Creating a New Museum: Keio Museum Commons Part 5: KeMCo's Digital Archive and Its Development

2021/02/19

Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo) is a museum that promotes new research and education utilizing the cultural properties held by Keio University and disseminates them widely to the world. To this end, it aims to create a digital space that disseminates information on the cultural properties housed at KeMCo and those of Keio University, linking various activities. In this fifth installment, we will provide an overview of the data infrastructure that forms the basis of KeMCo's activities—the so-called digital archive—and its development.

In research and educational institutions such as universities, digital data of cultural properties in their collections are becoming assets. Many museums have already made progress in recording and storing cultural properties as digital images and 3D shape data. Such cultural property data are, so to speak, "reproductions in digital format," and by being organized systematically, they hold great potential for use in future research, education, and new services. This is not limited to cultural properties, but data itself is seen as the foundation for creating new value.

Cultural property data largely consists of object data and metadata that explains it. Here, these are collectively referred to as cultural property data. Object data includes photographs and 3D shape models of the target cultural property. Metadata is information necessary for data use and digital processing, such as descriptions of the cultural property itself, information for searching, and terms of use. When it comes to data, attention tends to focus on object data for high-definition images and sophisticated 3D displays, but metadata is extremely important for the future utilization of cultural properties and data, and it is necessary to develop both.

Keio University possesses a diverse and wide range of cultural properties, but these are managed in a decentralized manner across various locations and departments within Keio. However, the development of databases that integrate information on all these cultural properties, and archives that systematically record and store research, education, and activities related to cultural properties, is insufficient. Consequently, it has been difficult to easily find out where data for individual cultural properties is located, whether it can be used, and what examples of use exist. From the perspective of digital information, it can be said that there was no blueprint for Keio University's cultural properties or their collections, and the development of cultural property data was not effectively linked to its utilization—particularly to new research, education, practice, and information dissemination.

A wide range of initiatives is required for the utilization of cultural property data in university museums. This includes the expansion of data and the development of technical mechanisms such as information systems and tools. In addition, the development of systems and rules for new initiatives, responses in organizational structures and workflows, pioneering practices and their sharing, and the fostering of consensus are also important.

KeMCo has various aspects, but from the perspective of digital services, it has four major roles.

The first is its role as a digital archive that provides information on cultural properties donated by the Century Cultural Foundation. Preparations are underway for the development and publication of cultural property data for approximately 2,300 items housed by KeMCo itself, including calligraphy, paintings, metalwork, sculpture, and lacquerware.

The second is to build a data infrastructure for cultural property data and its utilization. We are proceeding with the construction of information systems and services to make KeMCo function as a digital-analog fusion museum.

The third is its role as a hub for a decentralized museum that provides unified access to Keio University's cultural property data. In cooperation with various departments within Keio that manage cultural properties, we will link the cultural property data held by each and build a cultural property information hub that can be opened to those inside and outside the university.

The fourth is to provide a place for new research, education, and other activities utilizing Keio University's cultural property data and data infrastructure. Examples include new educational programs such as Object-Based Learning, collaborative projects between artists and students, and research activities that transcend the boundaries of learning and specialized fields utilizing fabrication at KeMCo StudI/O. For these initiatives, please refer to the second and third installments of this series.

KeMCo's data infrastructure is broadly composed of three parts: the Museum System, Online Experience, and KeMCo APPS. With the Museum System at the core, the other two parts collaborate to deploy cultural property data in both digital and physical spaces.

The Museum System is the core of the data infrastructure and includes databases that store data on cultural properties housed by KeMCo and systems that support museum operations. Histories related to the utilization of cultural properties and cultural property data are also recorded here.

Online Experience refers to the services provided by KeMCo on the internet and the systems that provide them. It offers the KeMCo website, a cross-search service for cultural properties held by the Juku, and online exhibitions that can be viewed on the internet.

KeMCo APPS is a system that primarily supports exhibitions within KeMCo using digital technology. We are considering mobile apps that add digital information to indoor exhibits, and "Sukima Installations" that provide video projections and case displays in small spaces within the building.

Preparations are underway for Keio Object Hub, a cross-search service for cultural properties held by the Juku, which is one of the services that embodies KeMCo's role as Keio University's cultural property information hub. This cross-search service aggregates information (metadata) regarding cultural properties from various departments within Keio and provides a cross-search service for cultural properties across the entire Juku. A key feature is that users can search for cultural properties within the Juku in a unified way regardless of the department in possession, and in addition to information on cultural properties and their data, they can also obtain information such as related activities and event history.

Even after the cross-search service begins, the management of cultural properties and cultural property data will remain with the respective departments. KeMCo will link cultural property information in the digital space and coordinate it to function as a decentralized museum as a whole. This is a form that considers collaboration with even more departments in the future. We are currently holding a cross-disciplinary online exhibition, "Keio Exhibition RoomX: jinkan kosai (society)," in collaboration with related departments within Keio (October 26, 2020 – February 28, 2021). Fifty-seven pieces of cultural property data have been provided by seven organizations within Keio, forming a single online exhibition as a whole.

This can be said to be an example of a digital exhibition implemented through the interoperability of cultural property data within the Juku. Furthermore, a physical collaborative exhibition is scheduled to be held following the grand opening, and it is an exhibition that symbolizes KeMCo's concept of treating analog and digital as two sides of the same coin.

KeMCo is expected to become a hub for disseminating Keio University's culture and to interact widely with the world. As one of the roles to be fulfilled through future activities, it is also conceivable to link Keio University's cultural property data widely outside the university. For example, Keio University's cultural property data developed by KeMCo could be provided to cross-search services for cultural properties in Japan that are currently being developed. Such initiatives would be a first step in collaborating with digital archives outside the university. Addressing the issue of licensing (usage permission) is also important for promoting the use of cultural property data. Even if access to Keio University's cultural property data becomes easier through cross-search services, it cannot be utilized effectively unless its terms of use are determined. For the cultural property data developed by KeMCo, we are considering clarifying licenses based on Creative Commons as one method. Furthermore, it is worth considering making data even more open. In the future, automatic processing of cultural property data and interoperability of content will also become important. The experimental research and development of technologies for this purpose and their introduction into actual operation will also become a role for KeMCo.