Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum : Engaging Visitors Emotionally
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This is a repository copy of Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum : Engaging Visitors Emotionally. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/131276/ Version: Accepted Version Proceedings Paper: Perry, Sara Elizabeth orcid.org/0000-0002-9694-000X, Roussou, Maria, Economou, Maria et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum : Engaging Visitors Emotionally. In: 23rd International Conference on Virtual Systems & Multimedia (VSMM), Dublin, 2017, pp. 1-8. IEEE , pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1109/VSMM.2017.8346276 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. 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[email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum: Engaging Visitors Emotionally Sara Perry Maria Economou, Hilary Young Department of Archaeology Information Studies & Hunterian Museum University of York University of Glasgow York, UK Glasgow, UK [email protected] maria.economou | [email protected] Maria Roussou Laia Pujol Department of Informatics and Telecommunications Department of Archaeology National and Kapodistrian University of Athens University of York Athens, Greece York, UK [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—In this paper, we firstly critique the state of the art co-creation [5], in social and activist and decolonizing on Virtual Museums (VM) in an effort to expose the many methodologies [e.g., 6], and in challenging the supremacy of opportunities available to enroll these spaces into transformative the object and physical collections. Recent studies show that and engaging cultural experiences. We then outline our attempts online museum collections are among the least popular features to stretch beyond the usual VM in order to connect it to visitors in of a museum website [7, 8]. Moreover, despite their radical a measurably emotional, participatory, interactive and social potential, VMs arguably privilege traditional didactic fashion. We discuss the foundations for a conceptual framework educational objectives [9]; they take little, if any, account of for the creation of VMs, grounded in a user-centered design repeat visitors or group visitation; and they may ignore the methodology and related design and evaluation guidelines. We significance of both the visitor agenda (after [10]) and the pre- then introduce two main cultural heritage sites, which are used as and post-visit user experience. In this sense, they could be case studies at the core of our efforts, and conclude by describing viewed as still rather immature cultural constructs, while their the many challenges they bring for pushing the boundaries on the relevance and resonance for everyday visitors can be debatable. human-felt impact of the virtual museum. To date, the majority of self-described VMs have primarily Keywords— virtual museum; emotive storytelling; user-centered foregrounded the delivery of informational content, solitary design methodology visitor engagement, limited (mostly navigational and hot-spot based) interactivity, and the rather conventional curation of I. INTRODUCTION digital content. There are some innovative recent examples The concept and components of Virtual Museums (VM), which diverge from this model (e.g., [11, 12]) but these even though they may not have been coined this way in the past, exceptions tend to confirm the general rule. In some of these have a relatively long history. Nearly 90 years ago, Kiesler [1] examples, we can see experimentation with the foundations of more affective and engaging encounters with virtual museums, described the possibilities of the ‘telemuseum’ in terms not dissimilar to the VM of today. Since its later definition as a real including storytelling, personalization, adaptation and social museum represented in a digital form [2], the Virtual Museum media connectivity [13], yet there is more work to be done in has grown to become an all-encompassing term, referring to all this direction if the VM is to realize its rich potential. types of digital representations of both digitized physical The four-year European Commission-funded V-Must objects and born-digital ones that can be related to the physical project (Virtual Museum Transnational Network, 2011-2015) objects [3]. To date, most VMs offer object-centered online carried out significant work capturing and recording the various exhibitions using primarily images and text, but also three VM projects around Europe and beyond [14]. As a result, it dimensional reconstructions of entire archaeological or heritage proposed a general framework, based on the concept of the i sites . In many cases, their representations of artworks and sites “responsive museum” [15], which captured the general aim of are of very high-resolutionii. museums as participative nodes of communication built around Nevertheless, over the past 20 years, while technological collections. The framework provided some guidelines for possibilities have progressed and understanding of museum implementation, such as interactivity, personal experience, rich visitor needs and expectations have diversified, developments, content, narratives, and coherent display of exhibits, but it did at least conceptually, in the VM sector have stood not delve deeper to elaborate on the problem of the comparatively still. Despite their endurance and promise, interpretative approach of VMs. This lack of engagement with virtual museums seem generally to have escaped complex the interpretative content underpinning VMs has largely engagement with recent museological theory and practice, for hindered their impact and development. Here we explore the example the growing interest in participatory models [4] and issues in greater detail in relation to VMs produced for cultural space may also be a digital representation of a real locationxvi heritage sites. xvii xviii or even a representation of imaginary physical spaces which look and operate as real museums, yet where no physical In this paper, we firstly critique the state of the art on virtual museum existsxix xx. Interactive capabilities in VMs of this type museums in an effort to expose the many opportunities are usually limited to navigation and the selection of ‘hotspots’. available to enroll these spaces in transformative and engaging Some VMs add features that provide a relative sense of visitor cultural experiences. We then outline our attempts to stretch personalization, control and sharing, e.g. the ability to compare beyond the usual VM in order to connect it to visitors in a and add to one’s collectionxxi xxii, or to even add high resolution measurably emotional, participatory, interactive and social images of whole artefacts or their details and later use them for fashion. To do this we have drawn current museological theory customized printouts to share on social mediaxxiii. An early and practice together, integrating these with diverse digital approach to personalization was Walker Art Center’s “Through innovations, creating meaningful experiences for both your eyes”, presenting the views of the collections by specific individuals and groups in on-site, off-site and hybrid visitors. (simultaneously on-site and off-site) environments, as well as in synchronous and asynchronous situations. We offer a The advent of mobile technologies has resulted in an glimpse at an emerging conceptual framework for the creation explosion of mobile multimedia guides, mostly used for on-site of VMs, grounded in a user-centered design methodology and guided toursxxiv [19]. Such guides are object-centered audio related design and evaluation guidelines. We introduce two descriptions (commentaries) by a friendly yet authoritative main cultural heritage sites which are used as case studies at the voice, providing a visual exploration of objects, and, in more core of our efforts – a remote prehistoric site in western Asia recent examples, a basic personalization approach (e.g., "time", and a city-center based exhibition of a Roman site in a European "language", "interest", with the latter allowing the creation of a museum – and describe the many challenges they bring for digital souvenir). In some cases, due primarily to the nature of pushing the boundaries on the human-felt impact of the virtual the cultural content, there are mobile guides with more story- museum. We then describe our user-centered agile design like descriptions, e.g., the collection of audios by the Anne process, reflecting on the unique means we have adopted, such Frank Museumxxv xxvi, for use by the large number of visitors as “group personas” [16, 17, 18], for defining collaborative and queuing outside the museum waiting to enter. In one example affective user experiences delivered through different the mobile guide is also used for data collection in order to technologies, at different times, in different places. Finally, we personalize both the onsite as well as the post-visit put forward preliminary evaluation