Think back to where you were ten years ago. What technology had you just discovered? Just as a reminder i-Tunes was only just launched, and there were still four years to go before you would have even heard of the iPhone. You may have still been on dial up, at least at home, and smartphones probably weren’t on your radar.
At Click Suite we were winning awards for a vast body of work (35 digital works created in just six months) we had installed into the brand new museum/library/information centre in New Plymouth: Puke Ariki. Amongst other things we had installed the absolute latest in screen technology – flat screens! Some of them were a massive 17 inches! Woooah they looked so cool. Everyone thought these exhibitions, whilst done on a very modest budget, represented the latest in display technology and in digital story-telling techniques. Everyone from the Museum staff; the funders; the Prime Minister of the day; the local iwi; and the taxi drivers who boasted about it; was rightly proud of this new “state-of-the-art” facility.
In this field, ten years feels like a life time ago.
It was fabulous to be back at the Museums Aotearoa conference recently which was focused this year on leadership. As is usual with a good conference, it's the off line conversations you have that can be the most stimulating. I particularly enjoyed connecting with John Orna-Ornstein from the British Museum and discussing ways to make mummys engaging.
John Orna-Ornstein delivering his address.
In his key note address, John put up a photograph from the British museum of an exhibition 250 years ago. The interesting thing to note was that not a lot has changed. You could walk into any museum today, and pretty much see the same thing. He challenged that museums are basically making quite a uniform offering. Are museums doing things, more or less, the way they always have, and therefore getting, more or less, similar outcomes? Is it time for a change?
One thing that occurred to me is that most museums are structured around major, or permanent, exhibitions that are often planned to last for ten years (more or less).
So, the question is why do museums still do "ten year" exhibitions?
What story lasts ten years? What story telling techniques remain relevant after ten years?
Shouldn't we be offering an experience that is more agile? Something that reflects changes outside the institution; that continues evolving; something that keeps the audience coming back?
I know there's a massive resource required to create a "ten year exhibition", but couldn't those resources be spread over the ten year period (rather than all at once up front)? Couldn't exhibitions evolve with community involvement and responses helping shape them? Couldn't these exhibitions even shift perspective over time and offer different perspectives on the central story?
In my opening example, our "state of the art" work ten years ago included 17 inch flat screens (one is pictured above - cringe). Ten years later, most of the visitors probably have a 50 inch flat screen in their living rooms and I can't help but wonder if that museum therefore feels outdated, simply by the technology they're using to tell the story. The story might still be relevant, but doesn’t the methodology create exactly the wrong kind of attention?
I just think a ten year exhibition risks becoming a “collection item” itself by the time ten years are up.
Mea Culpa: I’m not attempting to knock Puke Ariki here, I actually think they are a shining example of a regional museum; I could have used any almost any museum as an example. To their credit they have updated some screens (to our credit the original software all still runs seamlessly), as they’ve been able to within very scarce resources. It’s the model behind the way museums connect with their audiences I am challenging, not this institution in particular.