Creating a new app for Chinese visitors to the University of Oxford’s Museums

This month sees the launch of a new app, introducing the four major Oxford University Museums in English and Chinese. The app, developed by the 2017 Leadership Program Team from UESTC (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) and in consultation with the Oxford Museums, is a free tool designed to make knowledge about the collections in Oxford more accessible to Chinese speakers. Oxford receives more than 13,000 visits from Chinese tourists each year, and Oxford University is home to more than 1000 Chinese students. The app is available on both Google Play and Baidu – take a look!

Facilitated by Summit Education Enterprises (SEE) and working closely with technical, curatorial and communications staff from the University, the students were able to produce the app in just one month in summer 2017. This partnership has proved that a project with social engagement, international and interdisciplinary aspects can – with careful planning, due care and commitment - can be an exciting opportunity to create something surprisingly meaningful, innovative and beneficial to all stakeholders within a limited length of time. This blog describes the process of collaboration between the three organisations and the development needed to create this product in just four weeks. How did we get on?

UESTC students with (right), Sarah Bruhn (SEE), Susannah Wintersgill (Oxford University Museums) and Andy Haith (University IT Services) University) and (front) Helen Adams and Jessica Suess (Oxford University Museums). Photo © Summit Education Enterprises

In May 2017, the Gardens, Libraries and Museums of the University of Oxford (GLAM) was approached by SEE to work on a digital humanity project that would help promote the Oxford University Museums among Chinese audiences. SEE is an Oxford-based education service and consultancy providing high-quality education and training courses to enrich the learning and aspirational experiences of students and professionals from around the world. The digital humanity project was part of a summer school programme which SEE hosted in collaboration with Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford and UESTC (China), designed to provide leadership development training in arts and sciences for a cohort of 31 talented students. 

To help the students apply and develop their knowledge and skills in electronic science and technology (UESTC is ranked No. 1 in those subjects among all the universities in China) and gain meaningful social engagement experience, SEE proposed to work with GLAM for the students to design a Chinese language mobile application for marketing the Museums among Chinese audiences overseas and here in the UK. Chinese visitors comprise a steadily growing proportion of overseas visitors to Oxford and its cultural institutions, mirroring a general rise in Chinese tourism to the UK, and there is a year-on-year increase in Chinese visiting scholars and students at the University. The potential of such a project, therefore, was easy for us to appreciate. So how did we start?

UESTC students with Dr Yi Samuel Chen (Director and Founder of Summit Education Enterprise as well as a Researcher at the University of Oxford). © Summit Education Enterprises

Week 1

The first steps involved introductions. Prior to the arrival of the students, Susannah Wintersgill (GLAM Director of Communications and Marketing) and Ted Koterwas (Website and Mobile Applications Team Leader, University of Oxford IT Services) already sent the students introductory materials about the Museums and the technical aspects of the development of existing digital resources. Once the students arrived in Oxford, The GLAM Director of Communications and Marketing, Susannah Wintersgill, gave an overview of what GLAM is and does, then representatives from the four museums,Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM), Museum of the History of Science (MHS), and Museum of Natural History (MNH). All meetings were scheduled at the PRM so students also got a tour of the galleries there and the most popular exhibits. This process also helped familiarise the students with some of the values of the University of Oxford’s commitment to widening education that ought to be reflected in the digital resource – scholarly excellence, inclusivity and diversity, and free to access. Ted Koterwas and his colleague Andy Haith from our Mobile Applications Team at the University of Oxford’s IT Services also provided close guidance to the students on the benchmark for technical and user acceptability. And the project management team of SEE, especially Sarah Bruhn, coordinated and oversaw the entire process to ensure the smooth operations and cohesion of the project.

PRM Curator Helen Adams gives a gallery tour to the students. © Summit Education Enterprises

Next was a discussion on what the ‘digital resource’ would be. Three GLAM members – PRM, MHS and MNH – had recently launched an audio guide in Mandarin but needed help promoting it. The students shared their cultural knowledge of how Chinese people search for and consume information using their smartphone, and we agreed an app would be a good way of packaging information in one place, having links to social media (especially WeChat), and incorporate existing Museum content such as the audio guide and collections images.

A presentation includes evidence of WeChat statistics © Pitt Rivers Museum

Week 2

After receiving a brief with milestones and important clauses about IP and logos, the students undertook research on aspects of the Museums’ collections with both actual visitors and potential visitors to find out which things interested people and why. They also did some surveying on issues unique to the individual museums. For example, the Pitt Rivers Museum’s ground floor is much busier than the top floor – how could we encourage visitors to go upstairs?

The data was revealing – for example, it seemed the most appealing aspect of the Pitt Rivers Museum’s collections were ‘Textiles and Clothing’ and that better signage and an assurance of the safety of the floor would encourage people to the Upper Galleries!

Students undertook on-and off-site audience research © Pitt Rivers Museum

We discussed how the app would be used and by which audience. Was it to be an in-gallery experience or a resource to be used remotely to engage with the Museums virtually and inspire a visit? The students believed it could be both...

Week 3

Following consultations with staff, including Ted Koterwas and Andy Haith from the Mobile Team , the students had self-selected into four groups focussing on content, design and technical aspects. A huge amount of work happened in this week involving the final draft of wireframes and UX. These were presented to staff and feedback focussed on user tools and services such as the ability to switch between English and Chinese; the inclusion of information about toilets, shops and cafes; and gallery plans that matched those available in the Museum.

Students split into groups to develop technical and design elements © Summit Education Enterprises

Week 4

The students had one more week to tweak the designs, test the app and present the final app ready for launch. The result is a simple, easy-to-use, and yet comprehensive user interface which presents the user with a choice of four museums, each presented in a consistent way offering highlight object tours, resources and facilities. Each museum has its own designated colour within a contemporary design palette and easily recognisable with its branding and logo.

The students achieved an incredible amount in just one month. Together they had created a digital resource containing 110 pages of 30,000 words and 200+ images, backed up by more than 200 programming files and 2.46459 line codes.

Screenshots of the finished app 

The app is already available on Google Play and on Baidu (major Chinese web services provider). It’s FREE so take a look!

We are thrilled with the outputs of this project and have been constantly surprised and impressed with the aptitude, enthusiasm and adaptability of the students, not just because of their obvious technical knowledge in terms of programming and graphic design, but also because we were having to communicate quite complex ideas to each other in English.

We look forward to promoting the new app on various channels (not least the University of Oxford’s WeChat account) and running analytics on its marketing, take-up and use among Chinese visitors.

Helen Adams

Project Curator and Engagement Officer, Pitt Rivers Museum

Out in Oxford: Where did it all begin?

Hello, I’m Beth, Assistant to the Director and Administration. I also have a background in Egyptology. In February this year I attended a lecture given by Professor Richard Parkinson (Queen’s College, Oriental Institute, Oxford, and the British Museum) for LGBT History Month. The talk was entitled, ‘A Great Unrecorded History’: LGBT Heritage and World Cultures and I found it incredibly inspiring. You can watch the podcast here and see if you find it as powerful as I did! What struck a particular chord with me were Richard’s words that:

“One day, hopefully, every museum will have at least one LGBT item openly identified as such on permanent display, so that visitors of any sexuality can feel empowered by their human heritage…Silent and implicit support is not enough...Public gestures by institutions are crucial in embodying, consolidating and legitimising our history. Prominent institutions have a responsibility to stand up for inclusive human rights – prominently.”

I simply thought, why not? Why don’t we do that? The Pitt Rivers Museum is a celebration of human experience and creativity, so surely we have relevant objects? With the help and encouragement of my colleague, Helen Adams, VERVE Project Curator, and Lucy Shaw of the Oxford University Museums Partnership (OUMP), I applied to the OUMP Innovation Fund to develop a trail similar to Richard’s in the British Museum and his book, A Little Gay History. One of the criteria was that the project had to involve other museums and, so, the University’s first cross-collections trail was born!

The specially commissioned trail highlights LGBTQ+ experiences across Oxfordshire and beyond. LGBTQ+ community members and allies volunteered to write about objects in the University Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) to queer the collections and offer alternative insights into the fascinating items looked after by the University. Many different objects have been considered for inclusion in the trail, here are just a few of them:

Noh mask 1884.114.56 © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

A Noh theatre mask from Japan showing Hannya, and angry female spirit (1884.114.56). During the Edo Period, women were banned from performing in Noh and Kabuki theatre, meaning that female roles were performed exclusively by men, but this is starting to change.

Bone pendants 1932.65.203-209 © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Natufian bone pendants from Mount Carmel in Palestine (1932.65.206-209). These were excavated by Francis Turville-Petre (1901-41), who was openly gay, in 1931.

In the words of Matt Smith, the artist and curator behind the Queering the Museum project at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2010-11,

“Unlike many groups whose culture is passed down from parents to children, there are few objects which can stand in for LGBT lives. Rather than universalising the group using totemic objects, museums need to work differently with interpretation about LGBT lives. It has been likened to detective work, looking into the cracks and fissures of collections since historically, the LGBT links with objects would often have been undocumented.”

If the University of Oxford’s museums and collections are to truly reflect human experience and achievement in all its forms, then the LGBTQ+ experience should be explicitly represented. I sincerely hope this pilot project will help address that!

Beth Asbury
Assistant to the Director and Administration Team

I am indebted to my friends and colleagues who are helping me to run the project and design the trail booklet: Katherine Clough, Nicholas Crowe, Madeleine Ding and Jozie Kettle. With the help of the project’s volunteers, Jozie, Maddie and Nico are organising launch events for the trail, which are going to be amazing! I am also indebted to Richard, who is advising on the project, and the curators who have identified items in their collections for inclusion in the trail: Stuart Ackland (Bodleian Library), Mark Carnall (Museum of Natural History), who also co-ran the workshop, Jeremy Coote (Pitt Rivers Museum), Simon Glenn (Ashmolean Museum), Clare Harris (Pitt Rivers Museum), Dan Hicks (Pitt Rivers Museum), Stephen Johnston (Museum of the History of Science), Andy Lamb (Bate Collection), Julia Lenaghan (Ashmolean Museum), Charlotte McKillop-Mash (Bodleian Library), Liam McNamara (Ashmolean Museum), Laura Peers (Pitt Rivers Museum) and Matthew Winterbottom (Ashmolean Museum). Caroline Kennedy of the Equality and Diversity Unit has been incredibly helpful and supportive, and without her brilliant network of contacts we would not have had the wonderful group of volunteers who have given up their time, including weekends, to make this project work!

The story of a shoe ...

Inuit shoe 1886.1.747 © Pitt Rivers Museum

This Inuit shoe (1886.1.747), made of sealskin, was collected by Arctic explorer George Francis Lyon during his voyages in the 1820s. Lyon commanded HMS Hecla under Sir William Parry in 1821, and HMS Griper in 1824, both voyages seeking the North West Passage. The second voyage was a failure—the anchor chains were lost in a storm which also badly damaged the masts and rigging.  Having barely made it back to England, Lyon was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1825, and the record for this shoe says it was presented by him to Oxford in that year.

Lyon was perhaps more successful as an adventurer and early anthropologist than as an explorer. He had many interactions with Inuit people on these voyages and was tattood by them. His writings on Inuit people during these voyages have proven valuable to scholars since.

Sole of shoe 1886.1.747 © Pitt Rivers Museum

This shoe once had four strips of fur on the sole for grip on snow. It is exquisitely sewn with sinew (animal tendon) and part of an outfit designed for survival in the Arctic.


Laura Peers
Curator for Americas, Pitt Rivers Museum &
Professor of Museum Anthropology, School of Anthropology


See this shoe and more footwear made of animal skin on display in the Leatherwork case (L.63.A) on the Lower Gallery.

How to Sort your Stuff: Writing a play about Museums

One of the main aims of VERVE is to think about how both the collections and the Museum space can be used to inspire new work, new ideas, and new activity. Since 'performance' is the theme for the project's first phase, the opportunity to work with a contemporary theatre company seemed like a fitting collaboration. Here, Isabel Quinzaños from the group reflects on the experience:

Over a few days in August 2013, a group of budding writers, performing and directors got together at the Pitt Rivers Museum to produce a script about both the Pitt Rivers and the Ashmolean museums.

It all started simply enough. Touring theatre company Out of Joint, based in London, set out to organise an education workshop that would focus on a devising/writing technique called verbatim, which means to create a play out of people’s words. Examples of this kind of plays are The Laramie Project by Tectonic Theater Project, London Road by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork, The Permanent Way by David Hare and Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans. The process of writing such plays typically involves conducting a series of interviews to people interested and involved with the topic you have chosen and recording their words in order to use them later on in a play. It is like the theatre version of documentary film.

© Pitt Rivers Museum

The group consisted of ten participants from a wide array of geographical locations and professional backgrounds: an academic in the course of her Architecture PhD, mature and starting performers, a Literary PhD student from Aberystwyth, a professional writer, a budding director, multi-taskers, and people looking to start a company. Under the lead of Naomi Jones they set off to interview staff, volunteers and punters at the Pitt Rivers and Ashmolean museums to find out what goes on behind the scenes there. It took a lot of hard work and dedication from the course participants to make the play happen - finding people to interview, recording their exact words and then transcribing them. Then, the whole material was put together and decisions had to be made about what story they could tell. Naomi did the first official edit, but all participants had an input afterwards about what they felt should be in or not. On the final day, they rehearsed the play and put on a little ‘private’ viewing of it for museum staff and invited guests.

 

Sample of the script from 'How to Sort Your Stuff'  © Pitt Rivers Museum

The result was a moving and quirky piece of theatre that gave the group a real insight into how museum staff create the environment that we - the visitors - experience, let alone their perspective on their favourite pieces, the ones they dislike the most and what they think of their work.

© Pitt Rivers Museum

For the participants the best thing was meeting the fascinating personalities that we never meet on our normal museum visits, plus learning about the thought process behind the placement of every single object in the museum -what is written about those objects to tell us a story. In the end, the work museum staff do is as much about us as visitors as it is about the objects they safeguard.

Everyone involved in this course had a great time and was really pleased with the final script which the Pitt Rivers has taken to keep in their archive... maybe they’ll even let you have a read of it if you ask nicely.

Some feedback on the course:

“Naomi was brilliant as course leader. She was practical, energetic, engaging and inspiring. It was easy to trust her and she was happy to share experiences she had with the type of work we created.”

“...it (the course) was led by a professional director - of course that meant that what was learned was of high quality - but also the logistics of completing the course; researching, writing, editing, actioning, rehearsing and performing a new piece of theatre. That we managed to do so is very much thanks to Naomi for directing the whole process.”

Isabel Quinzaños, PA to Artistic Director and Education Administrator, Out of Joint