Technology is changing museums inside and out: from collections to marketing to exhibitions, from research to community engagement and security. Nothing of the traditional museum has been untouched and the change is still underway. The industry regularly offers new opportunities, the audiences have fresh expectations, and museum professionals do their best to adopt and adapt. This massive iterative process to bring museums into the 21st century is redefining what a museum is and, perhaps, what it should be.

All of us, one way or another, are participating in the real-time transformation of the museum enterprise as makers, users, and consumers. Disruption, innovation, and transformation is the accepted lexicon of the last few decades. After a time of experimentation and investment in technology pursued to discover and build the museum(s) of the future, we now should ask— Are we making better experiences, better civic amenities, better institutions to serve and help our communities?

The Future Museum Media Innovation Studio (FMMIS) explores these transformative cultural questions through public discussions, creative experiments with new technologies, and academic research.  FMMIS is a research center within the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. FMMIS was founded in 2021 through a grant from the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. Since its inception, FMMIS has hosted international symposia; multiple master classes, workshops and guest lectures by industry professionals from around the world; and produced new technology solutions and media experiences working in collaboration with museums and collections.

FMMIS is always seeking new partnerships and collaborations with important collections and museums—especially in Shanghai.

To better understand FMMIS, please review our past and present projects on the center’s website, fmmis.org.  Following is an introduction to some of the key activities and concepts of FMMIS, presented as a talk for the China International Fair for Trade in Services 2021 in Beijing.