Panel Discussion, The Future of the Museum: Technology Monday, February 10, 2014 - 6:00pm - 7:00pm This event is open to the public. SOLD OUT A century ago, the “new technology” in American museums was electric lights. Today,Enrico Meneghelli (1853-after 1912), Studio Interior, 1879. Oil on panel, 35.6 x 24.8 cm. Boston Athenxum purchase in honor of Rodney Armstrong, with funds provided by several anonymous donors, 2008. with the advent of computers, the Internet, flat panel touch screens, and myriad portable electronic devices, museums have a huge range of technologies to explore and use in carrying out their missions. This second of three panels on “The Future of the Museum” explores how the rapidly developing digital revolution is affecting these traditionally conservative institutions. Is new technology a threat or an opportunity? Which museums are in the forefront of using these powerful tools? Three innovating technology specialists, including Jane Alexander, chief information officer, The Cleveland Museum of Art; Teresa Lai, senior manager of online publications, senior producer in the Creative Production Division of the Digital Media Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Amit Sood, head of the Google Art Project, will discuss the challenges and delights of bringing technology to the museum world.

1. BIG PICTURE
STRATEGY
Jane Alexander, CIO
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Future of the Museum: Technology
Boston Athenæum – Panel Discussion

4. looking at the big picture
DIGITAL STRATEGY

5. OBJECTIVES
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activate the collection
connect art and audience through active experience
promote new scholarship
support research
facilitate internal and external collaboration
drive attendance
increase revenue
streamline work

6. interactives test-bed
GALLERY ONE + ARTLENS

7. Some Goals
• Attract new visitors and surprise existing visitors
• Use technology to help visitors see and understand
art in new ways
• Technology is not the art – technology showcases the
art
• Invite visitors of all ages to learn and play in ways that
they enjoy (rather than dictating a single method of
interactivity)

8. Design Through Collaboration
• Technology, Education & Interpretation, Design,
Curatorial, and Collections Management departments
• Through this new collaborative development
methodology, the Cleveland Museum of Art is leading
the way not only in the robust blend of art and
technology throughout the gallery experience but also
in museum practice itself.

11. Beacon Goal
Create a visual introduction to the space that draws
people in
Achieved: The Chuck Close in juxtaposition to the
Beacon brings visitors into a new gallery experience
Future: Look at adding more dynamic information–
making it a dashboard for the museum

14. Studio Play Goals
A place for families to play together while becoming
familiar with the museum and its collection
– Encourage familiarity with the breadth of the
collection & create a connection between children‟s
art-making and the art in the museum‟s collection

15. Lens (Interactive Kiosks)

16. 16

17. Lens Goals
• Allow visitors to learn about the art through multiple
access points, from specific information retrieval in the
hotspots to interactive play in the games
– Challenges of “universal access”
– Encouraging new behaviors
– Challenges of easily posting to Social Media
without “sign-ins”

19. 19

20. 20

21. RFID tags are provided for visitors
bringing their own Ipads

22. A unique tag (RFID sticker) is permanently
assigned to the visitor, allowing them to save their
favorites and tours for future visits

23. RFID tag communicates wirelessly
with docking station

24. Visitors then explore the entire
museum with ArtLens

25. ARTLENS APP
IS

31. ARTLENS
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All works interpreted from Gallery One
250+ interpreted works in collection galleries
900+ videos & narrated slideshows
700+ text & image offerings
Many predefined tours
wayfinding via 175+ APs
12,000 downloads to date
2,000+ visitor tours created

33. GALLERY ONE
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1st „beneficiary‟ of digital strategy
78 works of important art
6 thematic lenses
3 dynamic interactives:
– Collection Wall
(40‟ long, 125 microtiles, 4000+ works)
– Matching & Sorting game (2 stations)
– Beacon (favorites, stats, visitor experiences)

35. NO ONE-OFFS!

36. all intertwined
OTHER PROJECTS

37. IMTS Applications Team
Will, Andrea, Linda, Niki, Jeanne

38. building a core system
CCMS

39. search
edit
view
CCMS
connect
upload
collaborate
plan

40. CCMS Description
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built on open technologies
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built with Collaboration as a primary goal
– sharing information with internal colleagues
– institutional based premise for sharing information between museums
– community based premise for publishing information to the world
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cloud-ready
– support a community of museum catalogers/professionals from multiple institutions
regardless of size
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designed to be agile and adaptable to multiple platforms; iOS, Android, Surface
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designed to scale from a few users to tens of thousands of users

41. evolving
PICTION DAM

42. PICTION DAM UPGRADE
• Piction 7 application upgrade
• flattened legacy record structure (1:1)
• expanded staff-requested tools
– export PPT and Excel
– contact sheets
– batch downloads
• integrated with CCMS
• turbocharged downstream use

43. A Basic DAM

44. An Awesome DAM

45. linking art citations + donors
LIBRARY
INTEGRATION

46. OAIS + cloud computing
ARCHIVAL REPOSITORY

47. OAIS
Preservation Planning
DATA MANAGEMENT
metadata
(descriptive, technical, pre
servation)
INGEST
ACCESS
ARCHIVAL STORAGE
digital assets
(original + normalized)
Administration

48. migration and innovation
WEBSITE

49. WEBSITE
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open source
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extensible and extremely
customizable
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rapid application development
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sophisticated theming layer
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iintuitive interface
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in-house expertise
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highly-engaged developer
community
better and
faster search
and faceting
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active use and development in
museum, library, and non-profit
community
ease of theming & design
streamlined
mobile site

50. STAFF INTRANET(with Drupal)

51. COLLECTION ONLINE
search layout and
functionality
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Installed Apache
SOLR search for
speed
Added facets to
search navigation
Added hover info for
objects

52. COLLECTION ONLINE
object pages
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Layout and functionality
updated for usability
Meta data displayed in
pocketed sections NEXT
to main image
Thumbnail carousel for
slide-show functionality

53. RESPONSIVE DESIGN VS. MOBILE SITE

54. CENTRAL TABLE

55. Staff uses Gallery One as a
learning laboratory

56. Central Table Test-Bed:
Rental and return of ipads

57. Rental requires drivers license (or state ID) for
duration of rental

58. RFID scan automatically updates a custom
Asset Tracking database…

59. …which in turn updates member activity on the Central
Table (custom PostGreSQL database storing all member
and donor activity from multiple databases)

60. Sustainable design/process
MAINTENANCE

61. Rules
• Easily maintained parts on-site 45 minute
repair window
• Established technologies
• Alternate content during software failure
condition

62. Collection Wall is modular Christie
MicroTiles.

63. Each MicroTile can be trouble-shot,
and repaired or replaced individually.

64. The modular system
accommodates rapid repair cycles.

65. MicroTile can be removed entirely,

66. …without effecting the behavior of
the Interactive on any other tiles.

67. Gallery One 2.0
PROCESS

68. Gallery One 2.0: January 2016
• Implementing museum-wide digital strategy
• Evaluate and sequence artwork rotations
• Review evaluations and analytics (add more to refine)
• Update in Augmented Reality (Scanning 3D-objects)
• Refine and increase Wi-Fi and wayfinding
technologies
• Keep researching and implementing innovative visitor
experience-focused technologies

69. "internet of things"
• Looking at the whole "internet of things" approach
• ubiquity of sensors + mobile devices as more
important for the time being
• (thus LBS – Location Based Services).

70. enjoying the big picture
DIGITAL STRATEGY