Studio Olafur Eliasson
CMS, Information Architecture, Migration, Integration, Development
Creating innovative collections management solutions for renowned artist studio
Studio Olafur Eliasson was founded in 1995 by artist Olafur Eliasson. Based in Berlin, the studio currently comprises around 100 people working closely with the artist, engaging in experiments; designing and producing artworks, exhibitions, and architectural projects; and communicating Eliasson's work. Keepthinking helped the team develop a plan to using Qi, our Collections Management System (CMS).
The Studio Olafur Eliasson team were on the lookout for a trifold solution that would suit their bespoke requirements: a financial system, production and archiving database. Qi seemed like the perfect solution, due to its flexibility and adaptability, being able to be tailored to each client’s specific needs.
Our Approach
We created a configuration of Qi that allows an unlimited number of users to access the studio’s databases at the same time, holds the internal financial system, archive and library, as well as the current artworks in production. We worked in close collaboration with the Studio team, receiving input from the different departments that would use Qi, in order to analyse the database structure and define specifications based on it. Once the structure was agreed, we reviewed the requirements and proposed a custom Qi configuration.
The following stages were was divided into 4 phases, starting with providing the team a Qi copy to test the configuration without any data, to allow refining of the structure and functionality. Phase 2 included migrating the data from the Studio’s existing databases into Qi, followed by Phase 3 in which we fine-tuned the configuration further. The final phase before the whole studio could use Qi was data cleaning. We also assisted the team with extracting data from Qi to their website. The custom implementation of Qi to manage the Studio Olafur Eliasson archives, collections and artworks has proven a great tool to support the team in the running of the studio, as well as providing a central place in which all information about both art pieces, library books and editions can be stored and consulted.
