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Bringing the future into your museum vision

Bringing the future into your museum vision. Bridget McKenzie. To preserve in perpetuity. How far away is perpetuity? Build a fortress to perpetuate it? Go out and perpetuate civilisation to perpetuate it?. What’s your idea of a museum in the future?.

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Bringing the future into your museum vision

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  1. Bringing the future into your museum vision Bridget McKenzie

  2. To preserve in perpetuity • How far away is perpetuity? • Build a fortress to perpetuate it? • Go out and perpetuate civilisation to perpetuate it?

  3. What’s your idea of a museum in the future? • How far ahead is your horizon point? • How much have external forces changed this world • How much have museums changed this future world?

  4. The same, but with extensions?

  5. Survive disaster with ingenuity?

  6. Utopian, exciting, sci-fi?

  7. Three ways to model futures 1. Normative: preferable future Utopian2. Extrapolating: probable future Trends3. Scenarios: possible futures Multiple

  8. Scenario modelling is best • Suits ‘wicked problems’ • Builds resilience (roll with punches you’ve seen coming) • Describes real contexts, evidenced with data • Includes planning for risks

  9. Intelligible descriptions of possible future situations, based on a complex network of influence factors

  10. Scenario thinking shifts questions FROM What do I hope will happen? OR What will happen? TO What might happen AND How can we act to optimise it?

  11. Slow the seesaw of hope & doom

  12. But scenarios not well used ‘cos • Fail to map influence factors • ‘Clumsy solutions’ only • Harder to imagine many possible futures than one • Must shuffle and re-appraise • Makes you aware of need to act

  13. What do we think influences the future? (Usually, technology) The vision for Google Glasses

  14. Digital, a new layer on world • The world was once nature + manmade things. We’re awed by the new layer. • If we harness digital as a regenerative interface to nature, awe will be justified • Debate seesaws between techno-utopian and anti-tech. • We think digital is the main feature of ‘now’ because it has been for 20 years

  15. But ‘now’ is different (says Alex Steffen) • “The present – right now – is demonstrably different than and discontinuous from the world assumed as the starting point of much futurism”

  16. It’s a VUCA world... • Military term for: • Volatile • Uncertain • Complex • Ambiguous

  17. Breaching of safe planetary boundaries

  18. The doughnut model

  19. Safe space for biodiversity & humanity

  20. Matrix of future-building scenarios Led by human tech Continuity Disruption Led by nature

  21. ...on which can map future narratives Shiny silver • Techno-utopia; problems solved • Digital networks lead green change • Visionary urbanism, people control nature through eco-innovation • Hyper-local, small-scale, islands of survival and conservation • Strenuous effort on current tracks; more conflict; resource scarcity • Techno-utopia as ‘greenwash’ over growth on current tracks • No long-term future for humans; need end-of-life therapy Silvery green Bright green Deep green Bloody red Silvery red Black

  22. Scenarios museums should work with Realistically... • Global recession, food crisis & widespread human die-off • Conflicts & disasters threaten cultural heritage More positively... • Global alliances to co-operate • Ramping up green economy • Rewilding

  23. Cultural orgs + emergent economic order

  24. Emergent economic order • Can help with... • New ways of valuing culture • The knowledge commons; open source intelligence • Wealth = Health, food and skills • Alternative currencies and gifting

  25. Cultural orgs + emergent social order

  26. Emergent social order • Can help by... • Becoming amplified orgs (open, data-driven, internationalist) • Supporting co-operative & connected communities • Aiding mass needs for cultural therapy

  27. Cultural orgs + emergent environmental order

  28. Emergent environmental order • Can help by... • Supporting e.g. hydro/nano & large-scale renewables • Stewarding biodiversity • Localised & biodiverse agriculture • Becoming orgs driven by needs for eco-social repair

  29. The people the future needs The maker instinct Clarity Able to flip dilemmas Immersive learning Bio-empathy Constructive depolarisation Quiet transparency Rapid prototyping Smart mob organising Commons creating

  30. Museums are well placed... • ...to play an active role in nurturing the people the future needs. • Their staff, supporters, communities and visitors. • How can ‘engagement teams’ help with this?

  31. By nurturing these competencies Creativity; design for good over profit; eco-innovation Contextual learning; systems thinking Multiple interpretations; paradox Hands-on; practical immersion Stewardship of cultural & environmental heritage

  32. ...matching the skills for future 6. Diversity; show cultural connections 7. Public good; open data 8. More agile programming 9. Participatory engagement; change-making 10. Conserve and create cultural commons

  33. Who’s showing us how? • Museum of East Anglian Life • Tony Butler • Happy Museum project

  34. Who’s showing us how? • UC Davis Design Museum • Green Museums Accord • Gyre exhibition

  35. Good luck on your journey

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