Writer and commentator Adam Gopnik has described the mindful museum as a place that is primarily about the objects it contains while also recognizing that it should not seek to explain what cannot be explained. “And that means simply that wall labels and explanatory text of all kinds should be as modest and invisible as conceivable,” he said in the first annual Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum just months before the ROM opened its Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition in June 2007. How should museums interpret Gopnik’s view in today’s world of flat screens and wireless networks and one where most museum and gallery visitors can receive instant information via their cell phones, Blackberrys and iPods. And where does that leave the ROM as it grapples with technology solutions for providing context and interpretation in its powerful new gallery spaces? Created by Brian Porter for the 2008 Technology in the Arts: Canada Conference.

1. Technology in the Mindful Museum
Technology in the Arts Conference
University of Waterloo
May 10, 2008

2. Technology in the Mindful Museum
Tony Hushion Brian Porter
tonyh@rom.on.ca brianp@rom.on.ca

3. Overview
• The new ROM and its five pillars of identity
• New media and IT development at the ROM
• Museum models and the “Mindful Museum” defined
• Examples of digital media applications
• Technology planning for future galleries
• Lessons learned and opportunities for smaller museums
• Temple, Agora or Coliseum? What is the new ROM?

6. The New ROM
• A first rank museum of world cultures and natural history
• A powerful agent of public education and research
• A pleasurable agent of social integration in Ontario
• A potent agent of urban renewal in Toronto
• A significant generator of economic activity in Ontario
• A fiscally sound and robust institution
• A leading example of functional governance and workplace
culture

7. Five Pillars of Identity
ROM is a….
• Civic Destination
• Museum Destination
• Knowledge Destination
• Social Destination
• Virtual Destination

8. The New ROM
Metrics of success:
• Attendance more than 100 % ahead of last year
• Admissions revenue more than 100 % in same period
• Web site traffic running 30 % ahead of last year
• March Break one of the most successful on record

9. The New ROM
June 2007
Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall (“Blockbuster” space)
Roloff Beny Gallery (ICC)
October 2007
Sigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada
December 2007
Gallery of the Age of Mammals
James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of
Dinosaurs

10. The New ROM
February 2008
Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery
Wirth Gallery of the Middle East
April 2008
Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume
Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific
December 2008
Teck Cominco Suite of Earth Sciences Galleries
January 2009
Schad Gallery of Biodiversity: Life in Crisis

11. Feature Exhibitions 2008
China Month (May) at the ROM
• Shanghai historical photographs: Until Oct. 26
• ICC Shanghai Kaleidoscope: Until Nov. 2
Ongoing
• Darwin: Until Aug 4
• Out From Under (Disability): Until July 13

12. Feature Exhibitions 2008
Opening soon
• Wedgwood: June 7 – July 2009
• Caribana Art Exhibition: July 24 – Aug. 4
• Sobey National Art Award: Aug 30 – Oct 13
• Diamonds: Oct 25 – March 22, 2009
• Ancient Ukraine: Nov 29 – March 22, 2009

13. Future Exhibitions 2009-2011
• Chinese paintings – January 2009
• Ydessa Hendeles (ICC) – Winter 2009
• Dead Sea Scrolls – 2009
• Terra Cotta Soldiers – 2010 (tentative)
• Season of India – 2010
• Water – 2011
• Season of Africa – 2011

14. Shanghai Kaleidoscope
“In the two-screen video installation Let’s
Puff (2002), Yang Zhenzhong fashions a wry
visual metaphor for the winds of change that
have swept through China’s cities during the
past decade.”
- Christopher Phillips, Guest Curator
Institute for Contemporary Culture
SK Catalogue, ROM, May 2008

15. Shanghai Kaleidoscope
“…(a) hyperactive journey through the
non-stop energy of the Next Culture.”
- Gary Michael Dault
Globe & Mail
May 3, 2008

16. Let’s Puff

17. Let’s Puff

18. Shanghai 1860-1949

19. China Exhibitions
• timely metaphor for this conference
• Shanghai – one of the world’s most frenetic
and fascinating cities – symbolizes new China
• both exhibitions dependent on technology
• SK a combination of various media that
perfectly captures the duality of new and old
which is the city of Shanghai
• historical photographs, many digitized, link
the city’s past with its present
• Travel writer Jan Morris: “raffish excess”

20. New Media Resources
•Information Technology Services
Web/database/network/systems
•Media Productions
Video/television/multimedia & exhibition/gallery AV
•Publications
Co-publishing/academic/catalogues
•Digital Imaging Centre
Photography/scanning/copying/image licensing
3D imaging unit
•Information Centre
Rights and Reproductions co-ordinator
Digital Media Assets co-ordinator

21. Ivey Imaging
Centre
Photography
Studio

22. Digital Sound
Studio
Sound Booth

23. Web Designer
Programmer
Video editing suites

24. New ROM Landing Page
• ROM web site is largely a marketing site
• Transactional, not attraction or engagement
• Facilitates ticket purchases, signups, bookings

25. New ROM Home Page

26. ROM Page on Facebook

27. The Museum as the new Agora
“Our societies have become segmented and
particularized in a world of increasing mobility
and technological change…in this context,
we need new shared space – places of
encounter – a new Commons – a new Agora.
Museums are capable of contributing to this
because…they can engage diverse interests
on their own terms.”
- William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO
Address to the Empire Club
Toronto, May 3, 2007

28. Museum Models
1. Mausoleum – traditional view as a repository.
– also “temple” model where objects are sacred
2. Machine – productive, place where you
learned how to be modern – transformation
3. Metaphor – for our larger life – arena of
socialbility, ie. the Agora
4. Mall – drained and devoted to pleasure –an
attraction

29. The Mindful Museum
“The ‘mindful museum’….. should first of all be
mindful in being primarily about the objects it
contains...
- Adam Gopnik, Writer & Social Commentator
Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture
Institute for Contemporary Culture, ROM, Oct. 13, 2006

30. Adam Gopnik

31. The New ROM
Charles Pachter’s Canada
Projection in Chen Crystal Court
Digital Art Installation
Oct 2007-Feb 2008

32. Charles Pachter

35. Digital Signage

36. Traditional Recognition

37. Digital Donor Wall

38. Digital Donor Wall

39. Digital Donor Wall

40. Education – Digital Gallery

41. Education – Digital Gallery

42. The New ROM
James and Louise Temerty Galleries
of the Age of Dinosaurs
Gallery of the Age of Mammals

47. The New ROM
Sir Christopher Ondaatje
South Asian Gallery

49. The New ROM
Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada:
First Peoples

50. First Peoples – Paul Kane

51. First Peoples Theatre

52. The New ROM
Patricia Harris
Gallery of Textiles & Costume

56. The New ROM
Teck Cominco Suite of Earth
Sciences Galleries
Opening December 2008

58. TC Earth Science Galleries
• 6,900 sq-ft gallery
• showcases more than 2,300 minerals and
meteorites – 25 glass cases – 52 flat screens
• e-labelling – current RFP for delivery solution
• Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Gallery –
interactive video wall showcasing biographies
and personal stories of inductees
• development of Earth Sciences module for
Digital Gallery

60. “Mock-up Wall”

61. Specimen Digitization

62. The New ROM
Schad Gallery of Biodiversity:
Life in Crisis
Opening January 2009

63. Schad Gallery of Biodiversity

64. Schad Gallery of Biodiversity
• 10,000 sq-ft gallery – 1,000 + specimens
• three major themes: Life is … Diverse …
Interrelated… In Crisis
• live and recorded video and multi-media displays
to focus on global eco-systems such as coral reef,
rainforest and the tundra
• animal-borne imaging examples
• Earth Rangers studio – state-of-the-art space for
digital and live programming on latest scientific
research and relevant issues
• presents social networking web opportunity

65. The New ROM
Iconic Objects

66. Iconic Objects
• new marketing campaign to highlight “must-
see” star pieces in the collection
• always ‘in-market’ approach
• interpretive plan calls for production and
installation of short video sequences
highlighting importance/significance of pieces
• delivery through flat screens at each location
• respectful of Gopnik’s ‘mindful museum’…..
mindful in being mostly about its objects.

67. Maitreya Paradise Wall painting

68. Figure of nude blue female

69. Sekmet

70. Earl of Pembroke Armour

71. Ming Tomb

72. Barosaurus

73. Death of General Wolfe

74. Lessons Learned
• enhanced accessibility – audio tours
• evening and weekend IT support
• remote monitoring & updating
• hire for specific skill sets
• donor intervention – how much?
• avoid technology for the sake of technology
• allow time for R & D
• test, test, test …

75. What Can Small Museums Do?
• seek curatorial support (test the waters)
• talk to visitors (measure the “groundswell”)
• do a POST assessment:
• People (visitors – enhancing their experience)
• Objectives (goals?)
• Strategy (providing context, more engagement?)
• Technology (solution)
• involve prospective donors
• develop digital assets – collection images
• consult other cultural organizations
• think big but start small – baby steps

76. Temple, Agora or Coliseum?
• where is the ROM in this trio?
• new book Bold Visions on the ROM’s architecture:
novelty of crystal suggests “bread and circus” aura
but it is not a site for passive entertainment
artifacts are generally not given a theatre setting
• technology plays a role in providing context and
interpretation but is not pervasive – it is a facilitator

77. Last Word
“What looks like an attraction a.k.a coliseum,
on the exterior, is a temple inside. The ROM
(remains) a place for the enjoyable
contemplation of artifacts and specimens.
- Kelvin Brown, author of Bold Visions
The Architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum
ROM, December 2007