Everything We Do in Digital Leads to the Original Do Art Museums Benefit from Social Media? Clara Bläser, Student ID: 12381624 Master of Arts (MA) in New Media and Digital Culture Supervisor: Dr. J.A.A. (Johannes) Simons | Second reader: Dr. Bogna Konior Amsterdam, June 2019 This document is written by Student Clara Bläser who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Humanities is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. Amsterdam, June 28th, 2019 Clara Bläser 2 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to conduct how art museums in times of digitisation can get the attention of today's digital natives. It provides an insight into how museums use social media, to gain a new and younger audience. In order to get a clear perception of the Instagram use of museums, this paper is working with two case studies. The objects are two art museums in Munich, the Alte Pinakothek and the Haus der Kunst. Three interviews with social media representatives of the institutions and an art historian were conducted and a content analysis of the Instagram accounts of the Alte Pinakothek and the Haus der Kunst was made to formulate approaches for action. This study concludes that social media, given the Instagram analysis, offers a great opportunity to reach out to younger people and interact with them. But to be able to successfully implement and use Instagram, the importance of this platform must be clear for everyone. Social media users are demanding interaction, therefore a successful social media strategy needs investments in qualified head counts. Keywords: art, digitisation, digital natives, Instagram, museums, social media ​ 3 Abstract 3 1. Introduction 6 1.1 Research questions 9 1.2 Thesis outline 10 2. Theoretical Framework 11 2.1 Mechanical reproduction, authenticity and accessibility 11 2.2 Digitisation: Opportunities and risks for museums 13 2.3 Affordances on Instagram 17 2.4 Objects of research 20 3. Methodology 21 3.1 Case study 21 3.2 Approach 21 3.2.1 Interviews 21 3.2.2 Content analysis 24 3.2.3 Google Chrome helper tool for Instagram 29 3.3 How users make use of Instagrams affordance 30 4. Findings 31 4.1 Instagram - Everything we do in digital leads to the original 31 4.1.1 Mechanical reproduction and authenticity 33 4.1.2 New media vs. museums? 36 4.1.3 Photographic capturing of art influencing the perception? 37 4.1.4 Contemporary art vs. old masters, non-collecting vs. permanent collection 38 4.1.5 From the museum to the electronic music club 41 4.2 Instagram use of the Alte Pinakothek and the Haus der Kunst 43 4.2.1 Company specific hashtags/ co-creation 43 4.2.2 Technical quality of posted content 45 4.2.3 Snapshot aesthetic 45 4.2.4 Behind the scenes photography 46 4.2.5 Utilizing the different features that are available on Instagram 48 4.2.6 Balance between followers and following 49 4.2.7 Interaction with the Instagram followers 50 4.2.8 Reposting the followers content 52 4.3 Most liked posts 53 5. Discussion 61 5.1 Competition or alliance? 61 5.2 Getting the attention of today’s young audience 63 5.3 Different art, same app roach 64 4 5.4 The importance of interactivity 67 6. Conclusion 68 Bibliography 71 Appendix 77 5 1. Introduction Internet of Things, over 5 billion unique mobile users and “(...) more than one million people coming online for the first time each day since January 2018” (Kemp n. pag.), underline that our world is changing dramatically. Today’s young generation is called digital natives, they are born into this digital age, formed by the online world. Reading is replaced by video games and streaming providers. Children and young people of today are “native speakers” when it comes to the digital language of the Internet, video games or computers (Prensky 2). The digital natives come directly after generation Y. For the millennials, being the same as generation Y, different age groups are mentioned, but it can be approximately said that these are the age groups born between 1980-2000, the 20-39-year-olds in 2019. The millennials grew up in a world where computers are taken for granted, social networks have become established, and advertising is more relevant than ever before (Rouse n. pag.). ​ ​ “Constant exposure to digital media has changed the way the digital generation processes, interacts and uses information. As a result, they think and communicate in fundamentally different ways than any previous generation” (Jukes & Dosaj n. pag.). Communication for the younger generation usually takes place on the modern, digital way, via social media. The share of social media use from the age of 14 to 19-year-olds is at 100% and 98% for the 20 to 29-year-olds (“Social Media: Usage Share”). Nearly everyone owns a smartphone and has several social media accounts on different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Their online presence affects their offline life. In order to get the attention of these young people, you will probably reach them best online. Instagram is one of the rather new forms of communication where users share their lives through pictures and videos. “(...) it is the most popular photo capturing and sharing application” (Hu et al. 595) and reaches a younger, more diverse audience than any other ​ social network (Salomon n. pag.). All income and education classes use Instagram, which makes it especially for museums to such an interesting online platform to reach a big audience (Clarke n. pag.). Young mobile users fulfill their desire of taking photos with their smartphones, to then easily upload and share them immediately with the world. With sharing photos, they connect with others and exchange interests and information among each other 6 (Abbott et al. 3). In 2018 Instagram had 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active ​ users, and it is still growing rapidly (Etherington n.pag.). 60.4% of all users are between 18 and 24 years old (“Global Instagram User”). At the time of writing this, Instagram users upload 95 million photos a day to the site (“Instagram Marketing Statistics”). Instagram has become not only a useful social networking platform to individuals but also to companies (Ting et al. 16). “(...) many traditional offline organizations have slowly incorporated social networking services into their businesses in order to reach and communicate with their actual and potential consumers more efficiently” (Ting et al. 18). It is not only about sharing personal photos anymore but also about taking advantage of it, earn money with Instagram, advertise companies or products and draw attention to particular issues. And because the users of Instagram are so young, this platform can reach especially the young target group very well. Although the platform Instagram plays such an important role in social media today, it has been relatively seldom considered in studies so far. There are studies about the user practices on Instagram (Araujo et al. 19) and research about how visitors using applications driven by smartphone technology are engaging with exhibition content, space, design, architecture, and people (Budge 67). Additionally, Weilenmann, Hillman, and Jungselius studied for example how the everyday use of smartphones with high-quality built-in cameras has lead to an increase in museum visitors’ use of these devices to document and share their museum experiences (Weilenmann et al. n. pag.). Studies about how social media is used for artworks and how visitors use social media to document their museum visit already exist. What you will not find much about is how an art museum itself uses social media, to gain a new and younger audience. These previous studies can be a good starting point to extend and build upon. As culture is and will ever be a relevant part of life and history, museums are very important part of our society. The museum is not closed to any medium, any art form, any genre, any style. The museum runs an archive and with it future (Weibel “Das Museum” 1) and they exist for more than 2 millennia. The world's oldest museum was built 2.500 years ago. Early museums began with private collections by wealthy people. In the 19th century, more and more museums were open for the public, like the State Hermitage Museum, the Museo del 7 Prado and the Louvre. This art is now accessible to visitors in spectacular buildings (“The World’s Oldest”). In the 20th, and also today in the 21st century, those kinds of buildings or palaces are still built, rebuild and renovated. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, for example, underwent many changes to create more rooms for donated artworks. “The building was ​ thoroughly modernized, while at the same time restoring more of Cuypers original interior designs” (“History of the Rijksmuseum”). But how do these old institutions continue to exist in the digital world? Museums open access to intellectual content, collect and exhibit art and make it available for everyone. More and more museums try to find solutions to find a ‘space’ in cyberspace. With social media, they get the chance “(...) to attract wider audiences, especially those more difficult to reach, such as young people” (NEMO 15). Learning, education and awareness-raising are still key goals and will remain so for all museum.