How can cultural institutions take advantage of the digital transformation in society? Together for the museum of the future.
Digitization and social media are influencing our daily lives – the way we communicate with each other, make decisions, learn, work and spend our free time. We have long been accustomed to being able to express ourselves and participate everywhere. The multitude of opinions and concentrated knowledge is creating an intelligent, powerful swarm that wants to be involved in shaping things. Museums should respond to this. And not just by interviewing visitors, but by creating new approaches and letting their audience have a say in the program.
What digital tools do museums need to remain socially relevant in the future?
previous.nextmuseum.io provides a possible answer with a cross-institutional digital community platform for swarmcuration and co-creation. Together with the swarm of curators, artists, art enthusiasts, museum employees, experts and techies, we experiment with collaborative exhibition projects and technological developments and discuss trending topics.
We see future potential for museums in the digital transformation and innovative technologies such as mixed reality or AI. We believe that the swarm is more intelligent than the individual being and that museums are definitely needed in the metaverse as well.
previous.nextmuseum.io is a joint project of NRW-Forum/Kunstpalast Düsseldorf and Museum Ulm and is funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation in the Fonds Digital in the Kultur Digital program as well as by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
How-to swarmcuration
Starting a collaborative project with previous.nextmuseum.io is easy: Register as a curator! Then you can create an open call in your profile and invite the swarm to collaborate on your exhibition project. For us, swarm curation is about thinking and preparing together, sharing knowledge and perspectives, and discussing art, all of which can ultimately influence the final formation of the exhibition. So right at the beginning, please give some thought to what activities you would like to offer the swarm (for as much input/output as possible) and where to discuss.
We ask for everything in the submission form that it takes to make a great collaborative project. However, you can always change or add to your information in the form later (e.g., the link to an event). In addition to the open call, you’ll need a discussion channel where the swarm can share about your project and you can use for info or questions. Telegram, Signal, Slack, Discord, Facebook group… the choice is yours! Or just use our previous.nextmuseum.io Telegram channel and post there regularly about your open call. The first post will be done automatically by our bot when you publish your open call. You can use previous.nextmuseum.io completely independently. If you have any questions or need support, feel free to contact us at any time.
Cases
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These three projects were represented with an open call on previous.nextmuseum.io in 2020 for the launch of the platform and were on display as an exhibition in 2021. They give you an impression of the possible process and results of swarmcuration.
FAQ
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The open calls are our foundation for collaborative work on exhibitions. Artists can apply to the exhibition announcements and curators can initiate open calls to launch their own projects. Nextmuseum.io also offers various ways to collaborate with the community. Which tools are used is decided by the initiators of the open call and listed on the site.
Curating means bringing things into a space, giving them a stage and creating zones of contact. Curators create the story behind the exhibition, search for artists and works, bring together new contexts. Curating means making a selection and then arranging it, whether in a spatial exhibition, a publication, or a blog. In doing so, curators determine what receives attention, thus marginalized groups, unknown artists, or new phenomena can fly through the radar of large institutions. Therefore, we question the concept and look for new, more democratic solutions.
For us, swarmcuration is about thinking and creating together, sharing knowledge and perspectives, and discussing art, all of which can ultimately go into the final formation of an exhibition. Collective thinking and working is about individual strengths and ideas that come together to create a greater whole. We believe that the swarm is more intelligent than the individual being. Together we have a pool of information, backgrounds and opinions. Swarm curation means filtering out of this pool what is of interest, what is new and what can be the future.
Originally found in marketing and business, the method of co-creation is increasingly being applied in cultural as well as university contexts. Through creative collaboration, working in interdisciplinary teams, and leveraging swarm intelligence, we find the process to be particularly value-adding and innovative. In addition to the open calls, we offer a further opportunity for co-creative work with the community board.
Absolutely anyone who wants to! previous.nextmuseum.io brings together artists, art enthusiasts, museum fans, curators and other museum staff, experts and techies. It is important to us to keep everything as accessible as possible, so that everyone can participate.
In the swarmcuration section you will find several open calls for collaborative exhibition projects. Are you particularly interested in a project? Then join the discussion about the topic and the submitted artworks on the platform, at events or in the community chat. Sometimes you can even vote directly on the final selection.
As an artist you can submit your own works and as a curator you can publish your own projects.
To ensure a good and fair collaboration at previous.nextmuseum.io, we adhere to the Berlin Code of Conduct and expect the same from all participants.
Yes! previous.nextmuseum.io is a cross-institutional community platform. Institutions as well as (independent) curators can be the sender of an Open Call and realize a collaborative project via previous.nextmuseum.io.
The community discusses in our Telegram group and meets at events like meetups, our tech art late night show “It’s tech time!” or at community pingpong on wonder.me. The community board helps with matchmaking for co-creation.
On the one hand, because the ongoing digitization of all areas of life is forcing museums to change and create new, digital approaches in order to remain socially relevant in the future. But also because we enjoy the digital and the possibilities it opens up for museums, visitors and artists.
At first glance, two very different institutions: A universal museum with 40,000 years of art, culture and design history vs. an exhibition house focusing on photography, pop and digital culture. What connects us is the common idea of the museum as a democratic place and the belief in the potential of the digital.
Just write us an email or call us, you can find our contact details in the imprint. Or send us a message in our Telegram group.