For research I looked into technologies in art galleries and what already exists to see the potential of my idea, and how certain galleries use technology to engage visitors actively in new kinds of experiences with works of art.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The first example I came across was The Cleveland Museum of Art, it has the ground-breaking Gallery One, an interactive art gallery that opened in 2012, Gallery One draws from extensive audience research and grows out of a major building and renovation project. It is a 13,000-square-foot space where art and technology provide a environment for visitor exploration with the aim of the program to help people interpret art and help visitor outreach, Gallery One’s innovative blend of art and technology invites visitors to connect actively with the art on view through exploration and creativity. Designed for visitors of all ages, both novice and seasoned, the technology interfaces inspire visitors to see art with greater depth and understanding, sparking experiences across the spectrum from close looking to active making and sharing.
The main use of technology used are Multi-touch screens embedded in the gallery space which invite close examination of the objects on view. Placed 14 feet in front of the groupings of art objects, the screens offer interpretation and digital investigation of the art. Each artwork in the installation is interpreted through storytelling hotspots with opportunities to explore artworks visually through magnification and rotation, and to discover their original context and location. Each interface has a series of games that invite visitors to engage with the art on view through questions and experiences. The use of games engages a younger audience which I like, and what is even better is the games are about art. Rarely ever will someone play a game that involves art so the gallery has a unique touch in that sense.
For example, one of the art installations that visitors encounter is titled “How Do Our Bodies Inspire Art? . The game is an installation that encourages visitors to connect actively with the collection and see themselves in the art on view. “Strike a Pose” invites visitors to explore sculpture by asking them to match the pose of a sculpture they see on the screen. A motion sensor records their pose, and the interactive determines how closely the visitor has approached the artist’s sculpted body.
Pointilize yourself
Pointillize Yourself, allows visitors at the The Indianapolis Museum of Art to use the interface on an iPad to take a selfie then apply a pointillist filter, select small, medium, or large dots; adjust tint, temperature, and saturation; add a digital signature and then share the finished portrait via social media.The app created was made available on two iPad kiosks installed in one of the exhibition galleries. The completed self-portraits were also projected outside the exhibition; visitors were often observed waiting to see their photo appear or taking photos of themselves standing in front of their self-portrait. This is a great example of how visitors can engage with the exhibitions in a fun way but lacks in education because it gives the visitor a wrong impression of how pointlist art works. The graph below shows the age group of users of the app, I was surprised to see that 55-64 year olds used it the most but this is maybe down to the overall audience of the museum. Yet this proves that an older audience does engage with technology.
The British Museum has forged an ongoing partnership with electronics giant Samsung and in November 2013, the museum trialled the first fruit of this collaboration: a new in-gallery app called ‘A Gift for Athena’, designed to help 7–11 year-olds engage with the museum’s Parthenon gallery. Children were given tablets pre-loaded with the app, which used image recognition of objects to bring up a virtual layer of games and facts about each. The Science Museum made a similar move with its app ‘Science Stories’, which uses an AR avatar of Top Gear presenter James May to act as one’s palm-sized personal guide through the Making the Modern World gallery. It’s not just younger visitors who enjoy exploring collections with technology, though. For example, the San Francisco Exploratorium ran a series of adult only late night openings where galleries transformed into a AR playground and allowed attendees to become part of the art being stalked by Dali’s giant ants or having a Magritte style apple head super-imposed on their own.
During research I found an article that talks about how technology can save and improve the museum experience and the part I found most relevant and interesting was what future innovations could solve these problems. "I think it’s dangerous to assume the best starting point is technology. It’s people: some of the most enduring, compelling innovations come from looking at what people want, and at their latent needs. Of course there are exceptions to the rule (the folks at Apple and Ikea, for example, don’t waste their time on user-centric design) but museums, as social institutions, really need to think about people first." This response is from Kati Price who strongly believes that many of the problems museums encounter is down to neglecting fundamentals such as what the visitor really wants.
Other questions from the article include 'What do you think museums of the future will be like?'
"There’s so much interesting research in this area in this area and reports like TrendsWatch do a far better job than me of summarising key trends for museums. But we’re all thinking about the Internet of Things and how that might open up new possibilities in museums."
"Museums of the future will also be social institutions (if they’re not already), more collaborative, more focused on engagement than presentation, and developing online (as well as physical) experiences. To do that well, we’ll need to have got our head around big data but perhaps we should focus more on small data or just using data better, to create truly personalised experiences for our visitors."
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