21st Century Curation

Disruptive technologies:

Are museums immune?www.suzannekeene.info

Disruptive technologies?

They are radically different from existing technologies.

Initially perform worse by some measures than existing dominant ones.

Appeal to a market sector that’s not important and not served profitably by established technologies.

Notable examplesMusic downloads and file sharing vs. compact

discs

e-publishing vs. physical publications

e-commerce vs. physical shops

Open-source software vs. proprietary software

(Linux)

Digital photography vs. conventional

photography

Museums - what disruption?

Nature of collections and their

management

Collect the intangible heritage

Demand to contribute and share (W2)

Disclose what’s in the collections

Disruption – 3 sources

Expectations and costs

Collecting

Demand for greater collections access and use

Expectations and costs

Melbourne Museum ethnography collections

Collections in two museums

Does it matter?

Archaeology

Natural history Science + industry

Local history

Does it matter?

1001 kinds of collection

the aestheticfunctional objectsarchives for researchplaces & people collections

intangible heritage

1001 collections, 1001 uses ...

Research

Learning

Memory + identity

Creativity

Enjoyment

Museum examples

ISIN – scientific instruments

21st Century Curation for museums?

Guardians of collections >>> facilitators of engagement with them

Storing static collections

>>> collections as a service (but ... for the future, too)

Different and separate from other institutions

>>> some of the players in a networks for research, learning, creativity, enjoyment and leisure – in which others take the lead

‘The museum needs to be turned inside

out – the back rooms put on

exhibition and the displays put into

storage.’ Mark Dion,

installation artist

www.suzannekeene.info