AI/ML & Data Lakes for Archives and Emerging ISO Global Standards \ Stephen Clarke
The impact of AI/ML technologies has had a huge impact on our society, and the GLAM sector, and will shape our future for years to come. Traditional archives and records practice and capabilities have never been more relevant, particularly in ontology and graph database modelling for AgenticAI, LLMs for GenAI, and Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). I currently represent Australia/NZ on the ISO Working Group developing the ISO standard for AI and Archives & Records Management. Setting standards provide a safe space for the GLAM sector to experiment, innovate and iterate our adoption of these tools. Having a considered and defensible approach, underpinned by standards, will have an enduring impact both in how we grow our GLAM practice but also on how we maintain the outputs of these technologies for future generations.
Stephen Clarke, InfoGovNZ: Stephen Clarke is an Information Management and AI Consultant, previously a CDO, and Chief Archivist of NZ. Stephen has co-developed ISO standards such ISO15489, ISO13028, and ISO16175. As an anthropologist he understands human systems, and as a technical expert he understands information systems, using technology to connect them is his mission. Stephen was on the NDF conference committee in 2006 - 08, and was the conference convenor in 2007, he remained within the NDF family as an elected member of the NDF board until 2012.
Gigantic impacts through iterative workflows \ Amos Mann
Exploring how different types of iterative workflow can be used to create impact.
Focusing on two digital experiences Te Papa produced to increase impact for the exhibition Dinosaurs of Patagonia, we explore how different approaches to iterative workflow can be used to create impact.
Creative Production for Create a Dino interactive experience followed a robust, iterative, user-centric workflow, including a fully-fledged Google Design Sprint with key stakeholders and creative / technical teams. At key stages, we undertook robust focus group workshops and audience testing with 8-12 year old target audience groups for: Concept, Aesthetics, User Journey Experience Design, and Usability. The result was a highly engaging and ‘sticky’ experience meeting and exceeding our impact goals with target audience, and extending reach well beyond target audience demographics.
However, creative production for Patagotitan Herd Immersive Experience followed a different kind of iterative workflow. Rather than audience-centric workflow, the emphasis was on creative collaboration. Early iterative prototyping and testing, led to a wonderful amalgamation of creative animation, lighting design, spatial design, and colour. Although our focus was on aesthetics, to our great surprise, audiences engaged with the experience at a strong emotional level and in physical interaction at large scale. Even though no interactivity was planned, this turned out to be one of this highest impact experiences in the exhibition. Patagotitan Herd Experience reached levels of engagement far exceeding expectation through a ‘less is more’ approach. And yet, I believe that if we had initially aimed to achieve higher levels of impact though interactivity, at greater effort, budget, and intensive user-centric workflow, we still wouldn’t have achieved the resulting levels of impact observed through a less-is-more approach. It was such a privilege observing audience enthusiastically and energetically interacting with this ‘non-interactive’ experience.
Amos Mann, Te Papa: Amos Mann is a creative producer and experience designer with 25 years’ professional practice leading creative and technical teams within the museum, science, art, and cultural sectors, engaging and inspiring audiences nationally and internationally. He is a Digital Producer at Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) where he produces interactive and immersive experiences. Amos also engages in creative practices across photographic art, filmmaking, writing, and composition. His Masters research focused on participatory art theory and practice, and creative music notation. Amos’s ancestors are Scottish (clan Buchanan), English, and Polish Jewish.
We all have jobs: Embodying the superorganism in Antopia \ Hamish Palmer, Richard Pilkington
No dilly-dallying, please. We all have jobs.
Even the humans have jobs in Antopia, where visitors are gifted an all-access pass to a bustling ant colony, allowing them to communicate using pheromones and become an active member of the colony.
Starting with our audience outcome hypothesis - that mirroring the behaviour and world view of ants with experiential mechanics leads to greater understanding of and empathy for the natural world - this session will outline how our collaborative museum superorganism combined interactive gaming technology, science and storytelling to shape, prototype and evaluate Antopia. We’ll look into how we built and iterated the experience in real-time and in gallery using innovations in technology and developed a tech platform for simplicity, interoperability, and operational reliability before revealing the ultimate spectrum of visitor responses to their ant colony experiences.
Antopia: Explore a World of Secret Senses is developed and produced by Museums Victoria and continues MV’s exploration of new approaches to the role of audience agency in museum experiences.
Hamish Palmer, Museums Victoria: Hamish Palmer is Creative Director, Exhibitions at Museums Victoria.
He leads cross-disciplinary museum teams in collaboration with creative sector partners to craft resonant visitor experiences that promote social cohesion and environmental sustainability through the delivery of Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and Immigration Museum’s much-loved exhibitions and publications.
Hamish joined Museums Victoria in 2015 to establish the Experience and Interpretation team and shape visitor-focused exhibition development practice. He spearheaded a holistic approach to storytelling and experience design, underpinned by audience impact methodologies which has since become the cornerstone of MV’s production toolkit.
Richard Pilkington, Museums Victoria: Richard Pilkington is a multidisciplinary digital professional with 25 years of experience spanning from traditional to interactive media, complex AV systems, and technical systems management. Currently serving as Systems Lead for Technical Services at Museums Victoria, Richard blends creative vision and technical expertise to build and maintain the exhibition technology stack with operational reliability.
As Technical Project Lead for the immersive Tyama exhibition, and its follow-up Antopia Richard orchestrated the integration of advanced technologies— Spatial projection design, Game engine-driven content and interactive sensor fusion—that dovetail with the designed immersive experience.
He idealises seamless and robust human-computer interaction that excites and engages audiences.