Getting from A to B to C-ollaborative Innovative Design Utopia at the Museum?

The paper focuses on boundary crossing collaboration for developing digital communication technology as a means to innovate the museum experience. A qualitative longitudinal case study of the collaboration between an art museum and a digital design company in Denmark is presented.
Diversity is conceptualized as key in the process under study, as the promoter of creative and innovative outcomes. It is argued that the acceptance of and dialogue between contrasting positions has an essential role in extending the scope of group creativity. To show this, a cartographic micro-analytical approach called a ‘temporal positional map’ is developed. In this analytical framework, the focus is not on persons and outcomes as such, but on the lives of positions. It thereby serves as a tool to get a deeper understanding of some of the magical complexity of the role of diversity in collaborative processes.
The paper concludes with a discussion on whether we can determine if boundary crossing collaborations result in new or renewed products and service offerings. Is it possible to link the process and outcome as such, or is this link a troublesome utopia?