July 3, 2019

This morning we traveled to Rotterdam for a site visit at Het Neuwe Instituut, a museum, library, and archive for architecture, design, and digital culture. I really liked visiting here, because the speaker gave us a great look into some of the work they are currently doing, and explained how they use their work to engage the community effectively. I think one of the best examples of engaging the community is their exhibit on burn out, which is a big problem in the Netherlands, and exposing it in a way that also motivates the Institute's mission is a great way to combine the community's needs with the needs of the cultural institution. One comment made by our speaker which left me with a sense of obvious cultural difference between the NL and the US, was the emphasis that she placed on internal collaboration between the museum, library, and archive. It seems to me that collaboration is the commonality between many of our site visits, and it is likely that this collaboration is driven by Dutch culture. In the US, however, I think that our individualistic culture emphasizes the hurdler persona as ideal. Hearing the repetition of the importance of collaboration gives me pause, and definitely emphasizes for me just how important it is to include a collaborator in any future innovative endeavors. After our short lecture, we visited the Sonneveld House, a relic of the 1920s left in near-perfect condition, and then toured the museum on the site of the institute. Both were awesome, and engage the viewer in very different ways, which I think helps draw a wider range of people to engage in cultural heritage practices. The Sonneveld House invites its visitors to consider how life would have been in the time that it was built, while the museum invites visitors to consider how our current culture and actions are shaping what is to come next, and how we could change that trajectory. I liked the interactive aspects of both locations, as I think that interaction helps visitors to create a personal connection with the information.

After a quick lunch, we returned to Het Nieuwe Instituut for a class meeting. We heard group presentations from chapters 7 and 8 of Ten Faces, the experience architect and the set designer, and then headed back to Amsterdam. I particularly enjoyed these presentations because these personas are often overlooked as being part of the innovation process, and rather as a luxury. Working through examples of times where a certain experience was made amazing, or how a setting could be conducive to further innovation, helped give more of a tangibility to how these personas have already impacted our own lives, and how we can use that knowledge in groups moving forward.

Back in Amsterdam, we saw a comedy show at Boom Chicago, where Carey used to work, and it was awesome! The show was about two hours of complete improvised sketches, very similar to Whose Line Is It Anyway? We got back from the show around midnight and our room passed out just about instantly from all of the early mornings we've been having!