CODE | WORDS: Technology and Theory in the Museum

CODE | WORDS Technology and Theory in the Museum brings together leading museum thinkers and practitioners to explore emerging issues about the nature of museums in the light of the dramatic and ongoing impact of digital technologies.

The authors aim to inspire change, and to demonstrate the important relationship between emerging digital practices and museum theory.

A proportion of the initial sales of CODE | WORDS went to support the Museum Computer Network Scholarship Fund.

Check out some of the nice things smart people have said about the book:

Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer, Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The CODE | WORDS experiment contains some of the most exciting, important and wide-ranging thinking about museums and their global role that has happened this century. This groundbreaking book is a refreshingly clear-headed collection of stories rooted in some of the most interesting work being done in the field today.

Nina Simon, Executive Director, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, author of The Participatory Museum:
CODE | WORDS resembles the jumbled digital landscape it surveys; an interlocking series of essays, anchored in case studies around the world, linking strategy, technology, and psychology. Like the future, it is experimental, uncertain, and brilliant.

Jim Richardson, Founder, MuseumNext:
CODE | WORDS brings together exciting new ideas and challenging thought leadership from some of the most interesting museum innovators of our time.

Tony Butler, Executive Director, Derby Museums Trust:
At last a book which brings together technological and social innovation in museums. Some welcome ideas which see collaboration and connectivity as cornerstones to address global challenges of inequity and climate change.

John Reeve, Institute of Education, University of London:
This is a refreshing new approach to the interface of technologies, museums and especially younger museum professionals. I will be recommending it to my MA students who come to London from all over the world to prepare for a career in museums, galleries and heritage.

Jane Finnis, Chief Executive, Culture24:
Daring, intelligent and provocative, an absolute must for all forward-thinking museums.

Laurent Gaveau, Director, The Lab, Google Cultural Institute:
CODE | WORDS is an engaging and timely exploration of contemporary issues that face museums around the globe; how to engage with digital technologies and the changes they make possible.

My essay The Virtues of Promiscuity, originally posted on the CODE | WORDS Medium site, was revised for inclusion in the book.

Citation: Rodley, E. (2013). The Virtues of Promiscuity. In Ed Rodley, R. Stein, & S. Cairns (Eds.), CODE | WORDS: Technology & Theory in the Museum. https://medium.com/code-words-technology-and-theory-in-the-museum/the-virtues-of-promiscuity-cb89342ca038

Rodley, E. (2014). The Virtues of Promiscuity v2. In Ed Rodley, R. Stein, & S. Cairns (Eds.), CODE | WORDS: Technology & Theory in the Museum (pp. 1–21). London: MuseumsEtc.