Web and digital

Get hypnotised by the Wellcome Collection’s new digital offer

The Wellcome Collection’s latest digital innovation probably couldn’t have come from any other museum. For one, although the cost is undisclosed, creating something as high quality is unlikely to come cheaply. Secondly, its exploration of the world of mind control and madness links perfectly to the London museum’s strapline:
“A destination for the incurably curious.”

Mindcraft, which was produced in collaboration with digital agency Clearleft and written by the author Mike Jay, is the first in a series of digital stories that use objects from the collection to tell hidden tales. It explores the history of mind control, from mesmerism in Paris to hypnotism on Freud’s couch. Each of the six chapters focuses on a different historical moment, using archive material, interactive images, animation and text.

Unlike many digital projects, Mindcraft has been created by taking the story as the starting point, rather than the collection. In that sense, the stories deliver the content, much of which was digitised for this project.

Some of the material is available under a Creative Commons licence, allowing users to view, download and reproduce the content.

It’s easy to get immersed in Mindcraft, although there are a few annoyances. The immersive soundscape that plays through (produced by Fonic PostProduction) is atmospheric but a little offputting, having to scroll down is not all that enjoyable for tablet users and some of the pop-up galleries aren’t prominent enough.

But there is much to love too – the use of graphic novels, animated hypnotic demonstrations and imagined Twitter spats really bring the history of mind control to life. Moving and interactive images make reading what is quite a complicated story more accessible and intriguing.


A joint website offers value for money

Manchester Museum, the World Museum Liverpool and Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle have launched a website to raise awareness of natural history collections and displays. The site is aimed at museum staff as well as the public, and features a blog, listings for museums and nature sites in the region, as well as a bank of resources such as advocacy toolkits.

At the time of writing, there was only one blog on the site, but more will be added. I liked the graphics, proudly exclaiming the fantastic natural history collections that there are in the north west, as well as the list of museums that reinforces this message.

It may have niche appeal, but the background to this site tells an interesting story about sustainability in digital developments. The three museums have actually repurposed an existing website funded by Renaissance museum development, which had been dormant since 2011.

There must be hundreds of these “ghost” sites, which are created for a specific project or exhibition but eventually become inactive and neglected. How much money has been invested in these and how many could they be repurposed for very little money? Just £1,600 in the case of Naturally Curious.


Vntage reports of six-foot fish and chastity patrols

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums has launched a new version of the Hidden Newcastle app, which uses resources from its collections and Newcastle Libraries to reveal forgotten stories from the city’s history.

The homepage is designed to look like an old newspaper, with headline stories such as “Mad dogs of Sandhill” and “A tragic rooftop chase”. Users click into these stories to read more, look at photographs or old newspaper articles and listen to audio.

There is also the option to link to a map of Newcastle, so people can find out where these stories took place.

There are no paragraph breaks in the text, which can make it hard to read, and I would have liked to see more photographs and the option to zoom in on these. And at present, the app is only available for iPhone and iPad.

But the stories the app tells are brilliant. Yes, I do want to know about chastity patrols carried out by parents while their daughters queued to buy Beatles tickets in 1963. A six-foot fish on display at Sandhill – tell me more!

The app is bonkers and genuinely different, and would be great fun to use as a group in situ in Newcastle. Does it make me want to visit the museums? Maybe – as with many museum apps, the link isn’t obvious. But it certainly reveals the colourful history that every place has, if you know where to look.