Is NXT the next museum? A conversation with Natasha Greenhalgh

 by Erick Vázquez

Natasha Greenhalg, creative director and co-founder of the NXT Museum sat with students from the VU for a chat evening. It was a delightful experience that helped broaden the experience after visiting the UFO exhibition.

UFO exhibition by NXT Museum. Photo by Erick Vázquez

The first part of the conversation was centered on the very nature of the museum. The NXT is thought of as a space to show and interact with art created and experienced through new media. Although the digital art has been present in other museums and exhibitions, NXT is trying to stablish itself as a house hold name and a permanent place for artists that explore these new creative forces (Michelle Henning, New Media). A curious anecdote (that still speaks a lot of the society we live in) is that the word “museum” was not well received at the beginning with the people nearby the museum. This states that the word has an elitists and boring connotation. Still, to Natasha it was important that her project could be understood as a place that gives validation to these new creative outcomes. To do so, the founders of the museum envision the place as a petri dish that encourages experimentation that will lead to knowledge (Peter Weibel’s 2018 Manifesto for a New Museum). What is knowledge if it is not shared? That is the reason why with its exhibitions, lectures, and workshops, NXT gives its visitors a very good idea of how technology works. This information is not only a bunch of data, it is meant to create a more philosophical approach and to inspire introspection. The themes are chosen from current issues that will serve as a starting point to create conversation and dialogue. 

In order to be able to present these themes without any kind of censorship or bias, the museum searched for private investment. This financial structure gives them enough freedom to pursue creative autonomy for the artists (Peter Weibel’s 2018 Manifesto for a New Museum). The creators are given liberty for their creations to bloom. The NXT offers them no restrictions on technology or space, at least not in ideological sense, it all comes down to the technological and space capacities available. This of course, has been well received by the artists. The museum locale has a lot of potential in this regard, formerly a tv studio, it has the perfect conditions to host new media exhibitions (Mark Nash, Questions of Practice). The 2,100 square meters open space gives them the chance to build different rooms that can be modified depending on the necessities of the exhibition (François Penz, Museums as Laboratories of Change: The Case for the Moving Image).

By having designated spaces, not only the artists are benefited, the visitors have a better experience. In other museum’s exhibitions new media artifacts are displayed right next to each other, which causes “contamination” between artifacts. But not in the NXT museum, each part of the exhibition is independent which gives the visitor the opportunity to fully engage with the artistic creation. This of course raises the question of how would these works function in a different museum?

The visitors are treated with a full range of multisensorial displays to be challenged into thinking about the hypothesis of the exhibition. The levels of engagement with the artifacts are diverse, this means that some of them are meant to be observed and other are more interactive. Although interactivity as a “mind on” is always present throughout the whole experience (Andrea Witcomb, Interactivity: Thinking Beyond). The museum gives cues in form of symbols to show how to better approach each artifact. In order to keep the narrative that leads to challenging the visitor, the museum had to “impose” the pathways that the audience has to follow, otherwise the thematic experience might be compromised (Bill Hillier, Kali Tzortzi, Space Syntax: The Language of Museum Space). Another advantage of having a preestablished organization is that the visitors are reassured that they experienced the whole exhibition without skipping any parts.

The conversation that NXT is seeking to inspire it’s encouraged inside the museum walls and outside of it as well (Gavin Hogben, 'Right Here... Right Now... Art Gone Live!). For starters, the community building starts inside the exhibition. There are trophies to be gained by scanning QRs, they serve as badges to identify people with similar interests. And to the outside the museum offers online exhibitions and performances to keep the experience going on after (or before) the visitor sets foot on the location (Jenny Kidd, The Transmedia Museum).

A nice conversation. Photo courtesy of Dr. Ivo Blom

This too serves as a way to manage the expectations of the visitors. Because, as Natasha stated, some audience might be confused of the nature of the museum. Maybe they expect to have a very “hands on” type of interaction with the artifacts (Andrea Witcomb, Interactivity: Thinking Beyond). Or, in other cases a more “traditional” kind of museum that leads to a more contemplative way of looking at the exhibition. Then, who is the intended target for the museum? The answer is anybody seeking for new ways of creative expressions. As a result, the NXT visitors are a changing demographic. Still, there is a tendency to find people younger than 30. Why? Because they have the tech savvy and find these immersive expressions and themes more akin to their everyday life. How to keep them interested in what the NXT museum has to offer? By having a mix programming and offering something new and exciting to trigger the visitor’s mind. First, the idea is to change the exhibition every year. And secondly by finding the proper channels to advertise. The museum has had success by positioning ads in Schiphol, artistic places, and of course, social media. The strategy, so far, has been to find the targeted audience’s forms of communication and exploit them to the best capacity.

Although NXT is trying to generate an engaging conversation, it is not willing to sacrifice the educative and research focus to mount entertainment. The heads of the museum understand the importance of staying critical and to share their findings. This leads to more democratic knowledge, which is what the evolution of the museums should be all about (Michelle Henning, New Media).