Lightning Talks

Friday, April 05, 2019: 11:00am - 12:30pm
Grand Ballroom

Chair: Susan Chun

Bot to the future: using machine learning to develop the ultimate MW paper
- Louise Rawlinson, Cogapp, UK, Tristan Roddis, Cogapp, UK
What happens when you data-mine twenty-one years of Museums and the Web conference papers, and then train a bot on the contents? In this lightning talk we aim to show you the journey we took to create the ultimate, zeitgeist-capturing paper title that would wow reviewers in 2020. Marvel at how the crude beginnings of machine understanding morph into a sophisticated prediction engine, leveraging every buzzword-worthy machine-learning technique that we can think of along the way. There should also be time for a bit of introspection: SGML and the information superhighway have fallen by the wayside; chatbots and machine-learning (oh no that's us) are ascendant, but what are the perennial, enduring themes of the last twenty years?

3 Things About iiiF That Will Rock Your World
- Deborah Howes, Howes Studio Inc, USA
Using absolutely no technical jargon, three urgent reasons for including iiiF (International Image Interoperability Framework--> protocols into your public-facing content will be cheerfully explained.

Fun with IIIF
- Tristan Roddis, Cogapp, UK
Most of the uses of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) have rightly focused on scholarly and research applications. In this lightning talk, however, I plan to look at the opposite extreme: the state of the art for creating playful and fun applications of the IIIF APIs. From tile puzzles, to arcade games, via terapixel fractals, virtual galleries, 3D environments, a voice-activated Bladerunner-style viewer and more. Time to bring frivolity back to GLAM content.

Hype or hope? AI, museum visitors, and insights
- Ariana French, American Museum of Natural History, USA
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and deep learning are the buzzwords of the moment in media and technology circles - and the hype keeps going. AI is increasingly sold as a key feature in many third-party constituent and marketing platforms used by the museum community, yet what lies "under the hood" with AI is rarely examined or questioned.  This lightning talk will take a high-level look at what AI and machine learning can (and can't) do, when it comes to generating insights about visitors. Topics will include: - Common AI use cases and the marketing of AI - Garbage in, garbage out: Knowing your data set and its relationship to outcomes - Questions to ask when AI is offered as a platform feature

Making Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality a Reality for Smaller Museums
- Rich Bradway, Norman Rockwell Museum, USA
This presentation explores how the pairing of a small museum on the east coast with a university on the west coast was able to produce a virtual reality experience on a relatively small budget, which has ultimately been showcased in a major international traveling art exhibition. The presentation will highlight the design and production process and how the university students from different schools and cultural backgrounds came together to work on this unique project.  It will also illuminate some of the challenges of incorporating a virtual reality experience into a Museum setting and how work continues to extend the experience beyond the exhibition and the Museum's walls.

Exhibiting How Virtual and Augmented Reality Work via Cool Inquiry-Based Learning Experiences
- Bill Meyer, Inquireables, USA
How can Virtual and Augmented Reality trick our brains into believing things that aren’t there seem to exist? Can museums create and exhibit inquiry-based learning experiences about technology, that empower visitors of all ages to experiment and discover for themselves how it all works? This lightning talk communicates by example how we tackled these questions through iterative design and repeated visitor testing, to create 16 cool hands-on experiences that neatly deconstruct VR and AR by fostering insights and understanding—and reduce the necessity for lengthy verbal explanations.

Providing Choice and Control for Those with Low or No Hearing in a 360 Degree Video Environment
- Max Evjen, Michigan State University, USA
360 degree video is a spectacular visualization tool, but provides difficulty for those with difficulty hearing when there is narration since captions are not an easy option. Where does one place captions in the 360 degree video when elements of the video appear all around the 360 degree space at random times? The Michigan State University (MSU) Museum and Digital Scholarship Lab at the MSU Libraries created Google Slides that auto advance in concert with narration that can be presented on any device in the World War One in Vauquois 360 degree video. This provides viewers with difficulty hearing choice and control for where they want to look, while still being able to follow narration. Results from evaluation will be shared at #MW19.

Simplified Digital Signage Using Web Technologies
- Tom Douglass, Seattle Art Museum, USA
Finding the best digital signage solution for a museum setting can be challenging. Many enterprise solutions offer advanced features such as multi-screen synced video, slick transitions, and other effects, but often rely on difficult to use proprietary management software. After years of struggling with a high-end signage solution the Seattle Art Museum reviewed our needs and developed a simple solution consisting of an ASP.NET web site using HTML5/CSS styling, JavaScript/JQuery, and HTML5 Server Sent Events that manages, schedules, and displays slide content across multiple screens and integrates real-time pricing from our ticketing system. This presentation will provide an overview of the components and technologies used in this solution.

Digital Necromancy: Does the QR code yet live? An empirical look at what QR codes can still do for us.
- Carlos Austin-Gonzalez, The British Museum, UK
Are QR codes dead, or do they still hold some value for museums? In 2018 the British Museum installed QR codes in two of its newer galleries and studied visitor behaviour around them as part of the larger patterns in the galleries and beyond. Did QR codes do justice to the online content they linked to? Why did the usage of QR codes vary so dramatically within a single gallery, why was our scanning audience composed as it was, and how can we understand the data? This talk asks what makes a good QR code by exploring the findings from this research, and examines why QR codes are still a relevant topic for museums today despite the fact that many foresaw their death years ago.

Reimagining the Audio Tour for Levinthal’s War, Myth, Desire
- Kate Meyers Emery, George Eastman Museum, USA
The works featured in David Levinthal's War, Myth, Desire gave us a unique challenge when designing the engagement around it: the photographs feature toys, but they are put into adult scenarios. Topics of his works include using green army men to depict World War II, figurines in various states of bondage, and a series called Bad Barbie, where barbie dolls, well... go bad. In order to be open about the nature of his works, and inspire our guests to talk about them, we decided to forgo the normal audio tour and create a podcast. The resulting work includes a diverse range of voices and led to increased audience engagement with the exhibition.

Museums in Videogames: four decades in four minutes
- Georgios Papaioannou, UCL Qatar, Qatar
In this talk, we present our project on museum spaces and building as depicted and used in videogames since the late 1980s. From Batman (1989) to Uncharted 3 (2015), we see museum buildings and spaces as arenas for getting points, overcoming obstacles, challenge both mind and finger's dexterity, solving puzzles and mysteries, aiming to engage the gamer and enhance pleasure and gaming experiences. We explore the evolution of museum spaces representations as years go by and we attempt to address the reasoning behind decision making processes in selection of museums spaces and graphics. We will offer a four-minute slideshow on well-known videogames of the last forty years that use representations and/or simulations of museum spaces.