Hello dearies! First of all, I found out that I am psychic! Why? Because all my blogpost titles are prophetic since they foresee in a a mysterious way every new upcoming event. You will understand what I mean exactly,  just keep in mind that last week’s title was “The Twist”.

Well, this week started with a big surprise! Warning: Don’t rush into making assumptions (it wasn’t a nice present or anything like that).

Last Monday, we had a Sprint Session meeting with our coach Bernadette Schrandt to define our second Sprint’s goal. Again, after a lot of discussion mainly focusing on the insights, experiences and feedback that we gained during our first Sprint, we came to realize that what is most needed at this point of our project is a guide. This guide will include more cohesive information around the notions that we research in our project since we didn’t have the chance to organize properly so far, making them less broad and complex.  Our coach was really into that,  because she believes that this could be really helpful. First of all for our team to move further with the creation of a new concept and second for the curators who are not familiar with terms such as co-creation, to learn how to possibly apply it in their exhibitions.

The decisions we made, matched perfectly with the talk session that we attended at Waag Society later on this day. Waag Society is an Amsterdam based institute for Art, Science and Technology , which conducts various projects in collaboration with institutes from other European countries, around the aforementioned topics. By the way, it is also the place where I conducted my Master’s internship some months ago. The talk was entitled “Hacking Heritage: The audience” and it revolved around Co-creation, which is considered a powerful strategy used by various fields, able to build new relationships. Due to the fact that it is of great interest lately also in the museum sector, museum professionals through this talk, discussed the potential benefits that could be gained if they decide to work co-creatively with their audiences.

    Hacking Heritage: The Audience. Waag Society

 The Waag is depicted in Rembrandt’s 1632 painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicoales Tulp

At this point, in order to better understand what Co-creation in the museum context is about, I will use Waag’s definition and thoughts around it:

“Co-creation starts from the idea that everyone is an expert on one issue or another, first and foremost on their own life. Co-creation may not be a new thing, but it can bring something new to museum practices: it can enrich the stories a museum tells, it can enhance the understanding between the different worlds we inhabit or it can change the way a museum programs its future events. The approaches presented at this day, are a strategic choice, an opportunity for institutions to build long term relationships with their visitors. Enabling a museum to create more layered and nuanced exhibitions and events, and to build relationships with their local communities, with new visitors, with younger people or with people from diverse cultural backgrounds groups. Relationships that exist well beyond the scope of a project.” (Waag Society Official Website/Blog)

Twelve heritage professionals took the stage and through inspiring presentations brought about discussions on language, creativity, equality, modern craftsmanship, innovation, cultural identity and strategy, all agreeing on the fact that museums should be transformed into inclusive safe spaces for their audiences.  The speakers included amongst others  Hannah Fox from Derby Silk Mill,  Wayne Modest and Laura van Broekhoven from Wereldculturen, Merel van der Vaart from Allard Pierson Museum, Lisa Kleeven from FOAM, Theo Meerenboer from the Makermuseum and a representative from Imagine IC. The main aim of this event was to inform the public for the upcoming launch (May 2016) of a publication and toolkit, resulting from the two year EU-project RICHES, that Waag has been working on along with eight other countries. This publication will include valuable resources, methods and information for heritage professionals willing to explore Co-creation.

Suddenly we felt like we were struck by lighting (of course I am exaggerating)!!! To be honest, it was a bit of a shock to see that our guide and mainly our whole project had the same focus with the people at Waag. This is not necessarily something bad (while at first we thought so) while it triggers us to move ahead and try to make a difference under the same thematic umbrella. Following this, we conducted an “emergency” meeting with our coach Bernadette Schrandt, where she calmed us down and we decided all together that we should continue with our guide, which will be helpful  for us anyway, so to make a difference through our project. 

The  next day, inspiration knocked on our door, while we attended a talk (part of the opening of the Makers Space of Hogeschool van Amsterdam) given by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager authors of “Invent to Learn” a magnificent publication for those interested on the Makers Culture. Subsequently, Marco van Hout who is working for MediaLAB Amsterdam conducted the same day a workshop based on User Experience and Content, touching upon how we can design better user experiences and identify better our users to satisfy  their needs.

Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager. Talk during the opening of Makers Space (HvA)

Vrijdag today (in Dutch Friday means Free Day), and we think that something bright new is ahead of us, while we are working on the formulation of our guide. Too bad that we cannot reveal more information! You know…every time that we did that,  it changed completely so….!   Until next time! (Check our Flickr)  

             Have a nice weekend!

              Thank you for reading! Angela, Constantine, Angelo.