20 February 2019 @ 4:00 pm

Reimagining ACMI

Museums around the world continuously reflect on how visitors interact with their content; many are now looking at how they reimagine the visitor experience and/or promote curiosity-driven exploration through technology. The team at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) have given these topics even more thought than usual since the announcement of a multi-million-dollar redevelopment, which will transform museum in 2019 and allow innovative new practices to be implemented.

In the first forum talk of the year, Seb Chan and Lucie Paterson talked about ACMI’s upcoming reimagining, and how experiments conducted over the past three years of exhibitions, events, and online activities are driving the emergence of new visitor facing experiences.

This forum took place on 20 February, 2019. A recording of the livestream is available below.

A recording of the livestream of Seb and Lucie's talk. The end of the talk was not recorded due to content confidentiality.
A recording of the livestream of Seb and Lucie's talk. The end of the talk was not recorded due to content confidentiality.

Seb Chan is Chief Experience Officer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. He is responsible for holistic experience design and oversees teams responsible for experience & digital, ICT, as well as the museum’s collections, digitisation & digital preservation programs.

Prior to this he led the digital renewal and transformation of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York (2011-2015). At the Cooper Hewitt he also led experiments in the acquisition of digital design including the first ‘App’ to enter the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. He drove the Powerhouse Museum’s pioneering work in open access, mass collaboration and digital experience during the 2000s. He has also worked as a museum consultant with institutions across North America, Europe and Asia.

Seb’s work has won awards from American Alliance of Museums, One Club, D&AD, Fast Company and Core77. He is an Adjunct Professor, School of Media and Communications, in the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT, and is a member of the international advisory board of Art Science Museum (Singapore), and advisory committees for the National Museum of Australia, Hammer Museum at UCLA (USA), and the Exploratorium (USA) and is a board member of Diversity Arts Australia. He is an alumni of the Getty Leadership Institute and Salzburg Global Seminar, and also leads a parallel life in digital art and electronic music.

Lucie Paterson is a museum professional with 13 years experience managing people, projects and teams to deliver high quality and user-centred products for a range of arts and culture organisations. She has a background in communications, a mind for strategy but an eye for detail, excellent product and project management skills and loves getting stuck into a complex challenge.

Currently she is Product Manager in the Experience & Digital Team at ACMI where she’s responsible for delivering user-centered products and processes for the museum. The museum is going through a redevelopment and Lucie plays a key role as audience advocate, ensuring all aspects of the exhibition, experience are with the visitor in mind.

Prior to that she was Website Transformation Project Manager of an in-house agile development team at Southbank Centre in London and before that she worked at Te Papa in New Zealand.