Mar 22, 2019So. You have trouble writing blog posts?Build on this structure and stay friendly to make your ideas shine! — Bleurgh! Writing can be tough. You’ve worked on something for ages, the process meandered all over the place, and now you need to write it up in a way that’s clear for other people. What a pain. Well guess what!? You can read this post (this very one, you’re already…Writing8 min read
Jan 31, 2019A jelly looking for a mould?An attempt at honesty about my mental health and working life. — It’s the turn of 2019 and here I am contemplating a big shift in my career. Again. After two-and-a-half marvellous years at Cogapp I’m off again with a spring in my step to seek my fortune. Or not. This post is going to be a bit more candid about where…Museums9 min read
Published in cogapp·Aug 3, 2018#Coghack: Stand up for lights! Get up for music!How we added music and a team selector to our stand up light show! — If there’s one lesson I’ve learned on Brighton Pier, it’s that seagulls are absolute bast@%~… Wait, no, it’s that flashing lights and cheesy music belong together. So, at the last Cogapp Hackday I worked with Ben Kyriakou and Stephen Norris to add Spotify music and a teammate selection menu…Spotify6 min read
Published in cogapp·May 8, 2018Four seasons of slow lookingSound, music and mindful art appreciation with Cogapp’s new IIIF tool — Slowing down is hard to do digitally: speed is fetishised in connection speed, post rates, skimming content and almost everything else online. At Cogapp however, we’ve been thinking about ways to encourage slow looking for a while. …Slow Looking5 min read
Published in cogapp·May 8, 2018How to use Cogapp’s slow looking viewerFour great IIIF art collections to get you started — This post follows my Four seasons of slow looking. In that post I shared four images using our new slow looking viewer. …Musetech3 min read
Published in cogapp·Aug 17, 2017Five ‘reframings’ to turbo-boost any museum digital projectKeep checking your perspective on problems to nourish innovation and avoid expensive mistakes — If you work in a museum, gallery or the like, you will often have to collaborate across specialisms. …Museums9 min read
Published in cogapp·Jun 2, 2017What do the best museum websites all do?We analysed 24 museum websites to distill the three groups of questions you need to answer for your visitors. — How strong is your museum’s website as part of the whole offer? Does it reflect your identity as an organisation? Does it appeal to your visitors? What does it really need? Are there trends to pay attention to? Others to ignore? What makes the site appealing? …Museums9 min read
Published in cogapp·Apr 3, 2017Staring into the MoodMirror: Getting all arty and a bit emotional at #CoghackClichés about mirrors, art and emotions… so tempting to trawl through them all! Don’t worry, I won’t! Nonetheless, there is a powerful metaphor there about the way we with engage with art: taking our own feelings to it and having them reflected back. For our #Coghack day (a hackathon —…Coghack5 min read
Published in cogapp·Mar 7, 2017Behind the scenes at the knowledge factory…Cogapp visits the Qatar Foundation project at the British Library My colleague Gavin Mallory, has made a brilliant case for the idea that Museums are experience factories. In many ways the British Library is also a wonderful experience factory, but down in the depths of stacks they mine knowledge. At least that’s how it felt after learning about the mighty…History2 min read
Published in cogapp·Feb 20, 2017Sitting comfortably? My seven take-home lessons from the Story conferenceMy habit, when thinking about anything as big, human, and numinous as stories, is to think of them in terms of deep time and the origins of humanity. Today, at The Story I seem to be amongst a mix of broadcasters, advertisers, authors, digital builders and people who work with…Journalism7 min read