Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Over the past year, I've noticed a strange trend in the calls I receive about upcoming participatory museum projects: the majority of them are being planned for teen audiences. Why are teens over-represented in participatory projects? Teens are a known (and somewhat controllable) entity.

Teen 24

Teen Participatory Experiment Museum 24

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2010

This question is a byproduct of the reality that most participatory projects have poorly articulated value. When a participatory activity is designed without a goal in mind, you end up with a bunch of undervalued stuff and nowhere to put it. Are you making that shift in your thinking about participatory project design?

Participatory 48

Participatory Music Project Video 48

Museum 2.0

JUNE 10, 2015

And so, one of the most successful, accidental, and fraught participatory projects of the past decade comes to an end. No one planned the love locks, but their success is rooted in the same principles that make all the best participatory projects work: it requires no instructions beyond its own example. Nor are they historic.

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Participatory Project Artist Instruction 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2011

We've been offering a host of participatory and interactive experiences at the Museum of Art & History this season. I loved Jasper Visser's list of 30 "do's" for designing participatory projects earlier this month. SETUP Cut your instructions down to as little text as possible. This isn't even participatory.

Design 45

Design Participatory Learning Instruction 45

Museum 2.0

APRIL 4, 2012

Museums have been grappling with this question for years ( here's a 2007 roundup of such projects ), most aggressively in zoos and natural history museums where staff hope to inspire conservation and in history/concept museums that focus on civic engagement and activism. No small task for a museum exhibition.

Story 47

Story Participatory Museum History 47

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2009

I’ve long admired Improv Everywhere , the NYC-based participatory public art group. The MP3 experiment is an exercise in following instructions. He explains that you will have to follow his instructions to have “the most pleasant afternoon together.” Two and a half minutes in, the “omnipotent voice” Steve introduces himself.

Instruction 21

Instruction Instructional Nicaragua Experiment 21

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

The Leading Change Summit was more intimate (several hundred people), participatory and interactive, intense, and stimulating. Good instructional design to create an environment for peer dialogue begins with good on boarding and for people to connect with something they already know or believe.

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Reflection NTEN Change Facilitation 124

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 11, 2008

The Art of Participation provides a retrospective on participatory art as well as presenting opportunities for visitors to engage in contemporary (“now”) works. As the museum's website puts it, "this exhibition examines how artists have engaged members of the public as essential collaborators in the art-making process."

Participatory 20

Participatory Arts Design Museum 20

Connection Cafe

APRIL 21, 2014

Another idea – create an exit survey at your museum that asks simple questions like “what’s your favorite exhibit” or “how many times have you visited the museum.”. Give your supporters resources like The Top 3 Things to Do After Making A Fundraising Page that gives step by step instruction on the best way to get your message out.

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Arts Story Org Personal 37

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

How do you find your way around a multi-faceted museum? I spent some time playing with this question last week at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a large general museum that is moving toward redesign of the permanent galleries. The instruction becomes a kind of social object that gives people something to talk about.

Experiment 44

Experiment Lesson Learning Museum 44

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

This week, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) opened a new temporary exhibition called The Psychedelic Experience , featuring rock posters from San Francisco in the heyday of Bill Graham and electric kool-aid. It is an incredible museum experience. All of the instructions are handwritten on paper or cardboard.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

I've long believed that museums have a special opportunity to support the community spirit of Web 2.0 This month brings three examples of museums hosting meetups for online communities: On 8.6.08, the Computer History Museum (Silicon Valley, CA) hosted a Yelp! Me: Have you ever been to this museum? meetup for Elite Yelp!

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Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

MAY 19, 2016

For example, when we held community meetings about the development of a new creative town square next to our museum, a group of middle/upper-class moms talked about not feeling safe downtown. The best book I've read on the topic is Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision-Making by Sam Kaner.

Build 35

Build Community Museum Participatory 35

Museum 2.0

MARCH 18, 2015

There are lots of great science museum resources, but not where these kids can walk after school. And then the fee for service is mostly school districts that contract with the Workshop for science enrichment/science instruction. Any big museum has barriers and limitations to full community ownership. Geography is key.

Green 20

Green Interview Share Community 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2007

The gym staff aren’t offering instruction or serving as users’ partners; instead, they facilitate connections among the users. I got thinking about this the other day with regard to museums. Floor staff are limited by time—they can’t possibly interact with all or even most of the people in the museum at any given time.

Museum 20

Museum Tools Participatory Discussion 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 20, 2008

When I talk about the hierarchy, I use the theoretical construct of an issue-based museum exhibit. At level one, the museum preaches to visitors about the issue. Last week, I visited a museum with an exhibition that powerfully illustrated the barriers that prevent people from jumping from level three to level five.

Poll 22

Poll Interaction Museum Social 22

Museum 2.0

MARCH 24, 2010

This is the third in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. This post covers my personal process of encouraging--and harnessing--participation in the creation of The Participatory Museum. As the participatory content review progressed well, I started looking for other ways for people to help.

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Participatory Museum Process Experiment 33

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2008

For many museums, visitor research--how people use the museum, navigate exhibits, and understand content--may be an equally important arena in which to adopt groundswell listening techniques. I spent an hour this morning "brand listening" to what the online world says about one of my favorite museums, the Exploratorium.

Museum 20

Museum Teen Second Life Discussion 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

I'm thrilled to share this brilliant guest post by Marilyn Russell, Curator of Education at the Carnegie Museum of Art. In a straightforward way, Marilyn explains how her team developed a participatory project to improve engagement in a gallery with an awkward entry. It is great to feel more of a part of the museum!" "All

Museum 45

Museum Arts Problem Design 45

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 2, 2008

They demonstrate that the blog is a more participatory vehicle than other kinds of media. Museum 2.0's The top three most commented-on posts on this blog are: What I Learned on My Summer Vacation (or, I am an Elitist Jerk) Warning: Museum Graduate Programs Spawn Legions of Zombies! They prove that the conversation is two-way.

Comment 20

Comment Museum Blogger Reflection 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 30, 2007

And that makes it feel much more participatory. They also are an instructive model of the fusion of the old and the new, a gentle voiceprint of a world where new and traditional technologies come together without posturing or fear. They make radio a discussion, not a tutorial.

Audio 20

Audio Storytelling Tutorial Participatory 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 13, 2007

I hope to share some simple and fun ways to create "shoulder-to-shoulder" instructional media for the panel on Screencasting at NTC I'm doing. How do you create good instructional media in a reasonable amount of time and do a good enough job that helps people learn something by viewing it? and follow the instructions.

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Screencast Instruction Instructional Tag 50

Museum 2.0

APRIL 10, 2009

Games are already highly participatory, but over the last few years game designers have been giving players more control over the gameworld and experience. Spore is a chemistry set without instructions, and only some of us are motivated to invent our own experiments. What does "game 2.0" What does the ultimate "game 2.0"

Game 20

Game University Create Wiki 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 3, 2008

I've written before about techniques for talking to strangers, looking at how buttons , buses , and dogs and can all be tools for participatory design. I used that instruction recently to kick off a meeting at a museum planning a participatory education space. Interestingly, at the City Museum in St.

Participatory 20

Participatory St. Louis Museum Game 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008

s Hawaiian son as applied to museums. Consider these two stories of museum-related wikis that struggled. In May of 2007, Woody Sobey released a wiki for science museum educators to share their demos. Woody had seeded the site with about 12 demos from his own museum, but the wiki never took off. What's a wiki?

Wiki 23

Wiki Wikipedia Museum Doc 23

Museum 2.0

JULY 24, 2012

When we talk about making museums or performing arts organizations more participatory and dynamic, those changes are often seen as threatening to the traditional arts experience. What if historic arts experiences were actually a lot more participatory? But what if the "traditional" arts experiences is a myth? I can't wait.

Greece 51

Greece Arts Industry Participatory 51

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

There are lots of museums (and organizations of all kinds) looking for ways to inspire users and visitors to produce their own content and share it with the institution online. The World Beach Project is managed by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London with artist-in-residence Sue Lawty. The ask is clear.

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Project Museum Artist Map 38