What is your museum of the future?

ZKM visitors redefine the museum of the future

In February 2019, visitors of the ZKM came together to think about the museum of the future. We have summarized their ideas and visions on this page:

A new museum definition

We asked our visitors how they define the space »museum«: Is it a building filled with stories? A space where you can view many objects? Or perhaps a place to meet and exchange with other people on topics of our society?

One thing is clear: museums and cultural institutions are changing! They are no longer the epitome of boring, dusty shelves, but travel destinations, places of experience, Tinder Date scenery or platforms for social debates.

Against this backdrop, the museum definition as it has been formulated by the International Council of Museums twelve years ago, seems rather dusty: 

The ICOM invites people to submit proposals for a new museum definition by 20 May 2019.  A decision on a new definition will take place in Kyoto in September 2019.

For us it was clear: this is a matter for the visitors of the ZKM!

As part of the 30th anniversary of the ZKM and the opening of the ZKM collection, we invited our visitors to follow us on a creative journey in which we asked them how they envisioned the museum of the future and worked together on a design.

In preparation for the journey, ZKM staff members presented their favorite ideas for innovative exhibitions and unique museums. On the one hand, they have shown impressive architectural buildings from museums such as The Shed in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Africa, Cape Town or the Dune Art Museum in Qinhuangdao, China. On the other hand, they have given examples of museums that already use innovative digital mediation formats, including the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. With these inspirations, we thought ahead together and started drafting ideas:

In an open parcours with various experiments, funny tasks and creative interventions, we became future designers and drew, built and described concepts for the museum of the future.

The creative open process was entirely in line with Peter Weibel's idea of a museum – as it is already realized in the exhibition »Open Codes«:

A new architecture: How should the museum of the future be built?

A new manifesto: What constitutes the museum?

With the help of speech recognition, we recorded our opinions on the question of what makes a museum special. The result was a Dadaist manifesto for museums – of birthdays and feelings.

This also urgently needs a new look! We asked for new pictograms and new words for the term »museum« – here are some new impressions:

A new atmosphere in museums

We asked our visitors: What do you want to do in a museum? Experiencing adventure? Discover something new? Or just relax?

We have taken a few silhouettes:

The museum as an assembly of people

We are confident that museums and cultural institutions define themselves as places of shared experience, exchange and thought. Peter Weibel, for example, writes about the museum as an »assembly«, as a place of gathering.

Our workshop has shown: We are already living another definition of museum, which we are constantly developing with and for our visitors! We are now submitting these, in the form of all contributions, to the ICOM.

We are curious to see how they will react to our ideas and visions!