1. Building a Matrix Exploiting Narratives 11 April 2006 Julian Tomlin Head of Administration

2. Building a Matrix

3. Contents Publishing collections Publishing exhibitions A new website and narratives The Textile Gallery What’s next and the future

5. What do users want? Research –Manchester Museums Unwrapped website Feedback - mostly informal –Stories not (just) objects –What’s on Show By room By exhibition –What does the Gallery look like? –Where to start? –Expectations

6. Starting with Narratives Bewilderment phase Exhibitions –Earlier experience with pdfs –Opportunity to publish stories - 100 collection exhibitions over 12 years - DCF project –Archiving research, integrating with KE EMu –Value for museology students Then biographies –Watercolour artists - loaded via a script

7. The Whitworth’s website http://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth Publishing –Objects and related multimedia –Exhibitions –Narratives

8. A new website and narratives Value from KE EMu –Easy to link to objects –And multimedia –Arrange in hierarchy –Updates easier than using the cms New website –Browsing not just searching –Collection themes - collection level information –Photo history of the building –Technical terms –Press releases –http://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworthhttp://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth

9. Browsing collection themes

10. Choosing a theme

11. Theme - J M W Turner Links to objects Links to exhibitions Links to other narratives

12. Exhibition object display

13. The Textile Gallery - Questions Could the interpretation in the display be replicated using KE EMu? Not strictly an exhibition as objects change Complement limited information in room

14. Content Introduction to the collection Text panels for the themed twelve cases Labels for the objects, linked to detailed catalogue information Technical terms, interviews with makers

15. Implementation Master narratives for gallery –Introduction to textiles at the Whitworth –Information on the display Sub-narratives for the cases Sub-narratives for the labels, linked to catalogue information Audio/Video as multimedia, linked to University’s streaming server http://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth/exhibitions/byroom/gallery1- textilegalleryhttp://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth/exhibitions/byroom/gallery1- textilegallery

16. Text panel for a case

17. Object label

18. Object display (Catalogue) top

19. Object display (Catalogue) bottom Link back to narratives

20. Public computers and paper On-line in the gallery Fact files, laminates –produced from KE EMu using Crystal Reports

21. Next with narratives School sessions –Pre-visit –Post-visit Searching narratives and objects, offering both in results as ‘Spinning the Web’ Joint narratives on Manchester Museums Unwrapped –Single theme, merged narratives, different objects Reusing the portal?

22. Book-browsing Thomas Wardle pattern books –Starting point is ‘Spinning the Web’ –Reference to British Library ‘Turning the Page’; Amazon –Proposed solution No Flash Use PHP tailored web pages Allow for different layouts - cover, left, right page, page spread Use narratives to explain pages

23. Looking to the future? Web pages - better design!, improved functionality –Formatting in narratives eg bold, italic, hyperlinks –Supporting different learning styles Text v. Icons Podcasts, interactivity –Technical issues to overcome My EMu –Web 2.0 - Blogs, Flickr, Wikipedia –Users to write and submit their own stories –‘Write your own label’

24. Thank you Julian.Tomlin@manchester.ac.uk http://www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth

25. The End