Digitalisation at Museums

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i

Digitalisation at

Museums

A study on the various effects digitalisation have

had on museums and how museums can develop

new digital interactions for their visitors.

17/09/2020

Media Technology: Strategic Media Development

(ME620A)

Master thesis, 15 ECTS, Advanced Level

Author: Hassan Taher

Supervisor: Maria Engberg

Examiner: Jay David Bolter

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This thesis has involved a lot of important people to various degrees. The list would be made too long if I were to acknowledge everyone, nonetheless, below are the most important ones.

First and foremost, my supervisor Maria Engberg, who has been an incredible support throughout, sharing her knowledge, feedback, tips, ideas, and tricks with me.

Åsa Harvard Maare and Pille Pruulmann Vengerfeldt for their great support in the creation of the digital workshop project.

My partner who helped me whenever I felt a bit off and put me back on track.

All the participants in the workshops. The endless discussions that we had and the feedback from these participants were incredibly important.

Malmö Museer, and their great team that was involved in the project from start to finish. Getting a glimpse of their behind-the-scenes organisation was an experience that I will hold dear.

Finally, family, friends, and classmates that all gave me their support by either being test subjects or just someone to share an idea or thought with.

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Author: Hassan Taher

Title: Digitalisation at Museums Year: Spring 2020

Level: Master’s degree

Department: TS – Malmö University Supervisor: Maria Engberg

Examiner: Jay David Bolter

Abstract

With digital presence becoming an increasingly big part of museums, more resources have been put on digital interactions. This thesis studies how Malmö Museums can enforce their digital strategy by taking advantage of the Norwegian method – Tingens Metod (Method of Things), and by renewing their digital presence. Because of the COVID-19 crisis and the technological advancements of the past decade, museums are using digital technologies more than ever before to reach their visitors. By using Tingens Metod, we have been able to show how collaborative digital workshops with different participating groups can open the museum process to be an open dialogue between museum creators and the museum’s visitors. The workshops have led to a democratisation of artefacts, and a new-found appreciation for the conservation that occurs at museums. These workshops have also shown that participants would like to use digital tools and interactions in their exploration of a museum’s wide collection of artefacts.

The results of this thesis project have led to the creation of a two-part prototype. First, the Tingens Metod workshops are adapted to become a recurring playtest programme at the museum. Second, an overall renewed digital presence which reimagines the museum’s digital presence in a modern and reimagined way should be available on platforms that visitors are using. Together these two parts form a proposed prototype which can be adapted by Malmö Museums in their continued effort to reach their long-term digital strategy goals.

Keywords: Museums, Digital museums, Digital presence, Tingens Metod, Method of things, Digitalisation

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Table of Figures

FIGURE 1.VISUAL SHOWING THE INFLUENCES AND HIERARCHY BETWEEN THE ORGANISATIONS. ... 18 FIGURE 2.THE ONLINE COLLECTION,RIJKS STUDIO, BELONGING TO THE RIJKSMUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM. ... 19 FIGURE 3.A GAMIFIED WEBAPP CONCEPT, WHERE USERS USE A WEB-BASED APP RATHER THAN A SEPARATELY

DOWNLOADED APP (SWACHA ET AL.,2020). ... 20 FIGURE 4.ANTHONY GORMLEY'S 26-METRE-HIGH SCULPTURE NAMED "EXPOSURE", PLACED IN LELYSTAD,NETHERLANDS

(PHOTO CREDIT -BRAM SCHILLING). ... 23 FIGURE 5.ARTBOOK ON HENRI DE TOULOUSE LAUTREC'S ARTWORKS. ... 24 FIGURE 6.VIRTUAL TOURS IN THE GAME ENVIRONMENT, PLAYERS ARE ALSO SHOWN PICTURES OF ARTEFACTS PROVIDED BY

MUSEUMS SUCH AS THE LOUVRE MUSEUM IN PARIS (SCREENSHOT FROM ASSASSIN’S CREED ORIGINS). ... 26 FIGURE 7.WEBMUSEUM LAUNCHED IN 1994 BY AN ART LOVER AND IT IS STILL AVAILABLE AS AN ONLINE RESOURCE (PIOCH,

2002). ... 29 FIGURE 8.DIGITAL TOUR WITH HIGH-RESOLUTION SCANS, AND AUDIO GUIDES WITH TEXT TRANSCRIPTIONS.LOCATED ON

THE WEBSITE OF THE RIJKSMUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM. ... 31 FIGURE 9.QR-CODE NEXT TO A HOLOCAUST TESTIMONY AT MALMÖ MUSEUMS LINKING TO AN AUDIO TRACK. ... 32 FIGURE 10.MAP SHOWING WHERE THE COLLECTION OF PERSONAL COVID-19 MEMORIES IS COMING FROM (LÖWENFELDT,

2020). ... 35 FIGURE 11.MALMÖ MUSEUMS PREVIOUS HOMEPAGE (LEFT) COMPARED WITH THEIR NEWLY DESIGNED ITERATION (RIGHT).

... 39 FIGURE 12.A VISITOR USING THE AR EXPERIENCE AT THE ANTHROPOCENE EXHIBITION.(CREDITS:MALMÖ MUSEUMS) .. 43 FIGURE 13.RESULTS FROM THE FIRST GUEST WORKSHOP WHERE AN OPIUM-PIPE WAS ANALYSED BY ONE OF THE

WORKSHOP GROUPS.(CREDIT:HASSAN TAHER) ... 45 FIGURE 14.WORKSHOP RESULTS FROM THE MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY TINGENS METOD PROJECT (LINDEBERG-LINDVET,

2019). ... 45 FIGURE 15.WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS DURING THE FIRST TRY-OUT WORKSHOP AT THE MUSEUM WAREHOUSE. ... 48 FIGURE 16.COLLAGE OF ALL THE DIFFERENT OBJECTS PART OF THE WORKSHOP. ... 49 FIGURE 17.INDIVIDUAL WHITEBOARD JAMBOARD FOR ONE OF THE OBJECTS, WHERE PARTICIPANTS IN THE FIRST WORKSHOP

HAVE PLACED STICKY NOTES WITH QUESTIONS. ... 49 FIGURE 18.THE UNFINISHED PROPOSITION OF "MUSEUMS ARE FOR..." BEING ANSWERED BY THE PARTICIPANTS DURING

THE SECOND WORKSHOP. ... 50 FIGURE 19.EXAMPLE OF AN OBJECT’S SLIDE FROM THE FOURTH WORKSHOP WITH NO COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS

(LEFT SIDE) COMPARED TO THE SAME SLIDE AFTER THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE WORKSHOP COMMENTED (RIGHT SIDE). ... 51 FIGURE 20.MALMÖ MUSEUMS’INSTAGRAM POST WITH A CARLOTTA COLLECTIONS ID. ... 56

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FIGURE 21.INSTAGRAM BIO LINK OPTION. ... 57 FIGURE 22.GROCERY BRAND URTEKRAM'S LINKTREE LANDING PAGE. ... 57 FIGURE 23.GROCERY CHAIN ICA'S LINKIN.BIO WHERE THE CLICKABLE POSTS LEAD TO RECIPES. ... 57 FIGURE 24.MALMÖ MUSEUMS EDUCATIONAL HUB, ACCOMPANIED BY OLD WEB DESIGN AND AN UNINSPIRED

PRESENTATION (MALMÖ MUSEER,2019). ... 58 FIGURE 25.CARLOTTA WEBPAGE WITH HIGHLIGHTS SHOWING HOW THE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES ARE MIXED (YELLOW

MARKINGS).ALSO SHOWN ARE ANCHOR POINTS SHOWING WHERE THE WEBPAGE IS STATIC AND DOES NOT RESPOND TO DEVICE OR SCREEN SIZE (BLACK ARROWS). ... 59 FIGURE 26.JOHANNES VERMEER'S MILKMAID DISPLAYED IN RIJKSSTUDIO.THE PLATFORM GIVES THE OPTION OF MORE

INFORMATION, POSSIBLE DOWNLOADS, PURCHASING COPIES, AND MUCH MORE (YELLOW MARKINGS). ... 60 FIGURE 27.ONE OF THE ARTEFACTS WHICH WERE INCLUDED IN OUR WORKSHOPS.THE IMAGE PROVIDED BY CARLOTTA

SHOWED SOME SIMPLE TEXT IN THE MIDDLE, WHICH WAS HARD TO READ.THIS LED TO SOME PARTICIPANTS BEING FRUSTRATED SEEING AS THE TEXT WAS THE ONLY VALUABLE PIECE OF INFORMATION PROVIDED. ... 62 FIGURE 28.STARTING PAGE OF A MOCK-UP JAMBOARD SESSION (ARTWORK CREDIT:WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) ... 65 FIGURE 29."MUSEUMS ARE FOR..." IS THE SLIDE WHERE THE PARTICIPANTS GET TO VOICE THEIR OPINION ABOUT WHAT A

MUSEUM IS FOR THEM. ... 66 FIGURE 30.A DIFFERENT KIND OF "MUSEUMS ARE FOR..." SLIDE THAT HAS BEEN REPURPOSED TO FIT THE SUBJECT OF THE

DEMO. ... 67 FIGURE 31.A DESCRIPTIVE SLIDE, EXPLAINING WHAT MUSEUMS FOCUS ON AND WHAT THEY DO... 68 FIGURE 32.OVERVIEW SLIDE SHOWING THE DIFFERENT ARTWORKS THAT WILL BE PART OF THE PLAYTEST.(ARTWORK

CREDIT:WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) ... 68 FIGURE 33.A SLIDE SHOWING THE “GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING” WITH DIFFERENT DETAILS HIGHLIGHTED.(ARTWORK

CREDIT:WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) ... 69 FIGURE 34.THE “MILKMAID” PAINTING WITH COMMENTS AND RELATIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS.(ARTWORK CREDIT:

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) ... 70 FIGURE 35.A FINAL DISCUSSION WHERE THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, OBSERVATIONS, AND FEEDBACK CAN BE VOICED.

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

“We’re a public institution, and so the art and objects we have are, in a way, everyone’s property,” – Taco Dibbits, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

(Siegal, 2013)

Technology and museums go hand in hand, museums have been and are institutions that showcase historical and cultural development and movements. By doing this, museums have naturally also been documenting and depicting a range of technological advancements that have been witnessed through time. They are significant sources of information and

inspiration for future generations, and hence this is what their mission is, to manage and dispense their collections of artefacts (Lewis, 2004). This is not an easy task for these institutions because these collections can be vast in their scope, and the different groups of people that the institutions need to cater to are distinct from each other. Nonetheless, museums and other institutions have been given the mission from significant stakeholders (states, regions, cities, etc.) to present collections of artefacts to the people of cities, countries, and the world (Crooke, 2008). This interaction between museums and the public has only been expanded with the introduction of the internet and digital technological advancements that are seen today. As mentioned by the likes of José van Dijck, Tula Gianni, and Jonathan P. Bowen, digital culture is all around us, at home, at work, and on the streets. Digital and connected technologies have spread quickly in our contemporary society, part of this change is also occurring in institutions such as museums (2014; 2018). This has lead to museums readapting themselves and to convince the public that they are not stuck in their development, but that they rather stand at the forefront of trying to adopt and master new emerging

technologies (Verma, 2017). It is now not uncommon to see museums adopt the latest

technological advancements available on the market, whether it is IoT, Virtual Reality, or any other noteworthy and often expensive technology (Chianese & Piccialli, 2014; Richmond, 2019).

Malmö Museums, which will be the focus of this thesis has, for the last five years, directed their attention on new digital strategies and explored how they can take advantage of different digital tools and services to increase their digital presence (Everstijn, 2019) in day-to-day

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museum activities. The project this thesis is part of handles the museum’s participation in the Norwegian method of participatory museum research “Tingens Metod” (the method of things), where the museums are working together with other members of the public, people who might know certain things about certain objects (Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2020). The museum is also part of the nationally funded project called Wisdome, aimed at becoming an “arena of experience” with digital labs and with a focus on sustainable development. The aim is to provide a technologically modern science centre for Malmö’s children and young adults

(Wisdome, 2019). Another initiative the museum has invested in involves actively expanding the online database of their artefact collection, with new content and information which can be viewed by everyone with access to the internet (Carlotta - Malmö Museer, 2020). These are just some of the investments that the museum has initiated when it comes to including modern technologies in their day-to-day business moving into the 2020s. It is also here that the focus of this thesis lies, in analysing the different initiatives that Malmö Museums are taking regarding the digital technologies and the different strategies that are being applied. This is especially important when looking into how visitor engagement with the museum is being handled and where it needs to possibly improve. The museum has spent a lot of resources on their strategies, but do they work in practice and if so, how have they been materialising? This kind of questions and others are answered by the underlying analysis of this thesis.

For organisations and cultural institutions, it has become very important to plan how the organisation shall adapt to a digital environment. The use of digital plans that clarify what kind of strategy is going to be put in place has, therefore, become an essential part of the strategic planning phase (European Commission, 2019; Stein, 2017). Possessing an informational website which also works as a hub of inspiration for different visitors and organisations is just as important as having a website that is responsive on a multitude of devices (Marty, 2008). The museums just like other institutions must abide by certain

regulations and guidelines, for Malmö Museums these guidelines are provided by a collection of directives from the city, region, and the government. Malmö Museums’ digital strategy goals are a continuation, expansion, and development of the “general cultural heritage plan” that Region Skåne published (2015). For the museum, the digital presence is, therefore, a significant tool that, if used efficiently, can help the museum accomplish their general vision and mission which is to bring forward both curiosity and context by the conservation, usage, and developments of their museum collections (Malmö Museer, 2020b, p. 3).

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If we look at the current “fast-paced” digital media development, it is evident that museums are trying to reorganise themselves via different means. Examples of this can be seen with the various digital media guides which museums provide (Falk & Dierking, 2008; Ruttkay & Bényei, 2018), or the extensive digital collection websites such as the one available to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum, 2020; Rühse, 2017). With the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 museums have also started live-streaming on different social media as a way to interact with visitors that are quarantining at home (Ciecko, 2020; Moderna Museet, 2020). In trying to attract museum visitors the museums have had to adopt new technologies, these technologies are inherently changing how the museum is organised, but also how it is

presenting itself to the public. This has been especially evident in 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis led to the closures or restrictions of museums across the globe and the confinement of billions of people (Redoglia, 2020; Shoichet, 2020). These developments are gaining traction because of the continued growth of mobile computing, and also because of the ways

museums perceive their collections, and where they want them to be accessible, whether it is online on websites and apps or at the museums (Pesce et al., 2019). With these different developments occurring at a steady and quick pace, the cultural institutions must adapt to cater to new and existing audiences that can be reached via new technologies. This kind of digital interaction with the public is what Malmö Museums’ digital strategy is aimed at providing (Malmö Museer, 2015). In 2020, the digital strategy underwent a revision that considered the recent progression which digital technologies had undergone since 2015 when the first version of the strategy was released. Catering to the public has been and continues to be important for Malmö Museums and their overall digital strategies. This is important specifically because they want to be available and accessible for everyone, regardless of who they are and how they want to interact with the museum (Malmö Museer, 2020b).

1.2 Outline of the Thesis

This thesis aims to describe how museums have handled and are handling the digital changes in society especially in a time such as 2020 with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It uses Malmö Museums as the case for a co-creation study and the outcomes of this study are laid out in the form of a prototype detailing how Malmö Museums (and other museums) can take advantage of digital co-creation tools in the creation of their exhibitions and activities.

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After a brief introductory chapter, the purpose, problem, and research questions that stand as the basis of this thesis will be described. After describing the project, I present the

methodology used throughout the thesis. In this chapter, I explain the workshops and how they are conducted and with whom. Any limitation and ethical consideration which are part of the study are also presented in this chapter.

As Malmö Museums is a fundamental part of this thesis I describe how the organisation works, who are the stakeholders and how the organisation is built up between its regional and municipal owners.

Chapter 5 of the thesis presents a thorough, but still, easy to understand research overview on the field of museology with a focus on the digital museums and “open-ended” museums. The chapter aims to present some of the relevant research that has been conducted on the digital and borderless museums.

Chapter 6 describes the consequences and the repercussions that have been caused by COVID-19, both on the thesis but also in the museums' sector.

Empirical research that stands as the basis of the thesis prototype is presented in chapter 7, This acts as an initial discussion before describing what Malmö Museums have been doing digitally and on the web, and it presents their initiative on incorporating “The method of things” – Tingens Metod. The chapter also discusses the digital Tingens Metod workshops that were held and what kind of results they led to.

To finalise the thesis, the proposed prototype is presented to the readers as the conclusion to this project. I propose a two-part prototype, where one part includes a focus on renewing and realigning Malmö Museums overall online presence. Their activity on social media and their official websites are at the focus of how the museum can become more welcoming and how they can encourage their community to interact with their platforms. The second part includes a proposal where the museum readapts the Tingens Metod into a sort of “playtest”. The museum community is invited to attend a controlled and small-scale playtest of an upcoming exhibition, the hope is that this kind of event could lead to an exchange of ideas with fruitful discussions between the museum and its visitors. With the pandemic measures in place, this initiative would be carried out digitally with digital workshops akin to the ones carried out as part of this thesis project. However, there is nothing that stops the museums from being able to do this in physical form as society goes back to its usual everyday life.

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2. Purpose, Problem and Research Questions

The purpose of this thesis project is to analyse and review Malmö Museums’ digital strategy and presence on the web and platforms to find out how the museum’s strategy is actualised in the different digital channels that the museum is using. This analysis will, therefore, include the museum’s various initiatives and investments into how they interact with their audience via their online digital presence. How the museum is advertising itself digitally on various digital media (such as social media, news sites, and out-of-home advertising space) is also important when trying to reach different audiences in Malmö and elsewhere. All these investments of time and money are done because there is a visible demand from visitors to discover more about the museum digitally/online (Laurell, 2016; Lihammer et al., 2018; Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2018). Malmö Museums should not only provide different platforms to the visitors that want to interact with the museum in a digital capacity but to also keep developing them with additional features, interactions, and accessibilities.

The need for a focus on digital presence is expressed by several entities. The museum sees an important need for educational material requested by various educators, material that can be used in classes all around Malmö and Sweden to prepare pupils for potential Malmö Museum field trips (Malmö Museer, 2019). On the other side of the spectrum, the politicians want to know that the cultural institutions are given the tools they need, but also that they are given up-to-date goals that are pragmatic with regards to specific societal needs and the budgets available to these institutions (Region Skåne, 2015).

Considering the demands from the public, politicians, and other stakeholders, it is made clear to the cultural institutions from different standpoints that their digital presence should be targeting different parts of society. This is especially important for museums such as Malmö Museums that are funded mainly by the local decision-making bodies of Skåne and Malmö Stad. These two governing bodies also put forward demands onto the local culture sector to produce and publish a viable digital strategy. This demand is also what led to the creation of Malmö Museums first digital strategy, which they adopted in 2015 (Malmö Museer, 2015). This first edition of the strategy has later in 2020 been revised to accommodate newer

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Below are the research questions formulated based on my standpoints, I do not aim to answer these research questions directly as Questions with Answers; they are rather answered by the underlying contents of this thesis project and the conclusion.

How does the museum’s overall online presence of today align with what the visitors expect? How does the museum’s digital strategy encourage ways for the institution to interact with its audiences more inclusively and interactively on digital platforms?

How can a focus on digital interactions via for instance the “Tingens Metod”- workshops or digital collections platforms increase the level of engagement and democratisation of the museum’s collection to the visitors?

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3. Methodology

The methodology adopted for this thesis is based primarily on qualitative methods of

research. Qualitative data is going to be centred around analysing different available surveys, audience reports, and the social media attraction rate. This data is preferably used to highlight certain aspects that can be of interest when exploring new ideas of digital interaction with visitors. Document analysis is used to acquire good knowledge of how Malmö Museums and their involved decision-making partners explain their organisation, what they want their organisation to do, and how they aim to accomplish specific goals. Judith Gross explains documentary analysis as “a form of qualitative research that uses a systematic procedure to analyse documentary evidence and answer specific research questions” (2018, p. 545). For my document analysis, I am to primarily use policy documents from Region Skåne, Malmö Stad and Malmö Museums, these documents explain the organisation and the reasons for certain actions being taken at Malmö Museums. Other data to be used include, for instance, different documents from the Swedish National Heritage Board (hereafter abbreviated as SNHB) detailing, amongst other things, the development of digital technologies in use at Swedish museums.

3.1 Data Collection

As this project has included a lot of data, the collection of any material has been done in different ways throughout every step. One of the reasons for collecting qualitative data has been the advantage of having data that is not connected to quantifiable results, where a survey or collected opinion is the main data (Silverman & Marvasti, 2008). Instead, the data

collected in this project depend on many dynamic variables such as place, situation, and space. An example of this advantage is seen with the various workshops and how the different participants contributed to making the workshops feel different all while the

contents were the same. The data collection techniques also had to be altered halfway through the thesis process because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these most significant

differences can be seen in how the physical workshop had to be adapted into a digital one. This led to certain parts of the data gathering being collected in different ways. Collected data primarily comes from three instances: workshops, document analysis, and visits at the

museum (physically and digitally). These three instances are described below in their respective sub-chapters.

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3.1.1 Workshops

The workshops in this project worked as an important observational material which could detail what results we gathered. The purpose of the workshops was to find out what the different focus groups thought about the objects we had chosen. As pointed out by humanities researchers Rikke Ørngreen and Karin Levinsen, workshops originally meant a session where something is developed or improved upon (2017; Oxford University Press, 2020d). With time this definition has been expanded, but the core definition remains in today’s workshops. The purpose of the workshop also fits into the proposed changes to “workshops” which Alex Osborn – founder of Creative Education Foundation (hereafter abbreviated as CEF) – mention as “creative problem-solving”, a precursor for what later would become part of the “brainstorming” and “workshops” processes (1953, as cited in Treffinger & Isaksen, 2005). Mentioned by Ørngreen and Levinsen is a theory (2017, p. 73) – originally from the

agricultural field (Biggs, 1989, as cited in Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995) and later applied by other disciplines (Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995) – where four different modes in which the participation in a workshop can be viewed. These are contractual, where we as researchers contract participants to participate in our workshop; consultative, where we consult

participants on their opinions and thoughts regarding the workshop material; collaborative, where we work together with the participants on a workshop we have created and initiated; or collegiate, where we contribute equally on a workshop controlled by the participants

(Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995, p. 1669; Ørngreen & Levinsen, 2017, p. 73). For the workshops, all these modes were employed except for the collegiate mode. This choice ensured that we could maintain the control of the workshop and at the same time take part in the discussion with the participants. This is not to say that we did not take in feedback from the participants on what could be improved and changed, because this feedback was ultimately very

important for our iterative process of the workshops. More information on the workshops and the iterations that were done throughout the project can be found in Chapter 0 below.

3.1.2 Participants

For our workshops, the participants ranged between the ages of 14 and 30. This gave us a spectrum of not only different age-groups but also gave us four groups with different occupations and interests. The youngest participants were pupils at school, our two student groups were from a Media Technology programme and a Graphics Design programme, and the last group was a group of participants from the public. Whilst our focus was on finding

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enough participants – no matter their background – to fill four workshops, we were able to find an equal split in gender representation (seven women and eight men). Apart from our Swedish participants, we also had participants living in Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Norway and as such this breakdown provided us with a good representation of some of the closest countries to Sweden.

Advantages that were presented from this group of participants is that they were easy to contact because we (the workshop organisers) had contact with each participant that was approached. Because of this, the method of recruitment for the workshops was practically-based on nonprobability convenience sampling method (Battaglia, 2008). However, the limitations of using this sampling method are that it can introduce certain biases where the participants unconsciously aim to please the workshop organiser rather than being neutral (Albert et al., 2010). This drawback is, partially neutralised by the fact that in contrast to the museum’s in-house workshops that have been held with museum workers, our workshops have been held with four distinct groups with different occupations, ages, and nationalities. Apart from this, the workshops are to work as a pilot test on how a digital museum workshop can be held with participants from the public

3.1.3 Ethical Considerations

Any collection of data in this thesis has been done by acquiring consent from participating parties. It was important for the continuation of this project to have deliberate consent from all participant, this is a requirement as per GDPR (Applying GDPR in Research, 2020; Datainspektionen, 2020; GDPR.EU, 2020), but also in general research practices as outlined by the Swedish Research Council (2017) and from various articles on research ethics

(Heimlich, 2015; Ørngreen & Levinsen, 2017; Silverman & Marvasti, 2008). The assessment of material acquired during this research is to be as confidential as can be when it is possible, in any other case the audio-visual material is made available in this thesis and an eventual scientific paper. The participants have been given the chance to specifically give consent to two main things:

1. Having their participation in the workshop be recorded, including the storing of any resulting photos and videos.

2. Having this collected material become part of research material that may come out in the form of this thesis and any other related research outputs.

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When needed we have also reached out to participants to ask for further consent if the subject of the particular additional request was not included in the original consent form.

We respected any wishes that were voiced by the participants' decisions, this includes any questions on anonymity and other revealing facts. During the process of collecting different material we have also informed the participants of what is being collected, why it is being collected, and for what reason it is being collected. Before participants in any kind of interview, workshop, or other information gathering occasion were approached, they were specifically given the right to ask any questions and to read up on their rights.

A measure from the General Data Protection Rights (GDPR) highlights that a researcher is obliged to make sure that any of the requirements that run under the GDPR are met and maintained (Applying GDPR in Research, 2020; Swedish Research Council, 2017). This, for instance, includes the disclosure which must be made on who will get access to the data that is being collected. This thesis is part of a joint project with three professors at Malmö

University and with some employees at Malmö Museums, as such the participants have been notified of this very fact before and during the participation in any collected material. The participants are also given the chance to contact me or the university ombudsman if they have any other requests regarding the topic of the data collection consent. As an added measure from GDPR, the data collected should also be responsibly located both in terms of location and in duration (Datainspektionen, 2020; Information Commissioner’s Office, 2019). For this project, files have been stored on private local computers and the University’s Box.com platform. This ensured that the material was less exposed to unverified third-party platforms and services. Although the materials have been presented during presentations with third parties individuals as part of the project, it has been so via live Zoom meetings where the original files have not been shared.

3.1.4 Document analysis

Document analysis is another important part of this project. Museums are serving the public and they take their “orders” from certain stakeholders such as sponsors, municipalities, organisations, and governments. These different stakeholders usually have separate goals with their influence, and they would like to use that power to their advantage. In this section, I will describe how data was collected, to what extent, and why. A more in-depth discussion

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on how Malmö Museums is built-up organisationally and which stakeholders hold certain powers can be seen in Chapter 4 below. Nevertheless, the documents that have contributed to my study mainly include strategy documents from Malmö Museums, Malmö Stad, and

Region Skåne.

One drawback of analysing the currently available plans is that many of them are based on visions from 2014-2016. All three important stakeholders are either in the process of or have finished new strategies with goals that reflect today’s ideas more accurately. The documents I am using include both a mix of the renewed documents (when available) and older

documents that expire at the end of 2020. One positive factor, however, is that comparing a document to its older or newer edition can potentially expose very stark differences. Not only are Malmö Stad and Region Skåne politically ruled bodies, but in five years a lot of things change in society, which is especially true when we observe the effects of a worldwide pandemic.

3.1.5 Visiting the museums – physically and digitally

The thesis involved a process of two physical visits at Malmö Museums and numerous digital visits to museums across the world. The digital visits ranged from (1) just being an

observation of the collection of artefacts listed on a database (e.g. Smithsonian Institute, Malmö Museums’ Carlotta). (2) The highly interactive “point-and-click” experiences that immerse visitors into an audio-visual experience (e.g. Operation Nightwatch, The Giza Project at Harvard University). (3) The community-based platforms such as Rijksstudio where people can create collections, download, and remix paintings, and create user-curated guided tours of their favourite artefacts. (4) Social-media-based visits where official profiles for the museums were analysed on their engagement, interest, and scope.

These visits worked as observational material, and they were mostly non-structural observations. The reason for this was that these visits varied in scope and content and it would be hard to make comparisons between them. Instead, the focus laid on gathering observational thoughts from the visits. Some of the visits also involved other participants that came with me, notes taken during these visits were valuable because they showed possible differences when interacting with objects.

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Whilst I will not present the observations in a list or table view, the results of the observations appear as parts of different chapters, nonetheless, various texts are also influenced based on findings done during these observations.

3.2 Document Analysis

The document analysis phase is based on gathering information around the various influential strategies and documents that directly affect the organisation of Malmö Museums. In Sage Research Methods, Judith Gross describes how a document analysis is undergone, and why it is done in research. I think it is important to note here that without a focus on the various strategy documents that are published by the stakeholders, it would be difficult to point out how the strategy is handled. Gross explains that all documents are made in context to where and by whom they were written (2018). Political organisations such as Malmö Stad or Region Skåne which are led by politicians will surely have political marks in their strategies.

Most of the analysed documents have been primary types of data that originate straight from these organisations. These documents mainly cover the cultural strategies, digital plans, audience survey material, and such. Since the organisations have a responsibility to provide open access, finding data has not been an issue, the difficulty has rather been to decide what data this thesis should focus on. However, as previously mentioned, most of these

organisations, such as the museum or Region Skåne, are currently revising their strategies and, because of that, it has been difficult to know whether a new iteration would become accessible early enough for it to be included in this thesis. With these limitations in place, I focused on documents that I could already access at an earlier stage of the thesis writing. In the case of Malmö Museums, the museum was able to share a final draft of their renewed digital plan, as such I have also had the time to analyse it. Malmö Stad has not publicly provided a draft of their renewed strategies, and whilst Region Skåne provides a draft of their new cultural strategy, it is too early to say if it will pass the regulatory approval needed at the regional assembly meeting. The measures are taken based on the inclusionary-exclusionary nature of document analysis, where a researcher needs to take into account the scope of their study (Gross, 2018). Another effect of document analysis is that it highlights the strategy plans from these organisations as only being “guidelines” of what an entity hopes to achieve. Or as Amanda Coffey and Paul Atkinson put it “We cannot, for instance, learn through

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written records how an organization operates day-to-day. … We have to approach documents for what they are and what they are used to accomplish.” (2004, as cited in Silverman & Marvasti, 2008).

3.3 Tingens Metod – “The Method of Things”

Tingens Metod (or “the Method of Things in English”) plays a central role in this thesis and should, therefore, be explained. What is it all about? Where does it come from, and why has it been created? What is the end goal of using this method? And eventually, is it a method or rather a “philosophical” approach?

Tingens Metod is originally a research project deriving from a 2015-2017 collaboration between three museums in Norway – the Museum of Cultural History, the Museum of Oslo, and the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology (Arts Council Norway, 2020b; Lindeberg-Lindvet, 2019; Sveriges Museer, 2020). Based on the theories of French

sociologist Bruno Latour, Tingens Metod revolves around the approach museums can have towards an open and inclusive dialogue with the public around these “things”. Whilst the Scandinavian “ting” can be simply translated as a “thing” or “object” in English, it also holds a secondary meaning as the word for an “assembly” or a “meeting” (Nationalencyklopedin, 2020). This double-meaning works as the core of what Tingens Metod is about, holding an assembly around a thing. It is precisely this double meaning that Bruno Latour found interesting, and it is this double meaning that prompted his question “What would an object-oriented democracy look like?” (Latour & Weibel, 2005, p. 16). It is not difficult to envision what such a “democracy” would look like. Latour himself mentions several occasions where this simple question is already answered in today’s societies. Trivial examples such as political questions around certain objects or strategies, the entry into the EU by a certain country, or the current pressing question of which strategy is the best at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic? All these questions are surely examples of an “object-oriented” discussion where a certain ting (object) is at the centre of the ting (assembly).

It is this kind of discussional power that is at the core of Tingens Metod, different objects can evoke widely differing opinions, relations, and ideas around it. The method the Norwegian research project conceived, and which is also the basis for the Swedish project is built on three foundational questions that can be roughly translated as:

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1. What does it mean for us to think that ting (objects) are relational?

2. How can a focus on having the objects be the discussional starting point contribute to the museums becoming more open towards new people and newer perspectives? 3. How can a focus on having the objects be the discussional starting point contribute to

the development of new interdisciplinary methods being applied at museums? Together these three questions form the basis of Tingens Metod (Arts Council Norway, 2020b; Sveriges Museer, 2020). In Chapter 7.2 I go through the different research materials that have been made available around the method. Since its inception in 2015, the project has expanded into Sweden with several partner museums (including Malmö Museums) working together on their version of the method (Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2020; Sveriges Museer, 2020). The initial project also sparked enough interest in Norway that a renewed project has been in development since 2019 (Arts Council Norway, 2020a).

3.4 Limitations

Because of the limited scope of the thesis where the focus is on Malmö Museums, some findings can in some cases be less relevant or transferable to other organisations. Other museums with a different mindset on their organisation might find the findings as irrelevant because they cannot use them in their applied setting. This occurs because of various factors such as what authority holds the administrative power over the museum’s organisation, differences between privately and publicly owned museums, differences in the audience group breakdown, and differences in what the museum is exhibiting. In addition to this, I have also observed the museum organisation on what its duties and responsibilities are, based on the Swedish museum law adopted in 2017 (Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2019). In this law, a museum is referred to as an institution which is open to the society, and which acquires, conserves, examines, conveys and exhibits material and immaterial records about humans and the world surrounding them (Kulturdepartementet, 2017). In combination with the Swedish definition I also make use of the current International museum definition given by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2007:

“A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches,

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communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.” (Altayli, 2019). Though, the ICOM has initiated a renewal of the museum definition to accommodate changes in the technological and political developments since the most recent definition was enacted in 2007 (Altayli, 2019). I am aiming to find a middle ground where I am positioning it to take benefit of the eventual changes in the definition but to not rely too much upon this possible change because it is subject to future ICOM discussions. This can limit my analysis because the museum definition and, therefore, also the museums’ mission in society could be viewed significantly different during the process of the thesis or shortly after it is finished.

Malmö Museums is organised in a particular way where it is run under both Region Skåne – the regional government – and Malmö Stad – the local municipality (Björk & Lundgren, 2016). This can lead to differences in mindset regarding the museum’s social, economic, and political direction because the local and regional governments can be ruled by different political parties at the same time. This can relate to the limitations of document analysis where the authors of a document can potentially hold biased views based on their position in politics or social norms (Gross, 2018). The museum, city, and region may all have widely differing views on any given matter, especially matters such as the digital presence where different stakeholders have different priorities. Therefore, an analysis of the significant documents available from each of these stakeholders is done throughout the next chapters. This can lead to clarifications in what the different stakeholders think on certain things, it might also show how differing views might affect the direction the museum wants to take or the direction it is already taking. The aim of this analysis is not to point fingers at any document or entity, but rather it is to gather knowledge on how the organisations need to work together to overcome difficulties and differences.

As a direct consequence of the COVID-19 social distancing rules, this thesis has also had to be rethought halfway through the process. Any physical interactivity or contact had to be fully moved into digital environments. The formerly physical workshops were rethought into digitally planned workshops where we used live video/audio chat primarily via Zoom to hold our workshops in Google´s Jamboard. As social distancing and other measures taken because of COVID-19 are gradually lifted, large parts of society will have gotten used to being able to take advantage of digital collaborate tools in a much broader extent than what was done before. As a proof of concept, this workshop part of the framework prototype can be applied

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by not just museums, but also any other interested parties that might consider taking a co-creative and investigative approach in forging a new collaboration and connection with their visitors/customers.

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4. Malmö Museums’ organisation

Malmö Museums is the official city museum of Malmö. They manage and conserve a significant collection of artefacts (objects, photographs, paintings, natural sciences), an aquarium, and a Renaissance-era castle (Malmöhus Slott). The museum is placed under the jurisdiction of the city of Malmö, with the city’s culture committee as the governing body of the museum (Malmö Stad, 2020). The museum also has certain obligations to the regional government of Region Skåne, which partially funds the museum–22 million crowns in 2020 (Wille, 2020, p. 27).

When it comes to digital strategies, all three entities – Malmö Museums, Malmö Stad, and Region Skåne – have their separate culture strategy/plan documents. The documents have certain goals to be met in each investment done, and all these goals affect the direction the museum takes.

For Malmö Stad, the operational body is, as mentioned above, the culture committee – Malmö Stads Kulturförvaltning. The committee decides on what direction the city wants to take on questions regarding cultural life and heritage, they provide up-to-date goals that are grounded both politically and socially. The current focus areas of the committee during 2020 are centred on children and young adults, by maintaining a culturally driven development in the city. The committee is also adopting the UN Rights of Child Convention as a framework of what needs to be done to accommodate the city’s youth (Malmö Stad, 2020). Together, these two focus areas provide an insight into which the target group is being highlighted this year.

Region Skåne’s culture committee decides on what the region of Skåne will invest in and what focus areas should be highlighted in the year. The region facilitates cultural political goals such as the focus on digitisation, collaborations across different organisations, giving better opportunities and accessibilities for culture workers. Much like Malmö Stad, Region Skåne also highlights the youth (up to 25 years old) as an important target group, where investments into the region’s cultural presence are specifically targeted towards the youth (Region Skåne, 2019). It is important to note that the relation between Region Skåne and individual organisations such as Malmö Museums or other cultural organisations directly depends on political, economic, and social goals that are set by the region, municipalities, and the organisations.

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All the different goals from both the region and the city are then considered in Malmö

Museums’ strategy. For a brief visual of how the organisational hierarchy is built up between the three entities see Figure 1. What is not included in this figure is the national funding and goals that it maintains. These goals are what the museums, municipalities, and regions consider in their strategies, therefore, they are excluded in this visual.

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5. Museum Research

The present thesis addresses research that understands museums as both a physical place and a digital space. Space is meant to signify a “place” that is in constant motion spanning different dimensions. For instance, the museum building might be the physical place where the museum is located, but space is built upon mobile elements (books, posters, websites, social media, usage of digital devices, etc.) which then collectively distribute the museum on different places rather than on a stationary and physical place (Bautista & Balsamo, 2011). This chapter goes through the museum within these constraints in place, namely the

“Museum without Walls”. How does the digital museum distinguish its digital activities from its physical ones, or is it maybe just the same activities located on digital media? How do museums involve their audiences beyond just having them visit the exhibitions? These are all questions that will not necessarily be answered in this chapter, but the chapter aims to give an overview of how these matters are handled differently in today’s museums.

5.1 Research Field

The museums have been forced to change their ways or risk losing their business to the various digital advancements that have occurred in the last decades (Gabellone & Chiffi, 2019; Stack, 2019). To be widely available on the digital space is one of the important ways in which museums can adapt to the new digital and connected societies that exist today

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(Arvanitis, 2010; Horst, 2012; Kidd, 2011). The contributions of newer methods, strategies, and applications to tackle the digital transformation have been introduced across the globe from various corners. Museums such as Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum (Gorgels, 2013) (see Figure 2) or the Smithsonian institution in the U.S. (Wu, 2020) aims for their collections to be open-access and freely available on online platforms. Museum organisations and

conferences such as the American Alliance of Museums, and the MuseWeb conference spark discussions regarding how museums can tackle today’s challenges in the museum field. Contributions to the discussions are also seen in different academic disciplines. Workers and academics involved with the museum industry across the world have been very vocal about the different possibilities that the new digital platforms provide when it comes to

communicating with visitors. Museums can share different types of artefacts on social media, launch contests, create their hashtags, and make them trend, hold livestreams, and even have digital tours of the museums (Dudareva, 2014; Papaioannou & Sfyridou, 2020). At the same time as museums are getting accustomed to these digital possibilities, the big technology companies are constantly creating new products and processes that can be used by their users. Implementations of Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality applications, responsive web-based apps such as Baltic Museums Love IT concept app (see Figure 3), and cloud infrastructures are just some of the recent creations in technology which have meant that the museums need to be proactive when planning for digital changes (Cawston et al., 2017; Fischer, 2017; Swacha et al., 2020). In museum studies, the discussion revolved around how new technologies can be leveraged in different ways. The availability of cloud infrastructures from big multimedia technology companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have given cultural institutions the ability to release their collections online for cheaper costs

Figure 3. A gamified webapp concept, where users use a web-based app rather than a separately downloaded app (Swacha et al., 2020).

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whilst still creating new possible interactions with the content via, for instance, high-quality downloads and open-source APIs (Sundwall, 2020).

This diversity of contributions is a strength that needs to be highlighted in the discussions regarding museums and digital technology. Museums and other cultural institutions could benefit greatly from a broad partnership that encompasses different industries of technology. Artefacts and objects in museums, no matter what kind, are being processed differently depending on how they are displayed and the changes in society (Akker & Legêne, 2016). The changes that are seen in the way people create meaning of yesterday’s objects nowadays indicate that digital technologies are playing a big role in shaping how we both interact with and see these objects. Modern ekphrasis, defined as the “verbal description of a visual representation” (Heffernan as cited in Führer & Banaszkiewicz, 2014, p. 46; Heffernan, 1991), can be said to take form in the museum audio guides where the guide can elaborately explain the work of art to a visitor right on their mobile device. At the same time, co-creation initiatives carried out on different digital web platforms aim at making the museum more accessible for visitors and non-visitors alike.

5.2 Definitions

Currently, in museums, the focus is placed on the digital presence, but to know what the digital presence is, one needs to define it and clarify what makes this presence digital. As numerous studies from Germany (Hess et al., 2018), Sweden (Boogh, 2013), and the

Netherlands (Dijkshoorn et al., 2018) show, digital use cases of museums are wide including anything from collecting digital photos for the future, to maintaining interactive website collections. The term is seemingly broad in its use and as such can point to unclear definitions. Anything from television sets presenting artworks at the museum, to a more advanced digital tool such as virtual reality being used to present artworks can be said to be digital (Everstijn, 2019; Oxford University Press, 2020a). It is not the intention in this thesis to find one definition that fits all, rather the definition used here will focus on the digital as “designating a virtual, computer-mediated counterpart of an object that exists in the physical world.” (Oxford University Press, 2020b).

The digital presence is then the way the museum is presenting itself in various places and spaces with the help of digital tools and spaces such as Instagram, Facebook, and other

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websites. The digital presence, therefore, includes applications with little to no interaction from visitors, such as the Television sets at museums showing information or stationary booths that provide simple information. The digital presence also applies to new digital experiences that are becoming more popular at museums, such as open-access collections making way for a participatory community, interactive apps that tailor your museum experience in various ways, and modern websites that provide users with something more valuable than just basic information in the form of high-quality media and information. In this thesis, the term “the web” includes all types of tools which connect to the internet, whether it is a web browser, interactive ad, social media platform, IoT device in the museum, or a museum app, they would all be connected to the internet to some degree (Dijck, 2013; Parry, 2008). When the thesis specifically discusses a certain part of “the web”, it is done so by using more precise terms such as “the museum webpage” or “the social media account” to highlight more clearly what is being discussed.

The thesis also discusses the issue of Digital vs. Physical when museum artefacts are concerned. When speaking of objects I, therefore, consider that the digital photo of an artefact is being observed digitally, even though the user is holding a physical technological device (Oxford University Press, 2020b). The physical artefact, in this case, would then solely refer to the object found in the museum archive or at the museum where it could be viewed in real life(‘Physical’, 2020).

Accessibility has, over the past decades, become a priority for public infrastructures and museums are no exception to this rule. Here, the term accessibility will refer to the efforts to adapt the museum physically so that publics with special needs such as people with

disabilities, visually impaired visitors or even families (Asakawa et al., 2018; Haworth & Williams, 2012a; Montsho, 2020) can enjoy the highest quality of the visit. At the same time, adapting the museum on the web to be more accessible is equally important when trying to reach out to a broader audience across different parts of Malmö, but also elsewhere in Sweden and internationally. The question of accessibility is especially important during the current pandemic and investments in maintaining a proper presence on the web is high on the agenda. More discussions on accessibility during the pandemic will be presented in chapter 6 (page 36) in this thesis down below.

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5.3 Museum without Walls

Architect and researcher Gavin Hogben depict “the museum without walls” as a phenomenon that has been established because “the artists have already left the building” (Hogben, 2012, p. 301). Gone is the focus on just providing a physical space in a museum building. Instead, museums are trying to broaden their reach by erasing their physical walls and

“freeing” the power which exists inside the museums. Furthermore, Hogben brings up how land art artists see nature and the public sphere as their “museum”. For them, art should be free from any shackle and it thrives when it can be influenced by its surroundings. An example of how these artworks thrive

differently inside and outside the museum is seen with sculptor Anthony Gormley’s installation in Lelystad, NL and its replica available inside the nearby Cultural Centre in Almere ("Exposure (2010) - Anthony Gormley", n.d.). Whilst the main installation is free from any physical walls around it (see Figure 4), the replica is cleverly placed inside the Cultural Centre, looking at the sea through the window, in a parallel to the bigger installation. It is this vision of seeing art as free from the museum walls that has led to museums

embracing a future where these “walls” are not necessary and museums can broaden their reach beyond the rich but limiting buildings. A previous museum director in Stockholm, Helena Friman, wrote an article in Museum International (2006) where she describes her vision of museums without walls by using the city’s rich history as the educational museum ground. Gone are the traditional museum limitations and instead the focus was laid on traversing the city and its environment with the main participants of this initiative being the citizens who built up all these environments. Friman mentions how typical workers of society such as emergency personnel, public transport drivers, cleaners, etc. might not be seen as the focus group for museums because of the lack of perceived interest (2006, p. 58). Friman,

Figure 4. Anthony Gormley's 26-metre-high sculpture named "Exposure", placed in Lelystad, Netherlands (Photo credit - Bram Schilling).

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however, looks at it differently. She thinks that these groups might have no interest in these museums because the museums in question have no interest in them. To “fix” this, the museums might want to go and meet these groups where they are, out “on the field”. This is only one of the many ways in which the notion of “museums without walls” can be viewed. Building the idea of “museum without walls” has been an ongoing plan long before the 21st century’s digital media started appearing. French writer and politician André Malraux was, during the 20th century, already expressing the idea that the contents of a museum could be more than just beautiful props decorating the interior of nice-looking buildings(Battro, 2010; Grasskamp & Elliott, 2016). One of

Malraux’s many ideas about “the imaginary museum” was to create photo albums. Photo albums were not new, but using them to present

museum collections was to be seen as a move to liberate the artworks from the museums (Grasskamp & Elliott, 2016; Malraux, 1997). This could subsequently be compared to where the arts and museums are placed today. Printed art books (see Figure 5) being sold at most museums, or how digital web platforms such as

Rijksstudio, Carlotta, Google Arts or Europeana are publishing different mediations of the artworks, and how museum exhibitions are increasingly published on the digital web for people to enjoy from anywhere in the world.

5.4 The Digital Museum

The changes that have risen from digitalisation are some of the most important changes that museums are undergoing. Museums have previously been directing their efforts to visitors of the physical museum. With the changes brought by the platform society, museums could advertise themselves via the various digital platforms becoming available. The introduction

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of smartphones, apps, websites and social media changed the way institutions and visitors communicated (Dijck et al., 2018, p. 2).

Jose van Dijck et al. call the society of today “the platform society”, a society where

“platforms are an integral part of society” (2018, p. 2). By platforms, Dijck et al. highlight the digital platforms as decisive in how our social and technological bonds have changed. We buy products on the web, we call a taxi via apps, we study via live-streamed lectures, we work from our digitally connected homes, lights can be controlled by apps, and most of the people never go out without carrying their phones with them. All these things are connected via widely available and mostly “free” connected platforms that we can download

instantaneously (Dijck, 2013; Dijck et al., 2018). This change in society to a platform-oriented surrounding has meant that museums have had to adapt to different modes of communication, the traditional means of communicating (paper, tv ads, flyers, etc.) with visitors are now second-class, and new platform-centric means are at the forefront. Museums that want to advertise themselves and awaken interest in people are increasingly using social media platforms to maintain a communication line with their visitors. Long gone are the days of the museums seeing themselves as “cultural banks” made to be worshipped by the high society, where high prestige ruled, rather than being available to the general public (Hudson, 1993).

The relatively recent advent of smartphones and the central place that they now occupy in people’s lives in most parts of the world allows for interactions to happen wherever and whenever one wishes. New possibilities to interact with museum artefacts are provided by new technologies such as QR-codes (Haworth & Williams, 2012b), Augmented Reality (Kolstee & van Eck, 2011; Miyashita et al., 2008; Schmalstieg & Wagner, 2007), and Virtual Reality (Kantola et al., 2017; ‘Virtual Reality Brings Ancient Worlds to Life’, 1995).

Together they provide a multitude of ways to experience artefacts.

Scholars and workers across fields have been developing ideas on what “the digital museum” is and how it can be approached. One such example is Susana Bautista – PhD in

Communications and board member of the American Alliance of Museums – who has tried to delve deeper into how museums are adapting to the digital age (2014). Bautista takes her point of departure from a museology perspective in the digital age, where she focuses on the four constructs of “place, community, culture, and technology” (Bautista, 2014, p. 7;

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Dewdney et al., 2013). Discussing these constructs is important because they stand as crucial pieces of the puzzle for the museums’ ability to adapt to a digital setting.

“Place” has travelled out of the institutional buildings and into visitors’ desks, pockets, sofas, and digital life. Going to the museums have increasingly become about the experience rather than the museum itself (Bautista, 2014; Crooke, 2008), such examples can be seen with Rijkstudio (see Figure 2) providing the experience of a comprehensive collection online on any device. Ancient Pompei came to life in a virtual video guide created at Lund University in Sweden and uploaded on YouTube (2016). Ancient Egypt was recreated in the 2017 game Assassin’s Creed Origins, besides including a fictional story, the game also included a “museum mode” where

players could embark on virtual tours of ancient Egyptian cities

(Alexandria, Thebes, Memphis, etc.) curated by museologists, historians, and

developers (see Figure 6) (Nielsen, 2017; Ore, 2017).

Several parts of society have had to change in

recent time and the “Community” around museums is no stranger to this. The now open and public museums have had their collections be exposed to wider audiences, which has meant a visitor-base that is far more diverse in its background than before. This is especially seen when comparing the modern museums of today to the “Wunderkammer1”, which were seen as upper-class “cultural banks” (Hooper Greenhill, 1992; Hudson, 1993). One way the current museums have changed their view of the community is by taking advantage of the digital society which allows them to interact with a wider base of communities rather than to restrict themselves to a specific, most often, local base (Bautista, 2014; Crooke, 2008).

1_{The wunderkammer is “a chamber or cabinet of wonders; spec. a place exhibiting the collection of a}

connoisseur of curiosities, such as became common from the late Renaissance onwards.” (Oxford University Press, 2020c).

Figure 6. Virtual tours in the game environment, players are also shown pictures of artefacts provided by museums such as the Louvre Museum in Paris (Screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Origins).

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Making a creative ground available for the community, such as the Rijks Studio or

Digitaltmuseum.se, and interacting with communities on social media has become a separate way in which museums interact with their visitors, one example of that is how Malmö

Museums has a separate strategy to their digital efforts (Cook, 2007; Russo & Watkins, 2007; Sánchez Laws, 2015). The interaction with the community can also lead to museums

involving their visitors with the museum processes in different ways. Ways of contributing as a community are seen with the availability of open museum forums and comment sections where visitors can provide additional information on artefacts (Cameron & Robinson, 2007). A more current example is how museums during the COVID-19 crisis are asking their visitors to provide their stories and photos on how they are handling the crisis in their

everyday life, the material is to be used and stored in the museum collection and can even be accessed instantly on their platforms (Löwenfeldt, 2020; Malmö Museer, 2020a).

The reasons for all the changes in these parts of society boil down to vast developments we have seen in the modern-day “technology”. Communities, cultures, and spaces/places have all been greatly affected by the changes brought forward by the technologies that enable new methods of communication, interaction, and mediation from museums to visitors. Social media advertising is arguably one of the most important ways for a museum to keep in contact with a visitor, both before and after a visit (MuseumNext, 2019). Participatory initiatives such as the online museum communities, fan clubs on social media, or museums partnering with influencers spark interest in communities on the web that might not be the biggest museum fans otherwise. It is important to note here that 10 years ago the idea of mobile social media apps as one of the dominating platforms of advertising for institutions, was a bit unheard of. To put things into perspective on how fast things change in media technology, one can observe what the new media professors Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin wrote in their book, Remediation (2000):

If even ten years ago we thought of computers exclusively as numerical engines and word processors, we now think of them also as devices for generating images, reworking photographs, holding videoconferences, and providing animation and special effects for film and television. (p. 23)

Over 20 years, the “computers” mentioned by Bolter and Grusin have evolved to the point of fitting in most people’s pockets. Going further than that, today's regular laptops and desktops are powerful and versatile versions of yesterday’s supercomputers, while dimensions have

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shrunk immensely. Some scholars consider that these quick changes were sparked by cultural developments. Cultural studies scholars Jennifer Slack and McGregor Wise (2015) discuss it as the “technological culture”, where culture has always led to technological advancements and that the culture is, therefore, creating the technological “product” (pp. 9–10). This is especially interesting in discussions where different scholars of varying disciplines look upon this theory from different standpoints. Bolter and Grusin point at our use of media as one of the defining parts of our personal and cultural identity, and this development has only increased as the technological media grow in numbers (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p. 231). Another standpoint is seen with the even shorter term of the technological culture theory, “technoculture”, where technology and culture are working together in advancing the world (Shaw, 2008). Museums are a prime example of this kind of interplay between technology and culture, as western societies have gotten more technologically centred, the museums have had to adapt to this newly emerging and technologically centred culture which they find themselves in. As this technoculture forces museums to adapt to a new age, so will the underlying “museum culture” also change its shape into becoming more technology-centred (Bautista, 2014).

When it comes to “culture” it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly what is being referred to because of the various definitions of culture that exist. Culture often changes shape and meaning depending on which group of people is handling it. A sports team can have a certain culture surrounding their team, just as an ethnic group can have their culture. For the sports team, it might be the way they act towards each other or goals and values they might uphold with their act of exercising in their sport. For an ethnic group, culture can mean things such as values, goals, traditions, responsibilities to each other (Bautista, 2014).

This thesis is looking at how digital society has affected the museums’/arts “culture” and how they are presented to the public via new digital tools and experiences. Museums are now better equipped than ever before to efficiently preserve cultural properties and historical objects, digitising reproductions are one of the key elements in enabling this. This has led to the creation of catalogues of material which might have previously needed more work in logistical metrics (Akker & Legêne, 2016; Parry, 2007). As previously mentioned, the technologies available have created a technological culture, where the “culture” is made, mapped, preserved, and presented in technological ways. For Malmö Museums one of the primary responsibilities has been to preserve the creations of the local culture and heritage,

Digitalisation at Museums