By Harald Kraemer, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong Since the 1990s, multimedia technology has had a growing impact on communication and education in museums. Museums have spent enormous effort in the production of multimedia applications like CD-i, CD-ROM, websites, kiosk-systems, etc. Nowadays museums are open to any kind of media that the new communication technology has forced them to comply with. Using Multimedia and Social Media-supported technologies, visitors have changed from passive learning customers to active co-authors and consumers. The Millennial generation in particular, with its narcissistic and event-driven behavior and its expectation of following the latest technology innovations, has led museums into a dependency with unforeseeable consequences. This essay contains aspects of the following questions: Are the multimedia contents, which mostly follow Alfred Barr’s didactic model of the educated consumer and focuses on interpretation, still relevant in view of the changed behavior of the digital born user? How can museums develop a contemporary education model that strengthens our visitor/user’s ability to critically engage with art and media? In the face of the growing loss of the products of our digital cultural heritage, the question remains how can we ensure that future generations will have access to the hypermedia applications created by museums, and that we will not lose these interactive masterpieces, as it is happening right now with the first generation of multimedia classics? Last not least the inglorious end of the NMC raises the question of who now evaluates and recommends the technologies that will have to be used in museums in the future.

1. The Future of Media
determines
the Future of Museums.
(Some remarks on the current situation
of the Post-NMC era)
Harald Kraemer
School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

2. 2014 School of Creative
Media, CityU, Hong Kong
MA Curating Art & Media
2012 lotsremark Projekte
Basel/HKG, Janine Stoll
2005 Artcampus, Bern
2002 Virtual Transfer
Musée Suisse, Zurich
2000 PhD
Museum Informatics &
Digital Collections
TRANSFUSIONEN
1999 Vienna/Berlin
Norbert Kanter
1998 Science Wonder
Productions, Vienna
MUSEUM SCHLOSS KYBURG
Es gibt nur Geschichten.
«Wissen muss nicht nur
verwaltet werden, sondern
Wissen muss gelebt werden.»
«Die rechte Ernte
macht das gute Mahl.»
«Ich bin einfach sprachlos.
Was Sehachsen so alles
bewirken können ... unglaublich.»
«Die Liebe sieht keine Farben.»
«Ich fühle den Mond atmen.
Das Universum beginnt
mit dem Runden.»
«Man siht ouch dicke, daz
schoen âbentrôt kumt nâch
mangem morgen, der trüeb ist
und timmer.»
«Historismus:
Triumph desVergangenen
& Phänomen der Symbiose»
VIRTUELLER TRANSFER MUSÉE SUISSE
Lustvolle, tragische und lehrreiche Geschichten
erzählt von Bewohnern und Gästen der Kyburg
CD-ROM und Erweiterung der Ausstellung durch Medienstationen
im Museum Schloss Kyburg
2003-2004 | Auftraggeber:Verein Museum Schloss Kyburg | 50 Objekte folgender
Sammlungen: Museum Schloss Kyburg, Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich,
Staatsarchiv Kanton Zürich, Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Historisches Museum Basel,
Kunstmuseum Winterthur | 12 Geschichten: 1663 – Die Reise nach Paris | Scandalöse
Enthüllungen | Mode und andere Torheiten | Caffeeschlekerey | Landvogt Leu & Dr. Gugel
oder Lexikon vs. Suchmaschine |Verdorbenes & Schmackhaftes | 1725 – Der Kriminalfall
Johannes Grün von Kauffbüren | Mandate undVerordnungen | Die Helvetische Revolution
oder Das Ende der Landvögte | Treu bis in den Tod: Die tragische Geschichte der Gertrud
von Wart | 1 Spiel | 38 Animationen (Flash), 3 Filme (15 Min, 10 Min, Luftaufnahmen),
11 Hörstücke, 1 Interaktives Gemälde, 1 Hologramm (Kopie des Reichsapfels des Rudolf
von Habsburg) | 45 MitarbeiterInnen, 11 Schauspieler, 10 SprecherInnen
KUNST UND INDUSTRIE
Virtueller Transfer Musée Suisse
Entwicklung und Produktion neuer Gestaltungs- und Vermittlungsformen
von Museumsinhalten im Web für die Musée Suisse Gruppe
2002-2004 | Auftraggeber: Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich | über 600
Sammlungsobjekte folgender Museen: Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich, Musée
national suisse Château de Prangins, Museo doganale svizzero Cantine di Gandria, Forum
der Schweizer Geschichte Schwyz, Museum für Musikautomaten Seewen, Schlossdomäne
Wildegg, Museum Bärengasse Zürich, Zunfthaus zur Meisen Zürich |
Wunderkammer mit Meisterwerken, Lieblingsstücken und Kuriositäten, 3 Bilderalben,
4 Anekdoten, 5 Zeitzeugen, 1 Ausstellung, 1 Restaurierungsprojekt, 2 Lernkurse | 140
Animationen (Flash), 30 Filme, 28 Hörstücke | 65 MitarbeiterInnen, 41 Akteure und
SprecherInnen | in 5 Sprachen (Deutsch, Französisch, Italienisch, Rätoromanisch, Englisch)
Kunst und Industrie
Die Anfänge des Museums für angewandte Kunst
CD-ROM und Medienkonzeption der gleichnamigen Ausstellung im MAK
1998-2000 | Auftraggeber: MAK – Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst,Wien | über 300 Objekte | Inhalt:
Weltausstellungen London 1851 und 1862 | South Kensington Museum | 1863 k.k. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst
und Industrie | 1864 Provisorium Ballhaus | 1867 Kunstgewerbeschule | 1871 Museum am Stubenring | 1873 Wiener
Weltausstellung | Wien: Zentrum undVorstadt | 1890 Moderner Historismus | 1910 Halbzeit der Moderne | Stile |
Stilpluralismus |Vorlagenwerke | 41 Biographien | 60 Animationen, 1 Intro-Film, 20 Filme (darunter zahlreiche historische
Filmdokumente des Filmarchivs Austria), 35 Hörstücke, 30 MitarbeiterInnen, 2 SprecherInnen
«Jede Zeit hat ihren Stil.»
Adolf Loos, 1908
«Nehmen Sie nichts in ihr Haus auf,
das nicht entweder nützlich ist oder
das Sie als schön ansehen.»
William Morris, 1882
Es gibt keine Wahrheit.
© Harald Kraemer (TRANSFUSIONEN) Zürich 2004

3. The Future of Media determines the Future of Museums
* The growing Dependency of Museums on
the Development of Media Technologies &
the Part of NMC
* The glorious Past of Multimedia in
Museums
* Access denied−Moments to remember
* Digital Preservation−some Drops on a Hot
Stone

4. Christopher Richartz 1995, 332
“The new information technology
could force museums to comply, even
if they try to resist; the standards of
information transfer experienced by
the general public will establish the
visitor’s expectations, so that the
museum must comply in perpetuity.”

5. Schloss Kyburg, 2004
Neuberger, 1993
Livre de Lulu, 1995
B. Taut, 1996
Navegar, 1998
S. Freud, 1999
Vienna Walk, 1998
Place Hampi, 2006
Hombroich, 2002
Gentlemen Dogs
V. Panton, 2000
W. Forsythe, 1999
Kidai Shôran, 2000
Kongens Kunstkammer
Virtual Transfer, 2002
Wanas, 1998
Lewis & Clark, 2004
Visionäre im Exil, 1995
Anderson Coll., 2000
Maeght, 1995

8. National Gallery London: Art Gallery, 1993

9. National Gallery London: Art Gallery, 1993
Josef Albers: Interaction of Color, 1994

10. National Gallery London: Art Gallery, 1993
Josef Albers: Interaction of Color, 1994
Documenta 1-9, 1997

11. Virtual Transfer Musée Suisse 2002-2004

12. Virtual Transfer Musée Suisse
http://virtualtransfer.com
Swiss National Museum & Transfusionen, Zurich
5 languages
600 Objects from 8 Swiss Museums
140 Flash animations / 30 videos / 28 audio pieces
Team: 10 + 65 from the museums

13. Virtual Transfer Musée Suisse

16. D. Saraga 2015, 21
“An inaccessible database [...] is
an unusable database.
To stop to maintain is similar
with the destruction of the results
of scientific work.”

17. EMULATION

18. EMULATION

20. I
think
I
got
lost
in
cyberspace.
Snapshot
by
Norbert
Kanter

21. Again.
This
guy
really
needs
a
compass.*
*Thanks
to
Darren
Pack

22. *Thanks
to
Darren
Pack
How
can
I
help
you?*

23. “Two
roads
diverged
in
a
yellow
wood,
And
sorry
I
could
not
travel
both.
…
I
took
the
one
less
traveled
by,
And
that
has
made
all
the
difference.”
(Robert
Frost)

24. How
strange…*
*Thanks
to
Darren
Pack

26. School of Creative Media / City University of Hong Kong
Teaching Development Grant 2017-2019
‘Multimedia Classics &
Transmedia Storytelling—
a digital archive with case studies
of multimedia applications
to inspire and train students
for the planning and production
of future interactive
transmedia applications’

27. Schloss Kyburg, 2004
Neuberger, 1993
Livre de Lulu, 1995
B. Taut, 1996
Navegar, 1998
S. Freud, 1999
Vienna Walk, 1998
Place Hampi, 2006
Hombroich, 2002
Gentlemen Dogs
V. Panton, 2000
W. Forsythe, 1999
Kidai Shôran, 2000
Kongens Kunstkammer
Virtual Transfer, 2002
Wanas, 1998
Lewis & Clark, 2004
Visionäre im Exil, 1995
Anderson Coll., 2000
Maeght, 1995

28. EMULATION

29. NMC Horizon Report 2011 / Museum Edition, 26
“Digital preservation of information
is becoming an increasingly
important topic everywhere.”

30. NMC Horizon Report 2011 / Museum Edition, 26
“Digital preservation of information
is becoming an increasingly
important topic everywhere.”
“Digital preservation is less about
updating content to work with the
newest releases of software—
a common misconception—and more
about future-proofing digital works of
art, documents, and media.” (ibid.)

31. NMC Horizon Report 2013 / Museum Edition, 31
Digital Preservation & Conservation
“…to protect important objects,
artifacts, and documents …"
as well as
”… to stabilize and restore artifacts.”

32. Digital Preservation
- Canadian Heritage Information Network
- Digital Preservation Coalition
- Online Repository of the Library of Congress
- Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information
- Network of Expertise in long-term Storage and
availability of digital Resources (NESTOR)
- ENUMERATE project
…

33. NMC Horizon Report 2013 / Museum Edition, 32
“Museums across the world also have
large collections of electronic media
objects, each representing unique
challenges from a preservation and
conservation standpoint, including
antiquated operating systems,
hardware, and computer programs…“

34. NMC Horizon Report 2013 / Museum Edition, 32
“… While future technologies cannot
be fully foreseen, the fact that
conversations about preservation and
conservation are increasingly taking
place is an indication that they are
poised to become better understood
and executed over the next four to five
years.”

35. NMC Horizon Report 2015 / 2016
In the NMC 2015 and 2016 editions
preservation and conservation no
longer matter.
The way in which the forward-thinking
NMC handles the generalization of the
numerous issues of data to be
recovered is a good illustration of
the general lack of knowledge of
museums in this challenge.

36. Digital Preservation of Media Art
- ZKM Center for Art and Media
Technology, Karlsruhe
- House for Electronic Arts, Basel
- Preservation of Digital Art, Bern
- Ars Electronica Center, Linz
- Archive of Digital Art, Krems
…

37. But how can museums and
archives follow the technical
evolution and produce
relevant content for their
hypermedia applications
without running into danger
of losing their creations in
the future?

38. Schloss Kyburg, 2004
Neuberger, 1993
Livre de Lulu, 1995
B. Taut, 1996
Navegar, 1998
S. Freud, 1999
Vienna Walk, 1998
Place Hampi, 2006
Hombroich, 2002
Gentlemen Dogs
V. Panton, 2000
W. Forsythe, 1999
Kidai Shôran, 2000
Kongens Kunstkammer
Virtual Transfer, 2002
Wanas, 1998
Lewis & Clark, 2004
Visionäre im Exil, 1995
Anderson Coll., 2000
Maeght, 1995

39. Name the loss in numbers.
Shareholders of technology companies need to
understand that through the return-oriented of
the companies, they are jointly responsible for
destroying cultural values.
Only by developing a critical awareness of the
handling of digital-born data in the corporate
philosophy can long-term strategies of archiving
and sustainability be successfully implemented.
Technology companies must provide guarantees
and ensure that content can be transferred
without loss.

40. Communication Curator
We conceive, develop, design and communicate
content and significantly shape the future of our
visitor groups.
We are the creators of knowledge environments
at the interface of content, education, experience
and technology.
We are largely responsible for the success and
distribution of our stories.
What we need is a broadened job description,
a new job title that strengthens the sense of self
and strengthens our work to those who equate to
curators.

41. Joseph Beuys, Das Museum, 1993
Museums in the 21st century
should be seen as universities
with complex collections.

42. Joseph Beuys, Das Museum, 1993
“Art museums are excluded from all
the problems of the world.” (48-49)
“totalization of the concept of art ” (20)
“the world is something that wants to
be shaped by humans.” (20)
“Every human being is an artist.”

43. Joseph Beuys, Das Museum, 1993
The Museum should become a place in
which questions and constellations can
be discussed that are not considered
elsewhere and that poses the crucial
“cultural, democratic, social and
ecologic questions“ (38)
“that goes through all the ways of
society.“ (49)

44. H.Kraemer@cityu.edu.hk
kraemer@transfusionen.de