Keynote for the Digital Futures conference at Göteborg Museum of World Culture, 19 September 2016

1. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
slideshare.net/MereteSanderhoff
@MSanderhoff
Digital Futures
Världskultur Museerna Göteborg
19-20 September 2016
Mix it up!
Old collections inspiring
new creativity and learning

2. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
About SMK
The National Gallery of Denmark
Western art from 1300 to the present
260,000 artworks
66 % in the public domain
27 % digitised

3. About me
Art Historian
Digital Research & Development
Advice on copyright and public domain
- Sharing is Caring
Standards and policies at the
national and European level
Educational and creative reuse

4. Digital Futures
Questions
How can digitized museum collections bring objects and
people together?
What can open access to collections bring beyond borders?
Coming generations are born with a digital DNA.
What are their desires and behaviors?

5. CCBY 3.0 Frida Gregersen
Cool Constructions

6. CCBY 3.0 Frida Gregersen
Collaboration between the
Copenhagen Metro Company,
local citizens, and SMK art pilots

7. CCBY 3.0 Frida Gregersen
Bringing objects and people together
to enhance local environments

8. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Wiki Labs
collaboration with Wikipedians,
art historians and amateurs
to enrich art historical entries

9. SMK images got 20 million
page views on Wikipedia in 2015

10. Open collections
in public school programs

11. Different learning styles
for different individuals
Photo smk.dk

12. Overview
1. Open collections as a catalyst
for creativity and learning
2. Case study in digital museum practice
3. Re-interpreting Bildung as Building

13. Museums have always been
places for learning
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/japanese-cloisonne-in-19th-century-literary-sources/

14. Today,
learning happens everywhere…

15. …and often,
outside formal institutions

16. Maker Culture
DIY learning
active creativity
learning-by-doing
constructivist approach
practical skills
informal networks
cross-over between subjects

17. Maker culture has attracted the
interest of educators concerned
about students’ disengagement from
STEM subjects (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) in
formal educational settings.
Maker culture is seen as having
the potential to contribute to a
more participatory approach to
learning and create new pathways
into topics that will make them
more alive and relevant to learners.
Innovating Pedagogy, 2013
http://arcade.dewlines.org/tag/maker-culture/

18. Art enhances the equation
http://stemtosteam.org/

19. *SMK’s first digital strategy, 2009
We want to be a
catalyst for
users’ creativity*

20. Galleries
Libraries
Archives
Museums
Open digitised collections
open up creativity and learning
http://openglam.org/

21. Pioneers

22. A beacon
> 200,000 quality images for free download

23. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijkss

24. Remix as a way to learn
“The action of actually working with an image,
clipping it out and paying attention to the very
small details, makes you remember it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/arts/design/museums-mull-public-use-of-online-art-images.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Taco Dibbits
Director, Rijksmuseum

25. https://twitter.com/PUBDOMAINHULK
A growing public demand

26. Working bottom up
Johannes Simon Holzbecker, Hyacints, from Gottorfer Codex, 1649-59, KKSgb2947/26. Public Domain.
Museums need time
to consider change
Salvator Rosa, Demokritus in Meditation, 1650-51. KMS4112. Public Domain
What will happen if we let go of control?
Will we lose revenue?
Will people stop going to the museum
if they can just visit us online?

27. Think Big,
Start Small,
Move Fast
Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy, Smithsonian
Advisory meeting with the SMK management team, November 2011

28. Bottom up approach
Johannes Simon Holzbecker, Hyacints, from Gottorfer Codex, 1649-59, KKSgb2947/26. Public Domain.

30. 160 high res images
in 2012

31. http://collection.smk.dk/

32. 25,000 images
in 2015

33. What does it mean?

34. Copyright is “a little coral reef
of private right jutting up from
the ocean of Public Domain.”
Paul Torremans, Copyright law: a handbook of contemporary research, 2007
Adam Olearius, "Oftt begehrte Beschreibung Der Newen Orienthalischen Reise [...]",
Schleswig 1647, KKSgb10873/28, SMK. Public Domain

35. Works that are in the Public Domain in
analogue form continue to be in the Public
Domain once they have been digitised.
http://pro.europeana.eu/files/Europeana_Professional/Publications/Public%20Domain%20Charter%20-%20EN.pdf

36. But people won’t
know we’re open
unless we tell them

37. An opportunity
Design challenge needs exhibition venue

38. www.europeana.eu/portal/en/

39. http://pro.europeana.eu/structure/europeana-creative

40. Exhibitions at SMK
5 million DKK
3 years of planning

41. Exhibitions at SMK
5 million DKK
3 years of planning
Think Big,
Start Small,
Move Fast

42. Raise awareness of open collections
‘Set art free’ event, May 2015

43. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
A celebration
of open collections
Remix exhibition
Culture Cam installation
VanGoYourself workshop
Wiki edit-a-thon
Animated GIF workshop
Performances
Film screenings
Artist talks
Art DJ’s

44. In collaboration with

45. In collaboration with
Europeana Creative – basic funding and concept
Aalto University – project organiser
SMK Fridays – venue, framework, and manpower
= We have a project

46. Johannes Simon Holzbecker, Hyacints, from Gottorfer Codex, 1649-59, KKSgb2947/26. Public Domain.

47. Design challenge:
Remix exhibition
13 artists and
designers were
invited to mix up
SMK’s collections

48. The artists got to hack
our museum for a weekend
CC BY-SA 4.0 Merete Sanderhoff

49. Filip Vest, 22 Skies
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

50. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Their remixes ranged
from lasercut installations…

51. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
…over tapestries,
fashion clothes, collages…

52. Harald Slott-Møller, Danish landscape, 1891
Product of Public Domain

54. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Jamie Seaboch, Collage

55. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
…to a pop-up version of a painting
with motorized moving light

56. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Kati Hyyppä, As light goes by

57. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Artists talks
- communicating remix culture

58. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Huge interest from the audience

59. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
A unique mix between old and new

60. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
More than 6,000 people
joined the party

61. Feedback from artists/designers
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”

62. ”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”
“It was a very strong symbiotic experience to be in so close
dialogue with the original work. It added a fresh dimension to
the permanent collections.”
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

63. ”It is a giant toolbox with a fantastic amount of materials to
work with.”
“It was a very strong symbiotic experience to be in so close
dialogue with the original work. It added a fresh dimension to
the permanent collections.”
“I have been creating collages using international museum
collections for 20-25 years (...) But I have only been able to share
them with my friends and family, knowing that if I were to
present them publicly I would face legal retribution. Now I am,
for the first time, allowed to share my perspective.”
Feedback from artists in Mix it up!
CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup

64. Feedback from visitors
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

65. Many respondents did not know about the
museum’s open collections. Many still feel that
the museum is an old and traditional institution
whose role doesn’t rhyme with open source and
sharing culture.
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

66. ”You know, sometimes art can feel a bit
inaccessible. And when it is just set free like this,
then people can do with it what they want. I think
that’s pretty nice.”
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

67. ”If the artworks are to be used, it must be facilitated –
perhaps by the museum itself. The Internet is flooded
with images, it is therefore essential that SMK takes the
lead and show users how the digitised collections can
be re-used for something fun, and thought-provoking.”
Feedback from guests at SMK Friday
CC BY-SA 4.0 Olivia Skjerk Frankel

68. Feedback from curators
Interesting intervention on the concept level
Some well conceived and well crafted remixes
in the show
Positively surprised at the high investment of artists
and designers in the challenge

69. Feedback from curators
The decision making process was rushed and unclear
Quality of the resulting remixes was too diverse
Conditions for participating artists were below SMK
standard
The design challenge would have benefitted from
integration with the curatorial workflows of SMK

70. What did
we learn?
Curatorial friction
Move fast > < careful preparation
Limited resources > < professional standards
Beta mindset > < perfect products

71. Can we/should we integrate
‘hacks’ in the organisation?

72. Bildung ~ Building

73. With universal access to
cultural heritage as raw
materials for new
creativity and innovation,
Bildung becomes closely
connected to Building.

74. Creating an understanding of the
world and your own place in it
becomes a product of active
processing, adapting, rebuilding
and repurposing.

75. The word Bildung is particularly
apt in this context, since
etymologically it is derived from
the verb bilden (to form or
create) which again originates
from the noun Bild (image).

76. https://medium.com/code-words-technology-and-theory-in-the-
museum/wanna-play-8f8e2e8cb2fe#.g41p8a4np

77. ”Our role is still more to facilitate public use of
cultural heritage for learning, creativity, and
innovation.
Today, learning happens in reciprocity.
We are all a part of the web.
We shape each other.”
Mikkel Bogh
Director, SMK
http://bit.ly/1dMX0BJ

78. Background reading
on potentials and
challenges of
open collections

79. sharingiscaring.smk.dk/en

80. Digitisation and societal impact?
Aarhus, 20-21 November 2017
sharecare.nu / #sharecare17

81. CC BY-SA 4.0 Ida Tietgen Høyrup
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
Statens Museum for Kunst
@MSanderhoff
Questions?
Digital Futures
Världskultur Museerna Göteborg
19-20 September 2016