This week I had the honor of presenting not once but twice at a MuseumNext conference. A year ago I wrote here about how I used Clubhouse to make connections at a MuseumNext; then last fall I wrote here about teenagers co-designing new digital experiences for museums. This week, with the focus on Museums, Games and Play, I took a 30,000 mile high view (taking inspiration, fittingly enough, from crows) in the first session and then in the second session talked about design from the inside out, through the lens of learning from failure. This will be the first of two posts sharing highlights from the two VERY DIFFERENT sessions.
On Monday I partnered with my frequent collaborator Neal Stimler, to present: Thirteen (or so) Ways of Looking at Gaming in Museums. As promoted in the program, this session:
… explored the horizons of games in museums to encourage their adoption into regular programs, products, and operations. It will solve for the equation Museums + Games = ? across a variety of lenses: accessibility; diversity, equity, and inclusion; digitization; intellectual property and licensing; the metaverse; partnerships; youth making games, staff making games; visitors playing games; producing games for the general public; eSports; educational games; games in exhibits, and more. This pair of presenters have together over a quarter-century of experience bringing digital experience design, including games, to two of the largest museums in the world: NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and The American Museum of History Museum.
You can watch our pre-recorded video here: (the QA is reserved for paid attendees):
The title is a riff on Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” I’ll share below each of the ‘”ways” we approached the topic and the associated poems I wrote for each one.
- Accessibility
I can see ways
I could play this game.
If only the designers
Had seen the same.
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging:
They present this game
And its characters
And its stories
As if designed for everyone.
So,
If I don’t see myself,
Am I no one?
- Digitization
Once I was art
Designed for an exhibit
On Pterosaurs.
Now I am decor
On a deck of cards,
My AR wings set to soar.
Neat trick.
- Intellectual Property and Licensing
Proud, the Museum
Instagramed the art.
Chagrined, the Museum
Read the cease and desist.
- Metaverse
The moment when
The Game
Was more than just
A Game
- Partnerships
Two dancers
Move as one.
Seems seamless
Yet that is just
More
Of their
Magic.
- Youth making games
I made that,
She said,
And in that moment,
For the first time,
Glimpsed her future.
- Staff making games
What is the shape
Of a magic circle
When transposed
From living room table
To a museum’s exhibit hall?
- Playing existing game
Millennials clink glasses
Playing tabletop games
With scientists.
Commanding spacecrafts.
Managing microbiomes.
The evening’s aspirations announced in its name:
Game Night Gone Wild.
- Producing games for outside use
The teacher seeks a carrot
In the form of a game.
Students note the deception,
Yet play with glee.
- eSports
Melee in the Museum
Team Met vs. Team AMNH
Tiffany versus T-Rex
A battle for the ages
- Games and education
My Duolingo ranking proves nothing.
It neither feeds my family
Nor protects us from COVID.
When I dropped out of the top ten
However
I vowed to crush it.
