Immersive Content
Femke Bijlsma | Kossmanndejong
Surveying the effects of Engaging Spaces.
Creating engaging narrative spaces is the specialization of design firm Kossmanndejong. Femke Bijlsma, partner and content director at Kossmanndejong, is one of the designers of immersive experiences for museums and other clients all over the world. Each experience is developed to bring across and engage visitors with a specific content or story.
But how can exhibition designers know if what they envisioned actually works? Femke Bijlsma will explain at the hand of a few case-studies what survey methods they use to test visitor engagement, both during the conceptualizing phase and after completion.
The Museum of the Mind (Haarlem, The Netherlands) had formulated as its mission to contribute to a more inclusive society. Therefore, they were eager to involve a wide range of visitors as sounding board /testing panel for the envisioned exhibition. Using examples like the audio-tours and interactives that were developed in this context, Femke will talk about how their success is being measured.
The other example she presents will be We the Curious, a Science Museum (Bristol, United Kingdom). This museum specifically wants to attract young people from the local community. Before the museum developed the contents of the new permanent exhibition, they asked local school children what questions they would like to see answered in the museum. This resulted in a surprisingly rich range of questions which Kossmanndejong together with the museum’s science team used as the basis for content development and spatial interpretation.
Before joining Kossmanndejong, Femke Bijlsma worked as an architect in Japan, wrote about art for an Italian newspaper, designed interactive art installations, founded an organization for refugees in the creative industry and set up a climate change class at the Rietveld academy. As a content specialist, this broad background helps her to create increasingly rich multi-dimensional and meaningful experiences. She specializes in strategic and creative thinking, connecting people, facilitating discussions and translating them into fascinating and refreshing substantive experiences. Recently she has worked on the new permanent exhibition for Museum Sophiahof (The Hague, The Netherlands), 'Our Colonial Heritage' at the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), the UAE Pavilion for the World Expo 2020 (Dubai, UAE) and the Museum of the Mind (Haarlem, Netherlands).
