Museum [digital] matter — Interview #4: Chiara Bernasconi, Assistant Director in the Digital media department at the MoMA in NYC.
Q: How much are digital communication and digital development important for a museum? And how much at the MoMA in particular?
A:Digital Communication and development are fundamental in museums. Museums can’t ignore people’s habits and how everyone is increasingly using mobile devices to better understand the world. A few years ago I read an article quoting Paola Antonelli; I completely agree with her thoughts:
“as Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, puts it, “We live not in the digital, not in the physical, but in the kind of minestrone that our mind makes of the two.”
Museums, Ms. Antonelli insists, have an important role to play in helping people explore and understand the emerging hybrid culture. “It’s this strange moment of change,” she explained. “And digital space is increasingly another space we live in.”
Today one of the most important challenges for museums is to find the way to merge “on line” and “off line” and to be able to reflect in this hybrid culture, on how virtual and physical reality interact.
No museum strategic plan could exist today without a digital strategy.
Some colleagues believe that, within a few years, the adjective “digital” will not be needed before titles and staff functions, nor before strategy; but they remind us that we still need to refer to a separate digital strategy, to be sure it will be considered. In any case, we are already on a trajectory where digital aspects become increasingly more an integral part of what a museum is and does every day.
Q: How much does the digitization of resources and processes mean in terms of communication effectiveness through social channels?
A: Digitization of Contents, Resources, Processes is extremely important. It has to be the first step for any kind of effort and messages through social channels; otherwise it’s just a superficial action that only scratches the surface of communication, with no chances to become relevant.
This of course can be done in different ways and pace, step by step, taking into consideration resources, scale and professional capacity of each museum.We cannot wait to have the entire collection digitized; we all know that we need a lot of time to change things, but we have to start withsomething; we have to begin the process and persist.
Q: What does for a museum mean to make something “relevant”? In particular at the MoMA.
Making relevant activities at the MoMA means to create a program, with a user-centric approach, in the physical galleries and online. It also means to be able to attract the largest audience possible (it is written in our mission!); our publics are always shifting and changing; it means to be able to attract publics that are not necessarily interested in contemporary and modern arts, that have different degrees of knowledge in art, that are local and international; that speak english, or not, that is old, and young.
Q: What are the fundamental skills and competencies for a SMM in a museum?
And…which are also important personal traits or better yet, soft skills that are required?
Do you believe that a person could become a SMM only following some rules?
A: Knowledge and passion about museum content are absolutely essential; you cannot improvise only respecting and following rules, even if rules are shared and needed. The digital voice has to be personal, unique, with a strong style, in line with the museum soul. The SMM has to be trusted by curators, by the educators and must be able to translate their language to be accessible for all. This is a very important skill: the SMM has to be first of all a kind of “translator”, a bridge between different languages and publics.
Q: Does this professional profile need technical skills? Such as coding skills etc.
A: Technical skills are not needed at all. The ability to collaborate with every levels, to be cross-departmental and to read through the lines of the institution strategic vision are much more important. It’s also important to have a long term view about trends in the cultural landscape.
Most of all a SMM must be a smart storyteller who can create and nurture internal and external connections, with other museums, national ones as well as international.
Q:Are theretwo separate worlds out there? One on line and one off line, or is there one only world?
A: The idea of reaching the “perfect” integration between these two worlds is still utopian. The so called “moments of truth” in the visitor’s path, both online and offline, are nowadays still not really investigated, because of a lack of competencies and dedicated resources and staff.But we are not alone: this is one of the biggest challenge also for the for profit sector. Those who will be able to make this integration as seamless as possible, will succeed (and possibly survive). We are definitely working in that direction at the museum, even if we tend to think about this aspect more when we are in the middle of planning rather than earlier on in the process.
Q: Do you think that, when this process of integration of professional roles will end, the use of “digital” as a suffix will still have a meaning?
A: I don’t think a full integration will ever exist, perhaps this is natural and not so important. I hope that within a few years the word “digital” will become obsolete; we will stop wasting a lot of time thinking and explaining the reasons why this is so important. Then we will be able to concentrate our efforts in creating and planning digital content and initiatives. I also would like to stress that not every museum activity has to be digital in some way, only if it makes sense!
Q: Thinking about NY news…To what extent a museum has a political role? MoMA sided against Trump’s Ban. Can you tell us something about that?
A: I believe every museum always has a political role. It aligns with its key mission about knowledge preservation and dissemination. Every museum pushes us to open our eyes on different cultures and points of view.
Every curatorial decision is political in itself; the curatorial work consists in selecting what need to be investigated, among artistic artworks and practices in a particular historical moment. In different historical moments, spokespeople in the cultural world have been more or less vocal about their positions, it’s certainly harder in institutions where different voices lies and cohabit.
I believe that every museum has the duty and responsibility, as an institution dedicated to education and openness, to communicate its disagreement towards unfair political positions.
MoMA curators felt the need to respond to a racist political operation; in my view they have done it very cleverly, demonstrating how much these choices are extremely dangerous, have real consequences empoverishing a country, affecting the artistic world, the world of freedom and creativity.
Q: Last (but not least) something about you.Tell us about yours… “I went to MoMA and..”?
A: I went to MoMA and…I would have never thought that I would work in the same place for nine years!
At the MoMA it happened…thanks to excellent colleagues, who are professional, excited, ready to accept every challenge and to learn from each other. I do wish that every cultural institution would nurture this kind of environment, geared towards experimentation and growth.
Q: I was very shocked by what happened at the MET; it looks like the MET Breuer has issued the check while it has just opened …Which kind of vision causes these problems?
A: I am sure there are multiple causes, but I wonder if what is happening at the Met is linked to the impossibility to operate in an agile way. It seems to me that it’s not the lack of strategic vision, but a financial management and accountability issue. While the vision was strong and defined; the reality was quite different from the strategic outcomes that were imagined. I am hoping that the Met latest news won’t scare others museums away from pursuing smart and controlled experiments.
Q: Finally….Can you recommend a book that you feel it’s clever and useful for italian colleagues.
A: Nina Simone’s book, “The Partecipatory museum” has had a great influence on museum professionals through the last few years. It is a generous and helpful project to start questioning hierarchies and processes and to re-think new ways to collaborate and plan in museums.
Maria Elena Colombo per Artribune #39, @melenabig — Next time I will talk with Sofie Andersen, Director of Digital Media, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.
