ArtString -making museums into conversation spaces

ArtString is a museum companion app which can be used for planning visits to museums,

exploring whole collections in person or in-app, and discussing what you find.

See what other museum visitors think of individual items in the permanent collections of

various museums, follow and create “strings” of objects on whatever themes take your

fancy, share those strings with others, and find and discuss ideas by using searchable

#hashtags – share in the experience of new discoveries with everyone who has ever stood

in front of the same object as you, because what makes museums even more incredible is the people who visit them!

ArtString lets you search across different museum collections, through other people’s strings, and participate in discussions to get more out of museums whether you’re standing in front of an object or 2,000 miles away.

Features:

- Strings

What makes ArtString truly unique is right there in the name: “strings”. Link together as many or as few different items from one museum’s permanent collection as you like, across all the featured museums – you don’t need to limit yourself to one place! You can use whatever theme you want: time periods, countries, who made or discovered something – or personal things: how they make you feel, what they remind you of. Write as little or as much as you want about your string and the items in it! You can pick someone else’s string and follow it around the museum for a personal guided tour from an expert you’ve never met or see a familiar collection through the eyes of a fascinated beginner – and add your own comments, too.

- Planning and expanding

You can also save and send strings to plan for future visits or share the fun with friends elsewhere. These don’t have to be strings you’ve made, either! If you find someone’s collected the location of every single cat-featuring painting in a gallery into one handy tour with cute captions and your cat-crazy mate is in town from Tokyo, this is your chance to take entice them in to a great afternoon of kitten-spotting.

- Searchable hashtags and collections

Finding strings that appeal to you couldn’t be easier – just search the hashtags! Tag your

own strings and comments to help others find yours and keep the conversations going. Find specific items in collections too – search for any word you might associate with them and someone’s sure to have tagged it! You can help out by tagging, and it’s a great way to find artefacts from across different museums collections that have something in common, maybe even a good way to get started with your own strings. If you only want to search within one museum’s collection, all you have to do is select that particular museum when you make your search – easy!

- Understanding new layers

Any object in a museum is more than just an object. It’s a story: of how it was made or

found, of who made it or found it and why, of what they meant by making it, of how it got to the museum, of why the museum chose to show it and what they chose to say about it. It’s a story of how that object influenced others, what it made them think and feel, and what those people went away and did after. That’s a lot to fit on one placard! ArtString’s aim is to make it easier to explore new these other layers of meaning, the background stories that each object has to tell.

- Discussion / conversations

ArtString wants to take the isolation out of looking at art and give everyone a chance to exchange their thoughts and knowledge. This is your chance to start discussions or join in with other people to learn more about what you’re looking at, to bring museums to life, and to make friends with the invisible stories which come attached to every collection in every museum. ArtString’s unique multi-museum collection search capability lets you see how objects through history link up with each other – or contribute your own ideas about what stories these things have to tell, and what ideas they might spark in future. Join in!