Traces Booklet

MUSEUMS GOING DIGITAL INSPIRING AND ENGAGING EXAMPLES PRESENTED AND DISCUSSED DURING THE INTERNATIONAL TRACES-WORKSHOPS traces.eu

TABLE OF CONTENT 3 Intro Brussels. Based on the presentation Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Based on How it all starts with the ‘why’. ‘How we can all become Wikipedians.’ the presentation ‘Why you should em- brace mobile phones in your museum.’ 7 Don’t think of digital as a big unde- 31 From understanding to action at Mu- fined monster seum Kazerne Dossin Mechelen 63 It is about me Interview with museum consultant Interview with Dorien Styven, research- Ludvig Lohse. Based on the presen- er at Museum Kazerne Dossin, based How museums can reach and engage tation ‘How should it feel?’ Interactive on the presentation about the Empathy with youth using digital technologies. experiences, how are they made?’ Compassion Model. 66 Forget the app. Choose the chatbot 11 Bring down the glass and touch 41 ‘Your tower isn’t finished.’ From an Interview with museum consultant Interview with museum consultant old city palace to a modern city mu- Luca Melchionna based on the presen- and curator Søren Østergård Madsen. seum tation ‘What can chatbots do for muse- Based on the presentation ‘Four roads Interview with Sigrid Bosmans, artistic ums? Case Studies in Italy.’ to Northern Djursland. Using digital director of Museum Hof van Busley- elements in an exhibition at a smaller den, based on the presentation about 73 Outro museum.’ the concept of the new City Museum of Mechelen. How it all ends with the ‘who’. 16 The power of (digital?) storytelling. What is your ‘controlling idea’? 47 Why you should embrace 2 Interview with director, producer and augmented reality in your museum? storytelling expert Stef Wouters. Based Interview with Alex van Happen, Man- on the presentation ‘The art of storytell- ager at Dutch Rose Media in Eindhoven. ing. The museum as a gameplatform.’ Based on the presentation ‘Brabant Re- members. Experience a museum story.’ 22 Share your story. How we should all become Wikipedians 57 Why you should embrace mobile Interview with Rony Vissers, coordina- phones in your museum? tor of Packed, a centre of expertise for Interview with Wouter van der Horst, digital cultural heritage in Flanders and Educator Digital Learning for the

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass “No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time” Why it all starts with why This digital booklet is part of the project TRACES. An international European subsidized project in which workshops are created to help European Museums to use new digital strategies to engage with new audiences. This booklet contains interviews with experts who contributed to these workshops. They shared their expertise and experiences to create competences and skills required to develop and implement a digital strategy. Now they share it with you, through this digital booklet. By releasing these stories after the workshop experiences, we follow the advice of Lewis Caroll proclaiming adventures before explanations. We felt the urge to share some of the workshop adventures, by means of interviews. These interviews explain, among others, more about the WHY behind digital museum adventures. As one of the experts, the Flemish television director and producer Stef Wouters already explains you need to start with the why. Answering the why first, is crucial to make and keep a digital extension within a museum a success. However, this is not as easy as it may look. Especially not for museums, as they operate in a very specific context. 3

A context that exists of having mainly non-digital execution is based on the wrong why. The in- amples are the ones that incorporated this chal- content, of needing to reach shattered audiences terviews provide valuable tips and tricks on how lenge up front. Third, we often see that many mu- with different levels of digital maturity and inter- to deal with this challenge. For instance, Wouter seums still have a lot of prejudice or unfamiliarity ests in museums, an unclear policy of who is re- van der Horst, Educator Digital Learning, explains concerning on who is interested or who uses new sponsible within a museum for digital strategies, how the Rijksmuseum deals with this challenge digital media. They for instance assume wrongly and a dependency of financial support that makes by choosing only technologies that have already that games only attract young male audiences. it difficult to start or adopt new digital technolo- proven themselves. He uses the Gartner Hype Søren Østergård Madsen, Master of Arts in Histo- gies. This context, however, makes it even more Cycle for Emerging Technologies as an example ry and Art History at the University of Aarhus, pro- important to start with the WHY before dealing argument to focus only on technologies that are vides for instance many examples of how to com- with the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and HOW. out of the Slope on Enlightenment. Technologies bine information and entertainment within new These six elements are not new and are valid for for which the potential added value for museums digital products inside museums. The best exam- other domains as well. However, they provide and visitors is already clear. ples show a clear understanding of the potential some typical challenges when it comes to digital users. However all museums need to think and strategies within museums. All the experts will WHO differentiate between new and repeating visitors talk about all these six elements, based on differ- and between people that can and cannot visit the ent digital strategies and contexts. Let us have a This immediately also brings us to specific muse- (physical) museum. For all these groups digital brief look at some of them. um challenges concerning the whom. There are technologies work differently. And this leads to three components concerning the who: (1) who the third element: where? THE WHY will pay?; (2) who will create and execute?; and (3) who will use it? A fourth related question is who WHERE For museums, the challenge already starts in the will implement the learnings within the museum? why. During the workshops it became clear that It is probably safe to say that most museums sim- To implement the digital product is an import- for most museums it is unclear who is responsi- ply do not have the budget to finance new digital ant question for all museums. The question ble for the why. Consequently, many digital proj- technologies themselves. Most rely on funding. deals with the choice between implementing ects not only did not work, but also did not even This provides a new challenge, as funding agen- the digital product inside or outside the muse- start. According to the experts it is important to cies often do not allow funding to acquire new um. In addition it concerns the choice where clarify who is responsible for - has ownership of digital technologies. Luca Melchionna, journalist to reach the (potential) audience within the - the why question. In addition, it is of key impor- and cultural entrepreneur, provides some key in- digital domain (through paid, owned or earned tance to define who is responsible for measuring sights for instance in the financial building stones media). The experts explain that to answer when and whether the digital project is a success and challenges in developing chatbots for muse- these questions, museums should make a or failure. For many museums this provides a ums. choice in audience strategy. Whether the main challenge, as knowledge about new digital tech- goal of the museum is to attract visitors to the nologies is missing. Staff does not feel adequate In addition, most museum do not have staff that physical space, or to bring the content to the equipped to answer the why question, let alone is able to start, create and maintain new digital audience? Both deal with different digital de- to implement or use new digital technologies. As technologies. As the examples in this booklet will cisions and priorities. The first strategy brings a consequence many digital projects fail as the show, most rely on good partners. Successful ex- forth the dilemma how to combine and inte- 4

grate digital technology with existing content. The experts also warn that launching something As all digital media always are a means to at- digital within the physical space, needs a clear tract and engage, but not the purpose to visit plan on who, where and how many people can a museum. Or as Ludvig Lohse, Interactive Ex- access the product. Preferably creating a durable periences Consultant at MMEx, claims: ‘Tech- and self-supporting system, as most museums nology is just an enabler, and should never cannot afford extra personnel and as many peo- be used for the sake of using technology.’ The ple need to use it. Several examples mentioned second strategy immediately raised the dilem- by the experts will reveal show how museums ma about who controls and owns the content. dealt with this challenge. Rony Vissers, coördinator of PACKED (expertise centre for digital cultural heritage in Belgium), HOW provides several examples of the importance on how to deal with this ownership issue to Finally, we get to the how. Maybe, the how stops better involve and make use of existing institu- most digital innovations. Simply as most muse- tions, media and the audience (user generated ums have no idea how to do it. They do not have content), to reach and engage audiences. The the necessary knowledge how to build and use WHERE question is closely connected to the the technology. Let alone how to create content WHEN. for it. This means that almost all projects men- tioned in this booklet are collaborative projects. WHEN Projects where museum make use of external companies that are specialized in digital strate- When do we start, when do we end and when gies or in a specific digital technology. do reach the (potential) audience? Most of the time a traditional museum will think in terms of Alex van Happen, Manager at Dutch Rose Media, a digital strategy that fits the opening and clos- explains how they collaborated with museums ing times of a physical museum. However, these and the Breda University of applied sciences to conditions do not apply for the digital domain. create an augmented reality application that con- Within the digital domain the audience is used to nects audiences, environments and museums. decide themselves when, where and how often He argues that it is not only about how to create to interact with your content. The experts explain a product from a technological point of view, but that you cannot simply launch something in the also from the content point of view. How to share digital domain, without having some form of 24/7 information and what story to tell within a new service connected to it. This means a different or- digital media is of equal importance. This brings ganization and implementation of digital services. us to the WHAT question. 5

S T R AT E G Y WHAT “Maybe, the how stops A key question for museums is what should we les (ca. 335 v.Chr., red.), for digital stories as well. most digital innovations. create as digital content. A question that is hard This means that a digital strategy is always a Simply as most museums to answer as it needs people that know the mu- multidisciplinary effort. One in which combined have no idea how to do seum content but also the digital technology. In insights are needed to attract and maintain new it. They do not have the this booklet the experts will explain that most visitors that are or are not interested in visiting necessary knowledge projects changed from failure to success, the mo- your museum. A great example is provided by how to build and use the ment the museum understood how the narra- Sigrid Bosmans, artistic director at the Museum technology. Let alone tive and story should be implemented within the Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen, who talks about how to create content digital product, and how it should be connected all the stakeholders involved to create the right for it. This means that al- with content and artifacts already present with- stories. Only Together you can Reach and engage most all projects men- in the museum. Or as Dorien Styven, researcher new AudienCES. tioned in this booklet are and archivist at the Museum Kazerne Dossin in collaborative projects.” Mechelen claims: ‘Stories create a connection be- We hope this booklet will leave you with traces of tween the museum and the visitors.’ But she also engaging and inspiring examples that have been states: ‘We don’t just tell stories.’ New interactive presented and discussed during the international technologies help to better identify and expe- workshops. We want to thank all experts for their rience the stories around the content and peo- valuable contributions, as well as the participants ple within the museum. However, this does not of the workshops. This booklet is certainly not mean everything is always new. She also explains intended as an ending. We hope it functions as how their museum uses different digital strate- a stepping-stone towards a collaboration of mu- gies based on four different audience segments, seums across Europe to connect with each other based on the IPOP model. The experts claim that around the three digital themes: Strategy, Story- old principles of storytelling still apply to new telling and Technology, in order to attract new media, but need a translation to interaction and audiences. We all hope to catch you soon within immersion possibilities within digital storytelling. a museum. Physical or digital. We like both. For instance Stef Wouters, storytelling expert at Thomas More, explains how he uses principles Marnix & Licia, Ann, Kris & Marc, Mie & Mette and like the classic ‘3-act-structure’, used by Aristote- all other people that contributed to the project! 6

S T R AT E G Y AARHUS, DENMARK INTERVIEWEE LUDVIG LOHSE CON SULTANT WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STRATEGY ‘Don’t think of ‘digital’ as a big, undefined monster’ Interview with Ludvig Lohse, What does ‘digital’ mean? Shouldn’t every museum become a ‘digital’ museum? Interactive Experiences Consultant at MMEx (Center for Digital ‘Digital’ has become a loaded word. It is often used to describe something we don’t quite Interpretation in Museums) understand, and can end up becoming a bit meaningless – it’s like saying that we need something ‘electrical’. Only when we stop using the word, and simply focus on making the best interpretations and experiences, are we truly ‘digital’. Audiovisual means are particu- larly well suited to creating empathy and enhancing experiences. For example, you could use them to dramatise a character, or to create spatial light and soundscapes. If you evoke an emotional response, your visitor will better understand and retain the interpretation. When museums want to go digital they often think ‘We need an app!’ How wrong is it to start from that perspective? How do you begin your digital strategy? Don’t get too focused on solutions from the start. Instead, ask questions like: ‘What is the story?’, ‘Who is the audience?’ and ‘How should it feel?’ Technology is just an enabler, and should never be used for the sake of using technology. Always question whether you re- ally need that video projector, or if a lighting effect or an ‘analogue’ solution will work just as well or, perhaps, better. Poorly executed or faulty hardware solutions result in a neg- ative user experience, so always choose solid hardware that has been tried and tested, 7

and which you are confident you can support S T R AT E G Y and maintain. Remember that technology can easily add barriers between your content and for a visually impaired person makes it easier your visitor. In many museums you see infor- to read for everyone. By avoiding complicat- mation-heavy touchscreens, which few visitors ed words, or, when possible, avoiding text all use, because they are not made for that visitor together, you make it more accessible for chil- group. dren, foreigners, visitors with special needs, and for everyone else. If a wheelchair user can START SMALL, THINK BIG reach screens and interactive elements, so can a child. Small adjustments to the furniture, the What are the struggles for most museums in interaction layout and the graphic design, can going ‘digital’? have a huge impact on everyone’s user experi- ence. That is what I refer to as ‘holistic accessi- If you think of ‘digital’ as a big undefined mon- bility’. ster, you will struggle. Think instead about aim- ing to deliver the best contemporary museum Museums often try to create ‘interactive’ user experience. And don’t try too hard. Start experiences. In your presentation you dif- small, think big. Many museums started as cab- ferentiated between active, interactive and inets of curiosity with little interpretation. Many reactive. became prime sources of information and re- search facilities fora given topic. While the re- Traditionally, we focus a lot on ‘interactive search and knowledge part is still vital, I would experiences’. This requires the visitor to do say that today, when everyone has a smart- something, before they learn something. A phone in their pocket, the role of the muse- touchscreen, for example, typically requires um has changed from being a prime source of a physical touch before the visitor can learn knowledge and information, to being a prime from it. However, the experience could begin source of knowledge and inspiration, where on the idle screen, without requiring any active user experience is paramount. Don’t try to tell everything in an exhibition. Focus on your core Ludvig Lohse • worked as Interactive Experiences message. Create interest. Inspire. and Production Manager at Imperial Museums (London, Manchester and Cambridge) • worked as You say a museum has to offer ‘holistic’ ac- Gallery Multimedia Manager at the Natural His- cessibility? What does that mean? tory Museum London • worked as Practice-based Interactive Media Reasearcher and Toolkit Designer Museums should be accessible for everyone. at the University of Cambridge • has a post-grad- Making an image or a text more accessible uate diploma in Film editing from the National Film and TV School in England 8

S T R AT E G Y interaction from the visitor. An installation or “Involve the whole team after the exhibition has been ‘written’ by other a space can also ‘react’ and adapt to the audi- from the start, and at given people. This is a great loss of skills and creative ence, for example, by subtly triggering a vid- milestones. This is import- resources to the exhibition. Involve the whole eo or a soundscape, without the visitor being ant for giving everybody team from the start, and at given milestones. aware of it. a sense of ownership, for This is important for giving everybody a sense utilising all the creative of ownership, for utilising all the creative skills You are very much in favour of what you skills available and solving available and solving as many problems as pos- call the one-message-approach. as many problems as pos- sible before they arise. A technician can also sible before they arise.” come up with a creative solution, and ensure If you try telling too much in one go, the visitor an end result that is as good as it can be. My can end up learning very little. Instead, break motto has always been that ‘The solution is not up your overall message into smaller, clearer to create the problem.’ single messages. My criterion of success for any one installation is that the visitor should learn Once you get started with the production, set one thing – not ten or three things. If an exhibi- clear milestones for the delivery of the con- tion is made out of hundreds of single messag- cept and prototypes, and the final delivery, and es, the visitor can explore the content at their work in steps: create, deliver, then review, then own pace, make their own personal narratives, adjust and finally deliver again. When working and will ultimately end up having had a better with contractors, a comprehensive and fair experience, will learn more and will better re- contract covering important aspects like time tain the information. schedules, deliveries, IP rights, payment sched- ules and warranties is vital. You advise museums to choose a design-led production process. What do you mean by In your presentation you focused on sound that? as the most powerful medium of all. Why is that? In museums, you often see that technical and design staff are only being brought on board Sound has a powerful property; it wraps 9

S T R AT E G Y During the first workshop in Aarhus (Denmark) Ludvig Lohse advises the participants to start with a clearly defined purpose: Why are you doing it and what do you want to achieve? everything in a magical blanket. It can convey Be visitor focused! In everything you do, start maybe if the key interpretation points were drama and complex narrative, and evokes with a clearly defined purpose - why are you do- split into five 10-seconds animations, I could strong emotional response. Sound can work ing it, and what do you want to achieve? Then, choose to explore at my own leisure; or if I on its own, for example, as soundscapes, or be crystal clear on what your primary target could try making my own spoon, it would be it can be combined with visual media or tac- group is. Very often museums say: ‘But it is interesting?’ This is of course just an exam- tile interaction. The power of the medium for everyone!’. You simply can’t make focused ple, and it is possible to have secondary and also means it can easily be misused, so use it interpretation and a strong user experience, tertiary target groups, just don’t mix them wisely. For example, too many simultaneous if you are trying to aim at everyone; it is sim- up. If you keep analysing and adapting to sounds, the repetition of a high pitch sound, ply impossible. Once you have decided on your visitors’ wants and needs, and ensure poor acting or simply poorly produced sound, your target group, try thinking like them, and you deliver the best user experience and the can have a negative impact on the overall put yourself in their shoes, all the time. For best interpretation, you stand a much great- user experience. example: ‘If I was a tourist, coming to spend er chance of surviving the next century. The an hour here, would I really want to spend 5 world keeps changing, and museums need What is your main advice for museums if minutes by this touchscreen watching a film to keep adapting. It’s not dumbing it down, they want to survive the next century? about 16th century spoon making? No! But it’s clevering it up! 10

S T R AT E G Y AARHUS, DENMARK INTERVIEWEE SØREN ØSTERGÅRD MADSEN CON SULTANT WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STRATEGY ‘Bring down the glass and touch’ Creating ambiance with a scenographic approach Interview with Søren Østergård ‘Fyke nets (fish traps) are essentially a type of cylindrical fish traps which contain a series Madsen, independent consultant of funnel-shaped openings that make it easy for fish to make their way out. One or more vertical sections of netting, called leaders, extend from the mouth of the fyke net and guide swimming fish into the net. Fyke nets are considered to be a type of passive sampling gear because they rely on fish to willingly encounter and enter the net. They can be used to sample freshwater fish in a wide range of environments including lakes, wetlands, rivers and streams.’ This text about the fyke nets could be put on a museum wall, but it’s unlikely visitors will read it or completely understand it. To bring the museum into this millennium, Madsen is convinced you need playful elements that wake up your public. In the making of the exhibi- tion Four Roads to Northern Djursland he experienced the great challenge museums face in combining entertainment and learning. It’s about finding the best compromise. 11

LEARNING BY PLAYING S T R AT E G Y 12 In your presentation you said it is important visitors can learn by playing and finding en- tertainment in the exhibitions. How can you do that? By putting an element of fun and playfulness into an exhibition, you achieve a number of po- sitives: you create opportunity for small pauses in the visit, engage visitors – especially younger visitors – on their terms and tone down the seriousness of the whole experience. I actual- ly think you can use the public conception of museums as being rather old-school and dull to your advantage – it’s rather easy to beat expec- tations and surprise visitors. I think it’s important to break up the visit, and one way to do this is by introducing these ele- ments of play. They should be designed spe- cially for the museum experience, though. We had a game about the local railroads lines and their impact on the small communities. It didn’t work, firstly because it was way too complica- ted. We had to cut it down – a game like that should be short, to fit into the general flow of the visit, which also means it should be imme- diately accessible. On top of that, it needs to bring a quantum of learning, bringing together elements from the main exhibition at the least. Putting games in the exhibitions is a great chal- lenge. Often they are too simple or too com- plicated. You need to find the sweet spot. It’s difficult to stay on topic.

S T R AT E G Y Søren Østergård Madsen • Master of Arts in His- jects – and the walls and beams of the old ma- without visitors it doesn’t matter. That being tory and Art History from the University of Aarhus • nor that houses the museum – they imagine said, you obviously have to have some kind of worked as a curator for the Museum of Eastern how an object in a display case might feel to learning. By the way, I believe that as a busi- Jutland for ten years • served as curator at the the touch, how heavy it is and how you should ness, we do way too little to evaluate whether Danish Museum of Fisheries • part of the team be- move your body while using it. Thus, the glass visitors are learning. Get your visitors through hind the new permanent exhibition Four Roads of the display case is transcended, to a de- the door, then your primary objective is to to Northern Djursland • worked as an independent gree, merely by activating the visitors’ tactile make sure they leave knowing more – but consultant with new exhibitions for the Danish Navy memories. By activating tactile memories vi- why is it wrong to try to give them a great ex- and the UNESCO Heritage Wadden sea Centre sitors connect with objects. Children, in par- perience while they learn? ticular, have great fun touching the objects. Using humour is important too. You can tack- “Get your visitors through le difficult facts with humour, which we tried Was it difficult to convince the curators the door, then your prima- to do in a small quiz about sewers and human and museum employees to focus on the ry objective is to make sure waste. The city of Grenaa has the rather du- tactile? they leave knowing more bious honour of being one of the last cities – but why is it wrong to try in Denmark to have modern sewage, which It went against the immediate impulses of the to give them a great expe- of course is both, a rather unpleasant sub- curators, but on the other hand, we came to rience while they learn?” ject and the potential source of a lot of fart rely heavily on their expertise: which objects jokes. Introducing playfulness is important. If would be durable enough, whether we could 13 you engage children, they drag their parents put some kind of coating on them to enhan- around and make room for cross-generatio- ce their durability and which objects were nal conversation. “no-goers” in this respect. The leader of the museum took full responsibility, which hel- The museum you worked for prioritised ped of course. the focus on the tactile. In your presenta- ‘Bring down the glass’ is not an easy message. tion you said it is important for museums The museum needed approval from the hig- not to limit visitor experience to the visual, hest authority. But it made the conservators but to install a range of touchable objects part of the team. for example. Why is that important? How does it enhance the museum experience? One of the main challenges museums have is to find that balance between entertain- A lot of our objects have to be behind glass, ment and information. Making things play- but by allowing the visitor to touch other ob- ful involves a risk, doesn’t it? I firmly believe that is a false dichotomy. History is entertaining! The first objective of any museum exhibition is to attract visitors;

S T R AT E G Y The object must be the main attrac- How can digital media enhance the museum also helps you to make a physical manifestation tion, says Madsen, but digital media experience? of stories without using objects. can be used to stage an object and dramatise with sound and visuals. We made a series of interviews with our visitors STAGING THE OBJECT prior to building the new permanent exhibition, Four Roads to Northern Djursland. Quite a few An object or artefact doesn’t always speak of our interviewees said they wanted new, ex- for itself. citing digital media in the exhibitions – without qualifying it any further. This doesn’t automati- I believe so. One of my favourite objects is a cally make it a good idea, but it does say some- board, with a greeting, carved by a local fis- thing about the expectations of a modern audi- herman. He carved a message just before his ence. I think it is important not to lose sight of ship went down during a summer storm on our collection and our objects by making every- the North Sea in July 1926. All of the fishermen thing screen-based. But I also think digital media aboard the ship Gisela died that fateful sum- has a wide range of applications. It can give con- mer’s day. This is of course a sensitive object, so text to an object by creating ambience and dra- the first time I exhibited it, I tried to let it speak ma, by using sound, light and even movement. for itself, just accompanied by a small text. That It can provide the user with further knowledge, didn’t work at all. So, in the new exhibition we without having to resort to the old ‘book-on- created a media show to stage the board. I’m the-wall’ approach, simply by allowing each in- extremely proud of the result. It can be a thin dividual user to browse through information on line to walk – the object must be the main at- screens. It can also place the object in its original traction; it has to play the lead. setting – show how it was used by real people, lending it authenticity and relevance in a muse- Are there also circumstances in which it’s um setting which can otherwise be rather artifi- best not to go digital? What are the pitfalls cial. Visitors have high expectations nowadays. of using digital media? Introduce some entertainment. Create ambian- ce with a scenographic approach. It’s important Suitability and cost are good reasons not to go to give children a good experience so they bring digital. A major consideration is the day-to-day their parents. You can use digital media to stage running of digital media. You need to educate objects and dramatise with sound and visuals. your staff and check the installation. You need If you animate objects and documents, you give them a sense of time and place. Digital media 14

S T R AT E G Y “We surround ourselves local knowledge to fix little things until the tech challenges as museums. I think one of the ans- with text all day, but the guys arrive. You need to make sure that your wers to this is having less text on the walls and sight of more than two suppliers deliver thoroughly finished products. more on screens that the visitor can choose to paragraphs in a museum And avoid heaping information onto the digi- read. Then of course, you need to think about leaves the visitor exhaust- tal platforms. Info screens have to answer the the size, font, length and colour of the text and ed. I am only half joking; question that the exhibition asks. For example: background. It’s important to the vision-impai- I genuinely think it is one Why is limestone exciting? The digital elements red and people with dyslexia. Sometimes it’s of our greatest challeng- need to contribute substance, not just theatre better not to tell the story, but show it. I had the es as museums.” and thunder. Keep your eye on the ball, don’t task of explaining how a Danish seine – a form go digital for the sake of digital – be aware of of fishing net – worked. I could have used two the excitement of gadgets. pages of text but chose to have a small anima- ted film made instead. You put focus on accessibility, for example, when using text. Many museums still use a One of our participants wondered if it’s in- lot of text. How can they make it more ac- teresting for animations themselves to be- cessible? come pieces of heritage. Can an animation about an object become a piece of art itself? Basically, by restraining themselves. Without How do you deal with something like this af- having a shred of evidence to back it up, I would terwards, when the exhibition ends. Do you postulate that nowhere in any other modern treat them as documentation or put them in setting is the visitor more reluctant to read the archive? than in a museum of cultural history. We sur- round ourselves with text all day, but the sight This is a very interesting question. I think we of more than two paragraphs in a museum could and should keep a record of our work. leaves the visitor exhausted. I am only half jo- Perhaps we should look to our colleagues at king; I genuinely think it is one of our greatest the art museums for practical inspiration. 15

STORYTELLING MECHELEN, BELGIUM INTERVIEWEE STEF WOUTERS STORYTELLING EXPERT (HAPTIC) WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STORYTELLING ‘The power of (digital) storytelling’ What is your controlling idea? Interview with Stef Wouters, ‘If you put an object in a museum ... Suppose we take your bag and set it down there. Is pioneer in transmedia that bag now art?’ storytelling in Flanders This is a speech by Christian Nielsen, the main character in Swedish director Ruben Öst- lund’s prize-winning film The Square (2017). Christian Nielsen, played by Claes Bang, is a somewhat slippery director at the Museum for Modern Art in Stockholm. Although he gives grandiloquent speeches at vernissages and in interviews, he doesn’t really believe a word of what he says. The Square is based on the art installation of the same name that Östlund had conceptual- ised a few years prior. It is a space where anything is possible. When a PR agency dreamed up an unorthodox campaign for the installation that went viral, there was a lot of commo- tion in the art world. Stef Wouters started his workshop in Museum Kazerne Dossin on a somewhat provocative note with a trailer of The Square. The critically lauded film is a satire of the modern art world that puts culture snobs in their place. 16

IVORY TOWER STORYTELLING 17 After watching the trailer, a lot of partic- the insight that experience is important. But ipants acknowledged having difficulties you still feel a certain scepticism that was of- of their own with promotion campaigns ten unjustified. I quickly overcame this by do- in which art was sometimes dealt with in ing my homework: extensive research of the a vulgar way. Have you been confronted works of Bruegel and the artist himself; this is with what some people call the elitism of what a good storyteller always does. I can also the art world? handle the scepticism. But if you’re standing in front of an audience with a stance of ‘This is I’ve already noted that, yes, the museum like religion for the initiated’, it will go wrong. world is to some extent held hostage by the There needs to be a little more openness. rather righteous, careful stance taken by art connoisseurs in their ivory towers. A lot of Stef Wouters • director, scenarist and producer of museum employees are scared to use their various Flemish television shows and fictional series materials, as well as their artists, to promote for more than 20 years • works as a member of their museums. This intellectualistic stance is the teaching staff at Thomas More Mechelen especially notable at museums for modern • pioneered transmedia storytelling in Flanders • art. They often employ an elitist discourse owner of Haptic, where he creates content and that only appeals to a very small audience. stories for television and games • helped illustrate You can’t solve this mentality with even the the scenario for an immersive exhibition on Pieter best stories. Bruegel the Elder: Bruegel. The originals, for the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels Is this mentality changing? Yes, but you still often feel that stance of: ‘You laymen shouldn’t bother too much with art.’ At a certain point, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels brought me on board to work out an immersive proposal based on the art- work of Bruegel. The curator Manfred Sellinck (also head curator and director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp) was open to ideas from left field, even from people who aren’t art connoisseurs. He has, for example,

STORYTELLING FOCUS ON THE WHY Museums are used to calling on people who are “You need to bring your involved with technology instead of focusing on visitor with you in one sin- What do storytellers have to contribute to the storytelling. Doing this often wastes their gle, flowing story. You can- museums? scarce resources. They should include more not expect that every ob- people in their projects who are involved in tell- ject will speak for itself.” The first question that museums need to ask ing stories. By staring blindly at technological themselves is ‘Why?’ (Simon Sinek: Start with Why. innovations like VR or AR, they often miss the 18 TEDtalk). It’s important to know what your ‘con- ball; this technology is just a tool for telling a trolling idea’ is. This is a term coined by Ameri- story. can scenarist and storytelling consultant Robert Mc Kee (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the A lot of museums suffer from Vasa syndrome Principles of Screenwriting, 1997). The controlling (named after the Swedish warship that sank after idea is the purest form of a story’s meaning, the sailing on her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628). vision of life that audience members carry away Despite the involvement of some of the world’s into their lives. This ‘controlling idea’ is often very leading maritime engineers, the Vasa was built generic. For example, ‘Good triumphs!’ But some- top-heavy and with insufficient ballast. An ob- times it’s also very specific. In all senses, the ques- vious lack of stability was ignored in port and tion of ‘What exactly would I like to say and why the ship was allowed to set sail. After less than do I want to share that with the world?’ is import- a nautical mile, Vasa encountered the first wind ant to steer your story in the right direction. And stronger than a breeze, capsized and sank. You it’s a question that a lot of museums have dared see the equivalent happening at various muse- to forget. For example, I advised Kerstin Wiese, ums where they stare blindly at the tools. They one of the workshop participants (director of the create stories and kill them by using too many Bach Museum in Leipzig) to look at the ‘black spots’ tools that cost a lot of money. You first need to of the composer Bach. Who is the person behind know what your story is, and then you can think the genius? That is what speaks to ‘regular’ peo- about which way you’re going to tell it. ple. I realise it’s not always easy for curators to pay attention to the ‘human’, especially not with I remember a tender for the Hallepoort Muse- all their expertise and specialised knowledge. But um in Brussels. There was a great deal of at- that’s the way in which you create emotion and as tention devoted to the great big telescope they such, connect with your audience. wanted to put on top of the museum, but for which there wasn’t any room. The emphasis When museums want to tell stories digitally, was wrong. they often start by looking at the technology they can or want to use. I’ve also been to the renovated Africa Museum in Tervuren. What a wasted opportunity. They

STORYTELLING wanted to include everything you could possi- interest television programme Iedereen Bero- which people were deported to the Auschwitz bly imagine about Africa. And the result is very emd. The concept is definitely not far-fetched, concentration camp. They found a story they fragmented, with objects spread apart from but it’s not infantile either. Some museums that wanted to tell and realised the building could each other, screens everywhere. All the politi- want to introduce the ‘game element’ into their be used to help them tell it. cally incorrect images were dumped in a heap. exhibitions want to reject games with a strong You need to bring your visitor with you in one digital element to them. The digital needs to be With ‘digital’ storytelling, people often think single, flowing story. You cannot expect that recruited into the storytelling without it becom- about images projected against a wall. every object will speak for itself. You need to ing intrusive. engage people and create an experience. The That’s right. With ‘digital’, the emphasis lies on experience is more important than technology THE MUSEUM AS A GAME PLATFORM the information carriers, the tools . Strong sto- itself. And with storytelling, it’s also important rytelling is about immersion. Make sure your to think about the person who is going to expe- Is this why you’re reluctant to talk about visitors can immerse themselves in your uni- rience the story, not about yourself. Of course, ‘digital’ storytelling? verse and be sure the visitor feels the ‘why’ of an artist can begin with himself, but a museum your story. curator cannot. If you’re using the word ‘digital’, you’ve already fallen behind the times. It’s no longer neces- I prefer talking about ‘transmedia storytelling’ By focusing on technology, museums often sary to make that differentiation. You have (term that the American Media Sciences professor try to make a connection with a new audi- good and bad storytelling. The basics remain Henry Jenkins introduced in 2003). This is what ence of digital natives. the same, whether you’re telling a linear story my presentation in the workshop at Kazerne or an interactive one. Structure is important ei- Dossin was about too. That’s wrong too. It’s about the experience. ther way. You see that in the permanent exhi- Whether they’re digital natives or baby boom- bition at the Kazerne Dossin museum. They’ve In transmedia storytelling, a story is told on ers, you don’t make a connection with your au- stayed loyal to the ‘three-act structure’ champi- diverse media that complement each other. dience using technology. I was recently in the oned by American scenarist Syd Field. It’s what Is that the future for museums? educational art museum, Mudia, in Redu, the Aristotele recognised in Poetica (in about 335 village in the Ardennes dedicated to books. I BC): a drama has a beginning, a middle and an In this way, you can reach a much larger audi- saw that people who visited the place with their end. The exhibition in Dossin literally consists ence and make a deeper connection. The mu- children, had a lot of fun. The museum was built of three levels that treat three themes: ‘mass’, seum can step outside its own walls and let oth- as a very playful introduction to West European ‘fear’ and ‘death’. You start on the ground floor ers tell the story too. Because with transmedia art. They have more than 400 top pieces, from with a powerful introduction film about the storytelling, the audience is not passive, but vis- Spilliaert and Magritte to Rodin and Picasso. Second World War and its origins, before end- itors become active protagonists. We live in a With each of them, you step into a story. People ing the tour of the museum on a large terrace cross-media world, with text, video and audio. were, for example, asked to copy a painting. A looking out on the old Dossin barracks from Museums also need to make use of these dif- little like the Tableau Vivant part of the human ferent platforms to tell their stories and make 19

STORYTELLING If you’re using the word the audience member’s experience a central fo- and the technicians, it’s perfectly possible to ‘digital’, you’ve already cus. They need to make sure that this person is find a balance between the scientific and the fallen behind the times. actively going to take part in the story like they storytelling. It’s no longer necessary to would in a game. make that differentiation. Using transmedia storytelling, can you more You have good and bad A lot of museum workers realise that they closely involve visitors in what is happening storytelling. The basics re- fall short in this area, but also wrestle with behind the scenes at the museum? main the same, whether the balance between staying scientifically you’re telling a linear story accurate and telling a strong story. Yes, and in doing so, you once again create a or an interactive one. deeper connection. I’m thinking about the web That’s right. It makes me think about the exhibi- stories made by one of the workshop partici- tion All about sugar in the Estonian Health Care pants, Anna Domenigoni, from the LAC (the Museum in Tallinn. Gerda Taumann, one of the new Lugano Arte e Cultura art centre in Switzer- participants at the workshop, realised that the land). They are video portraits in which musi- lack of a narrative meant the visitors hadn’t cians talk about what inspired them. They also really made a connection with the exhibition give you an image of what happens behind the and the theme of sugar. The exhibition mak- scenes of the museum. The problem there was ers were so firmly stuck in a scientific approach that very few people watched the videos be- that they couldn’t bring across their story, their cause the musicians were not very famous and ‘controlling idea’. For example, they wanted the that making them was very expensive and la- visitors to help push deep-rooted prejudices bour-intensive. One solution would have been about sugar out of the world. But by splitting to create less-professional videos. And dare the up the various parts of the story they created a video-making public and make sure they share fragmented exhibition, the public did not make and distribute them. any real connection with the theme and didn’t see the bigger picture. In this way, you appeal to the three factors It’s important to create empathic characters. in the famous diagram by Stephen Dinehart These don’t have to be flesh-and-blood people; (Transmedial play: Cognitive and cross-platform buildings and objects can be empathic charac- narrative, 2008), one of the best game makers ters. It is perfectly possible to make sugar into and narrative designers in the world. In that di- a character, without crossing the line from sci- agram, we talk about the three C’s: characters entific information. If you take good care and (engaging your audience through story), conve- create a good dialogue between the curators, nience (making sure you have the right content the storyteller, the communication specialists and the right time), and community (making 20

STORYTELLING A lot of museums suffer from the Vasasyndrome, sure your fans feel connected to each other). argues Stef Wouters. They create stories and kill This turns your audience from simple consum- them using too many tools that cost a lot of money. ers into active protagonists engaging with the worlds the museum creates. They co-create a new reality. Transmedia storytelling allows viewers to ingest media. Different stories res- onate with different people. Make sure you let them turn the story you want to tell into their own story and you’ll create a deeper connec- tion between the museum and the outside world. With transmedia storytelling, instead of ‘seeming’ to be in a story, you are capable of ‘actually’ being in it. If a museum director asked you to sum- marise good storytelling in a few sentences, what would you say? First of all: focus on the why of your story. Create structure. Structure is everything. Use empathic characters. Make them human, talk about their dark spots – what kind of charac- terisations they have. Create an authentic uni- verse. Make your story visual. Don’t keep it too simple. Be complex, by creating different sto- rylines, but don’t be confusing. Create emotion. That’s the driving factor behind your story and the way to connect your characters with your audience. And last but not least: think about the senses. There are more senses than seeing and hearing. Make the visitor feel, smell and taste as well. 21

STORYTELLING MECHELEN, BELGIUM INTERVIEWEE RONY VISSERS DIGITAL EXPERT (PACKED VZW) WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STORYTELLING ‘Share your story. We can all become Wikipedians’ Interview with Rony Vissers, PACKED vzw was founded in 2005. In Dutch, the full name is ‘Platform voor de Archivering coordinator of non-profit en Conservering van Kunst op Elektronische en Digitale dragers’ – ‘Platform for the ar- organisation PACKED chiving and conservation of art on electronic and digital storage devices’ in English. Back then, the digital aspect was already important, but it was only a few years later that their current assignment really took shape. 2008 was a key year, because then Europeana, the European search portal for digital cul- tural heritage, went online. Under the recommendation of Neelie Kroes, vice-president for the Digital Agenda of the European Commission, the Comité des Sages published the report The New Renaissance in 2011. The report emphasised the need for the European member states to invest more to make collections from libraries, archives and museums available online. It was around this time that Europeana received significant support. And there were a lot of European resources for digital cultural heritage projects. Since 2011, PACKED has been a centre of expertise. Recently, in 2019, they merged with Lukas, the organisation that is responsible for the management of digital images and the global distribution of photographic reproductions of Flemish museum and heritage collec- tions and VIAA, the Flemish institute for archiving. 22

LINKED OPEN DATA STORYTELLING 23 PACKED puts the focus on open data and stimulates museums to make their materi- als and collections available to the broader public. You’ve made great inroads. But is there still a long way to go? Yes, there is. It’s difficult to ignore how many people simply use Google as the primary portal to do their searches, even for digital cultural re- search. This has a huge impact for museums. If their cultural heritage content is published on- line but does not appear in the ranking of the Google search results or not high enough, the museums risk that people will not consult it. Most people don’t search in museum websites or even in a dedicated portal like Europeana, they search the web with Google. In addition, people do not simply want to consult the online cultural heritage content: many of them also want to reuse it with a minimum of restrictions and become content producers themselves. If the cultural heritage content of museums that is published online, is not in the public domain (thus not without copyright protection) or pub- lished under an open license, re-use becomes complicated. Furthermore, intelligent software agents (e.g., virtual personal assistants like Ama- zon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant or Microsoft Cortana) have become increasingly important in this age of the semantic web. They use linked open data to provide new services. If the cultur- al heritage content of the museums is not avail- able as linked open data, they risk that these intelligent software agents will not use it in the services they offer to people. And finally, there

“Museums need to begin to is great pressure on museums to increase their STORYTELLING see that the collections do social support due to the latent risk of reduc- not belong to them, but to tions of their budgets. It is important that the There are actually four steps that museums the community. And those cultural heritage content of museums is pres- have to take. collections only live when ent on the web and can be re-used by both the they are a part of the com- public and intelligent software agents in order First, museums need to make sure that their munity. Open data is pri- to increase the social support for museums. collection data and photographic reproduc- marily about ‘servitude’” Together this creates a tremendous challenge tions are published on the web. A lot of collec- for museums. We often notice that the Wikime- tion data and photographic reproductions are Ronny Vissers • coordinator of the non-profit or- dia Foundation and its platforms (e.g. Wikipedia, currently not publicly available on the web. Mu- ganisation PACKED, a centre of expertise for digital Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons) are much seums need to make their material visible. That cultural heritage in Flanders and Brussels • PACKED better prepared to cope with these challenges should not only be done with their own mu- supports heritage and art organisations with than museums or even Europeana. seum website, but also through other online the production, sharing and recording of digital channels. Many museums have little knowledge cultural content It is still difficult to speak to museums about of the other channels that are available to them open data. For most museums, there still to tell their stories. For instance, the Wikimedia appears to be considerable anxiety—it’s al- platforms like Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikime- most fear—to make material available. dia Commons are still not very well recognised in these circles. Not only open data is difficult. For a lot of mu- seums, it is already still difficult to make their Second, museums need to make sure their ma- collections available online, even without con- terial is easy to find on the web. The museum, sidering the possibility of making them avail- its exhibitions and its collections need to score able as open data. Some museums don’t even well in the Google rankings. Wikipedia articles have their own website, and this is not only the usually score very high in the ranking of Google case for small museums. An important muse- search results. um like the Groeningemuseum (Bruges) that holds internationally renowned collection with Third, museums need to make sure that their paintings, for instance by Flemish primitives like material can be re-used. They need to make Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and Gerard David, sure that they are not the only ones who tell the didn’t have a website for a very long time. You story of their museums. They should also facil- had to look for information about the museum itate others to talk about their museum and and its collection on the website of the tourist involve visitors in storytelling. Traditionally, the office of the City of Bruges, or on the website of transfer of cultural content goes in one direc- the Flemish Art Collection. The Musea Brugge tion: a cultural product is brought to the culture (all municipal museums in Bruges together) have lover via a ‘stage’, which is the cultural organisa- their own website only since the end of May tion. Digital technology introduces a new model 2019. in which the transfer runs in two directions, and the distinction between producer and consum- er is blurred. Museums should provide their 24

STORYTELLING Museums need to make their material visible, Vis- sers says. That should not only be done with their own website, but also through other online channels. content with a public domain mark or an open use URIs to denote things, so that people can seums have difficulties to imagine that their license (like the Creative Commons licences) to point at collection data. And they should link data can be useful for third parties. And those ‘experts’ outside the museum so that they can their collection data to other data to provide who believe that their data can be useful, fear use the material to reach people it might not context. that others will realise financial income with the otherwise reach. Cultural heritage content can results of their work. be used for many different purposes: from blog Where does this anxiety about publishing post to educational computer games. data and images come from? Governments encourage museums to make Fourth, museums need to make sure that their their own income. Ten years ago, it was nor- data is published as linked open data. If they The collection data is often rather poor and the mal for museums to sell the high-quality pho- want to be part of the semantic web, it is not collection data is often ‘contaminated’ by errors tographic reproductions of the works in their enough to make the collections available on and inconsistencies. Some museums only want collections. A lot of museums tried to make the Web under an open license. Collection data to publish perfect collection data. It might take money through licensing their high-quality pho- should be made available as structured data years to reach that stage of perfection, and in tographic reproductions. That business model in a non-proprietary open format. They should many cases it will never be reached. Other mu- is based on exclusive or restricted access, and 25

not open access. ing the Royal Armoury, Skokloster Castle and STORYTELLING But digital photography has completely un- the Hallwyl Museum (LSH - Livrustkammaren och dermined that model based on exclusive or Skoklosters slott med Stiftelsen Hallwylska mu- Who are the pioneers in Flanders? restricted access. Making photos and spread- seet) had already understood this in 2014 when ing them online has now become so easy. Cur- they started uploading their high-quality pho- In Flanders, the Flemish Art Collection for the rently, there is an enormous amount of pho- tographic reproductions under a Creative Com- Museum of Fine Arts is a pioneer of this open tographic reproductions online that are made mons license to Wikimedia Commons. image policy. A couple of years ago they have by museum visitors. Unfortunately, these re- worked out, together with PACKED, a layered li- productions often do not have the high quali- Museums are also often afraid that their col- censing model that stipulates that high-quality ty of the reproductions made by the museum lection will be abused if they release it. Is this images of artworks in the public domain mea- itself. In order to regain control on the quality protectionist stance a brake on digitisation? suring up to 1920 pixels on the longest side are of the online photographic reproductions, or in to be released under a CC0 rights statement. other words to regain control on the way their Definitely. In principle, once you release collec- A couple of months ago they have decided to collections are represented on the Web, the tion data and photographic reproductions, ev- go even one step further. Some of their part- museums should give up their model based on eryone can do what they want with them. Muse- ner museums now agree that high-quality im- exclusive or restricted access and publish their ums are afraid that their images will appear on ages of artworks in the public domain should own high-quality photographic reproductions postcards, doormats and coffee mugs. That is be released under a CC0 rights statement in under a public domain mark or open license. actually a nightmare for a large group of muse- the highest available resolution, which is often Museums like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam ums. ‘Do we want our top pieces to be used for more than 1920 pixels on the longest side. To- have understood this. It is one of reasons why that?’ they wonder. They’re particularly sensitive gether with PACKED, they have recently also they started the popular Rijksstudio website, about this in Flanders. In the Netherlands they’re launched the Arthub Flanders, that dissemi- where you can download high-quality repro- already progressed much further. I remember a nates metadata about the collections of Flem- ductions for free. ‘The internet makes it difficult statement by the director of the Rijksmuseum: ‘I ish museums for Fine and Contemporary Arts to protect copyrights and control the use of re- would prefer that these images were printed on in open formats under open licenses, allowing productions,’ told the Rijksmuseum conserva- toilet paper than for them not be released to the flexible reuse in broad range of applications. tor Taco Dibbits to the New York Times in 2013. public for reuse.’ So we are gradually seeing a The department Museums and Heritage of the ‘That is why we make high-resolution images change in mentality. The Rijksmuseum in Amster- city of Antwerp has launched DAMS Antwer- available to everyone. As a museum we would dam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York pen, where one can download photographic rather see good images of Vermeers Milkmaid are good examples. They reason that it’s better reproductions under an open license of collec- than bad ones.’ to put high-quality images online yourself than to tion objects from municipal museum and other lock them up. Otherwise users would just go else- heritage institutions in the city of Antwerp. And Some museums have also understood that its where and download low-quality images. Letting together with the reproductions also comes commercially pointless for cultural heritage or- users know your museum is making good-quality some metadata. ganisations to invest in the marketing of their images available is an excellent way of promot- photos. The costs for the promotion and the ing and communicating your own collection. It’s Encouraged by Wikimedia Belgium and PACKED, follow-up and administrative handling of the not just a few big museums that have reacted this an increasing number of museums starts to requests from users don’t weigh up against the way, but also smaller museums like the afore- understand the added value of the Wikimedia income. A group of Swedish museums includ- mentioned Swedish museums. platforms. An example is the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. They have facilitated the writing of Wikipedia articles of some of 26

STORYTELLING their collection pieces. They have also uploaded fits. There is little reason for many museums In 2018, together with the Flemish govern- high-quality photographic reproductions of these not to come out with their material: on many ment, FARO and Wikimedia Belgium, you pieces and made sure that they got used in the collection objects there has never been copy- organised the Wiki Loves Heritage photo Wikipedia articles. In less than a year this has re- right protection and the authors of some oth- competition. Anyone who was interested sulted in almost 2 million pageviews, not bad for er collection objects have been dead for more in cultural heritage was asked to take and a museum that is undergoing renovations since than 70 years and thus the copyright protec- share photos. Does an initiative like this September 2011 and will be closed until at least tion has expired. Of course, museums for mod- help to convince museums of the power of the end of 2021. ern art have to take the living artists who have Wikipedia? copyrights into consideration, but many other The digitisation of the herbarium of the Meise Bo- museums do not have to do that. Wikipedia is one of the most used websites in tanic Garden is also a lovely example of the digital the world. It is the number 5 in the world af- release of heritage. Over the last few years, they So the message is to let go? ter Google, YouTube, Facebook and the Chi- have digitised 1.2 million herbarium sheets and nese search engine Baidu. Life without Wikipe- placed them online at www.botanicalcollections. Museums funded with public funds should be- dia is unimaginable. The online encyclopaedia be. Afterwards they have started a new project, gin to see that their collections do not ‘belong’ is available in 300 languages, and contains 40 financed by the Flemish Government, to digitise to them, but to the community. Their heritage million articles of which almost 6 million in En- an additional 1.4 million specimens. At the end of collections only ‘live’ when they are a part of glish but also almost 2 million in Dutch. Wikipe- 2017 they also launched a crowd-sourcing plat- the community. Open data is primarily about form (www.botanicalcollections.be) in four lan- ‘servitude’. We are talking about heritage that “You often find people who guages. The platform is being used by volunteers is being managed with public resources to be can participate where you to digitise data of the Meise Botanic Garden. ‘of importance’ to the community. Then it’s only least expect them. Not all These data may be in the form of herbarium or normal that members of this community have knowledge about the col- other type of specimen labels, field notebooks open access to the knowledge and information lections is in institutions and diaries, recording sheets, books, registers, that museums have developed about this her- devoted to cultural her- or photographs. There are a lot of plant enthu- itage. Of course, restrictions are still possible itage. No, a lot of knowl- siasts who help write the story of the collection, when it concerns privacy or security sensitive edge, and therefore infor- take photos and describe the estate. There’s one information, or when copyright applies. But in mation, is spread across technician who works on it full-time. the general, there should be open access to the collections.” knowledge and information. I believe that the But there are still a lot of Flemish museums museums themselves will directly benefit from 27 that need to change their mentality? this. The library sector has already understood this many years ago. If there is willingness to Yes, they really need to realise that you need exchange data, the entire sector can benefit to be present online, with your collection, and from this. reach out to the world. Of course, there is a small risk that your material will be abused, but CITIZEN’S SCIENCE that doesn’t weigh up against the many bene-

For a long time there was no article dia has worldwide 16,65 billion pageviews per STORYTELLING in the Dutch Wikipedia about this month (May 2019), and almost 1,6 billion unique top piece of Jean Fouquet in the Ro- visitors per month (November 2018). The Dutch still not allowed to make photographs in the ex- yal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp version of Wikipedia has 159 million pageviews hibition rooms. In other museums the display (Belgium). When Vissers adviced per month (May 2019). In Belgium there are 107 conditions are difficult for photographers to the museum to make a Dutch arti- million pageviews per month (May 2019), and make good images: objects are exhibited be- cle this resulted in almost two mil- 36 million pageviews concern the Dutch ver- hind reflective glass, the lighting is low or rich lion pageviews in less than a year. sion of Wikipedia. These numbers are gigantic. in contrast. And, of course, many collection ob- But unfortunately, the information about our jects are not on display in the exhibition rooms cultural heritage on Wikipedia is often incom- but are stored in crates in warehouses. So there plete. In many cases also images are missing, is still a long way to go… while the Web becomes increasingly image ori- ented. Images are necessary to make Wikipedia Art historians and curators—who often articles visually attractive. have PhDs—see themselves as the special- ists and don’t want ‘laymen’ to interfere That is one of the reasons why we started Wiki with the collection. Loves Heritage. Together we had already or- ganised something similar in 2016: Wiki loves That’s definitely the case, but there are also Art. And since 2010 Wikimedia Belgium annu- ‘specialists’ or people with relevant knowledge ally organises Wiki loves Moments. As part of outside the museum. Not all people with a Wiki Loves Heritage the famous photographer training in for instance art history end up work- Michiel Hendryckx challenged Flanders to take ing in a museum. In general, people are also masses of heritage photos and it worked. At much higher educated than a couple decades least 4300 photos of heritage were uploaded ago. Participation is often viewed too narrowly. to Wikipedia. That shows the passion for the Some museums limit participation to visiting of Flemish heritage is strong. In January 2019, in exhibitions and other public museum events. just one month, the photos were viewed more Other museums let volunteers perform certain than 687,000 times. As such, there is no deny- executive tasks. But real participation should ing the Wikipedia is a very powerful channel for go further than that. Especially digitisation has the dissemination of heritage. turned the relationship between the audience, the museum and the cultural content upside But unfortunately, we also noticed that most down. photos as part of Wiki Loves Heritage were made of monuments and landscapes (thus immov- You often find people with relevant knowledge able heritage), and not of movable heritage like where you least expect them. Not all knowledge museum collections. It is less complicated to about the collections is in the museum. There is photograph monuments and landscapes than the well-known example of the Rijksmuseum. museum objects. In some museums people are Although they hold a lot of collection objects on which birds are portrayed, they don’t have an ornithologist working in the museum. Still, 28

STORYTELLING knowing what kind of birds are portrayed might upload in Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, Trainworld, the train museum in Schaerbeek be helpful to understand the collection objects. and that they can use in Wikipedia articles. The has published its collection online so that it is By identifying the birds and other animals, it MoMu fashion museum in Antwerp has done also be accessible to an international audience. becomes often possible to find out where and exactly that. when a work of art was made. To collect this KOERS Museum of Cycle Racing in Roeselare knowledge the museum organised meeting You can also organise hackathons (workshops) has also understood it well. Globally, there are with ornithologists to tag the collection objects where people work with the material from mu- people interested in cycle racing, but not ev- with the names of the portrayed birds. seums. Museomix is a wonderful example of eryone is able to travel to the city of Roeselare. this. It’s an annual event where people from in- They have discovered that there is already a Institutions usually do not have the time, the side and outside the museum sector and from huge amount of information about cycle rac- people and the skills to bring different types various countries come together for three days ing available in Wikipedia, but they have also of knowledge together. The principle of open to design innovative experiences and make discovered that they are also still some gaps. data allows the public or ‘third parties’ to be- prototypes for the public. In this way, you mo- There is a gender gap, also concerning cycle come intensely involved in this data collection. bilise potential re-users of your material. Mu- racing. KOERS would like to help to reduce that It make ‘citizen science’ possible, or what would seums also need to set a good example by us- gender gap. There are also often lack images, fall under the function of ‘participation’ in the ing the context of other museums and making while KOERS has a huge photo archive that is new Cultural Heritage decree of the Flemish links with other collections. difficult to exhibit in in its entirety. So they plan Community. digitise the photographs, upload them in Wiki- COLLABORATION WITH media Commons and use the in Wikipedia arti- Is it important to actively look for people OTHER SECTIONS cles. The museum also has a collaboration with who you can involve in the promotion of the UGent / IMEC (the largest independent European pieces in the collections? Is storytelling a way of bringing collections research centre for micro-electronics). The idea together? is to link live reports from cycling competitions Definitely. It’s not just because you put the col- to the collection items in the museum. Earli- lection data on Wikidata or photographic repro- Yes, a lovely example of this is what the King er, cycling fans watched races from their living ductions on Wikimedia Commons that some- Baudouin Foundation has done recently in col- rooms. Now, while cycling fans have multiple thing will happen with it. The upload doesn’t laboration with PACKED. They have many dif- screens available on which to watch the race. create the visibility that you aim for. You will ferent collections, but don’t have an exhibition During the dull moments, they can do some- need articles on Wikipedia in which these data space of their own. So they give collection ob- thing different. If you made sure that you use and images are used. And as a museum, you jects to different museums for safekeeping, but these opportunities to do something with your can actively direct and encourage that. So you doing that makes the collection very fragment- collection objects that have a connection with can organise writing sessions in which you in- ed. In Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, they the competition, you can reach a very large vite your volunteers to write articles together have now brought all that material together. audience. Currently UGent / IMEC researches with museum employees. Let the public look You need to look further than the walls of the what role also the Wikimedia platforms can behind the screens of your museum to inspire exhibition space. play in this. You also need to work together them to write about the museum and its col- with the cycle racing communities. It’s import- lection. Donate photos and data that they can ant, as a museum, to enter into collaborations 29

STORYTELLING with other sectors to see what can happen with article in the Dutch Wikipedia about Madonna audience with your own website. You’ll even open data. You can involve the private sector, omringd door serafijnen en cherubijnen (Madon- never have that number of physical visitors. but also the academic world to do this. na surrounded by seraphim and cherubim), an oil painting by the French painter Jean Fouquet. It Besides timing, what else is an important How important is timing to making your ma- is one of the top pieces in their collection, and factor? terial publicly available? is even one of the top pieces in Flanders in gen- eral. The painting is part of the Melun Diptych. Having the right people in the right place. In It should always be important for a museum I had discovered that there were Wikipedia Cooper Hewitt, Seb Chan was the driving force. to make its collections publicly available on the articles about the diptych available in six lan- In the Smithsonian, it was Michael Edson. In Web. But we discovered that the temporary clo- guages, but incredibly, not one single article TATE and now the Science Museum Group, it sure of a museum for renovations or building was written in Dutch. My remark challenged is John Stack. At the Met it is Loic Tallon. At the often seems to be the perfect time. The them to do something about this. They did not Rijksmuseum, it’s currently Saskia Scheltjens, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Cooper Hewitt only make sure that a Dutch Wikipedia article who made her name in the Dutch and Belgian in New York are good examples of museums got written about Fouquet’s painting, but also digital worlds, working as the head of the (digi- where the digital approach received a big push about a group of other artworks. As I told you, tal) research services. when they were closed. A public presence and this has resulted in almost 2 million pageviews visibility are essential for museums to ensure in less than a year. You simply don’t have such But having such mastermind is not enough. they’re not ‘forgotten’. During a closure, there’s Those masterminds need the support of the the need and the opportunity to think about a “As a museum, the time direction and top management. And they also large (digital) presence and visibility. It’s when that you make a digital click need support from the different department the seeds of a good digital policy and strategy is important. The tempo- and their teams. Otherwise, it simply won’t are often sewn. rary closure of a museum work. Museum should embrace digital activity for renovations or building and skills across the whole organisation. Digital We have also seen that momentum in recent seems to be the perfect has moved from being the concern of a hand- years at the former Silver Museum in Antwerp. time.” ful of digital specialists in one department to The forced relocation and transformation into an aspect of practically everything the museum DIVA (a museum for diamonds, silver and gold), does, as John Stack already told in 2013 when provided space to thoroughly innovate and he published Tate Digital Strategy 2013-2015: establish itself as one of the first museums in Digital as a dimension of everything. All museum Flanders with a genuine digital strategy. departments are now looking to realise more of their strategic goals in the digital space. ‘Dig- It also makes me think about the Royal Museum ital is more than a department, it is a collective of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the largest museum in responsibility’, wrote Loic Tallon as the title of Flanders. It is closed for renovation since 2011 a blog post in October 2017. Museum should until at least the end of 2021. A year ago I told finally embrace digital as the ‘new normal’, and them that I had discovered that there was no live up to that. 30

STORYTELLING MECHELEN, BELGIUM INTERVIEWEE DORIEN STYVEN HISTORIAN (KAZERNE DOSSIN) WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STORYTELLING How do you create a superior exhibition? From understanding to action at the Museum Kazerne Dossin Interview with Dorien Styven, 1939. Maxim Talpert, a Jewish boy, lives the life of a regular teenager in Antwerp. But this researcher and archivist at the changes completely when the war starts. In 1941, Maxim is excluded from school. In 1942 Museum Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen his parents are arrested. Maxim is arrested a year later. He is put on a train from the Dossin barracks to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. From there, he is transferred to Warsaw where he is forced to clear rubble after the ghetto uprising. When he gets typhoid fever in 1944, he is sent to the sickbay. All of a sudden, another patient is lying next to him. Maxim realises it is his school friend Natan Ramet from Antwerp. Maxim tells Natan: ‘You are very strong. You’ll survive.’ After asking Nathan to spread their stories, Maxim dies. When the war is over, Natan comes back to Belgium and eventually does what he promised Maxim. He makes sure the stories of Maxim and thousands of other victims are remem- bered. In Mechelen in 1996, Natan founds the Museum of Deportation and Resistance. The museum, now known as the Museum Kazerne Dossin, is a unique and intense place of commemoration. It tells the story of the 25 484 Jews and 352 Roma and Sinti who were de- ported from the Dossin barracks between 1942 and 1944. Just over five percent returned from Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘Never again,’ is the personal and universal message Sir Natan Ramet – one of the last witnesses of the holocaust –wanted to share with people from all over the world. Although he died in 2012, the museum keeps his message alive. 31

Dorien Styven • interned at Museum Kazerne museum and the victims and survivors of the STORYTELLING Dossin in 2010 • has been a scientific researcher Holocaust. It’s important for visitors to be able 32 ever since • takes care of the content of temporary to identify with the stories of victims told in the exhibitions • assists in the development of the museum. But we don’t just tell their stories. Na- permanent display • manages the museum’s archi- tan Ramet has developed a culture of remem- val database brance which we hope will encourage visitors to reflect and act when they leave the museum. As Dorien, you started your presentation with a Holocaust museum we have to race against the story of Maxim and Natan. Why is that the clock. Next year, we remember the fact that story so important? the Second World War ended 75 years ago in Europe. Almost everyone who survived the war The story about Maxim is exceptional. I have has passed away. We have lost three survivors chosen this story because we would not have over the past month. It’s a challenge to collect known about it if Natan Ramet hadn’t shared stories, but they’re the best way to make a con- it with us. It’s almost pure luck that Natan sur- nection with our visitors. vived and was able to tell the world about Max- im. We often don’t know the individual stories A strong example of this culture of remem- of the 25,800 victims who were deported from brance is the portrait wall in the museum, a here, the Dossin barracks, because there was central part of the permanent exhibition in often no one left to tell them. We can assume which each deportee gets a face. most of them died in the gas chambers, but for many of them, we just don’t know. We don’t That wall is the backbone of our museum. Ev- have so many stories about the people who did ery year, at the end of November, there is a cer- not survive the concentration camps. We do emony, which brings the relatives of all those know how Maxim died. victims together. About 80 percent of all the vic- tims have a face now. Last year we posted our By telling that story, you immediately cre- 20,000th photograph, of Boris Averbruch. The ated a connection with the participants of story which was covered extensively by the me- the workshop. Is that also what you are try- dia. We already had letters he wrote in our ar- ing to achieve with the stories you tell in the chives, letters to a non-Jewish woman, in which museum? he speaks about the deportation of his family. Telling the stories of victims and survivors cre- How did the idea of putting these photo- ates a connection between the visitors of our graphs on a big wall come about? The ‘Give them a face’ project started in 2005. We knew that there had been files made for

every non-Belgian who had entered the coun- deported at different ages: Natan Ramet, Simon STORYTELLING try since 1839. There are millions of files. Since Gronowski, Malvine Löwenwirth, Michel Gold- 1920, there have also been photographs taken berg and Marie Pinhas. They have completely dif- Natan Ramet, one of the last wit- for the files. Because 95 percent of the Jews ferent backgrounds. Visitors choose which story nesses of the holocaust and one were non-Belgian, most adults had files with to follow, based on who they identify with most of the founders of the Museum photographs. When we discovered that, our strongly. The stories of Natan and Simon are the Kazerne Dossin, wanted to sha- director at that time, Ward Adriaens, decid- best known. re the message ‘never again’ with ed they were the perfect material for engag- people from all over the world. ing modern audiences with visual storytelling. Natan Ramet moved with his family from Poland 18,500 photographs were scanned in the first to Antwerp in 1930. In 1942 he was put on the 33 five years. The first photographs were put in a sixth transport and forced to work in Kleinman- book. Later, we had the idea of creating a huge gersdorf, Babitz and Trzebinia. He survived the wall display, spread over the four floors of the Auschwitz and Dachau camps, where he was lib- museum. There is a place for each deportee. If erated in 1945. we don’t have a photograph, we put a silhou- ette. I think it’s a great example of powerful sto- The lawyer and jazz musician Simon Gronowski rytelling: those eyes follow you everywhere in was the son of a middle-class family from Brus- the museum. One look at the wall brings you sels. The twentieth transport was supposed the whole story of the Holocaust. to bring him from the Dossin barracks to Aus- chwitz-Birkenau on the 19th of April 1943. He 5 WITNESSES survived by jumping out. He lost his mother and sister in the camps. His father is said to have died The museum also researches Holocaust vic- of sorrow. tims and survivors. The permanent exhibition in the museum is based upon the stories of Malvine Löwenwirth was born to a poor family, five witnesses of the Holocaust. Why these that came from Czechoslovakia to Belgium for a five people? better future. She was 18 when the war started. She went into hiding and survived. Her father, We chose five witnesses, because we wanted a brother and two sisters died in the concentration representative for each type of survivor. Our five camps. central witnesses are five people who were all Michel Goldberg came from a Polish family. A young child when the war started, his parents

and oldest brother were deported. After spend- Simon Gronowski is one of the STORYTELLING ing time in an official orphanage led by the Asso- witnesses that visitors in Muse- ciation of Jews in Belgium, Michel went into hid- um Kazerne Dossin can identify sation is going and you start asking questions ing in Jamoigne. He and his two other brothers with. The museum wants to re- they remember a lot. By interviewing the peo- survived. ach visitors on an emotional level, ple in Antwerp we discovered there was a survi- create empathy for what has hap- vor in the retirement home. One of the nurses Marie Lipstadt-Pinhas has Greek roots. She didn’t pened so they will reflect upon it. said: ‘That man there is someone with a num- even know she was Jewish until she was arrested. ber.’ She meant a tattoo. We were not prepared Marie was deported to Auschwitz when she was for finding a survivor from the concentration 13. camps. It was our previous director Dr. Herman Van We had to make a switch immediately, because Goethem who assembled the stories, based on that’s a completely different way of interview- different in-depth interviews with the witnesses. ing and we need to do it as soon as possible, He also knew their stories extremely well. Our because that man was 95 years old. He said: ‘I museum guides know the complete stories as have never told my story. I was called by that well; when they guide people through the mu- man with the finger, that space creature, but I seum they focus on what they think is important refused.’ He was referring to the movie E.T. and and adjust the stories to the visitors. We also have meant he was contacted by the director Steven a lot of material that people don’t know about. In Spielberg who was looking for and interviewing our image database, you can consult the archives Holocaust survivors all over the world. He had of stories donated to our museum. We also have always refused to testify, until now. It was like a about 1,200 interviews in our database. confession. He struggled with feelings of enor- mous guilt. At a certain point, he told us a story Are you still looking for new witnesses? he had kept for himself for more than 75 years. ‘ Yes, but it’s not that easy to find them. In De- cember 2018, we started a pilot project in two There was someone in the camp I knew well. He retirement homes for Jewish people, one in An- was serving the soup. I expected to get some twerp and one in Brussels. good soup from my friend, but it was like water. I was very disappointed. A few weeks later, when In the home in Antwerp, we found five people he got typhoid fever and begged me for water, I who wanted to tell their stories. I interviewed didn’t give it to him. I feel like I killed that man.’ two myself. Most of these people were telling When we document these stories it’s not always their stories for the first time. As they started, easy to know what to focus on and whether you they would often say: ‘I do not have much to have to tell everything. In any case, we always tell. I was only a child.’ But once the conver- try to record the whole story for our database. That’s not only important for our research, but it also means a lot to the relatives of the victims. 34

STORYTELLING “As a Holocaust museum The museum puts a lot of time and effort museum. But they can also put their own accent we have to race against into the education and training of guides. on things. They have access to a lot of material the clock. Almost every- Why are they so important? in which they can make their own choices via a one who survived the war special online community we created. has passed away.” We have about 60 active guides and they are very important in sharing the stories that have 4 TYPES OF VISITORS to be told. The first group of museum guides, of which I was one, was recruited after a call in In your workshop you said a museum has 2010. First there were a lot of teachers among to have a deep understanding its visitors. A them, often retired, but now we have guides museum has to appreciate how people dif- from all sort of professions. They are all people fer. How do you do that? How do you base who believe in the mission to remember what the stories you tell on the different types of has happened. They all live by the credence visitors you have? ‘Never again’. We trigger attention by focusing on four types of When they start, our guides undergo basic train- visitors. We got the inspiration from the Smith- ing, followed by four expert lectures a year. We sonian Museum in Washington DC. In the nine- had one session on perpetrator behaviour given ties they did a big investigation about the mo- by our director Christophe Busch, a criminolo- tivations of museum visitors. Every visitor has gist specialised in radicalisation. Our next train- a specific preference. The first type is the ‘idea ing is a workshop about the ten steps in geno- visitors’. They are attracted to thinking, con- cide. The bar is high, we are quite demanding. If cepts and facts. They’re more abstract thinkers guides are not present at this training, they need who like discussions. The ‘people visitors’ are to write a paper on the subject. They have to be attracted to emotion. They identify with per- committed. They are also well-trained in how to deal with the different types of visitors in a 35

STORYTELLING sonal stories. The ‘object visitors’ love to look jects to the permanent exhibition in 2014. We “Telling the stories of vic- at artefacts and their descriptions. They’re the also applied the IPOP theory to our temporary tims and survivors creates more visual and aesthetic type. The fourth one exhibitions. In our exhibition The Art of War a connection between the is the ‘physical visitor’ who loves to do things. (2018), about art works from acclaimed art- visitors of our museum and They’re more adventurous types who like in- ists who reacted against war and violence, we the victims and survivors teraction. That’s what is called the IPOP model kept the text blocks very short and we showed of the Holocaust.” and it’s what our museum experience is based some original and raw etchings from Otto Dix upon. and Francesco Goya. As well as these, we in- 36 tegrated some audio fragments with quotes Is the superior exhibition one that attracts from famous Flemish people like war jour- all four types? Is that possible? nalist Rudi Vranckx. Once again, the intention was to make a personal connection with our You have to find a balance between the four visitors. Our next exhibition, in the autumn of visitor types. Your mission is accomplished 2019, will be about Auschwitz as an economi- if you succeed in pulling a visitor out of their cal centre; we will apply the same storytelling type, if you get your visitor out of their comfort principles, taking the four types of visitors into zone. For example, if you make an exhibition account. where a ‘people visitor’ is attracted by objects or a ‘physical visitor’ is attracted by facts, you What is the most difficult visitor type for a have a superior exhibition. Holocaust museum to attract? Is it a completely different way of thinking Most challenging is the physical type who likes that also has an impact on the organisation to experience things. As a Holocaust museum, of your museum? we have a limit when it comes to experienc- ing things; because we have to be make sure It has an impact indeed, because you need to we don’t cross the line of what is humane. have these four types in your museum team We have to respect what has happened to all to accomplish your goal. Historians are often those thousands of victims. For example we more concept-oriented, while our Department don’t put 50 people in an elevator trying to let of Education is more focused on interaction. them experience how it was in a train wagon. When the museum opened its doors, we still We are not fond of re-enactment. It’s difficult used a lot of text and photographs in our ex- to reach the different visitor types on social hibitions. Objects were almost completely ab- media. Social media is very one-dimensional. sent, which is understandable, because the A message on social media often attracts just exhibitions were mainly made by historians. one of those four types. So we try to put in Now, seven years later, that is completely dif- different triggers in our messages on social ferent. For example, we added over 100 ob- media.

STORYTELLING FROM UNDERSTANDING TO ACTION In 2014, a team of user-experience designers In Museum Kazerne Dossin each deportee figured out how visitors of the Kigali Genocide gets a face. A big portrait wall is the back- Telling stories is one thing, but as a muse- Memorial in Rwanda were not only offered an bone of the museum. It is a great exam- um you want to go a step further. You don’t emotional experience but also opportunities ple of powerful storytelling: those eyes want your visitors to forget these stories to react against genocide today and in the fu- follow you everywhere in the museum. once they leave the museum. You want ture. The Inzovu Curve, based on the shape of to inspire them to take action afterwards. an elephant, maps the emotional journey of match the historical reality. A lot of witnesses How do you achieve that? a person through a memorial in a way that is wait until they feel the end is near to tell their meant to shift the individual from understand- stories. Their trauma is often so great, that in We want to reach our visitors on an emotion- ing and empathy to action. Hope seems to be the course of their lives, their memories have al level and create empathy for what has hap- necessary to get people into action. At some faded or have become distorted. It’s not always pened so they will reflect upon it. But we don’t point in their museum experience, it’s import- easy to filter out what has really happened and just want our visitors to reflect and connect: ant to create a feeling of positivity, showing how it happened. Some of our second gener- we want to serve a bigger purpose than that. all the good things that happened within the ation witnesses, born at the beginning of the We also want them to take action afterward tragedy. If you don’t create that uplift, you lose war, have a lot of hearsay stories. A good ex- they’ve been here. To achieve that, you have your visitor. ample are the stories about Queen Elisabeth to make sure they are not stuck in the spiral of and her contribution during the war. There’s a a depressive message. If visitors leave the mu- There are a lot of facts and figures about the belief that she saved many Belgian Jews from seum in a depressed state, there will be no dif- Second World War and the Holocaust. But deportation. Queen Elisabeth did indeed inter- ference in their behaviour. To make people act facts and figures don’t necessarily evoke vene for some. But it was a very small group; differently, you need to give them a message empathy. How difficult is it to achieve a bal- most requests for help were denied or even of hope. On the one hand, we want to make it ance between information and emotion? went unanswered, and the protection of the clear that everyone can become a perpetrator. Jews with Belgian nationality was stopped in On the other hand we want to make it clear That is one of our main challenges. When we 1943. A myth arose, based in her efforts. It that you won’t necessarily end up as a per- interview people about the war and the Holo- suggests she saved more people than is really petrator. Everybody has a choice. You could, caust, we have to check what is true and what true. There is a story about the liberation of for example, become a rescuer. Therefore, we is not. What people remember doesn’t always Jewish kids from a home in Wezembeek-Op- base our museum experience on the Inzovu pem, at the end of October 1942. They were Curve, used in the Kigali Museum in Rwanda. sent to the Dossin barracks, but were released. A lot of people think it’s because of Queen Elis- abeth. But the real hero was a woman, Yvonne Nèvejean. At the time, she was the director of The National Agency for Children. 37

STORYTELLING 3-ACT-STRUCTURE The museum often starts its temporary “If visitors leave the muse- exhibitions based on what is happening um in a depressed state, In your permanent exhibition there are now. It tries to take part in the public de- there will be no difference literally three levels. You start on the first bate about radicalisation and polarisa- in their behaviour. To make floor where the theme is MASS, then you tion. Your director Christophe Bush and people act differently, you go the FEAR level, and end on the third lev- former director Dr. Herman Van Goethem need to give them a mes- el with DEATH. It’s quite a depressing mes- (currently rector of the University of Ant- sage of hope.” sage. How do you make that hopeful? werp) are often quoted and interviewed in the media as experts on these themes. 38 The idea behind the MASS-FEAR-DEATH struc- Does that help bring people into the mu- ture is to show the negative spiral of violence. seum? We want to show how the process of dehu- manisation works. It starts when a group of Yes, it does, we are lucky to have several people is driven in a certain direction, on pur- experts in our team. In addition, the story pose or by accident. It can be a group of vic- about the Holocaust is not just a historical tims, it can be a group of perpetrators. You story. If you look at the process of radicali- can look at a mass of people from different sation today, there are some parallels with perspectives. We show how a mass of Jewish the 30s, in the run up to the Second World people was excluded from society, which led War. Linking the present and the past is very to fear and eventually to murder and death. important for reaching the younger genera- That’s why we also explain the ten steps of a tion. For some of our visitors the stories told genocide. It’s quite depressing indeed, but we in the museum are four generations away. By don’t forget the stories of hope. In that nega- starting from what is happening today, you tive spiral of exclusion, persecution and mur- can also be part of society and of the public der, there are hopeful stories of resistance. On debate. When we guide schools from places the first level, for example, we also tell stories like Vilvoorde or Antwerp, cities from which about the first acts of resistance. Not every- a lot of youngsters left for Syria to fight with one was part of the mass. There were people the IS terrorist organisation, it’s important to who fought the Nazi ideas from the beginning. make the link. That’s why we also give work- People who helped Jewish people hide. There shops and develop toolkits for schools and are stories about how Jewish people sent en- teachers about radicalisation. It’s not enough coded messages to warn family and friends to organise exhibitions, you need to inter- not to report to the Dossin barracks. You can act with people. Recently, we developed our focus on the good things that happened after Memorial website, where you can find pho- the war, how people have been coming to- tographs, where people can light candles, gether to heal. These stories give people hope. where we post biographies, quotes from wit- nesses, and much more.

The museum also organises workshops for STORYTELLING police officers, which are known to be very successful. lOlsainiottnuochaslOilgniorrat)tntuiochuhegprra)thsrtsiahuehetaprethserssotahetaifraceesotstailipvefactoiavstailcpMvesrtentyotiavlticurMsmsresnotsyt/ltiuonresmsswaofsgu/coneseamwatfgurtnscieehammdtretnsieKhp(dmdmseaaeKuSp(dzcaemsreaaeetspuvSczcraeslireneotvy,spovcerosnlinnovy,mrfdoeesonnDoamrtfdehsWvoroDoaeetfsohWvorodsaeretfisnvlonhdsdabidr.etsinvlynhidbidt.eWsTHoydtiehrtoeaWTHsoldet---re.hroeasle---r. 39 We started with that in 2014 to make police officers more sensitive to discrimination. The programme is called Holocaust, police and hu- man rights. More than 8,000 police officers have followed the workshop. After they are guided through the museum, they study his- torical and recent cases involving radicalisa- tion and racism. For example, we compare the case of officers who were part of a raid in Antwerp during the war with similar cases, such as forced expulsions of illegals from Bel- gium. They also discuss internal problems, for example: what would you do if you notice that your colleague makes racist comments about a person they arrested? The VUB (Vrije Univer- siteit Brussel) investigated the social impact of the workshops and the results have been very good. So we are busy expanding these work- shops and toolkits for schools and the police. As a museum, it’s important not to stay within the walls of your museum. The new museum has been open for seven years now. Is it time for change? How do you keep re-inventing yourself? In 2012-2013, we had a peak with more than 100,000 visitors. That really was a rush, with a lot of projects. 2018 was a very good year with 68,797 visitors, nine percent more than in 2017, when there were fewer visitors due to several factors. In 2018, big, temporary ex- hibitions like The Art of War and Holocaust and

Visitors end the tour of the STORYTELLING museum on a large terrace looking out on the old Dossin graphic novels attracted a lot of visitors. But the barracks from which people fact that polarisation and radicalisation are were deported to Auschwitz. hot issues has attracted more visitors. We are all very passionate about our jobs, constantly searching for stories from the last witnesses of the Holocaust and trying to document them as well as possible. We are very lucky to have a lot of volunteers who fervently support us, with the same drive as our employees. We also have a history of working with recognised refugees (‘Artikel 60’ers’) who, for example, help us find portraits for our portrait wall. We are all affected by the Dossin mission: making sure people reflect on what happened during the war and make sure that they do something with their reflections. That is what we want to achieve: reflection and action. Is there another museum in Europa about the second world war that you can recom- mend to our readers? I was really struck by Memorial to the Mur- dered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermo- teten Juden Europa’s, red.) in Berlin. It’s very well built, conceptually. There is a room where they project letters and a room where you can listen to testimonials. Very short testimonials, but with a lot of impact. I remember one of a woman who told us when she arrived in Aus- chwitz how she was separated from her moth- er and two children. The Germans allowed her son to go with her. But she said to him: ‘Stay with your grandma and sister, then you won’t have to work that hard.’ All three of them were sent straight to the gas chambers. I remember that woman saying: ‘I killed my son.’ 40

STORYTELLING MECHELEN, BELGIUM INTERVIEWEE SIGRID BOSMANS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR (HOF VAN BUSLEYDEN) WRITTEN BY ANN VERLINDEN STORYTELLING ‘Your tower isn’t finished’ From an old city palace to a modern city museum Interview with Sigrid Bosmans, 1506. The talented lawyer and humanist from the Habsburg Netherlands, Hieronymous van artistic director at the Museum Busleyden (ca. 1470-27 August 1517) purchases a big house in de Koestraat, currently de Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen Frederik de Merodestraat, in Mechelen. He expands the house in the architectural style of the Burgundian nobility, transforming it into a city palace. Van Busleyden is a man with in- ternational allure. His palace becomes a meeting place for great minds such as Erasmus and Thomas More. The palace also embraces the inhabitants, incorporating a school and a music academy to serve their needs. Several centuries later, in 1914, the palace is completely ruined by German bombing. In 1938, it reopens as a city museum. It is in 2010, the complete renovation of the old city museum starts, drawn up by architects David Driesen and Hans Le Compte. 23 million euros are invested. The new city museum opened its doors shortly before the summer of 2018. It aims to attract more than 75,000 vis- itors a year. Currently, the first temporary exhibition It almost seemed a Lily, showcasing the well-known Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere, is attracting visitors from all over the world. 41

STORYTELLING Sigrid Bosmans • art historian • has been Heritage In the second phase you asked policy-and opinion makers what they think is import- and Museum Coordinator at the City of Mechel- ant in a city museum. What was the result? en for 15 years • coordinated the participative pro- We consulted about sixty opinion makers from different contexts. We talked with people like gramme for the costruction of the new city museum, Chris Dercon, the former director of the Tate Modern in London, historian Bruno De Wev- Museum Hof van Busleyden er, psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter, Mieke Van Hecke, the former head of Catholic Education In 2012, you began major market research in Flanders, and journalist Chantal Pattyn. We and brainstorming ways to give the city mu- invited socio-cultural organisations to one big seum a new direction. What was your moti- brainstorming session. How do we talk about vation? a museum? What is a good museum concept for Mechelen? We shared the results with poli- We worked in different phases. First we ticians, giving them a voice too. We asked them brought together experts in the museum sec- what they think is important for a city museum. tor, museum directors and academics. We For them, it’s important that a city museum is questioned which of the new museum criteria economically viable and a touristic drawcard. to discuss with the general public. When peo- ple think about museums, they think about ex- And after interviewing different stakehold- hibitions. But it’s important to talk about your ers, it was time to question the people. How location, your themes, the collection you have did you do that? and the methods for presenting that collection and how people and organisations themselves We organised a try-out exhibition together with want to interact with the museum. What kind the inhabitants and organisations of Mechel- of museum do we want? You can choose to be en. About 40 organisations were involved. We a museum that starts from stories like STAM called the expo Your tower isn’t finished. It was (City Museum) in Ghent. You can start from ob- based on the famous statement by Pope Jo- jects like at the Tate Modern in London, or you hannes Paulus II. When he visited Mechelen in can start from the people like the Museum in 1985, he noticed St. Rombold’s Cathedral didn’t Rotterdam does. We choose to combine the have a steeple. The title of our exposition was three options. Our museum tells the story of also in line with an important source of inspira- a city palace in the Burgundian era and as the tion: the German philosopher Walter Benjamin. home of Hieronymus van Busleyden. Next to He says a city museum is never finished and has that it focusses on presenting masterpieces to reflect the reality of the times. ‘Every image and makes room for the people of the city to of the past that is not recognized by the present participate? 42

as one of its own concerns threatens to disap- STORYTELLING pear irretrievably.’ (Theses on the Philosophy of History, 1940) Giving meaning to a museum, to Museum Hof van Busleyden wants to be a a story and to objects is a dynamic process. So meeting place, as it was before in the 16th what people think about today, about what a century. It was and is a place where peo- museum should be today, is important. ple reflect on society and take part in it. How did that work? What kind of an exhibi- 43 tion was it? Our visitors were allowed to compose their own exhibition and their own catalogue. That way, we knew which stories were most interesting to them. Over 40 communities were also asked to do something in the museum. They became part of the exhibition. The exhibition was set up as a sort of market where people, objects and stories came together. The visitors decided which path they wanted to follow and had the opportunity to add their story to the exhibition by leaving a quote or adding photos. The com- munication for the expo was also partly in the hands of our partners and the visitors. We gave the possibility to the visitors and all the chil- dren of the Academy of Mechelen to make two posters. We asked them to put one poster in windows at home and the other we distributed through our communication channels. Was it successful? What lessons did you learn? We discovered ‘normal’ people like to be in- volved in debating what our museums should be. The test expo brought people together and gave us good insights into what they think is im- portant. We had very positive feedback on the community input and the actualisation of our

exhibition. But the number of visitors was quite STORYTELLING low. We learned that people need a strong name and a strong story if they’re going to at- “Giving meaning to a museum, to a story and tend an exhibition. People are always attracted to objects is a dynamic process. So what by famous artists like Berlinde De Bruyckere people think about today, about what a or Rik Wouters. Visitors like to have a certain museum should be today, is important.” idea of what they will see and experience in the museum, which doesn’t mean you don’t have Rik Wouters: dance, balance, beauty and mo- elements of the city palace connect very well to surprise or challenge them. But if visitors rality. But we kept the multi-perspective aspect with what a museum is today: a place to meet, don’t have any idea at all of what will happen, by having four curators and the museum team to collect, to network and where people are at it is very difficult to pull them into the museum. working close together. We involved the public the center, so it becomes multifaceted. Every- We also learned you cannot leave it to others again, mobilising different organisations. We body looks at the past with his contemporary to communicate about your exposition. As a had people participating inside and outside the eyes, as Hiëronymus did in his days, but we also museum you need someone with expertise in museum. We incorporated a variety of different use the past to look at the future. The past gives communication and marketing to encourage cultural initiatives. The Royal Dance School of our museum an international dimension, put- participation. Antwerp who organized dance classes during ting it into a touristic perspective. A museum our exhibition. For example, we had young needs to give tourists a reason to come. Peo- THE ‘NETWORKED’ MUSEUM people doing dance battles in the museum and ple from all over the world relate to the story of statues about the exhibition made by a mix of our Burgundian past, they are connected with You integrated the lessons you learned in mentally and economic vulnerable people . Un- it because it is part of their past or are inter- the 2016 expo Zot Geweld/ Dwaze Maagd, de- der normal circumstances, these people might ested in the turbulence of the period because voted to the famous Malinois painter Rik never have come into contact with our muse- it matches the restlessness of society today. Wouters. You chose a different approach? um or with the work of Rik Wouters. This connection between the viewpoint of the visitor, their reason to connect with the pas is 2016 was the centenary anniversary of Rik You want Museum Hof Van Busleyden to central to our museum. That’s why we were Wouters’s death—a good time to organise an be a ‘networked’ museum. What does that very pleased with the connection Berlinde De exhibition devoted to him. For this exhibition mean? Bruyckere made with the extremely rare 16th we decided to focus on one major story and Century Enclosed Gardens (Horti Conclusi). Be- one statue. It was a collaboration between our We want our museum to be a meeting place, as longing to the former convent of Mechelen’s museum, Het Firmament (Centre of expertise for it was before in the 16th century, when the city Hospital Sisters, this Horti Conclusi are listed as the cultural heritage of performing arts in Flan- was the centre of what was then the Burgun- Flemish Masterpieces. The dialogue between ders), the Academy of Mechelen and the Roy- dian Netherlands. It was and is a place where the contemporary work and the 16th century al Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The iconic people reflect on the society and take part in it. pieces shows how meaning can overcome time image Het Zotte Geweld was the starting point Today we call that participation. That sphere of through form But it doesn’t stop there. We also for the exhibition. We worked around four humanism is still present. The four important asked other organisations and communities to themes that were also central in this work of 44

STORYTELLING The people of Mechelen were involved and engaged in defining the concept of the new museum. That participative aspect is im- portant in everything the museum does. do something with those Enclosed Gardens. For museum you walk from the public space to but you can really experience polyphony. example the theatre company Abattoir Fermé the private space, from the bustling city into (stationed in Mechelen) made its own Enclosed the spiritual. The first part of the exhibition Is the internal organisation in your mu- Gardens. That way you connect the museum shows life in a Burgundian city, in the past seum participative as well or is the cura- with the world outside and you bring the past and today, based on artistic objects. There tor still the boss? into the present. is, for example, a space called People make the city, where we show the dragon made by No, not in my museum! The curator has a The participative aspect is also visible in puppet maker Paul Contryn for the Omme- very important function of course, selecting the central themes of the museum and the gang procession in Mechelen in 2013. In the the right objects and the relevant stories, way they are designed. second part/space, The art of power, we show but every museum employee has to be in- one of the only portraits left of Hieronymus volved in creating exhibitions from begin- That’s right. Our themes are decided by all the van Busleyden. We also have a space where ning to end. When we start thinking about stakeholders we consulted. The five themes you can see the choirbook of Archduchess an exhibition everyone sits around the ta- are: the self-conscious city, power and cen- Margret of Austria (Governer of the Habsburg ble: our cells of education, participation, tralisation, craftsmanship, the exploration of Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from communication, art specialists, etc. We are science, and the self and the spiritual. Most 1519 to 1530). You can not only listen to the a team and we think together about our ap- themes have a participative space. In the polyphonic music you can see in the book, proach. 45

STORYTELLING Together with the local theatre company “Our central themes are to play a role in the debate about democracy. Arsenaal/Lazarus you are working on a decided by all the stake- We want to organise a place in which there is major city project in which the inhabi- holders we consulted. All room for debate again. Once a month (the first tants of Mechelen play a leading role. In opinions are important. Thursday evening of the month) we also orga- The ground of things, you give the ground in That’s the thread of our nise readings, conversations and workshops Mechelen back to the people. museum.” related to the project, called Soirée Carré. With this project/exhibition we will once again Yes, the idea was propsed by Willy Thomas, combine our Burgundian past with the pres- the artistic director of Arsenaal. He thinks ent and future of Mechelen. In the past, you communities are becoming more and more in- could only gain ground through marriage or troverted, folding back on themselves. That is war. Now people have to convince each other very much at the expense of a shared society. of the best idea. We want to hear the voice of A sense of shared experience is necessary to everyone in the population. All opinions are be able to live together. With this project, we important. That’s the thread of our museum. want people to think about that, to think about democracy. We want the people of Mechelen Do you have any dreams you would like to to think about what is important for our town. pursue with your museum in the near fu- Therefore the city gave 20,000 square metres ture? to its residents. Everyone had the chance to decide what they would do with one square I would like to realise an event like Tate Mod- meter. We will not select the best ideas, but ern did with the opening of the museum. The make the selection together with the people artist Peter Liversidge wrote a choral piece of Mechelen. We had 206 ideas and all togeth- for the museum called The Bridge and the er we decided which 84 projects that will get museum invited 500 singers from different a place in the exhibition What’s the ground of classes to sing the song in the Turbine Hall. I things? in autumn, 2019. We hope some of would love to have an possibility to work with the projects will be realised in 2021. You can an artist over a length of time to make a work look at all the ideas at www.degrondderding- of art with the people from Mechelen about en.be. With this project, we want the museum Mechelen. 46

TECHNOLOGY BREDA, THE NETHERLANDS THOMAS MORE MANAGER (DUTCH ROSE MEDIA) INTERVIEWEE ALEX VAN HAPPEN TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY LICIA CALVI Why should you embrace aug- mented reality in your museum? Interview with Alex van Happen, The Breda University of Applied Sciences was commissioned by VisitBrabant and the manager at Dutch Rose Media in Province of North Brabant to develop a narrative concept and connecting storylines. This Eindhoven unifying narrative concept should link the four main museums in Brabant that deal with heritage from WWII and should promote and facilitate collaboration and cohesion among them. The main reason for this was to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Brabant from German occupation in 1944, while attracting tourists to the region with a distinctive, original offering. This concept is Crossroads. There were various museums involved: the National War Museum Overloon, which covers military heritage spanning a large period of time and is located close to where a fierce battle between Allied and Ger- man troops took place in the autumn of 1944; the Camp Vught National Memorial, a for- mer-SS-concentration camp where over 31,000 people from a variety of backgrounds were held prisoner in 1943 and 1944; the General Maczek museum in Breda, which is dedicated to the Polish troops who liberated the city from the oppressors; and The Wings of Libera- tion museum in Best, which originated as a private collection, mainly of aircraft. Each of these institutions has their own WWII stories to tell. 47

TECHNOLOGY Alex van Happen • Marketing and Sales at Dutch sonal stories: if they were something else, this Rose Media • worked on the Brabant Remem- concern about interface controls wouldn’t be as bers apps, which allowed viewers to relive true relevant. stories from WWII • joined in the interview by colleague Casper Moerkerk, designer, UX expert and Why do you think AR is the right solution for visual director of the videos this kind of project? What is the first question, you ask yourself Being at the place where a historical event took when developing an AR app? place while the story of the event is being told bring the story and experience to life in a very In the case of AR, content comes first. So the first vivid way. Imagine being at the beaches of Nor- question we ask ourselves when we are devel- mandy and watching the Allied soldiers landing oping an AR app is: ‘What are we creating for us- on those beaches. For Brabant Remembers, ers to see?’ And we only start to think of how we VisitBrabant had to choose 10 stories to turn want them to interact with it after we have an- into AR videos from the 75 published in Cross- swered this question. For more ‘normal’ videos roads. One of them is a story that took place in like those on YouTube or Netflix, for example, Tilburg, the city where I live. I only discovered users have all kinds of controls at their disposal: it after I moved there, because I was browsing pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding. But we through the 10 selected stories. I said to myself ‘I never use them for AR. Users are there for the want to see where this is!’ And guess what? This full experience, and you don’t want them to in- story took place in my own street. There is in- teract with that in the traditional way. deed some sort of monument that I had always thought was a religious monument. And as I am Moreover, all these Brabant Remembers videos not that interested in religion, I always passed are personal stories in which we place virtual by without paying any attention to it. But now I people in the physical environment around the know the story of what happened, I have a com- users. You don’t want the user interface mess- pletely different feeling. That same concept is re- ing up with that experience too much; you want ally strong with AR; you get a mix of the place as the users immersed in it as we are telling a sto- it is nowadays, but we also tell the story of what ry. The defining factor here is that these are per- happened there 50 years ago in a highly visual way. Afterwards, you always look at that certain place in a different way. In this case, there’s a combination of bringing people to a certain spot and of telling the per- sonal stories of what happened there. Of course, you could make a documentary of 48

these stories, one that people could watch while Do you think AR has a bigger impact on visu- TECHNOLOGY lying down on the couch, like a Netflix moment. alising or imagining a situation than VR does? Or you could say, ‘Okay, it may sound a bit weird, I imagine that with VR, you can control the “In the case of AR, content but let’s bring people to that spot to watch it’. environment much more, maybe even add comes first. So the first It forces you to come to Brabant and it forces more details to the visuals. question we ask ourselves you, as a person, to take an extra step, to stand when we are developing there and to step into the shoes of the people We call this ‘location-based AR’. And the bet- an AR app is: ‘What are we who lived that story. Watching a video when ter AR gets, the more effective this will be. Two creating for users to see?’ you are there gives a different meaning to the or three years ago, when you captured green And we only start to think whole experience: you don’t need to use your screen footage and augmented it, the experi- of how we want them to in- own imagination to figure out how it looked. It’s ence wasn’t as good as it is nowadays. We can teract with it after we have a historical event and we want to tell it this way, have digital people standing on a surface and answered this question.” keeping its historic character, so it is even better have shadows and details like that. This makes when you see the location, see the people and the experience way more involving than it was 49 see it all come together. before. If you had asked me the same question two or three years ago, I would have had my AR OR VR? doubts and thought, ‘Maybe not, maybe a bit’. I think that today, and even more in the future, lo- It would be interesting to know your reasons cation-based AR makes for a much more intense for using AR technology. Was it something experience. But it also depends on what you are you were thinking about when you were trying to visualise. If you are trying to visualise, developing this application? Changing peo- say, the transformation of a building, you can ple’s perspectives on a specific location, sim- overlay the old building with the new one using ilar to your experience with the monument AR. With a tab you can remove it or switch it on in Tilburg? Or is this something that simply and off. With VR you would have a completely emerged in the end? new environment; you could remodel the old and the new buildings, but I don’t think it would In our concept pitch, this was one of the topics feel the same as in AR because you don’t see the we mentioned: giving you a totally new experi- ‘real’ thing. ence of the place you were yesterday. But the first step was to tell those personal stories at But for really big projects, or big environ- a place where they once happened. And this is ments, VR is better? where AR gives you a completely new and more intense experience of a place you had been be- Yes it is. For example, if you want to have an fore. overview of the Strijp-S area in Eindhoven, now and in the future, VR is preferable. It gives you a more intense experience because it puts you

TECHNOLOGY During the third workshop about technology in Breda (The Netherlands) Alex Van Happen tries to convince the parti- cipants about the power of AR by explaining how the Bra- bant Remembers-app came alive. An app that allows vie- wers to relive true stories from the Second World War. inside the environment. And it recreates the en- short time, wit really tight deadlines! This timing ing a script for a regular movie is completely dif- vironment as a whole. With AR, this would not was pretty heavy – it created some tension. Plus, ferent to writing for AR: we show all the actors, be possible. Choosing between AR and VR really this was a big project for us; everything was so all the time, from head to toe, and we don’t want depends on the context. new. In terms of people, we were responsible for to have a lot of different shots because there are the design, meaning all the design elements and no camera movements. The camera just stands This sort of project requires an interdisciplin- the script. We got the scriptwriter, the director there on a tripod, without anyone walking all the ary team where designers, programmers, and the technical people that we hired specifi- way in or out. The scriptwriter had the challenge actors, and scriptwriters work together. Was cally for this project, while VisitBrabant was re- of writing the script in a way that meant the sto- this a smooth process for you? How would sponsible for the actors, the clothing and all the ry basically took place in one single camera shot you describe the interactions between all props and attributes. The communication usu- and mostly in the one place.. After that, the de- those parties? ally went smoothly. The scriptwriter had never signers had the challenge of somehow creating written a script for AR before. He had to search a way to transition from shot to shot. When you Premise: We needed the app to be ready, with around a lot for the right way to write it, and have a video, which is about five minutes long, all the content, in three to four months – a very came to our office to study examples of AR. Writ- you cannot have one single five-minute take, 50