the long queues at the antiques roadshow and the humiliation of being told, in front of the masses on Sunday night television, that your prize Bakelite Elephant is a 2003 copy made in Southend-on-Sea.

Trevira’s identified items range from the ‘Billy Fury’ (way cooler than Adam Faith!) type.

…to precision Blackpool bus identifications.

VFR372 Leyland Atlantean PDR1 with 50 seat Weymann body. New in June1961 to Standerwick as No.30

It’s a real ‘History Reunited’ for extraordinary items and their past, with no alternative motives for one-upmanship on the class bully.

“I’m constantly amazed by the knowledge and helpfulness of Flickr people - and very, very grateful. ” says Trevira

This system might not be so applicable to some objects.

‘Here is an atom, can anyone describe its rules and behaviour?’ Might not get such measured results from undiscovered quantum physics geniuses out there, but as far as recognising your great auntie Nora on her holidays in Butlins Bognor Regis, just from her knobbly knees, it’s got real potential, and Flickr agree.

Just as Nasa images are not generally copyrighted the status of many ‘found’ objects is being re-described, until we know otherwise, as ‘no known copyright restrictions,’ specifically for Flickr’s The Commons project.

Organisations such as The Public Catalogue Foundation catalogue the nation’s resources of publicly owned images, many of which linger in museum cellars with unknown artists or subjects, currently fitting the ‘no known copyright restrictions’ model perfectly, and missing story or history.

The Flickr commons project first attracted our attention though the circulation of the amazing images The Library of Congress have put up, and secondly by the idea of crowd sourcing its research on the photos content.

Flickr say

“Hopefully, this pilot can be used as a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.”

And from the reaction on the Flickr blog it seems to have been a raging success so far.

“In the 24 hours after we launched, you added over 4,000 unique tags across the collection and just over 500 comments (most of which were remarkably informative and helpful), and the Library has made a ton of new friends (almost overwhelming the email account at the Library, thanks to all the “Someone has made you a contact” emails)!”

The Library of Congress Flickr albums are unusual and breathtaking. Women workers in the second world war have an otherworldly beauty akin to Hollywood stars. Sports stars of the past have a surprisingly natural physique. Unknown soldiers are brought to life. Pastoral dust bowl farms with subjects clearly uncomfortable in front of the lens give a real sense of the making of America.

Hopefully, the positive response will also encourage the Library and others to allow more of their materials to be tagged, enhanced and used by us “ordinary” people.

On a purely selfish note, I have owned this postcard for years –

Can anyone tell me more about it?

Last week saw the annual dSCAPE 2007 event that’s part of the Brighton Digital Festival.

It’s a great event that is brilliantly organised by the team at Wired Sussex, and a rare chance for agencies, freelancers and students to meet and talk about inspirations, innovations and share ideas (and beer).

Cogapp attended 2 of the events, Folio Clinic on the first night and Designers Night on the final night.

Starting with Folio Clinic, an event where students and freelancers can talk to established creatives and get advice, direction and possible opportunities in a quick-fire, informal environment.

Ben Aquilina and I were at the Cogapp table and had a steady flow of students and freelancers all night. It was a high standard overall and we were really impressed by the variety of skillsets available in the local area. Lots of 3D animators, illustrators and some really strong print and interactive designers bringing fresh ideas to the table.

You can see more images from the Folio Clinic on the dSCAPE website here.

The dSCAPE week finished with Designer’s Night at the Sallis Benney Theatre.

The presentation format was Pecha Kucha, where speakers, myself included, get 20 slides each lasting 20 seconds. It’s very informal, high paced and offers each person 6 minutes 40 seconds of banter/mayhem before the next presenter is up. The idea is to keep presentations sharp and to the point, and keep the interest level up for the audience.

The evening was a great success and the format made it superbly entertaining and inspirational. All the speakers were varied and had a great range of subjects to talk about, from ‘The Side Effects of Too Much Choice’ by John Davison of Kanoti to ‘Beautiful Music (2.0)’ by Mogul and the Prawn and ‘Subtractivism’ by Hamish Makgill of StudioMakgill.

You can find a full list of the speakers and their subjects here.

The was no overall ‘best talk’, that’s not the point, it’s the collaborative effect of all speakers that makes an entertaining and unexpected evening for the audience. But for me, particular mention goes out to Steve Price of Plan-B Studio for his amazing skill in delivering a brilliant talk despite a technical meldown of keynote and 5 minutes of mad ranting heckles by someone in the audience.

My talk (shown below) was titled ‘Click Art’ - A seat of your pants journey through the world of Art, interactives and inspirations, plus some random things thrown in for good measure.

A great night that was inspirational, entertaining and superb fun. Let’s have more of them…