Te Papa’s Mahuki teams showcase technology innovations for the culture sector
17 November 2017
Last night, eight entrepreneurial teams from Te Papa’s Mahuki technology incubator unveiled business propositions which provide digital solutions to challenges faced by cultural organisations worldwide. Several of the innovations have already been picked up and are being used by local organisations, including Te Papa.
Innovations include:
Using virtual reality to take audiences behind the scenes to meet artists, conservators and story tellers (I Want To Experience)
An app that connects volunteers with volunteering opportunities (Collaborate)
Augmented reality and gamified educational experiences (ScimitAR)
A language learning tool that teaches Pacific languages and gives cultural context for that language (Tide Talk)
Data gathering analysis to help institutions understand the way their visitors move and interact with exhibits (Morph by ContinUX)
Digital portraits that interact with exhibition visitors (Vaka Interactiv)
A cataloguing and collections app that streamlines the lending and borrowing process (SimplyFi)
A programme that connects culture sector retail stores with local creatives (LocalFlair).
The incubator programme has enabled the teams to spend four dedicated months researching and developing their business ideas. During this time they have worked with Te Papa’s experts and collections, and been able to user-test their ideas with Te Papa’s millions of visitors.
Some of Te Papa’s Mahuki team with Hon Dr Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation. Photograph by Michelle Kan. Te Papa
Te Papa Chief Executive Geraint Martin says: “Te Papa is globally recognised for its innovative ways of storytelling. We are always looking for ways to connect more New Zealanders with their taonga and in more meaningful ways. Innovative use of technology is one of the ways in which we can do that.”
“The digital solutions presented by the Mahuki teams are impressive and give us and like-minded culture and learning organisations, here and internationally, a range of next generation user experiences to consider,” says Mr Martin.
Mahuki aims to build on New Zealand’s strength in creative industries, alongside a rapidly growing technology sector and to boost opportunities for local creative technology businesses.
Mahuki General Manager Tui Te Hau is inspired by the talent and drive of the teams.
“All the teams have achieved their goals to date and some have secured early success,” says Ms Te Hau.
“We’re delighted to announce Te Papa will be engaging the services of Mahuki innovators I Want To Experience who will be providing virtual reality experiences for visitors to Te Papa’s new art gallery Toi Art, which opens in March next year. Through their technology, visitors will be able to visit artist Lisa Walker’s studio and learn directly from Lisa about her creative process. Collaborate have already launched their app and have had 70 organisations sign-up who are looking for volunteers. Student team ScimitAR have secured a pilot with Wellington City Libraries and Kāpiti Coast District Libraries, called Mahi the Moa AR Hunt, and LocalFlair have their first client on board by way of the NZ Cricket Museum who are looking for local creatives to develop quality merchandise for their 150th anniversary.”
Last year’s inaugural Mahuki teams also achieved success. Te Papa engaged seven business concepts developed at Mahuki, for deployment within the museum, four teams signed commercial agreements with other organisations, and as of June 2017 two teams have successfully raised investment, while one of the teams has attracted international interest and that team is looking to grow into the China market.
Ends
Media contact
Andrea Tandy
Senior Communications Adviser, Te Papa
Mobile: 029 601 0010, email: andrea.tandy@tepapa.govt.nz
Notes to editors
Businesses unveiled at Mahuki in 2017:
Collaborate is a social enterprise run by four young Wellington women who have designed a platform for matching volunteers skills with opportunities in community and cultural organisations. By making connection fast and easy the app boosts volunteer engagement, especially amongst the millennial demographic. Organisations can tap into this talent by posting opportunities and viewing the profile of interested volunteers; which includes users’ volunteer history and feedback tracked through the app.
The app empowers communities by making it easier for volunteers to give and grow their skills on projects they care about, and increasing the capacity and capability of organisations. In New Zealand volunteers outnumber paid staff in both charities and museums. Collaborate streamlines this essential operating function for both, connecting them to the skills and people they need, whilst massively reducing the time and money spent on volunteer sourcing and management.
LocalFlair enables institutions to activate creatives around them through commercial opportunities. The platform streamlines the process for galleries and museums to source work that can:
provide commercial benefit,
relate to the current exhibitions and
improve standing of the institution.
Finding work that fits all three criteria is time intensive and amplified every time the exhibitions change, making working with a diverse range of artists more difficult to sustain. LocalFlair maps out the local creative community and provides access to quality services and skills that creatives offer for the institution’s commercial needs.
I Want To Experience uses immersive virtual reality to take users into the intimate worlds of explorers, innovators, curators and artists. It enables passionate experts to take viewers behind the scenes, and share their insights and stories. I Want To Experience provides an avenue through which cultural institutions can unlock their human treasures, reach geographically unbound audiences and deepen the learning experience for their visitors.
The team have backgrounds in creating content for blockbuster Hollywood films at Weta Digital. Now, with the release of consumer-oriented virtual reality technology, the team are perfectly positioned to pioneer a new genre of information interchange.
Morph (By ContinUX) provides data analytics for the GLAM sector. Like some other data analytics services, Morph provides actionable insights for decision-makers but its point of different is the focus on individual visitor behaviour.
Morph gathers data from multiple sources within the institution and online to create a picture of each individual visitor – where they go, what they do, and how they engage. From these multiple visitor interactions, AI tools are used to generate real time visitor insights and predictions. Morph’s customers can use these insights and predictions to deliver tailored exhibitions, targeted offers, and personalised visitor experiences.
The ContinUX team have background in software development, UX design and culture and heritage sector expertise.
ScimitAR is a team of creatives, educators and game developers who are passionate about making fun, interactive and educational experiences. Through customised augmented reality and gamified experiences, the team aim to enable institutions to expand the demographics of their visitors.
By bridging the gap between the digital natives of newer generations and the content of GLAM sector institutions, these new visitors can immerse themselves in fun and engaging ways. Their vision is to connect the generations of tomorrow with the stories of today.
SimplyFi are a family team of three dedicated to two things: simplicity and sharing. They are developing an application that will help artists, private collectors and everyone in between to simply and securely catalogue their collections. Whether it is a piece of art, respected taonga or even a heritage trophy, users can simply catalogue these items and the stories that accompany them.
Tiered access will offer users the option to share their stories with others such as galleries and museums who are hungry to showcase more content to their respective communities. SimplyFi believe that stories hidden are stories lost. Their application will be the digital handshake that connects the citizens of today with generations of tomorrow.
Tide Talk is run by two Auckland based women of Pacific heritage. Their intuitive, customisable language learning tool will help preserve the languages of Oceania, and endangered languages around the world.
The app uses technology to break down barriers to learning. It features customizable lessons, an immersive environment to grow new language skills and gamified progress, rewarded with gems of cultural knowledge that really brings the languages to life.
Vaka Interactiv is a Pasifika and Māori team from Auckland who create impactful communication through technology. With their current focus on the museum sector, they are developing interactive digital portraits that allow museum visitors to engage in conversation with cultural figures. The dialogue with digital portrait characters will enable museum visitors to experience ethnocultural empathy, meaning they will be able to see and understand another culture from that culture’s perspective.
About Mahuki
In 2016, Te Papa invested around $1 million to establish Mahuki.
An investment of $740,000 has been made for the 2017 programme, which supported up to 36 entrepreneurs across eight teams while they work, and helping them access international networks when their innovations are market-ready. This includes a $20,000 payment to each team (for up to ten teams) to enable them to solely focus on the programme and ensure diversity of participants.
In June, Callaghan Innovation awarded Mahuki with $250,000 funding. Mahuki is also supported by Deloitte and Morrison Kent.
Te Papa has an option to exercise equity of 6% in the teams. The equity stake will ensure that Te Papa benefits from successful innovations, whether or not they end up being used on the museum’s floors. It will also contribute to the sustainability of Mahuki.
Successful innovations may be taken up by Te Papa and the New Zealand cultural sector, and exported globally.
Mahuki can be translated as "perceptive" and relates to ideas that spring to the mind, and to the wellspring of inspiration.