Teknologi og hverdag

[Talk given as ending remarks at this weeks’ NODEM museum conference]

Five years, in 2005, ago I found myself on a small ship near Roskilde, surrounded by singing sailors.
 
In my hand I held a digital recorder and on my head I carried an expensive set of Sennheiser headphones, but I seriously considered throwing it all overboard, grabbing the nearest lifevest, follow the equipment into the waves, and hope for the best.
 
I chose to bide my time, however, and see what it was all about.

Soon the singing stopped and a couple of the sailors now produced mobile phones and GPS receivers and started scouting the waters around us, while other tended to the sails and the small ship’s rudder.

Now, I must admit that I haven’t told the whole truth, exactly.

I did know what the whole thing was about.

The expedition was actually set in motion to show me a new museum exhibit, Sunken Worlds, which was basically a collection of text and images and GPS coordinates describing sights along the coast as well as wrecks and other lost treasures in Roskilde Fiord.

And the invitation to join the whole thing had come from one of the sailors - my old University Radio friend, Martin.

Martin had been an integral part in setting up the Sunken Worlds experiment and was eager to show me how the Viking Ship Museum was incorporating new technology and new forms of communication in their work.

I was fascinated and intrigued and happily joined the small party of GPS- and phone-carrying sailors on the small replica viking ship.

The singing still came as a bit of a surprise, though.

Now, I realize that Sunken Worlds back in 2005 was nowhere near the first or the only such digital museum experiment, neither here in Denmark nor abroad.

It was, however, one of the first times I remember reporting in our radio programme on such an exciting and innovative use of new technology in a museum context.

There must have been radio features reporting on other exhibitions, other experiments, both in web-based virtual museums and physical locations, but I can only say that they have apparently not left as much as an impression as the tour of the fiord, equipped with phones, satellite navigation and a real sense of adventure and exploration.

Again, it may have been the singing bit…

My thing for museums
Anyway, since then I’ve had this thing for experiments with new technologies in the museums around Denmark and the world.

I’ve hunted 2D barcodes around our streets, I’ve participated in an interactive location-based narrative game at the open air museum north of Copenhagen, I’ve gazed in awe at the holographic history of flying machines in a 3D showcase at the Technical Museum in Elsinore, and much more.

Some of the experiments have been web-based virtual exhibitions, some have used social media platforms like Facebook, some have demonstrated clever use of mobile phones, and yet others have integrated many different technologies and strategies for engaging and interacting with visitors, guests, users - whatever we call ourselves nowadays.

The conference
The last couple of days, however, have left me with a lingering feeling that I haven’t seen the half of it. Or even a tiny percentage of it. ‘It’ being all the great stuff that’s going on out there.

This, of course, is both a good and a bad thing.

It’s a bad thing because it means I haven’t paid enough attention and have missed a lot of great experiences.
But on the other hand it’s a good thing because it means I’ve got a lot of great experiences ahead of me.

Now, it isn’t all rosy, happy days and good times.

New technologies and new types of interaction present challenges as well as possibilites. And not experiments are succesful either, whether we measure their impact in numbers of visitors, design, ease of use or communication or whatever.

And there are questions of external as well as internal threats to innovation in the museum world, and there is the ever present question of money and cost-benefit analyses of new initiatives and experiments.

The minister of culture spoke in his opening remarks of the flip side of all revolutions - even relatively quiet ones in the world of museums.

When the winds of change our blowing as fiercely as they are right now, we risk the destruction of traditions and and the eradication of well-tested experience and shared knowledge.

I must say, though, that I’ve met nothing but well-balanced people here these last couple of days.
You all seem enthusiastic, engaged and fascinated with the new possibilities, but at the same time very aware of the need for preservation, tradition and good old-fashioned knowhow.

First day
Now, I haven’t been able to follow all the presentations - there have been some parallel sessions and I haven’t yet figured out how to be in two places at once, even if I recently got me an iPad. There isn’t an app for that, it would seem…

So I know I’ve missed some good stuff, yet I want to mention a couple of things that have caught my attention.

Most of you probably heard Nina Simon talk about some of the basic, almost commonsensical lessons learned from experiments with user participation and user generated content, both in virtual environments and physical exhibitions.

Commonsensical though these lessons may have been, I still found it a great inspiration to see how small changes in the use of props or labels, different shapes of paper or the use of game elements could radically increase user engagement and the quality of the resulting comments or drawings or videos.

Later yesterday I also had great fun listening to the touch-screen, user-generated mashup of Danish music history classics, as experienced on the AudioFaktor-installation currently on display in the Danish Museum of Rock.

And I marvelled at the endless possibilites found in the use of relatively low-cost use of eyetracking technologies in things such as interactive museum guides and collective, shared visitor experiences.

Second day
Today of course, I shared the experience of technology inindistinguishable from magic this morning, when Pranav showed his fantastic projects.

I’ve been a fan of his work since I marvelled at the video of the Sixth Sense-project was released fromnthe TED conference a couple of years ago, and the new Sparsh project doesn’t disappoint.

Though the tech setup behind the scenes is simple, the effect of transferring images, links and information simply by using your finger as a (ha ha) thumb drive is overwhelming and almost magic.

It does truly feel as if the future is here, even if we don’t all share it - yet. And Pranav’s Sparsh demo was the first spontaneous applause at NODEM.

Now, I know we can’t all of us develop these kinds of inventive tools, or even use them right out of the gate. And you need to ask yourselves what they can bring to the table of museums, education and the sharing of knowledge.

But if you don’t get just a little bit exited, if you don’t think of at least one exhibit you would like to enhance with some of Pranav’s tech, I almost want to say that I’m not sure you should even be here today.

Later presentations today were perhaps less flashy - even with all of Michael Edson’s Powerpoint bling - but they were no less interesting and important.

Apart from the techy aspect of the technology we use, and which can be fascinating in itself atleast for me, it’s the social aspects and the way these tools change our communicstion and interaction that will have a lasting influence and change our world.

Opening up the enourmous Smithsonian collections for users outside of the museum is probably really, really scary - but for me, it’s the only way to go.

I know there are a huge challenge with copyrights and so on when we’re trying to do this - we have the same kinds of problems right across the street at the Danish Broadcasting Corp - but we need to keep trying, and go ahead.

You all heard Michael quote Joy’s law - about the clever people working for someone else. Even the Smithsonian doesn’t employ 6 billion people - but 6 bio is the potential number of users who can and will engage with your material, well the online bits, of course.

And among those 6 bio there a plenty of people with higher IQs, more time and energy, and more ideas than us.

So go out and meet them - not necessarily to present them with blank spaces and leaving it up to them, but to engage them, interact with them, co-create with them, play with them and listen to them.

Outro
It has been said quite a few times during the last couple of days that technology and the use of things like mobile phones or Facebook isn’t an end in itself.

I couldn’t agree more.

Then again, the same thing could be said about most of the more traditional techniques of designing an exhibition or a display, or trying to engage users.

Coming from a radio background, for instance, I’m still kind of skeptic about the whole moving images television thing.

At the same time I tend to regard technology as a huge potential for new forms of communication, interaction, education, entertainment and much more.

Technology isn’t good or bad in itself, but can be used in playful, inspirational and innovative ways - as well as introduced in sloppy, boring and challenging ways.

We see this all over, from broadcast media to schoolbooks, and from science and research to mainstream and indie entertainment, as well as, well, everywhere else, basically.

Noboby claims to have the big answer to how we make the best use of new technologies or services, and if the do, smack them hard on the head and run away!

So my challenge to you is that you keep playing, innovating, questioning the established truths and trying all this new stuff out.

If Moore’s Law continues and futurists like Ray Kurzweil end up being right, in 35 years we’ll all be part of a huge, connected hivemind of AI-enhanced man-machine constructs, with nano-bots swarming in our blood and tourist spaceships zipping back and forth through the solar system.

I want to see you all then, still playing around with all the wonderful tech, doing brain-computer interface design, interactive virtual world recreations of the Marco Polo’s travels or whatever finds your fancy and fires up your minds.

Until then, I remain your loyal user, visitor and participant, wherever and however you may choose to exhibit.

And you don’t even have to sing.

Thank you.