Made by Po

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about our concept for the Museum of Imagination, and the feedback that we got last Monday. One of the key things that came up was how exactly this museum is going to work - is it online? What’s the relevance of the shapes? Is it offline? Why do the event after 12 months? And so on. I really like the fact that the only limit is our own imagination.

Whenever I think about it I keep being reminded of a “museum” that I saw in Switzerland. Instead of being in one building, the museum was spread across the entire city of Thun, with little mini exhibits all over the place. They’d made really good use of the space, and created tiny exhibition spaces wherever they could. You’d stumble across them completely by accident, whilst just walking around the city, and because they were well branded you’d start to recognise them after you’d seen one or two. Despite this good branding, I unfortunately I cannot remember the name (it was in German!), and no matter how much Google searching I do I can’t seem to find any pictures of it.

I was wondering if maybe we could do a similar thing with the Museum of Imagination? As well as being online (which I think is essential) we could also create intrigue and get people involved by having little exhibition spaces spread across a city (or country?). Although, instead of finding a space and putting our own “exhibits” in it, it would be really nice to find a blank space, and then invite the public to fill the space with their own ideas, and that then forms the exhibition itself. For example, we could find a blank wall, or a blank space, or whatever, and put a question there: “What inventions will we have in the future?” And then wait and see what people respond with, be it drawings, paintings, messages, objects, or anything - who knows! It would be just like a tangible version of the online museum, where people can post their ideas, and other people can add to them or add their own, and get people thinking about the future.

Maybe we’d need to get a few people to start filling the space first, to encourage people, and show them what they’re supposed to do (just like a busker might put down a few coins in his own guitar case to say “look, other people have put coins here, you should too”).

It’s just one idea, but I’d love to know what you all think of it. How might you expand on it, improve it, etc? What’s your own vision for the Museum of Imagination?

by Matt Young

x

I really like the idea of the

  http://www.adobemuseum.com however the website itself takes too long to navigate, I like the general premise and feel of it though.

Here is another one  www.museumofeverything.com

this is the one joel suggested quite like the simplicity of it but could use a touch of design http://www.halfbakery.com

At the welcome trust gallery they have an exhibtion called ‘things’ where people bring objects and they displayed them in a wall of glass/plastic cube display boxes, one on top of the other, just really simple.

Some key points I picked up from the feedback were:

How? - research companies that exist as a non- profit organisation, what charities sponsor them, - the arts council, the princes trust etc.

Could this also be linked to childrens charities/ education if we plan to ask children.

d&ad - they set competition briefs to be answered by students, but are they sponsored by other companies, for example they had a Hamleys brief….. how do these relationships work?

Companies to sponsor a question?Companies to ask a question?

Content -How do we make our content/ responses wide - children, students, middle aged and older?or are we fine with having specific target group?

Identity- Target Group, publicity & design, we need to set the parameters of the kind of style we want, within this we also need incentives and conversation starters

 Bags, stickers, t-shirts, gorilla advertising

Kayleigh

1. Does the proposal sparkle my imagination?
   Lego is all about imagination, about creativity. Design cars and houses, play stories, live in other times. A proposal based on the audience’s creativity and imagination is a good proposal.
2. Do I immediately think about what else I could do with what the proposal offers?
   Before I opened a new box of Lego, I had already thought about a hundred ways in which I could use the new bricks other than to build the thing pictured on the box. A proposal that keeps enough options open to do other things with it is a good one.
3. Is the proposed project as simple as it can be, but not any simpler?
   The basics of Lego are really simple: bricks that can be put together almost in any thinkable way. However, it’s not as simple as regular bricks. The studs on top of a brick give strength; the hollow design keeps your buildings light but sturdy.
4. Can I use the proposed project both alone and together?
   You can play with Lego on your own and it’s great fun. You can play together with friends and it’s great fun. Neither is more fun, though. Every good new media project should provide value to the individual user and be just as fun to do with others.
5. Does the proposal add value to other things I have?
   When you buy a new box of Lego, your old Lego increases in value, as you can do more things with the collected amount of Lego. A proposal that adds value to existing things (and gains value by using other things) is a good one.
6. Is the proposed easy to use, but endless in its uses?
   Everybody can use Lego. However, the more you use it, the more interesting it gets. It’s never boring, neither for a beginner or a pro. New media and tech projects that achieve the same are good.
7. Is it ageless?
   Recently I played with Duplo (Lego’s younger brother) with a one-year-old and it was fun, for both of us. I think that, even if you aim at a specific age group with your proposal, it should be fun for everyone to work with it.
8. Does it answer a need or unobtrusively create a reasonable new need?
   This one is tricky. It might be better to ask, “Does the proposal not create irrelevant new needs such as virtual farm land?” I really believe that unless you have a really great and innovative idea a proposal should be aimed at answering existing needs rather than creating new ones.

Maybe we should try and apply some of these questions to our proposal? I think we answer a few quite well already… Andy

PS Thanks Shane, for all the feedback and links to great websites!!

hi team po

well done today at your presentation. a couple of links for you. the online museum i thought of that aludes to a future way of doing things, although not necessarily how to to it is:

http://www.adobemuseum.com

and from a museum perspective this may be of interest where/how they see the future:

http://themuseumofthefuture.com/

and i was charmed to see you aleady have an outpost here:

http://www.hudsonartgalleries.com/moi/index.htm

good work! shane

Hello everyone, 

Taking into account the opinions of everyone who has turned up at the BFI today and Matt’s last comment - thank you for messaging us, even though you are so far - we have come to the conclusion that the shape ‘style’ that Dominika and Sarah posted would be more dynamic and interesting.

We believe that this will create a number of individual shapes that will be more appealing to the public than lots of shapes that appear exactly the same. Each month there will be a new shape that the public have contributed to. They can claim a certain part of the shape as their own, rather than just a part of the sphere. 

We hope that you believe this decision to be the right one and we look forward to seeing you at the BFI soon and then we can be ready for tomorrow. 

Hi everyone, sorry I’m not there in London with you. Just thought I’d share my thoughts on what we’ve got so far.

Andy, I’m really liking the sounds you added to the animation - they make more of a difference than I thought they would. The only one I’m not sure about is the sound for the ‘string’ coming down, seems a bit too robotic to me.

I’m also loving the mock ups that Obie and Dominika (I think it’s you two) have done for the Museum of Imagination website. I’m really liking the interface that Obie has designed, and the colours/textures of Dominikas. I know this is probably incredibly difficult to create, but I think we need more interesting shapes - something more organic looking than a regular dodecahedron / icosahedron / etc. Maybe this is something we could work on for November?

I’m currently working on the animation some more - hopefully I’ll have something to post on the blog later on this afternoon / evening.

by Matt

I like it matt! I’ll try adding some sounds to it tomorrow? not sure if it needs much tho…

maybe we could have some (basic) little things going on in the background too? in this case other cars or something maybe? or maybe not…it may make it too busy and be distracting, but could be something we experiment with?

(i’m not sure how to leave comments/notes on posts so i am posting this)

Andy