Museum of Old & New Art: A Concept More Than a Museum
“Imagine: an exhibition in which the museum surveys visitors every day and makes one incremental change each night to hone the exhibition design. The exhibition would be “more perfect” on closing day than opening day.”
© Loic Tallon, chief digital officer, MET, NY NY.
Go to the Mona in Hobart Australia & see the reality!
Museum of Old and New Art (“Mona”) [1] is a private museum that is so technically advanced you no longer see it — it just happens. This is achieved by their in-house built system called The O[2] — a visitor experience platform, a Content Management System (“CMS”), a location awareness engine plus all the other bits & pieces to make the museum run smoothly.
[2] https://MONA.net.au/museum/the-o
Mona is famous or infamous — depending on what your point of view and what you read. A private museum started by a genius internet millionaire[3] who has created a truly ground-breaking museum of the future. Whatever the opinion expressed, it is never ambivalent. Driven by a personal vision[4], Mona leads yet disrupts the status quo. It started as a pet project, encompasses a vineyard in the middle of Hobart (why not…), has its own tennis court (just so the entrance has an event horizon), crematorium for “lifetime” members plus a cocktail mix of food, drink, & events. If you really want to find out the inside story, then I suggest you get the book Bone of Fact by David Walsh.
Before going further, let’s start with some interesting numbers & compare this with Hobart’s TMAG & Australia’s most popular museum — the NGV. Mona is the 2nd most visited place in Tasmania with over 440k visitors in 2017. Compared to the Louvre’s 7.6M & NGA’s 2.8M, this doesn’t seem much however it is in one of the most isolated places in the world & still manages almost 1/2M visitors. Mona just completed a $32M Pharos extension after spending $75M in 2011 to renovate the original Moorilla Museum of Antiquities. It houses over 400 private works by David Walsh in a subterranean space that is unique. Its $8M annual operational costs are relatively small ($18/visitor) compared to TMAG’s $12M (approx. $29/visitor) & NGV’s $140M ($50/visitor).
Whereas the NGV is open, modern, glass & above ground, Mona is buried deep within the Tasmanian bedrock on a peninsular on the river Derwent. Even more eclectic — you start at the bottom with the first order of the day… a quick drink at the bar. I could go on with more details about Mona museum itself however this is not the point of the article. Much ink has been spent describing Mona, so I suggest you do a quick search & read about the museum, the founder (they two are intimately linked) and the artwork.
[3] David Walsh — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Walsh_(art_collector)
[4] Sex & Death — sometimes denied, sometimes acknowledged depending on how David feels…
So, let’s get on with the digital experience. The questionnaire is in the annexe. I present the answers by Nic as a discussion[5].
When I asked Nic what he considers the digital experience to be he said — “The digital experience is about connecting people with a place and empowering them”.
So, what drove Mona to develop their digital experience — David said, “No labels”.
From this simple statement imposed by David, a complex near real-time Content Management System (“CMS”) was created. It was originally the “Y” prior to launch and now in its 3rd iteration called the “O”. The “O” doesn’t just simply provide information about the artworks, i) it also allows David (and anyone else deemed important enough to have an opinion) to add content & their comments; as well as ii) allowing the visitor to be able to vote — love/hate. Removing the labels allows the visitor to focus on the works and consult the “O” if or when they wish.
[5] Please note that the interview is a subjective experience with points of fact interspersed to make the article relevant
Were people or visitors or experts etc. consulted? — sort of. The initial format was pushed along by David. The team spent more than 2 years (2008 to 2011) building the content systems to push content in near real-time. Much of this time was also spent trialling, assessing, and integrating with 3rd party location platforms to find a system capable of providing location awareness so that only the relevant content was shown. For launch they used a 3rd party location system (which was eventually modernised & replaced with their own Bluetooth solution) and did everything else themselves. Version 1 went out with finger’s crossed hoping visitors & staff would find it useful enough to want to use. The initial success surprised the team and from this success further refinements & enhancements were integrated over the last 5 years.
People see the front end of the “O”, i.e. the terminal the visitor picks up at the front desk or the app loaded on the iPhone, but what about the back-end — the motor that needs to keep it all humming along. Staff have to fill this machine & this content needs to be relevant. The system’s content is created by the staff & “curators”. Text, photos, videos etc. are added via a web interface to the CMS database[6]. Next staff place this content with respect to the location of the artwork so that the visitor sees what is near them. This is all bundled up & sent out to the mobile application. From Nic’s feedback, the staff have come to appreciate the power of the system — especially that it can be updated throughout the exhibition & voting collected & presented back to the visitor.
[6] I expect there is also some sort of scripting involved so that the content appears in the right position & depending on what the user presses, the relevant responses & information is presented
A lot of work has been spent in automating the process. I didn’t get to see this however Nic assures me that the system is an ongoing development project with feedback from the staff to help streamline the creation & presentation of the content. I am also assuming that this also includes integration in to their cataloguing & archiving systems as well as statistical data collection. I was shown a fancy graph that presented user density maps (where they spent the most amount of time), information requested, comments read & artwork feedback. All used to better plan & enhance the digital experience.
Mona also has spent significant amount of time trying to promote their system in to other museums. They have been disappointed by the lack of interest. One thing Mona noticed is that what Mona considered the most compelling feature — rapid creation & deployment of user content that can be changed on the fly — most museums disliked. They prefer to create something then leave it alone & move on to the next project. This goes to show, as per any business, how the museum structure & mentality needs to change to adopt & adapt to the digital experience.
This is all fine but what about the user? If they were not consulted for version 1, then versions 2 & 3 must have had user input. Mona has had the occasional questionnaire to directly ask visitors what they thought however most of the feedback comes from the system statistics. Mona has found that the seniors quickly love it & get how to use to it. They have also found that women get the hang of it faster than men[7]. And finally, kids/generation Y/Z take to it quickly but soon expect more.
Another interesting visitor observation is the inclusion of direct voting, i.e. love/hate button. Mona has seen that this simple gest empowers people. They may not be able to understand the intricacies & artistic message of a piece of art, however being able to simply say they liked it or didn’t, created as sense of community, i.e. other people liked or disliked the same piece (statistics are shown immediately on the device/app). Nic indicated that being allowed to like or dislike something was is disarming feature in an overwhelming contemporary art space.
Mona also found that the museum, its associated services & events, & the digital experience have dramatically increased visitor time. The average visitor spends over 4 hours at the museum. They have also seen that in the USA the visitor stays only for a short period of time, preferring the quickly see a piece of artwork or artist then leaving.
So, what about the future of the Mona digital experience? … “Exciting developments are in the works”.
For the team, they need to reduce the amount of support the staff provide for the terminals. Today they have over 1300 devices that need to be maintained, charged, updated etc. As for the back office, the position & content creation is much appreciated. There will also be a lot more focus on the indoor positioning system — to make it more accurate & to be able to determine where the visitor focus is. Mona believe they are way ahead of the game — quickly creating & adapting the digital experience with respect to the art, the visitor, events & technology. They believe most other museums aren’t ready to move & adapt at this pace. Having said this, they do believe the audio guide they developed for the Smithsonian is also incredible.
[7] This was specifically women and men in the 40–60yr bracket — 6 years ago. The repeated observation was that men didn’t want to be seen not knowing how to use it whereas this wasn’t a concern for women
The future holds great changes for Mona, the system “O” & the way it operates. Mona will be integrating the Unity Game engine so that AR/VR content can be created in 2019. They also expect to include direct to internet connection so that visitors & staff can access, link & consult information from outside the museum space. Finally, they want to improve disabled access, localisation & introduce virtual guided tours.
Conclusion
Mona experience really was a Mona experience. We arrived on the high-speed catamaran after sipping champagne on the deck. The museum is discrete from the outside and impressive on the inside. The art collection is eclectic with major pieces being permanently integrated in to the design of the museum. Going in to the depths is a bit like going to see the minotaur — never knowing what to expect & possibly coming across the David Walsh myth standing over you.
One cannot remain ambivalent — Mona either impresses you or puts you off. You can embrace it or feel deceived by its presence. The digital experience is one of the most advanced for any museum. Having said this, there are bespoke exhibitions created by the MIT CAST & other labs that truly integrate the latest in technology, user interface & AI. However, none of these have been conceived to operate day after day & adapt to new exhibitions and needs. To rapidly curate, create & deploy.
It doesn’t take a nuclear scientist to create such a system, however it does require vision, dedicated resources & a museum structure ready to adapt & change.
If I was to give a score, it would be “catch me if you can…”.
The museum world needs more of this experience. Permanent exhibitions are fine, world class temporary exhibitions pull in the crowd, however the digital experience needs to catch up with what the mass market uses today — the smartphone/personal assistant with its always on access to the internet, social media & apps.
Mona please keep on innovating to prove that the future really is here…
Dot-Reality
Dot-Reality specialises in digital strategy & innovation for museums & institutions. With over 20 years’ experience in hi-tech & a passion for art & culture, Dot-Reality sees the museum & institute future about providing an inclusive experience that defies expectations. Transformation is not just about resources but about a change of perspective. Dot-Reality exists to help tailor this transformation.