 Kia ora kato. Can you all hear me at the back? All good. Hi, my name's Dave. For those of you who don't know, I work at Auckland Museum, and for the last wee while, I've been doing clever things with pictures up there. But first of all, I'm going to take you on a little bit of journey through this talk really, and in order to understand that journey, we need to go back in time a little bit. To learn a little bit about where I come from, to understand the perspectives that I'm about to try and share with you, to show that digitisation isn't all that. So some time ago, prior to me working in this sector, before I had lots of grey hair, I used to call myself a photographer every now and then. I even left the country once and put it on my little departure card as I went through the airport. It doesn't happen these days. I very rarely take pictures both at work or in my personal life. I need to look at most things through the eyes of visual language. About 10 years ago, I fell into the glam sector. That's important to note, because I fell into the sector. I didn't train to work in this sector. I didn't want to be a historian. I kind of sucked at history at school. I came into it because it was a career route for me out of retail using technology as a vehicle. So, as I've come into that, what I've done is bring that visual language into it, but perhaps none of the normal things that most of the people in this sector bring with them. Over the past 10 years, I've been fortunate enough to be involved in a lot of different projects at different organisations, advising a lot of other ones both here in New Zealand and overseas and into Europe in the States. I'm really lucky to have worked and published a book. Alongside my former boss, Alan, for the New Zealand Defence Force personnel files. So, all of you who've been looking into the soldiers' histories and reconnecting with your ancestors and so on, over the past few years, since they were put live, that was some hard work that we did at archives making that visible. I led the digitisation of the police review into the crew murders. I led the digitisation of the women's suffrage petition. So, every time you've seen bits of data in the last few years and you've been reconnecting with those names of your family and your ancestors, that came because myself and some of the guys that we worked with that were probably here in this room somewhere actually checked every one of those names one by one as we scanned them. More recently, I went up to Auckland Museum to go and lead their collection imaging project. We built a state-of-the-art studio. It was one of those rare moments in history where we got a clean slate and told, go nuts, make what you need. Just not very often. Just not very often. And we built what we wanted and it was awesome. So during the time that we've worked on this we've had, I suppose, the fortune of having a purpose-built facility with purpose-built processes and people in there working away. And we've shared. We've had over 8,000 people come through that studio as visitors, as teachers, as students, as people visiting alongside our partner project, the Pacific Collection Access project. We've shared what we've done and we re-identified. The museum, I think it's fair to say when we arrived, it wasn't completely against photographers but there was a bit of legacy resistance in there. Some of us, we weren't really that liked when we first turned up and in those last four or five years what we've managed to do is take doing pictures and turn it into the way how the museum has rebranded itself. You can't see a corporate document, a report, a hit on the website, a billboard on the back of a bus or anything like that, without our images being a thumbprint all over that stuff. And we reinvented some of the things that we've digitised is the first time it's been done including figuring out how to image bats under water and how water acts as lenses on colour. And nobody had done that before but we shared how we did that. And perhaps more importantly we relied upon people. I've had the fortune of working with eight of the most amazing staff over the last five years. Photographers, I write specialists, he's gone on to leave us and lead this sector as well as honourable mentions for some really, really amazing kind of people that worked alongside us. We've had the first volunteer program with photographers coming and working in the museum and teaching them how to do it. It's been amazing. We delivered 275,000 new images and a bit more. And over 67,000 objects were digitised. And these are complex things. They're not sheets of paper that we're putting on a scanner. These are three-dimensional objects that look weird and wonderful and shiny and complicated and a bit tricky to image. And I'm really, really proud of that. As we've digitised things over this past period it's been like a new dawn. It's been amazing. And it really was. It's been beautiful what we've done this past few years and if that sounds a little bit evangelical it's just, it is. I'm really proud of it. It's been amazing what we've done. They have been the wonder years of a digitisation project. One of the things that I've realised over this past kind of six months since that project closed down and reflecting on the similarities between that and all of the other projects that I've seen is that most projects have this. Most projects have a period where everything is awesome and it goes really, really well. Most projects have a wonder years moment. And then something happens. Then comes the end of things. Then comes the bits that hurt. Then comes the death scene. All things must end. And sometimes like that it's painful for a good reason. It has to be. But all things must end. And it hurts. So as we've been in that sort of period trying to figure this out and trying to understand it and reflect on those similarities I've come up with a few ideas and that's really what I want to try to share with you today. So for a start most projects seem to be a boom and bust cycle. Some genius out there goes boom. You know what? We've got a bright idea. We're going to digitise all the things. And all the magic fairies kind of wave their ones and all the things start happening. The project gets underway. People start doing cool stuff and you build a momentum. You build a body of work. Things get better and better. People like what you've done. They talk about it. Everybody loves who you are. And then something kind of inevitable happens. Usually involving some dollar signs, right? Either your money is running out. You've spent it all. Well done. Or hell. You decline in a head downhill until you hit that death scene. That death scene hurts. Whether you are like me at the end of the project along with some of my colleagues we've been fortunate enough to be able to continue on and carry on working at the museum. We did survive. Someone my colleagues didn't. They've left us. They've gone on and we've lost that talent. But even for those of us who are left behind in a period where we asked that question are you going to survive? Because you're going through a grieving period inside who you are about the end of that project and the end of that era. The wonder years are over. What I've really found quite interesting is after that when you've had your crunch and you start to get new ideas and go, do you know what there's still work to do? That's when the creativity comes. You're being forced to have to rethink and you climb back up until you hit the next genius idea and start again. I want to introduce the idea that digitisation is a foundational element. To give Auckland Museum a lot of credit here it's been really good at pushing this agenda. What I've realised is that most organisations those core business elements your curators your archivists, your librarians your art historians those people who know all of the things about your collection that's your core business, right? That's the bit everybody is really focused on. Digitisation, often many organisations is that bit that's bolted on the side? It's a necessary I wouldn't say evil it's just one of those things that has to get done but not everybody's bought into it in a lot of organisations. But it's wrong. Auckland Museum has pushed this and I'm certainly pushing the idea that digitisation is a foundational element if every single thing that an organisation does you're not putting an exhibition on the floor or gallery on the floor you're not doing marketing you're not doing research on your collections you're not publishing your books you're not updating your website without having the thumbprint of digitisation all over it. So it is a foundation element of what a modern organisation is. So navel let's see some smiles navel been there you've been listening a little bit audience participation time, right? I listened up and I want hands in the air not just yet there's a question coming next slide there's a question if you think the answer is yes I want your hands to go up if you think the answer is no leave them down are we all ready? there's some nods I'll take that as a yes is this cool? that's interesting that's a 50-50 in the room I like that I quite like the fact it's got a shiny bit in it and it looks a little bit gold but to me and I'm not a rock nerd slash geologist that's a rock it looks a bit pretty but it's a picture of a rock it's kind of cool but it's not going to get me really excited but now there are the photos that one of our photographers took in one block of work of rocks one block of work not all of it, just one person in one block of work so when you're doing over 2,500 photographs of rocks that not everybody here in this room was totally enthused about I start to ask a couple of questions why are we doing it and is mass information actually enough so you're all listened up now you're ready to play the game more audience participation who here in the last month has spent more than an hour meaningfully using Wikipedia and I don't mean like looking up how old George Cleane is or anything like that meaningfully contributing working with learning from Wikipedia what's that, like 15, 20 let's say it will be generous, like 20% of the room okay how many of you have used Instagram for an hour or more in the last day that genuinely surprises me actually, that genuinely surprises me I probably used it for like an hour before I had breakfast this morning so my point is come what may this is the world that we live in and I don't really care whether you like it or not this is the world that we live in there is a chimpanzee who may or may not have been trained but fully autonomously checking himself out and his mates on Instagram this video did the rounds on the internet earlier on in the year and I find it fascinating we as a sector are one thing but we operate in a much, much bigger world where most people think like this bite-sized visual snippets of information that become consumed, adored and disposed of really, really quickly and I know what you're saying Dave it's a bit extra like know your audience don't bag everybody who's already here right there's a little bit much a bit unnecessary but my point is really significant I think we live in our void as glam digital geeks that we are that does not I don't think accurately represent the visually led world that most of the rest of the world live in this came into my email box in the last week this is Air New Zealand a National Geographic not New Zealand Geographic but National Geographic talking about a project that they're doing I think the phrase is young locals from challenging backgrounds basically you know kids who are having it tough and they're using photography as a vehicle to try and help them now what interests me in that is not necessarily what it is that they're doing admirable effort, great idea but the fact that realistically brands are using photography and imaging as the sexy vehicle on which to hang their latest goodwill gesture to society I wonder why that as opposed to anything else imaging is at the forefront there of how people associate visual culture I think and so as I look at all this sort of stuff I sit there and go digitisation's been a really big deal right and we've pushed I've pushed for so long to try and digitise all the things but I'm not really sure it's enough anymore and I'm prepared now to start kicking up a bit of a fuss and trying to change people's ideas I think we need to start digitising for impact if when we do digitisation it's not causing a big bang effect why are we doing it we exhibit for impact we put a gallery or an exhibition on the floor I don't think I've sat in a single meeting in the five years I've been at Auckland Museum talking about a gallery or an exhibition where people haven't used the word engagement probably about 45 times in every meeting it's all we want is engagement from people be that a personal connection or a visual connection and that's a couple of exhibitions we've put on the floor are hugely visually led and visually stimulating we publicise for impact whether it's a report or it's an advert on the back of the bus anything that we do an Instagram post is trying to grab people's attention through a personal connection or a visually led wow moment but we digitise for people like us here in this room and I'm just going to let that sink in for a second we digitise for people like us we do it to serve our industry and I'm sorry but Dr Phil speaks for me a little bit on this I don't quite get it why exhibit and publicise for impact but not digitise for it as well so I want to try and introduce the concept to you guys of digitisation yes, awesome and I'm not trying to say to anybody anywhere that digitising your collections is a bad thing it's awesome go ahead do it get it out there where it's appropriate if you have any cultural appropriation and all that dodgy stuff that's not cool but get your stuff out there digitise your stuff it's awesome that's the yes bit and digitise for impact and do you know what if your organisation can't afford to do digitisation projects do the and because I believe that's where the impact is we need to digitise to make human connections those NZDF records frankly are quite boring to look at they're bits of paper and microfilm and they mean nothing until our ancestors are reconnected with their modern day family the women's suffrage petition is a pretty scraggy looking roll of paper it's not cool to look at but it contains some of the most iconic moments in history and connections for people in a meaningful level I want to digitise our instakes so that they don't look like they're just smashed into the windscreen of a car but they look like artwork I want to digitise our war diaries not for the words that's on the page but to make them look evocative I want to digitise our toys that we've got chucked in the back of the cupboard and make them look like they've had in Miami Vice Treatment I want to digitise artwork and instead of thinking of it as an archival piece I want to try and reconnect with what the artist was thinking when they made it to try and understand it like they did I want to create a few nightmares and send a few kids to do it and I want to digitise I want to create a few nightmares and send a few kids to sleep at night with a few tremors quite frankly digitise an old dodgy bat in such a way that it looks that cool that it gives people the willies because why not I want to digitise our collection objects and spend so much damn OCD time lighting the things that they can't help but be perceived as works of art I want to take our cultural icons and give them a sense of personality and natural science specimens our old objects and treat them with a sense of reverence for what they are, some heritage and feel and also be intimidated by just how damn big they are and then go around and digitise the damn things not to look archival but just to make them look cool for the sake of looking cool five years ago I was in the audience standing signings and this slide came on the screen up the punks were talking about how they were trying to save the history of New Zealand punk music by digitising content and getting it online because the people involved in those moments were actually starting to lose their history some of them were passing away and getting ill and it was being lost, digitisation was their vehicles for that history to not die but I think there's a new hope that's thrown me that there is a new hope for me it's not just digitise or die it's digitise to connect it's digitise to connect it's digitise to connect it's digitise to feast your eyes and it's digitise or die there is a new dawn upon us and I think if we don't start looking at the post mass digitisation era and start thinking about what's next and how to connect with people we're already behind the times thank you very much we have time for questions we've got five minutes to have any questions if you want to any challenges oh yes can people hear me? that was great my question is for organisations that haven't yet done the mass digitisation and I'm from the University of Otago connections to the Hocken University of Otago Library do people need to go through the mass digitisation digitisation or die before they get to the impact or is it something that you can just leave with the environment destroying cold power mass industrialisation before we get to clean green technology can we just jump straight there it's a very good question I genuinely feel now that that's up for debate I'm not trying to say that people shouldn't digitise and add to the corpus of knowledge that's out there because that's awesome and the work that our sector and overseas have done on that in the last few years is fantastic so if you can yeah if you can't I still think it's worth doing the other stuff because I think you will still have the impact and you're spending a lot less money doing it and you're still generating the connections and the meaningful bit to people I think so yes and there's the answer to that thank you I wanted to know in terms of digitisation most of it's been focused on static images but what you were talking about with Instagram and things like that people's consumption of media has changed boomerang shots and having many videos is it a case that we now need to start considering moving beyond images yeah I genuinely think that's something worth looking at as we close the project down at the end of June and we were in a re-planning phase one of the ideas I was trying to float past my two photographers that remained on board with the team is to no longer think of digitisation as putting an object down in front of something and to start thinking about it how you can make it into something more and I had bright ideas for instance about trying to illustrate squid accelerating through the water using smoke and light and I don't know whether that was video or not I probably have had a go but I'm actually quite I haven't got time to do it yet so I'm actually quite interested in trying to re-visualise collections in ways that are just plain cool and make people stop dead in the tracks but that's video if that's different ways of photographing it but even if it's 3D scanning or anything like that honestly I think that's up for debate I think it was a pretty clever idea lucky last I might have misinterpreted when you said the and bit because then you started going into the visual impact and taking pictures and making them look fantastic because I was looking at it from an archivist's point of view and from my point of view sometimes we have to do that digitisation because we were introduced to a new term which I thought was a spelling mistake but digitalisation which are the opportunities that are brought out in the communities once digital content has been made available so from my point of view it's not so much digitising for us it's getting banks of archival material out there how they're going to map it how they're going to revision it how they're going to make it important for their communities that's where the and sits for me it's no longer where the digitisation is it's what's going to happen out there that I have no I don't know yet that's the big unknown of what happens when people get lovely collections of high resolution digital data that is freed up and not behind paywalls or anything like that so I think that's just a matter of perspective because I look at that exact same thing as the yes part that's just basic digitisation then release it and let the will go nuts with it and do whatever it is they need to do with it typically it's their information anyway and we're just looking after it and making it free again and I really advocate for that I think it's an amazing thing to do but for me when you're in an organisation and choosing whether to do digitisation or not that's part of that do we do it yes or no question to throw the idea out to everybody here and anyone who's listening to that let's do that awesome that's good that's step one what's step two because I think there's room for both thank you very much all of you thank you