Keynote presentation delivered at Remix Sydney, June 2015. Title is derived from an article in The Atlantic, Jan 2015 - http://theatln.tc/1K0zXQs Lustig/Fast Company quotes are from - http://bit.ly/1FoS8ZR Longer background technical paper at http://bit.ly/1LhwSNX

1. @sebchan
director of digital & emerging media
labs.cooperhewitt.org | freshandnew.org
Strategies against
architecture: building a
‘museum of the future’

2. cooper hewitt smithsonian design museum

3. cooper hewitt =
mission + collection + building

4. andrew carnegie
steel magnate, philanthropist

5. just a minor
renovation

8. 1500square metres. its quite small.

9. sarah & eleanor hewitt

10. former collection displays at cooper union

11. Birdcage In The Form Of A Church, mid-19th century

12. Button Showing West Indian Scene, late 18th century.

14. Tassel. Medium: linen Technique: braided and knotted.Sidewall, "Germinal", 1968.

15. Cricket Cage, late 19th century.

16. Drawing, "Striped Pattern, Textile Design", 1950–70. Tommi Parzinger.

17. Poster, "El Dominio del Fuego (The Domain of Fire)", Luis Vega .1972 Poster, "Otis Rush", 1967. Wes Wilson

18. Pop Up Pinocchio, Harold Lentz & Carlo Carlodi, 1933

19. Figure, Duvelo Porcelain Factory, 1989 Figure of a pony, 1930

20. Creamer, Switzerland, 18th Century Bottle, 1949

21. Figure, "Cat and kitten", late 19th–early 20th century.

22. “The tchotchkes and baubles on which
the museum's reputation was built,
though, are not what attract today's
forward-thinking corporate sponsors
and cutting-edge designers”
Lustig, Fast Company 2011

23. Planter, ""Hyvalysti" Garden Tool Set", 1988. Kai International Co., Ltd. Radio, "Tykho", 1997

24. Software and Source Code, "Planetary", Bloom Studio, 2011.

25. Urn, "Tall Green Bloom", Michael Eden, 2012.
Rhinoceros source code "Tall Green Bloom", Michael Eden, 2012.
objects with source code

26. 210,000objects

27. a ‘design museum’ sits between the art
museum and the science museum. it
can draw attention to the processes,
choices, human decisions in the
making, not just the finished object

31. “There are so many kids in this country who look
at places like museums and concert halls and
other cultural centers, and they think to
themselves, ‘Well, that’s not a place for me —
for someone who looks like me, for someone
who comes from my neighborhood”
Michelle Obama, 2015

32. launch campaign by W+K

34. user experiencebecomes the differentiator

35. increased visitor diversity
increased dwell times
visitor satisfaction
repeat visitation
internal innovation
collecting and exhibition capacity

36. digital transformation
as a step change

37. digital =
infrastructure + culture + capacity

38. the challenge:
give visitors explicit permission to play
make interactive experiences social
help visitors remember their visit
ensure a ‘look up’ experience
make it ubiquitous, a ‘default’ operating mode

39. technology changes
behaviour. we need
an opinion on that.

40. 20
AN INTERACTIVE PEN
THIS IS
LOCAL PROJECTS
ENTRY TECH:
PEN
TICKETING
TABLE
ETC
PUBLIC - ENTRY TECHFIRST FLOOR- ENTRY TECH
initial concept art for pen by Local Projects

41. 23
YOUR IDENTITY THROUGHOUT THE MUSEUM
THIS IS
LOCAL PROJECTS
ENTRY TECH:
PEN
TICKETING
TABLE
ETC
PUBLIC - ENTRY TECHFIRST FLOOR- ENTRY TECH
initial concept art for pen by Local Projects

42. 26
GETTING YOU AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE
AND BRINGING YOU CLOSER TO DESIGN
THIS IS
LOCAL PROJECTS
ENTRY TECH:
PEN
TICKETING
TABLE
ETC
PUBLIC - ENTRY TECHFIRST FLOOR- ENTRY TECH
initial concept art for pen by Local Projects

43. the pen was to be both
functional and symbolic

44. “design is for doing,
not just for looking”

45. the pen also marks a return to the
original purpose of the collection

47. importantly,
it is not an app

48. “venture philanthropy”

49. early cooper hewitt UX video storyboarding

50. international collaboration
spain, usa, taiwan

51. Cooper-Hewitt Pen | June 2014 9
INITIAL SKETCHES
product design sprint with GE

52. multiple teams involved in design & production

53. 3d printed shell protypes

54. NFC reader capacitive stylus

55. haptic memory
“did i mention it vibrates?”

58. the pen is simple:
“it bookmarks the web while
you walk around the museum”

59. 33,195pens
in 75 days 93%

60. the simplicity makes it
attractive to non-tech users

61. the pen in operation

62. playful and generous interfaces
browse not search

63. 726,328objects collected

64. Cut paper, “Noah’s Ark’, 1982.
collected 5,200 times

65. Sidewall, “Meatballs on Green Weave", 1990. Sidewall, “Play Ball", 1949.Sidewall, 1955

66. “How long can people defend a
wallpaper collection?”
Ric Grefe, executive director of AIGA
in Lustig, Fast Company 2011

67. immersion room

68. 29,219visitor-made designs saved

69. via instagram

70. 102 minutesaverage time spent in the museum

72. 25%post-visit logins

73. don’t be creepyprivacy really matters. give users choice to identify themselves

74. “my objects and my creations”

77. downloadable as vector shapes & 3d models

78. “it doesn’t feel like reading a database”

79. stable URLs for everything

80. everything including loans online

81. stable URLs for media

82. tackling difficult challenges:
new license terms for loans from other museums
new license terms for videos and media
new ‘photography welcomed’ signage
continuous focus on user experience
commitment to permanence

83. “not just on the internet,
but of the internet”

84. built on the architecture and
philosophy of the web

86. infrastructure
web as

87. v1.0a platform to build upon
iterate
grow

88. experience
technology
infrastructure
processes
policies
mission

89. cooper hewitt =
mission + collection + building
media + technology + experience

90. “Rather than being a straightjacket, the
mansion’s ornate rooms and halls now
form a rich and idiosyncratic frame
for design objects of all ages”
Lange, The New Yorker, 2014

91. @sebchan
director of digital & emerging media
labs.cooperhewitt.org | freshandnew.org
thank you
want the font? its open source
at cooperhewitt.org/typeface