1.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator of digital museum practice
Statens Museum for Kunst
@MSanderhoff
Curatorial Challenges
University of Copenhagen
26-27 May 2016
Mix it up!
Old collections inspiring
new creativity and learning

2.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
About SMK
The National Gallery of Denmark
Western art from 1300 to the present
260,000 artworks
66 % in the public domain
27 % digitised

3.
About me
Art Historian
Digital Research & Development
Advice on copyright and public domain
Standards and policies
at the national and European level
Facilitation of educational
and creative reuse

4.
Overview
1. SMK – a catalyst for creativity and learning
2. Curatorial challenges of mixing it up
3. Re-interpreting Bildung as Building

5.
Museums have always been
places for learning
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/japanese-cloisonne-in-19th-century-literary-sources/

6.
Today,
learning happens everywhere…

7.
…and often,
outside formal institutions

8.
Maker Culture
DIY learning
active creativity
learning-by-doing
constructivist approach
practical skills
informal networks
cross-over between subjects

9.
Maker culture has attracted the
interest of educators concerned
about students’ disengagement from
STEM subjects (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) in
formal educational settings.
Maker culture is seen as having
the potential to contribute to a
more participatory approach to
learning and create new pathways
into topics that will make them
more alive and relevant to learners.
Innovating Pedagogy, 2013
http://arcade.dewlines.org/tag/maker-culture/

10.
Art enhances the equation
http://stemtosteam.org/

11.
*SMK’s first digital strategy, 2009
We want to be a
catalyst for
users’ creativity*

12.
Galleries
Libraries
Archives
Museums
Open digitised collections
open up creativity and learning
http://openglam.org/

13.
Pioneers

14.
A beacon
400,000 quality images for free download

15.
Remix as a way to learn
“The action of actually working with an image,
clipping it out and paying attention to the very
small details, makes you remember it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/arts/design/museums-mull-public-use-of-online-art-images.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Taco Dibbits
Samlingschef, Rijksmuseum

16.
https://twitter.com/PUBDOMAINHULK
A growing public demand

17.
Working bottom up
Johannes Simon Holzbecker, Hyacints, from Gottorfer Codex, 1649-59, KKSgb2947/26. Public Domain.

18.
Think Big,
Start Small,
Move Fast
Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy, Smithsonian
Advisory meeting with the SMK management team, November 2011

19.
160 high res images
in 2012

20.
http://collection.smk.dk/

21.
25,000 images
in 2015

22.
What does it mean?

23.
Copyright is “a little coral reef
of private right jutting up from
the ocean of Public Domain.”
Paul Torremans, Copyright law: a handbook of contemporary research, 2007
Adam Olearius, "Oftt begehrte Beschreibung Der Newen Orienthalischen Reise [...]",
Schleswig 1647, KKSgb10873/28, SMK. Public Domain

24.
Works that are in the Public Domain in
analogue form continue to be in the Public
Domain once they have been digitised.
http://pro.europeana.eu/files/Europeana_Professional/Publications/Public%20Domain%20Charter%20-%20EN.pdf

25.
But people don’t
know we’re open
unless we tell them

26.
An opportunity
Design challenge needs an exhibition venue

27.
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

28.
http://pro.europeana.eu/structure/europeana-creative

29.
Exhibitions at SMK
5 million DKK
3 years of planning

30.
Exhibitions at SMK
5 million DKK
3 years of planning
Think Big,
Start Small,
Move Fast

31.
Raise awareness of open collections
‘Set art free’ event, May 2015

32.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
A celebration
of open collections
Remix exhibition
Culture Cam installation
VanGoYourself workshop
Wiki edit-a-thon
Animated GIF workshop
Performances
Film screenings
Artist talks
Art DJ’s

33.
In collaboration with

34.
In collaboration with
Europeana Creative – basic funding and concept
Aalto University – project organiser
SMK Fridays – venue, framework, and manpower
= We have a project

35.
Johannes Simon Holzbecker, Hyacints, from Gottorfer Codex, 1649-59, KKSgb2947/26. Public Domain.

36.
Design challenge:
Remix exhibition
13 artists and
designers were
invited to mix up
SMK’s collections

37.
The artists got to hack
our museum for a weekend
CC BY-SA 4.0 Merete Sanderhoff

38.
Filip Vest, 22 Skies
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

39.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Their remixes ranged
from lasercut installations…

40.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
…over tapestries,
fashion clothes, collages…

41.
Harald Slott-Møller, Danish landscape, 1891
Product of Public Domain

42.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Jamie Seaboch, Collage

43.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
…to a pop-up version of a painting
with motorized moving light

44.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Kati Hyyppä, As light goes by

45.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Artists talks
- communicating remix culture

46.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Huge interest from the audience

47.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
A unique mix between old and new

48.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
More than 6,000 people
joined the party

49.
Feedback from artists/designers
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”

50.
”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”
“It was a very strong symbiotic experience to be in so close
dialogue with the original work. It added a fresh dimension to
the permanent collections.”
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

51.
”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”
“It was a very strong symbiotic experience to be in so close
dialogue with the original work. It added a fresh dimension to
the permanent collections.”
“I have been creating collages using international museum
collections for 20-25 years (...) But I have only been able to share
them with my friends and family, knowing that if I were to
present them publicly I would face legal retribution. Now I am,
for the first time, allowed to share my perspective.”
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

52.
Feedback from visitors
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

53.
Many respondents did not know about the
museum’s open collections. Many still feel that
the museum is an old and traditional institution
whose role doesn’t rhyme with open source and
sharing culture.
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

54.
”You know, sometimes art can feel a bit
inaccessible. And when it is just set free like this,
then people can do with it what they want. I think
that’s pretty nice.”
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

55.
”If the artworks are to be used, it must be facilitated –
perhaps by the museum itself. The Internet is flooded
with images, it is therefore essential that SMK takes the
lead and show users how the digitised collections can
be re-used for something fun, and thought-provoking.”
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

56.
Feedback from curators
Interesting intervention on the concept level
Some well conceived and well crafted remixes in the
show
Positively surprised at the high investment of artists
and designers in the challenge

57.
Feedback from curators
The decision making process was rushed and unclear
Quality of the resulting remixes was too diverse
Conditions for participating artists were below SMK
standard
The design challenge would have benefitted from
integration with the curatorial workflows of SMK

58.
What did
we learn?
Curatorial friction
Move fast > < careful preparation
Limited resources > < professional standards
Beta mindset > < perfect products

59.
Can we/should we integrate
‘hacks’ in the organisation?

60.
Bildung ~ Building

61.
With universal access to
cultural heritage as raw
materials for new
creativity and innovation,
Bildung becomes closely
connected to Building.

62.
Creating an understanding of the
world and your own place in it
becomes a product of active
processing, adapting, rebuilding
and repurposing.

63.
The word Bildung is particularly
apt in this context, since
etymologically it is derived from
the verb bilden (to form or
create) which again originates
from the noun Bild (image).

64.
https://medium.com/code-words-technology-and-theory-in-the-
museum/wanna-play-8f8e2e8cb2fe#.g41p8a4np

65.
”Our role is still more to facilitate public use of
cultural heritage for learning, creativity, and
innovation.
Today, learning happens in reciprocity.
We are all a part of the web.
We shape each other.”
Mikkel Bogh
Director, SMK
http://bit.ly/1dMX0BJ

66.
Background reading
on potentials and
challenges of
open collections

67.
www.sharingiscaring.smk

68.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator of digital museum practice
Statens Museum for Kunst
@MSanderhoff
Curatorial Challenges
University of Copenhagen
26-27 May 2016
Questions?