The inevitable question I'm asked when I come back from a place and tell somebody how many museums I visited there is ‘Which one was the best’, this is then frequently followed by ‘Which one is the worst’.
I should start by stating that I'm terrible at judging anything as ‘the best’ or even as ‘my favourite’. This is largely because when attempting to make any kind of assessment there are so many different dimensions on which it could be rated. How can you reasonably compare a two room specialised museum to a national collection?
The worst, counter intuitively, is often rather easier to define. It feels almost wrong to use a subjective feeling to determine the best of something. But the worst is a visceral reaction, boredom, disappointment, or perhaps even disgust. So then, a consideration.
The Best - Berlin Samurai Museum
Berlin is perhaps not the place you’d expect to find a museum about Samurai, nor would you expect it to be the best in the whole city. And yet, the Berlin Samurai Museum was an absolute treat from start to end.
The display of the collection itself is excellent. Wonderful pieces artfully displayed in uncluttered, well lit cases that have simple yet effective labels and displays that let you know what they are. The use of screens also allows you to pull up further information on any particular piece that takes your interest.
Many of the pieces are also put into evocative mannequin displays which come with their own little lighting and sound displays to really help build up the atmosphere as a light soundtrack of period appropriate music plays across the whole venue.
One of the Museum’s Mannequin Displays (Image from Berlin Samurai Museum)
The exhibit components themselves are also well done. An opening section gives an introduction to the life of a samurai as well as a potted history of Japan during the period which is displayed against a blank map which is projected onto with splashes of light display. The upstairs exhibits on building practices and sword forging also offer a few hands-on activities and custom pieces which really enhance the feeling for the collection.
This is a modern museum in peak form, offering clear narratives, opportunity for exploration and a variety of different display types to break things up. Where the Samurai Museum Berlin really sets itself apart however is with the children's tour and its theatre.
Your Guide, Kitsune
Children (or adults like me, who act like children) can custom colour their very own fox creature called a Kistune. This character then becomes a symbol for children for things that they can interact with that are appropriate for them. In my time there I saw children hunting to find this mysterious hidden figure which they could then interact with on some of the screens where their custom Kitsune would give out a bit of information before growing a new tail.
The Museums Explanatory Light Show (Image from Berlin Samurai Museum)
The appeal here is obvious, you have your very own personal guide who you are helping out and levelling up. It’s a way of keeping children engaged and being able to differentiate what’s for them whilst still giving it a bit of whimsy and charm.
I think you could at the end get a printout of your Kitsune at the gift shop and if they haven't figured out a way to get a quick painted toy version yet then boy do I have a business opportunity for them.
The Theatre
The centrepiece of the whole exhibit is the commanding theatre at the far end of the main hall. It’s visible as soon as you walk in and can cleverly be glimpsed at almost any position. Every half hour the background music fades out and the lights dim, then you’re treated to a show.
I couldn’t fully work out exactly how the technology functioned but the stage seemed to be covered by a series of see through sheets that allowed a projection onto them. This allowed a kind of 3D looking projection onto the stage that was far more effective than a normal screen.
The Museum’s Theatre with Showing Taiko Drum Performance (Image from Berlin Samurai Museum)
The museum remains explorable whilst the show plays but it's hard not to stop and watch as one of a rotation of shows such as a Taiko Drum performance or a traditional Noh play goes on. The whole museum seemingly holding its breath to watch really heightens the feeling of it being an event and pulls you in with a much greater immersion. These are short enough to not grow dull and there’s enough variety that unless you stayed for a particularly long visit there would be no repeats. I imagine instead it’s much more likely to make you hang on to catch a final performance before you head for the exit.
Upstairs offers a similar setup of a tearoom, though this runs on a far more traditional loop. The website promised that both of these stages are used for real events from time to time with various levels of audience participation though I was not around for any of these.
Nothing New, But Everything There
The Berlin Samurai Museum offers nothing that you won’t find elsewhere. The theatre, whilst interesting, is not some revolutionary new technology and the displays are to some extent rather old hat at this point. However, the fact remains that it just does everything amazingly well.
In many ways the collection itself is rather limited. Apart from the artworks it is made almost entirely of samurai armour suits and swords. Whilst beautifully made one and all there are only so many you can look at before your eyes begin to glaze over. That is why the use of the uncluttered cases, clear themes, and even the only slightly uncanny mannequins are so important in keeping things fresh across the entire visit.
Importantly the museum allows you to engage with it on your own terms. Regardless of if you want to simply wander through, glancing at the cabinets or spend hours delving into the high resolution scans and absorbing all of the extended descriptions the museum provides an entertaining and informative experience.
The Worst - Cold War Museum
Like any city Berlin is not in want of terrible museums. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum whilst well located and has plenty of interesting artefacts but the walls being covered in a barrage of text make it overwhelming and quickly uninteresting. The Museum of Musical Instruments was a silent mausoleum with only occasional half-broken headphones, and when I did use the one exhibit that asked me to press a cut away piano key to see how it works I was almost chased out by a guard.
Image of some of the wall displays showing the huge amount of text. (Image from Le Chic En Rose)
The dubious honour however must go to the Cold War Museum. Billing itself as a brand new experience, a “modern high-tech museum of the latest generation”. The marketing and website were flashy, promising the interesting idea of experiencing ‘Two Sides of the Same Story’ with a heavy blue vs red motif and lots of modern technology. Being positioned just down the main road from the Brandenburg gate this was clearly a place with significant money and clout behind it. I love new ideas and tech integration so I was excited.
Upon entering the place looked great. Some great theming with the graffitied wall and some stark red and blue lighting mixed well with the display screens showing evocative images of the cold war along with pithy snatches of text.
The inside of the museum looked undeniably amazing (Image from Ilya Ivanov)
That however was where the problem lay. The style left little room for substance and whilst the grainy footage of rocket launches and marching crowds might have looked good there was almost no explanation of what it was I was looking at. Was it a soviet march for or against its premiership? Was that a US Rocket launch? And was it military or spacefaring?
There were few focal points within the museum. Only a handful of display cases with a scattering of objects such as magazines, space suits, or toy tanks. However, these were almost entirely without labels. The key was to use the app.
The App
Actually it wasn’t an app so much as accessing the museums specialist website through QR codes posted next to the various exhibits. No need for limited labels, it seemed to say, our website offers all of the languages you could want as well as varying levels of detail and interactive components to help you understand the exhibits. Duly then, I connected to the free Wi-Fi and loaded up the website. As might not surprise you, it did not work.
It was possible to load up the online version of a label (several lines of basic explanatory text) along with a picture after an excruciating wait but all functionality beyond that was hopeless. The videos failed to play, the interactive parts simply broke, and the website stubbornly refused to believe that I didn’t want to see it in German.
I tried switching to mobile data and checked with a couple other of the visitors but it seemed the issue really was the website it was using. The place was pretty quiet with no more than 10 other people in (it was midday on a Tuesday in March after all) so it wasn’t something like the servers being overloaded. The tech just didn’t work.
Image of one of the few actual artefacts of USSR Space Suits (Image from Cold War Museum)
This is not to say I think it would have added much. Scrolling through some interesting cold war facts and videos is something I could do a lot more comfortably at home. It also fails to capture what I believe is the greatest strength of a museum in the modern age, its sense of space.
So ultimately I was left to wander a very large, near empty but well decorated space learning nothing in particular. In fact I would go so far as to say that if you went into the museum not knowing what the cold war was then you would leave in pretty much the same condition, even if you did get the website working.
The museum clearly realised this too as when I bought my ticket the lady on the desk asked me how much I knew about the cold war. Struck with indecision on how to answer (very little, but probably more than the average visitor) she took that as an answer in itself and gave a well polished 5 minute primer, the was the most informative part of the entire experience.
VR Experience
Charmed by the look of the place I also accepted the several euro upsell to the VR Experience at the door. This was a corner of the museum that had several VR headsets and an employee who gave a quick introduction to VR and popped the headset on you and set it running.
I love VR, I own a headset myself and have enjoyed playing a number of games and experiences (including museum experiences). But I'm quite dubious as to its use. For me at least the novelty has worn off and it takes more than a shiny headset to impress, and often that’s all they offer.
Image of People Trying out the VR Experience (Image from Cold War Museum)
The experience here was based around the iconic photograph ‘Leap Into Freedom’ of the East German border guard Konrad Schumann jumping over barbed wire to defect to West German as the Berlin Wall was being constructed.
The story played out several times from the viewpoint of Schumann himself but also that of a protester, and a lady talking to her mother across the barrier and more. When in their head you heard their thoughts about what was happening. It’s an interesting idea and taking in multiple viewpoints added to the story. However, seeing the same events on repeat viewings quickly grew dull as you waited for the snippets of new information, and the VR video itself was janky at best. It was an interesting and commendable experiment which I would be interested to see how it was broadly received by those perhaps a little less jaded on the promise of VR than me.
Leap Into Freedom - 1961 (Image by Peter Leibing)
A Conclusion of Sorts
Ultimately the museum was a beautiful but empty room, both physically and spiritually. Here aesthetics (which I usually trumpet) had replaced any substance and be it through technological failures or lack or real consideration of what the promise even meant there was little on offer.
What makes this the worst museum was that it had such promise. There were clearly ideas here, and enough money and talent to make them work. I don’t know what went wrong, if it was a lack of practical experience, pressured deadlines, or behind the scenes messing but something went wrong and the museum failed to deliver even a basic experience, let alone a next generation one.
In putting together my recollections of this museum I am sad to report that it seems to have closed after less than two years of operation, likely through commercial failure. It is a shame as this will no doubt have turned off a number of funders and designers from trying something new. But sometimes failure is inevitable, and the best thing we can do is learn from it.
Two Side of the Same Coin
Rather pleasingly the best and worst museums (in my 100% accurate opinion) in Berlin are something of a mirror of each other. Offering expensive and technology backed approaches to try and engage an audience within a traditional setting with a modern take.
The difference is simple. The Samurai museum did it well, where the cold war museum did not. The cold war museum relied on the technology to the exclusion of traditional museum ideas which meant that when the technology failed it became largely useless. Moreover even had the technology functioned it still relied on aesthetic and style instead of artefacts or any meaningful storytelling. The Samurai museum used technology to enhance its collection and offer variety to a visitor.
If there is perhaps some grand lesson to take from this I would say that it’s this. Don’t be blinded by the latest buzzwords and techno promises, focus on the fundamentals and use everything to enhance your core experience.
