Lombard: Digital media should no longer be called 'new media'
Sarah Lombard · a16z Podcast | The Living Museum · Jan 2, 2019 · at 6:50
Sarah Lombard, a museum director, argues against framing digital tools as a novel technology, noting their presence in museums for over two decades.
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“Sometimes people call digital new media and I'm like, ah, it, it's been around for over 20 years so I think we need to Stop using the word new.”
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More from Sarah Lombard
Lombard: Holocaust Museum was intentionally designed to be hard to navigate
“The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is built specifically to show a moment when a society was falling apart. It is supposed to feel slightly confused, what would you say, sort of shocking, chaotic, not necessarily chaotic, but more you think of the 19 thirties …”
Lombard: Museums serve as safe spaces away from societal noise
“At a time when there is tremendous schisms in society, it is a place where people expect to be safe and to have issues, topics, stories, That they can talk about in a way that is interesting, provocative, eye-opening, and doesn't have the noise from outside.”
Lombard: Use digital tools only when they best tell the story
“Digital is another tool in our storytelling toolbox, and so the question becomes, we have a story to tell. What can tell it best? Sometimes it's digital, sometimes it's film, sometimes it's an artifact or a facsimile of an artifact that you can touch.”
Lombard: Physical museum visits will always surpass digital experiences
“The physical experience I believe will always be richer than a digital experience because the physical experience can hit all of our senses, and digital can be woven into that.”
Lombard: Interactive physical chalkboards in museums self-regulate visitor responses
“We did like a chalkboard, which, because we were asking people to respond, it's tactile, it's in museum, and Everyone can see their responses. The audience is sort of self-regulating. If there's something inappropriate, then people would erase it.”
Lombard: 'Fail fast' tech methodologies are not part of museum culture
“I don't think it's being overstaffed that's our challenge, which is the digital culture has gone to things like designing a minimum bioproduct, going for lean design, and so it's looking to fail fast. That is not yet part of the museum culture.”