Broken Egg Lab

Built in conversation with museums

Our lab is where we develop new tools for cultural institutions, together with the people who will use them.

We spend a lot of our time talking to museums, heritage sites, universities and other cultural institutions. Directors, curators, digital leads, educators. Every project, workshop and pilot teaches us something about what they need and what gets in their way.

The lab is where we turn those conversations into something new. We don't start from a technology and look for a use. We start from what institutions tell us, build small, test it with them, and only keep going when it works in a real gallery.

What we keep hearing

These are the questions that come up again and again in our conversations with cultural institutions. They shape what we build.

  • "Every visitor gets the same wall text." Visitors are used to experiences that adapt to them. Most museums still tell the same story to a child, a specialist and a tourist.
  • "We don't really know what visitors find interesting." Most museums know how many people came in, but not which works held their attention or where it dropped.
  • "There's money to launch, but not to maintain." Funding often covers the launch and leaves little for aftercare, so good projects fade.
  • "We want AI, but on our terms." Institutions want AI that is clearly labelled, sticks to their own sources and admits when it doesn't know.
  • "Who owns this, and where does it live?" Museums want to keep ownership of their content and data, and to know where it is stored.

How we work

  1. Listen. We start with the institution's visitors, collection and team, not with a product.
  2. Try it small. A workshop or a quick prototype shows whether an idea is worth more time.
  3. Test it with museums. Pilot partners use it with real visitors and tell us what to change.
  4. Grow what works. The ideas that prove themselves become products other institutions can use.

What we're working on

  • Metaseum (In development)
    Spoken conversations with historical figures, on a museum totem or the visitor's own phone.
  • Living Paintings (Early research)
    Exploring new ways to look at paintings, in front of the original.
  • Museums & Gaming Connected (Event)
    Studententeams ontwerpen Roblox-ervaringen voor echte musea, in één week in oktober.

Shape what we build next

Have a question your institution keeps running into? We'd like to hear it. Many of our projects started with a conversation like that.

Let's talk