iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oonagh Murphy

@oonaghtweets.bsky.social

1.4K followers 483 following 30 posts

Work at the intersection of AI and Culture - BRAID Responsible AI Fellow at Arts Council England. Turing Fellow. Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at Goldsmiths. www.oonaghmurphy.com

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

I wrote a lot about the contemporary purpose of museums, libraries and archives in my PhD, and my visit to Oslo last week made me think back to the work that was happening in New York when I spent a summer there in 2012. It's not digital that's interesting, it's how digital shapes society ...

Key Trend 01 Embracing contemporary culture to develop new audiences Collections provide us with a unique link to the past, but to be interesting to the average visitor, they must also provide a link to the present. Visitors want to know how a museum and its collection are relevant to them today. While in New York I came across a number of interesting events, programmes and exhibitions that demonstrated the contemporary relevance of museums and their collections, for this report I have selected three case studies which demonstrate that this approach requires vision rather than infinite resources.

Key Trend 2: The museum as a place for experimentation and innovation by visitors New Technologies are beginning to shift the way visitors are learning. A new model of collaborative learning is beginning to emerge. Whilst museum educators continue to teach visitors about the museum’s collections, increasingly museum visitors are providing museums themselves with new ways to view their collection. Whilst still a relatively new phenomena this trend marks a radical shift away from educator workshops with a defined, pre planned outcome.

Key Trend 3: Skill sharing and reflective practice Agile thinking and practices are somewhat at odds with museum culture, museums have reputation for being slow, often bureaucratic institutions. While I was in New York I was excited to see a range of digital education, marketing, collections and web teams tackle this legacy of bureaucracy by forming their own informal professional skill sharing networks. These new networks support museum technologists as they seek to create a new more agile and reflective environment that is conducive to and facilitates the development of emerging practice. These networks can be divided into three categories, informal events, conferences and social networks.

Key Trend 4: The museum as an innovative, agile, mission lead institution It was clear that museums in New York are invested in the future. The old argument ‘if we put everything online people won’t visit’ has been blown out of the water and many museums in New York now recognise that to succeed now and in the future they must develop a culture of research and development that responds to, challenges and works with contemporary culture and technological advancements. It was interesting to see how museums in New York are beginning to recognise that throwing money at singular digital projects is not enough. Instead it was evident that a number of key international museums have begun to see digital technologies and research and development as a key strategic priority and as such are creating departments staffed with people from a range of backgrounds and skill sets to work with the museum as a whole. This strategic approach of creating departments tasked with R&D, emerging technologies, and creating sustainable practices, demonstrates an interesting human resource approach to joined up thinking that will allow museums to use their historical and contemporary collections in a way that is relevant and engaging to visitors both today and tomorrow.

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Deichman Bjørvika (Oslo Public Library) is a kind of scandi utopia of what a public commons can be. Giant makerspace, soft play, cinema rooms, music studios. Buzzing with all generations, making, learning, sharing space and ideas www.dezeen.com/2020/07/02/d...

Picture of a stage in the middle of the library, set up for a gig, with people sitting reading.

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Norway does good museums and dramatic skies. Was torn between looking at the art and the big skies yesterday afternoon. Apparently the building is designed to have that impact - framing the city and the art, and it hits the nail on the head.

Image shows the MUNCH museum building in front of big blue sky

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Arrived in Norway to work with MUNCH museum for a few days - nice to see Edvard moonlighting as a weather man at the airport!

Image of a interactive billboard - with an image of Edvard Munch painting The Scream and a weather forecast saying it is -2 degrees

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Great new #artstech open call from @braiduk.bsky.social - applications close on 2nd December... braiduk.org/artist-commi...

We are excited to commission five UK-based artists or artist groups to create artworks that explore new ways to think about today’s AI and the futures we want work in responsible AI to help us build.

All that is needed is a clear engagement with responsible AI; it is not required that AI technology be used in the art making process.

The aim of these commissions is to:

encourage artists to enrich and expand the responsible AI ecosystem by making artworks that help us more wisely respond to present realities and near future horizons of AI
demonstrate how art can critique and improve responsible AI tools, methods and approaches in creative and engaging ways
inspire and empower members of the public to better understand, engage with and inform responsible AI development.

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Managed to get a ticket for the Van Gogh exhibition at The National Gallery - for one of the 7pm slots last week. Enjoyed the contrast of sunny paintings and dark dark London in Nov... next up ... attempt to get a ticket for the sold out Monet at the Courtauld before it finishes 🕵️‍♀️🎨

Picture of the sign for the national gallery with the moon in the background

Picture of van gogh painting of irises in a lavish gold frame

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I'm out at a gig in London on Thursday. We are all coming after work, but the 'no bags' rule means we can't bring our 'day bags' with us. One friend might have to drop out if she can't bring her laptop. I get it for security, but surely it puts people off going to gigs afterwork / midweek?

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Oonagh Murphy @oonaghtweets.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Recently worked with The International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent to Curate 'Digital Dilemmas' a year long public program exploring the intersection of tech on society through the lens of artists and collections - you can now read our reflections > redcrossmuseum.ch/explore/medi...

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