Dr Chris Michaels` Presentation

UNIVERSAL
THE HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM OF THE
FUTURE, IN 10 OBJECTS
INTRODUCTION
• The museum of the future will emerge from learning lessons
from the past
• Today I’ll tell a story about the British Museum’s digital future
and how we’re going get to it
• I will tell it through objects, using the method we tell stories in
exhibitions and beyond
• We begin this history of the future, a long, long time ago
1. FORMING A VISION
Gebelein Man (3500BC) //
Flood Tablet (650BC) //
British Museum entry ticket (1757) //
OBJECT 1: GEBELEIN MAN (3500BC)
The universal story of living and dying.
OBJECT 2: FLOOD TABLET (650BC)
“A discovery so exciting that when the curator translated it, he took off his clothes.”
Understanding our role as a universal storyteller of shared histories.
OBJECT 3: ENTRY TICKET (1757)
A universal vision of a place for all* ‘studious and curious persons’.
*(Reality: Not quite all.)
1759
2013
OUR VISION: FULFILLING OUR
FOUNDING MISSION (2030)
In the next five years we find out how to do it.
2030
Reach:
Relationships:
OUR 2020 CHALLENGE
To scale our reach, relationships and revenue as
milestones in fulfilling our founding mission
.
Revenue:
OUR APPROACH
Use mobile, social and big data to create a fully integrated
ecosystem of audiences, content, commerce, marketing and services
Marketing:
Commerce:
Content:
Services:
Social
Retail
Stores
Broadcast and
Publishing
Member
Services
Web
Box Office
Email
Ecommerce
Stores
Collections search
and research content
Events and
Education
services
In-gallery
media and
mobile tours
Visitor and
customer
Services
WHERE WE START FROM: A HIGHLY FRAGMENTED
SYSTEM WITH PARTS OF INDIVIDUAL STRENGTH…
… but low-to-no visibility on how our audiences engage with us between any of the different
parts of the system
WHERE WE ARE GOING: OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCE
Where mobile, social and big data unify our audience engagement enabling us to offer people
exactly what they need, exactly when they need it
2. LEARNING TO SPEAK
A History of the World in 100 Objects, Podcast (2010) //
Flood Tablet (650BC) //
British Museum entry ticket (1757) //
OBJECT 4: ‘A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100
OBJECTS’, PODCAST (2010)
Multiplatform storytelling of global scale, and not in the media you’d expect.*
(*Or, substance is viral.)
HIGH INNOVATION IS EMERGING IN NONFICTION STORYTELLING
Opportunity is there to be found and taken
HIGH INNOVATION IS EMERGING IN NONFICTION STORYTELLING
Opportunity is there to be found and taken
OBJECT 5: IPHONE (2007)
The boundary collapses between the audience who visits,
and the audience who will never visit.
VISIT PLANNING: YOU’VE GOT TWO CHANCES
TO CONVERT YOUR AUDIENCE
Get serious about funnels and take them.
IN-MUSEUM EXPERIENCE: REAL-TIME
NAVIGATION
Or, getting lost is not an existential experience.
IN-MUSEUM EXPERIENCE: ENHANCING A
CONDITION OF AWE & WONDER
Or, valuing entertainment and play alongside education and interpretation.
IN-MUSEUM EXPERIENCE: EMBRACING THE
AUDIENCE’S CREATION & CURATION OF MEANING
A chance for transformative dialogue, a chance for the audience to answer back.
OBJECT 6: LESTER WISBROD’S SELFIE
COLLECTION (1981-PRESENT)
Mapping the relationship of people with people, with
themselves and with objects, at scale.
♯MUSEUMSELFIE
‘Has art become wallpaper for selfies?’
A 2014 stirring becomes a 2015 phenomenon.
MUSEUMCRAFT
Socialising the Museum experience. Making fun ideas endure.
OPEN DATA AND THE CHALLENGE OF
VALUE
Discovering what the audience can do (so we don’t have to).
3D SCANNING
A new kind of user generated content. A new kind of partnership opportunity.
Anybody want to join?
UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT MEANS
US Patent 2292387 (1942) //
Wifi Balloons (2013) //
Gebelein Man (3500BC) //
OBJECT 7: US PATENT 2292387 (1942)
Hedy Lamarr and the invention of wifi.
OBJECT 8: BULLET TRAIN (1964)
Making the world a smaller place.
OBJECT 9: WIFI BALLOONS (2013)
The universal audience becomes available for the first time.
An Enlightenment vision becomes possible.
OBJECT 10: GEBELEIN MAN (3500BC)
And now the universal stories of how to live, and how to die, and how all of mankind came to
be, can be told to all of mankind.*
(*We just have to figure out how to do it)