Enchanted teleidoscopes : multimodal interfaces reframing experience in the museum

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.A teleidoscope is a form of kaleidoscope that has a lens and an open view. It is used to form kaleidoscopic patterns from objects outside the instrument itself. I use the image of a teleidoscope to introduce the context of the research which explores mediatised environments in museums, here referred to as ‘multimodal interfaces’ given their potential to reflect and refract ‘objects’ from the outer world and to translate them within the time and space of the museum. Objects, in this context, comprise the tangible legacy of physical artefacts, artworks, material records, cultural objects, buildings and landscapes, and the intangible heritage of oral histories, customs, and knowledge that was inherited from past generations and held for the benefit of future generations. Technology is transforming all aspects of museum activity, from access, to interpretation, representation, engagement and learning. Museums, heritage sites and landscapes can all be looked as part of an electronic ecology, that is, the pervasive and networked technological world in which we are immersed. Exploring ‘experience’ as a new territory for curatorial design, the research argues for an ‘ecological’ approach to the artistry of experience-making in museums and the devising of integrative strategies that enable encounter, intimacy and embodied interactions between people, places, memory, cultural objects and the things we preserve from the past. Opening up a discussion around experiential approaches to the interpretation of cultural heritage and its inherent ambiguities and paradoxes, questions are posed regarding the opportunities of digital technologies for embodied engagement as a new way of knowing about the world, the ‘other’, memory and ourselves. Participating in the current discourse on the inclusive role of the multimedia museum in a multicultural society, the research poses questions on how curatorial design practices can develop an integrative approach combining spatial design and digital mediation in order to create a zone of contact between cultures and histories that is both responsive to interaction and open to participation. The research case studies explore from a critical perspective the strategies adopted by designers and curators to mediate difference and facilitate intimacy with contested topics and representation of marginal and counter-histories. The studies comprise both critical analysis of existing exhibitions in various museums, as well as original creative works developed by myself as a curator and designer. The research practices offer an experimental ground where to critically explore and reflect on the possibilities of the mediation of curatorial design in negotiating experience and (re)constructing the past, thus extending the notion of the museum beyond exhibition spaces to comprise landscapes, objects, digital spaces as well as physical bodies

Museo narrante: the Foce Sele Hera sanctuary virtual museum

The communication of one century of archaeological research at the Foce Sele Hera Sanctuary has been the main reason for the creation of a new virtual museum, for which a name that represents a museological approach, “Museo Narrante”, i.e. the Museum that tells stories has been chosen. The museum is conceived as a museum without objects, interactive, multi-sensorial, and multi-medial. Its main issues are: i. minor sites valorization; ii. museums as territorial communication networks; iii. levels of reliability; iv. multiple interpretation. The overall intent is to give viewers evidence and argument instead of a prepackaged explanation. This paper shows how this concept guided the whole exhibition, with the realization of different tools to present to the public the stories of the Foce Sele Hera Sanctuary and the archaeological investigation of the area in a new way

Black Artists and Activism: Harlem on My Mind, 1969

At the end of the Civil Rights Movement, the Metropolitan Museum of Art organized Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900–1968, an exhibition that sought to explore the history and value of the predominantly Black community of Harlem, New York. In organizing one of the most controversial exhibitions in United States history, the Metropolitan decided to exclude Harlemites from participating in the exhibition planning and to exclude artwork by Harlem’s thriving artist community from the exhibition. The museum justified this decision by arguing the Harlem itself was a work of art and the inclusion of artworks in Harlem on My Mind would only detract from the overall exhibition. Public unrest led to boycotts of the exhibition before it even opened. This article details the struggles of Harlem-based artists to confront and challenge the unethical machinations of the institutional epicenter of the postwar international art world. This discussion addresses the critical appropriations of the event forged by black visual artists, photographers, and visitors who brought a competing set of political and emotional investments in the documentary works on display. It also demonstrates that the surge of Black activism spurred by the Harlem on My Mind controversy eventually pushed mainstream art institutions to feature black art exhibitions and launch community-based initiatives in support of black talents. The response of Black visual artists to the exhibition was an important part of the nascent Black Arts Movement’s development of an institutional infrastructure necessary to nourish Black art production and exhibition, and to redefine the political and aesthetic dynamics of the moment

Three Dimensional Cartography for a Theater Production

This report documents the planning, design, and implementation of the Three Dimensional Cartography for a Theater Production project. This project’s client was Professor Chris Beach, a professor of Theater Arts at the University of Redlands. Professor Beach was interested in implementing 3D cartographic geovisualizations into a theater production he was co-writing. These geovisualizations were meant to be presented alongside actors on stage to a live audience. The datasets visualized include antique USGS topographic maps, National Park Service maps, orthographic photos and prehistoric petroglyphic cartographic representations. The process of implementing this project involved gathering raw data from internet sources, formatting them so they could be utilized on a 3D platform, and exporting animation tracks created from the data as videos. This project used ArcGIS software to create dynamic 3D cartographic representations that were visually appealing and engaging to an audience

The Museum of the Infinite Scroll: Assessing the Effectiveness of Google Arts and Culture as a Virtual Tool for Museum Accessibility

As technology evolves, the concept of the virtual museum continues to come into focus. Google Arts and Culture (formerly the Google Art Project) has been a leading platform in virtual exhibitions and digital collections since 2011. Arts and Culture presents itself as a democratic platform that allows any museum, regardless of size or resources, access to the same new digital technologies. However, its model tends to favor institutions with more staff time to spend on their virtual presence. By analyzing Google Arts and Culture within the context of larger museum trends in virtuality and interviewing museum professionals responsible for their institutions’ virtual presence, this capstone describes the current state of the platform from a museological standpoint, how it fits into the history of museum virtuality, and how museums are using the platform. This project proposes several ways Google Arts and Culture can change their collaboration protocol better serve museums and go beyond merely providing access to their technologies

Creation of digital tools for a better foreign visitor experience of Espai Far

Treball desenvolupat dins el marc del programa 'European Project Semester'.This document will explore a research which have been done for a museum located in Vilanova I La Getru, Catalonia, Spain. The museum is called Espai Far, what stands for Lighthouse space. Espai Far approached UPC to find a team of international students for doing research and for identifying the approaches the museum needs, to increase the users experience. The team is a group of international designers and engineers on an international design semester, each possessing skills and attributes which will be essential for the completion of this project. Espai Far shows the richness of Vilanova’s maritime inheritance. The Espai Far has three exhibition spaces and opened in July, 2016. The project began at the beginning of February 2017. The team fist got introduced with the museum itself. The first thing which got clear was that al the information was only available in Catalan, besides that the museum has limited space which leaves no room for translation in other languages. The main goal for this project is to improve the visitors’ experience. Firstly, the team wanted to know who are the visitors of Espai Far? Therefore, the team decided to do research on the visitors’ experience, the number of visitors and their origins. With the answers which are provided from this surveys, it became clear for the team which further steps have to be taken. In collaboration with the supervisors there has be agreed on the next steps: • Create new digital tools o Webpage For the most effective template the team did research which can be found in chapter seven. This chapter shows some examples and mock-ups about the final website. Unfortunate the team was not able to create a working webpage and the webpage is now still under construction. o Promotion video´s The team made as well a promotion video with several pictures about Espai Far. In the video shows about the three different parts of the museum, the collaboration with schools and about other activities they organise. The video can be used on the webpage of Espai Far or for instance on social media. Besides the webpage and the promotion videos the team decided to create four more digital tools. First, the team created a navigation video, which shows the route from the train station in Vilanova to Espai Far. In the video shows pictures, street names and recognition sites. Second, panoramic pictures of the museum. Third, the use of QR-codes. Fourth, surveys on GoogleDocs. • Translate the most important information about the museum, which can be placed on the new webpage: The most important information is translated in multiple languages Spanish, English, French and Dutch. • Research on marketing purpose: To discover how Espai far can improve the visitors experience as well, the team did research on the marketing approach of Espai Far. The team had an interview with Mar Sanchez, the director of Espai Far about the actual situation of Espai Far. Besides that, the team also took interviews with other museums as well to compare their strategies with Espai Far’s. • Improve the interactivity in the museum: Interactivity in the museum is also a part of the user experience, that´s why the team invented some interactive ideas for Espai Far. These ideas can be found in chapter 6.2