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DCA – Research report

Gaming the contemporary arts complex: enhancing experience

through digital thinking

Dr Gail Greig, Lecturer in Management, University of St Andrews

Professor Nic Beech, Professor of Management, University of St Andrews

Executive Summary

Background

The purpose of the project was to explore alternative ways of innovating which would fully

engage employees, challenge existing ways of thinking and make use of principles of digital

gaming. The idea of applying game design methodology to innovation was inspired by a

quote from Ted Nelson:

'Why are video games so much better designed than office software? Because

people who design video games love to play video games. People who design office

software look forward to doing something else on the weekend'.

The project was very open-ended and sought to apply the idea of an ‘artist in residence’ in a

new way. Here, it would be ‘technologists in residence’ in a creative organisation. Using

principles of game design implied that the design of products or tools to be used by staff or

audience members should not be merely functional but also attractive and fun.

The project was awarded £24,050 from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in Scotland.

The project

Employees, including those with customer-facing expertise, were engaged through

workshops which included game-playing and imaginative thought. Two projects were

selected: first, an exploration of how to encourage DCA loyalty card holders to register when

using the gallery; second, a rethink of principles of the DCA donations box.

Results

The projects resulted in the development of digital prototypes of a visual reward scheme for

loyalty card holders and a new form of donations box. An initial phase of testing has been

conducted and as a result of this testing plans have been made for the next phase of further

development of the prototypes.

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Insights

The residencies were a success in greatly enhancing employee engagement in innovation.

The two projects were refined and redesigned through the engagement process and the

outcomes included both project-outcomes for DCA and insights into engaged forms of

innovation. Innovation based on technologists in residence meant that the collaboration

between the creative and digital organisations was conducted on a different footing. The

relationship was not merely a commercial exchange, but became a high-trust collaboration

with genuinely shared goals. Similarly, employees were engaged in a way which enhanced

their confidence to be risk-taking and sometimes playful at work, hence increasing the

creative possibilities of DCA itself.

Lessons Learned

• Developing aims and objectives collaboratively helps and fostering strong

partnerships and generating innovative thinking in both arts/culture and digital media

organisations.

• Time requirements need to be given serious consideration. R&D approaches require

time to establish collective objectives within the project and ways to address these.

Project partners should not underestimate especially time needed for developing ways

to enact those ideas/concepts and testing them out in situ.

• Contrasting demands on time and staff in respective partner organisations need to be

acknowledged, and a flexible approach to managing these demands be adopted.

• Maintaining an appreciation of collaborative aims and processes and pursuing an

equal partner approach to the project contract helps securing commitment from all

partners in the face of challenges.

• A high-trust collaborative climate enables both more innovative thinking and flexibility

of process.

• Devising a project process which was fun and experiential helped encourage buy-in

and motivation from staff across the organisation.

Future

The next stage for the projects is to further develop the prototypes. This stage will entail a

scoping analysis and collaboration with partners who can support fabrication. It will be

necessary to find partners to share in the potential costs of the next phase of development.

The projects have laid the basis for future innovation in DCA as the learning from a gaming

orientation, close engagement and high-trust collaboration can be extended to new projects.

The project has helped enhance the innovative culture of DCA and the method will be used

again in future. It is hoped that the method of technologists in residence may also be

applicable to other organisations.

1. Background

This project takes an innovative approach to innovation. It challenges some of the received

wisdom about how innovation should be managed and is playful with how collaborations can

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be structured. It brought together Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) with technology partners

Denki and Lucky Frame.

Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) (http://www.dca.org.uk/) is an internationally-known centre

for the promotion of contemporary arts and culture, engaging audiences through a range of

facilities and interactive activities including: international contemporary art exhibitions, two

cinemas, analogue and digital print studio resources, education and activity centre, shop and

bar / restaurant, and research centre (Duncan of Jordanstone, University of Dundee). Clive

Gillman (DCA Director) led the project on behalf of DCA.

Lucky Frame (http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/) is a small Edinburgh-based digital media

company, specialising in music-related software and innovative interfaces with audiences to

encourage creativity (for example, in education). Director Yann Seznec led the project for

Lucky Frame.

One of Scotland’s longest established digital companies, Dundee-based Denki

(http://www.denki.co.uk/) is a digital toy boutique working with media partners such as Disney,

DreamWorks, Warner Bros and Universal Pictures. They produce games and digital solutions

to enhance how people engage in everyday activities (for example, in healthcare or crowd

flow). Managing Director Colin Anderson led the project for Denki.

The project was based on strong connections and areas of mutual interest between all three

key participants over several years, making existing collaboration the bed-rock for this project.

At its heart was an exploration – via collaboration, experimentation, and a research-oriented

approach – of how the processes, methods and tools involved in games thinking and design

can enhance staff and audiences’ experiences of, and engagement with, the work of DCA

and arts and cultural organisations more widely. The idea for the project originally came

about as a challenge to the idea that serious matters, such as customer loyalty or increasing

donations, can only be dealt with through traditional and serious ways of working. Principles

of game design and playing, including having fun, attractiveness of product and a willingness

to challenge the rules, were applied. The idea of applying game design methodology to

innovation was inspired by a quote from Ted Nelson:

'Why are video games so much better designed than office software? Because people

who design video games love to play video games. People who design office software

look forward to doing something else on the weekend'.

The project was awarded a budget of £24,050 by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in

Scotland. Its organic approach to innovation was successful in developing stage one

prototypes as well as a wealth of learning and soft benefits (see sections 3-5).

For DCA the project was of interest on three levels. Firstly, it provided DCA with new routes

for increasing customer engagement with the full range of facilities and service provision.

DCA had previously not had effective ways of collecting data on gallery audiences and

visitors to the center appeared to be unsure of whether and how to use the donations box.

Staff had commented that generally the centre needed to be better at engaging audiences

and visitors once they entered the physical premises. Increased donations and sales revenue

from such better engagement were an attractive opportunity. Secondly, DCA were keen to

engage a broader employee base in creative thinking and innovation. In so doing they were

looking to extend their innovative capacities and include employees whose remits normally

did not include creative and development activities in imaginative and playful tasks and thus

enhance their work experience. Thirdly, the project promised to improve audience experience

at DCA. The application of gaming principles implied a focus on playfulness, fun and

accessibility. Innovations that enabled the galleries and other offerings of the DCA in a non-

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intimidating and fun way would therefore make visits to the centre more enjoyable and

attractive to visitors.

Beyond the DCA itself the project provides a promising case study for the wider arts sector.

Innovation in the delivery of services and facilities is crucial to arts organisations, as is

engaging with other, related providers such as digital and marketing agencies. With respect to

such innovation and collaborations, the process provides a case study of radical thinking and

an approach to innovation which should be translatable into different organisational

environments and scalable to organisations of different sizes.

2. The project

Overall research proposition

The DCA project challenges conventional knowledge on both innovation management and

collaboration. Much research on innovation is focuses on manufacturing and it has tended to

emphasize best practice which is, itself, similar to project management. Hence, espoused

processes are often step-wise strategic models of problem specification, resource allocation,

solution development, testing and implementation (Ettlie, 2013). Research on best practice in

innovation management has argued for more focus on strategy and commercialization and

less on project climate and metrics (Kahn et al., 2012). However, despite advances in new

innovation practice, success rates have been assessed in a meta-analysis of 233 empirical

cases as below 25% (Evanschitzky et al., 2012).

Therefore, although a traditional way of thinking may be appropriate, especially when

considerable capital investment is involved, it may not be the best choice for all forms of

product and service, and particular questions may be raised regarding its applicability in

SMEs and the arts sector. Innovation in arts and creative organisations is often of a different

order. Innovations may be aesthetic, experiential or broaden access rather than creating new

physical products. Hence, a more organic approach to innovation based on stimulating an

organisational climate of idea-generation may be more appropriate.

Arts organisations have been found to be as effective as manufacturing and service industries

in non-technical innovation, but less so in technical innovation (de-Miguel-Molina et al., 2013)

and so the DCA project is interesting from a theoretical perspective as it combines technical

and organisational innovation, and does so by focusing on project climate and process rather

than simply on strategic outcome.

In many fields collaboration leads more commonly to inertia and failure rather than success

(Vangen & Winchester, 2013). Lack of shared agendas, a lack of openness and transparency

and problems of mistrust are typical inhibitors (Hibbert, et al., 2010). Hence, best practice has

been thought of as either having very explicit, instrumental collaborations, which tend to be

short-term and designed to bring together resources to exploit a particular market opportunity

or the development of long-term joint ventures (Schepher, et al., 2014). Both approaches are

governed through contractual arrangements which specify expectations, contributions and

outcome agreements. However, in the wider arts sector, both structured collaboration (Andres

& Chapain, 2013) and informal and less structured collaborations are more common (Bilton &

Cummings, 2014). In the DCA case a more informal style of collaboration was applied to an

arts-digital collaboration and led to interesting results.

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The project set out to explore what might happen if a game-oriented approach were adopted

to innovating in the DCA. Initial broad aims were to explore how games design thinking might

assist day-to-day work processes throughout DCA and develop processes to enhance

sustainable audience engagement and interaction. Following the consultative engagement,

the projects focused on the narrower aims to (1) examine how to encourage DCA loyalty card

holders to register when using the gallery, and (2) to rethink the principles of the DCA

donations box ‘how do we help people to give us something for nothing’? The ‘technologists

in residence’ approach entailed the tech partners spending time embedded in DCA, getting to

know the people and the place and co-designing a process of research-oriented innovation.

The agreed approach used questionnaires and events such as workshops to enable the

technologists to work directly with staff.

A project plan and timeline were agreed between all three partners, beginning in September

2012, when DCA’s Head of Marketing conducted a survey amongst DCA staff. Data were

gathered on staff’s current use of and interaction with digital technology (hardware usage,

e.g. smartphones; shopping online or in-store interaction preferences). The survey also

invited suggestions about issues or challenges the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in Scotland

project might address, related to visitors’ experiences of DCA or working at DCA. This survey

was followed in November 2012 by workshops for two consecutive groups of DCA staff,

hosted jointly by the project partners. As many members of staff as possible, from all areas of

work within DCA, were invited to attend. These fun, highly participative events introduced

staff to the project aims, provided feedback from the staff survey, gave staff experience of

using digital media through gaming in small groups, and stimulated discussion about how

digital media and play ideas could be used in day-to-day work processes to enhance staff and

audience experiences of DCA.

In workshop 11, staff group 1 discussed the intimidating nature of contemporary art spaces in

general, and the benefits and pitfalls of the physical layout of the DCA complex in particular.

Staff reflected on the need for DCA to simultaneously present critically acclaimed

contemporary art (reputation, associated exclusivity) and be inclusive to as wide an audience

as possible (reflecting one of DCA’s key aims). They identified difficulties for staff and visitors

alike in navigating DCA’s complex offer of services and activities in different areas, and

agreed that it would be helpful to enable audiences to move through and engage more easily

with these different aspects of DCA.

In workshop 22, staff group 2 also identified customers’ difficulties in exploring the DCA

complex. This workshop included staff who worked in front-of-house positions and observed

first-hand how people interacted with the building on entry. They highlighted the way people

engaged with the foyer and issues with the corridor linking the foyer to the gallery space.

They observed how people were unsure of where they should go, whether the corridor led

anywhere, where installations and exhibitions began, and whether ‘everyday’ objects were

‘art’ or not. They felt these confusions inhibited visitors exploring and experiencing DCA’s

offerings. For example, staff had observed that people either did not notice or were uncertain

about the function of the donations box in the foyer (art or donations box?). They agreed it

would be good to make visiting DCA more satisfying and interactive, as soon as visitors

entered the building. They felt such improvements would encourage them to explore and

navigate the complex and its activities more freely.3

1 Fieldnotes from staff gaming workshop 1, DCA, Dundee, 13 November 2012

2 Fieldnotes from staff gaming workshop 2, DCA, Dundee, 21 November 2012

3 Fieldnotes from staff gaming workshop 2, DCA, Dundee, 21 November 2012

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Based on these observations and ideas, DCA and both tech partners agreed in early

December 2012 two sub-projects for the collaboration.4 These sub-projects were in line with

the overall project objectives of enhancing staff and audience/visitors’ experience of the DCA

as well as develop opportunities for generating usable data for a range of organisational

purposes. One sub-project, led by Denki, involved developing the existing DCA Loyalty Card

Scheme. The existing scheme only gathered data on cinema usage and the aim of this sub-

project was to encourage more use of the gallery by extending the scheme. The second sub-

project, led by Lucky Frame, involved developing the existing donations box into an

interactive, digital donations box in the gallery in order to increase giving. Each sub-project

would aim to deliver a prototype.

The project partners agreed these sub-projects needed to meet three quality criteria:

• To fit with the aesthetic aspects of DCA as an arts and cultural organisation;

• To deliver good user interaction and DCA as an arts and cultural organisation;

• To generate usable data, aligned with DCA as an arts and cultural organisation;5

A timeline was agreed for developing the prototypes. However, in late January 2013,

following discussion between the two technology partners and DCA, the prototype projects

were swapped around at the request of Lucky Frame. On reflection, Lucky Frame felt that the

Loyalty Card Scheme was a better fit with their expertise and organisational capacity, and

Denki agreed to swapping sub-projects.6

Building on existing data and usage, Lucky Frame developed a prototype for an extended use

of the Loyalty Card Scheme. A mechanism would need to be developed to facilitate swipe

entry at various points around DCA. Using this mechanism, cardholders would be able to

accumulate points when they interacted with any aspect of DCA. If they visited the gallery or

print studio, they could scan their card on entry. The accumulation of points would trigger the

growth of a personalised digital tree, which would be displayed visually in the foyer. Various

means of realising such displays were under consideration. Additional aspects would be

awarded - for example, a small bird perching on a branch - depending on the nature of the

points-generation interaction, so gallery visits and cinema attendance would generate

different types of ‘growth’ or ‘awards’. Each tree would be unique to the particular cardholder.

Building on research amongst DCA staff, other people in the contemporary art sector, and

contemporary art works, Denki presented the conceptual plans for a donations box prototype

named “Artcade”. The aim was to engage users in the foyer area in an interactive way that

blurred the boundary between art and entertainment. Part art installation, part vending

machine, part seaside arcade machine, part photo booth, part donations box, the Artcade

would aim to engage visitors as soon as they entered DCA, drawing them in and conveying

an invitation to explore and engage with the whole complex in an interactive way - whilst

perhaps raising more revenue for DCA through increased donations.

The official project completion date was extended to May 31, 2013. Both technology partners

presented working digital illustrations of their sub-projects’ outcomes to DCA staff at two

launch workshops in early May.7

Lucky Frame launched the digital aspect of the loyalty card tree prototype publicly at a ‘Small

Society Lab’8 session at DCA. A possible solution for housing the scanning equipment

4 Fieldnotes, meeting between DCA, Denki and Luckyframe at DCA, Dundee, 4 December 2012

5 Fieldnotes, meeting between DCA, Denki and Luckyframe at DCA, Dundee, 4 December 2012 and interview with

Clive Gilman, DCA, May 2013. 6 Interviews with: Yann Seznec (Lucky Frame) Edinburgh, May 2013; Colin Anderson (Denki), Dundee, May 2013;

Clive Gilman (DCA), Dundee, May 2013. 7 Fieldnotes, prototype presentation and update workshops, DCA, 9 May 2013.

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emerged following a conversation with a colleague from the Dundee-based technology

company NCR who had attended a Small Society Lab event. This idea was subsequently

followed up by DCA.9

The partners’ mutual interest drove engagement in the exploratory process:

[Audience engagement with, and loyalty to, ‘physical’ organisations is] ‘something

that I’m interested in, because that’s essentially what we’re trying to do with our

products…I thought that we could learn a lot from engaging with DCA and seeing

how their audience responds to certain types of promotion and different types of

communication.’10

The collaborative nature of this process-driven project was also exemplified in the project

contract. Rather than DCA defining objectives and sub-contracting with technology partners

to deliver those, all three partners were jointly responsible for delivering on the mutually

agreed objectives identified through the collaborative process.

3. Results

The project’s initial broad aims were to explore how games design thinking might assist day-

to-day work processes throughout DCA and help in general with organisational needs such

as enhancing sustainable audience engagement and interaction. Following the consultative

engagement, the two sub-projects focused on the narrower aims to (1) examine how to

encourage DCA loyalty card holders to register when using the gallery, and (2) to rethink the

principles of the DCA donations box, ‘how do we help people to give us something for

nothing’?

A number of soft benefits emerged from the project. The sub-projects’ aims were addressed

through the production of prototypes. The use of games thinking in the development of the

loyalty card scheme led to the idea of highly attractive and dynamic graphics:

‘We want to create a digital forest of trees - one tree for each Red Card holder. The

size and characteristics of each tree will be generated from the number and type of

points currently on the card. A publicly viewable screen will show the whole forest.

This [screen] should be located somewhere with a great deal of foot traffic - perhaps

behind the reception desk. It will show the forest as an organic, growing, and

gorgeous abstract set of trees. When an audience member presents their Red Card

and makes a purchase, the camera will zoom in and focus on their tree, showing it

grow and displaying the statistics (how many current points, where the points have

been accrued, etc.).11

’

‘Several other scanning points should be placed around the building, encouraging

exploration of the space. [These scanning points] would display the forest and allow

gallery attendees to scan their cards to check up on their trees. [These checks] will

show them how big their tree has grown, as well as let them know if any rewards

(fruits) are available. Scanning your card at these other areas (such as at the

8 The Small Society Lab is a joint project by DCA and the University of Dundee and is an umbrella for a series of

activities exploring the intersection between art, science and community. The main platform for the Small Society Lab is a series of public events that have taken place in DCA in June over the past three years. 9 Fieldnotes, Small Society Lab, DCA, Dundee, 20 June 2013

10 Interview with Colin Anderson, Denki, October 2012.

11 DCA Nesta Digital R&D final report January 2014

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entrance of the gallery, or in the print studio) would help your tree grow in different

ways – as you scan more often in the gallery, for example, you could acquire a new

type of leaf on your tree, and unlock a new type of fruit. The aesthetic of the tree will

reflect the origin of the points - whether they are from cinema, workshops, bar, shop,

or gallery. Rewards will be represented on the tree as hanging fruit - if a free cinema

ticket, discount at the shop, or other rewards are available a piece of fruit will grow on

the tree, labeled with what is available.’12

An initial prototype of loyalty card scanner that Lucky Frame conceived is depicted in Picture 1.

Picture 1: Loyalty scanner prototype by Lucky Frame.

The ‘donations box’ rethink produced the ‘Artcade’ machine which is made up of three giant

pixels and a message box. Each pixel is illuminated with a solid colour, one of 12 from the

RGB colour wheel. When a coin or note is placed in one of the three pixels, that pixel will

change colour and a ‘Thank You’ will be illuminated on the message box in the corresponding

colour. While waiting for somebody to donate money into it each pixel will stay illuminated and

the message box will say ‘Donations Welcome’.

In addition, the Artcade machine has a secret game for visitors to discover over time. The

game is based around colour theory. If a visitor’s donations change the colour of the pixels so

that the three pixels show three triadic colours (colours that are located at 120 degrees apart

from each other on the colour wheel), the visitor has won. The pixels will flash white and the

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DCA Nesta Digital R&D final report January 2014

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‘Thank you’ will flash through a spectrum of colours.

An initial prototype of loyalty card scanner by Denki is depicted in pictures 2 and 3.

Picture 2: Artcade donations box by Denki.

Picture 3: Donating or playing? Artcade donations box by Denki.

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A further soft benefit of project was that the methods used led to a high level of involvement

amongst DCA staff. The response to the initial survey on staff’s use of digital technology was

comprehensive and twenty-two people participated in the workshops. DCA has a large

number of staff (over 70), but many are part-time with a fairly small full-time core team of

around 20 people. The workshops comprised a mix of full-time core staff with some staff from

areas such as Front of House and Box Office. An important soft benefit of these workshops

was that they encouraged staff buy-in. Staff feedback on the processes, prototypes and

overall project was overwhelmingly positive.13

Staff suggested how gaming processes might

be embedded in day-to-day working practices at DCA. For example, they proposed using

gaming for team-building and staff development by running workshops like the initial

November project workshops, as those workshops had brought people together and opened

lines of thinking about new ways of tackling challenging issues facing the organization.14

Staff

also made suggestions for the further developing and installing the working prototypes in

situ.15

The DCA as well as the technology partners Lucky Frame and Denki found using the

workshop model highly beneficial, in terms of enhancing understanding of user/audience

engagement and interactivity. Both technology partners derived valuable insights about

interactive processes and about workshops as a way of gathering user feedback on services

and/or prototype digital products. Engaging with challenges around presenting digital

interactive products in a physical location, in a way that meets the aesthetic demands of an

arts and cultural organisation, has provoked new thinking for each of the tech partners on

how they present their products to their own audiences. The collaborative research focus has

also prompted them to reflect on their own workflow processes and organisational issues.

Another soft benefit of the project so far is that the collaboration between each of the

technology partners and DCA is likely to continue beyond the project. Despite the lack of

further funding, all three organisations have committed to continuing to work to bring about

the development of the prototypes, in order to achieve the collaboratively identified objectives

for the project and to maximise the benefits of the experimental, exploratory approach

taken.16

Their commitment to the project was exemplified through the efforts of all three

partners to retain an open-minded approach to identifying issues to explore. As they put it,

they sought to ‘...for as long as it’s possible remain open before start[ing] to shape the project

into something that might produce a tangible outcome.’17

The partners emphasised repeatedly the value of the research-based nature of the project,

and despite the challenges, all felt this nature was key to achieving maximum benefit from the

project. For the technology partners, the advantages of a research-orientation related to

working processes, for example:

‘[Lucky Frame’s expertise is in] thinking very creatively about the interfaces and so

on, [so] we came to the conclusion that we had loads of ideas but that trying to come

up with the output at the beginning was not really a good approach … We realised

what we really needed to do is start from the beginning and research a project

together. And that’s when we set these much wider targets of looking at gaming …

and the organisation of DCA.’18

13

Fielnotes, prototype presentation and update workshops, DCA, 9 May 2013. 14

Fielnotes, prototype presentation and update workshop 1, DCA, 9 May 2013. 15

Fieldnotes from staff gaming workshops 1 & 2, DCA, Dundee, November 2012. Fieldnotes, Colin Anderson (Denki) information-gathering visit to DCA, Dundee, April 2013. 16

Interviews with Clive Gilman (DCA), Colin Anderson (Denki), Yann Seznec (Luckyframe), May 2013. 17

Interview with Clive Gilman, DCA, Dundee, May 2013. 18

Interview with Yann Seznec, Lucky Frame, October 2012.

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For Denki, the benefits were partly testing out the collaborative process of innovation19

and

partly working collaboratively with DCA, a key local organisational partner.20

All partners acknowledged explicitly that the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in Scotland had

been invaluable in enabling the collaboration. All agreed that the level of innovative thinking

achieved through the project would have been impossible without the Digital R&D Fund,

details of which are provided in table 1 below. They agreed that ideally there should be

recurring funding for exploratory projects to enable collaborations to stimulate new thinking

and approaches to mutual challenges throughout the arts and cultural sector. 21

Travel for team to attend Scotland-wide workshops and meetings £225

Catering for workshops £105

Fee to tech partner 1 for research workshops £1,200

Fee to tech partner 2 for research workshops £1,200

Fee to tech partner 1 for meetings to review workshops and plan project 1 £600

Fee to tech partner 2 for meetings to review workshops and plan project 2 £600

Project development meetings fees tech partner 1 £300

Project development meetings fees tech partner 2 £300

DCA cluster staff time for workshops and development activity £375

Prototype development fee to tech partner 1 £8,500

Prototype development fee to tech partner 2 £8,000

Equipment, transport etc. costs for prototype installations £495

Software development for Donations Box £2,150

Total £24,050

Table 1: Final budget DCA project

4. Insights

The move away from a traditionally highly structured form of innovation (Kahn, et. al., 2012)

was effective for DCA and its partners. The more organic style allowed for greater team

involvement which, in turn, facilitated a highly motivated orientation from all sides. The DCA

staff team worked with both a questionnaire and experiential workshops which enabled them

to express thoughts and experiences beyond the merely cognitive. The experiences of staff in

the workshops were embodied, emotional and enjoyable, and in this sense challenged the

predominantly cognitive approach to much innovation management.

The process involved different forms of expertise, each given their own space to contribute.

The curating and artistic expertise of the DCA directors, the customer-facing expertise of staff

and the technical expertise of the technology partners were all shared and there was no

evidence of gatekeeping of knowledge.

The collaborative approach rejected the more contractual style which predominates in

commercial industry (Schepker, 2014). The joint setting of goals and a gradual development

of mutual understanding were particularly important to the informal collaboration in this

project, a finding which confirms previous studies on collaborations (e.g. Vangen and

Winchester 2013; Hibbert et al. 2010). The advantage of a collaborative approach is that it

19

Interview with Colin Anderson, Denki, Dundee, October 2012. 20

Interview with Colin Anderson, Denki, Dundee, May 2013. 21

Interviews with Clive Gilman (DCA), Colin Anderson (Denki), Yann Seznec (Luckyframe), May 2013.

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allows for trust-building and a beyond-self interest in the project, as evidenced in this case.

However, whether collaborations can deliver such benefits depends not only on the

orientation of the collaborative arrangements, but also on the inter-personal skills and

personal engagement of the organisational representatives. All those involved were bought-in

to the idea of games and fun as part of thought-generation in innovation. The management of

such an organic approach depends not on structures, but on the management and innovative

skills of the people involved. Leadership is key and the leadership style needs to be one

which draws in the contribution of others rather than being top-down.

The case exemplifies a high-trust form of collaboration. Drawing on game design and game-

playing, it encourages a challenging of rules and traditional ways of thinking. It introduces

experience and emotion into innovation processes and supports the idea of organic

innovation based on the establishment of an enabling climate.

Lessons Learned

• Developing aims and objectives collaboratively helps and fostering strong

partnerships and generating innovative thinking in both arts/culture and digital media

organisations.

• Time requirements need to be given serious consideration. R&D approaches require

time to establish collective objectives within the project and ways to address these.

Project partners should not underestimate especially time needed for developing ways

to enact those ideas/concepts and testing them out in situ.

• Contrasting demands on time and staff in respective partner organisations need to be

acknowledged, and a flexible approach to managing these demands be adopted.

• Maintaining an appreciation of collaborative aims and processes and pursuing an

equal partner approach to the project contract helps securing commitment from all

partners in the face of challenges.

• A high-trust collaborative climate enables both more innovative thinking and flexibility

of process.

• Devising a project process which was fun and experiential helped encourage buy-in

and motivation from staff across the organisation.

5. Future

Whilst the digital aspects have been completed, at the end of the funded period work

remained to be done on the material aspects of the prototypes. Lucky Frame needed an

aesthetically pleasing way of housing the scanners to allow users to swipe their cards, and to

agree where and how the trees would be displayed; Denki needed an equally aesthetically

acceptable casing for the Artcade, so that it could be installed for use. Both technology

partners and DCA were continuing to work together on these remaining tasks after the funded

project period.

The partners would all engage in the technologist in residence method again. They would

allow more time for the process and ensure that resource was available to continue projects.

They would also choose to work with partners who have shared values and enthusiasms

rather than having a merely contractual arrangement.

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6. Further resources

Further project information

Further information on DCA can be found at: http://www.dca.org.uk

Information on the Technology Partners can be here for Denki http://www.denki.co.uk/ and

here for Lucky Frame http://luckyframe.co.uk/

Tools and guidance

The DCA project was a genuine exploration of the use of digital innovations in art centres.

The following article asks similar broad questions: http://www.theguardian.com/culture-

professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/sep/23/digital-innovation-arts-creative-

practice

An introduction to the geeks-in-residence approach can be found here:

http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-

blog/2014/feb/28/geeks-residence-tech-arts-developer

An article on why using digital innovation to encourage staff involvement and collaboration is

beneficial comes from Involve: http://www.involve.co.uk/promoting-digital-collaboration-in-

your-team/

Other examples of museums, galleries and theatres utilising digital technologies and games

to enhance visitor experience and generate user interactions typically focus on apps, such as:

Tate Magic 8 Ball app (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/apps/magic-tate-ball);

The National Museum of Scotland Capture the Museum App

(http://www.capturethemuseum.com/);

National Galleries ARTHunter app (http://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/arthunter),

another project from the Nesta R&D in Scotland Fund.

More general examples of introducing digital into an arts organisation’s strategy come from

Pitlochry Festival Theatre who discuss the introduction of strategy with the help from

Ambition and the Make:IT:Happen Fund:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sd44IVEo0w&feature=player_embedded

Cleveland’s Museum of Art, Gallery One, which is combines arts and technologies to

guide the users journey through the gallery: http://www.clevelandart.org/gallery-one

Further reading

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Andres, L. & Chapain, C. (2013) The Integration of Cultural and Creative Industries in local

and regional development strategies. Regional Studies 47(2): 161 -182

Bilton, C. & Cummings, S. (2014) Handbook of Management and Creativity. Cheltenham:

Edward Elgar

De-Miguel-Molina, B., Hervas-Olivier, J-L., de-Miguel-Molina, M. & Boix, R. (2012) Beautiful

Innovation in Hervas-Olivier, J-L. & Peris-Ortiz, M. (eds) Management Innovation, New York:

Springer

Ettlie, J.E. (2013) Managing Innovation. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth- Heinemann

Evanschitzky, H., Eisend, M., Celantone, R.j. & Jiang, Y. (2012) Success factors of Product

Innovations: An updated meta-analysis. Journal of Product Innovation 29(1): 21 -37

Hibbert, P., Huxham, C. & Ring, P. (2010) Managing collaborative inter-organisational

relations in Cropper, S., Ebers, M., Huxham, C. and Ring, P. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of

Inter-organisational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kahn, K., Barczak, G., Nicholas, J., Ledwith, A. & Perks, H. (2012) An examination of new

product development and best practice. Journal of New Product Innovation Management

29(2): 180 - 192

Schepher, D., Oh, W-Y., Martynov, A., & Poppo, L. (2014) The Many Futures of Contracts.

Journal of Management 40 (1): 193-225

Vanger , S. & Winchester, N. (2013) Managing Cultural Diversity in Collaborations. Public

Management Review. DOI 10.1080

Other examples

DCA used a ‘technologists in residence’ model for their collaboration with Denki and Lucky

Frame. Other examples of such collaborations include the following:

Geeks in Residencies program by Sync, where developers and designers were placed in arts organisations and funded for their time http://www.welcometosync.com/geeks/, with the Example of We are Snook (http://wearesnook.com/snook/?case=geeks-in-residence) Chicago Public Library Geeks in Residence is a peer mentorship programme where the ‘Geeks’ offer free business and technology advice: http://cplgeeksinresidence.wordpress.com/about/ The Happenstance project was a technologist in residence project in 2012, produced by Caper, funded by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in England: http://happenstanceproject.com/ The Australia Council devised the Arts Geek in Residence Program to equip funded arts organization with the skills and knowledge to be competitive in the digital era: http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants/grant-decisions/reports/arts-organisations/geek-in-residence-2013

15

V&A Museum in London employed Games Designer Sophia George on a 6 months Games in residency: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/game-designer-resident-sophia-george/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22704984