MuseumTech: from storytelling to robotics
Fully analogue museums are a thing of the past: even
Technology becomes supportivea tool to make a vision come true, but storytelling plays a key role in the 2020s. Developing a museum concept begins with building a story that engages the visitor both intellectually and emotionally. Museums analyze audience behavior, interests, habits and preferences to create interactive displays and engaging content. To do this, projects involve UX designers and researchers, as well as communication and storytelling experts. And only then does the team decide which solutions to use to implement the plan.
We applied this principle when working onexhibition “Yamal. Warmth of the Arctic." At an early stage, the team collected a colossal amount of information, so they initially decided to divide the exhibition into semantic chapters. To do this, we focused on individual objects and facts that best reflect the history of the region. For example, natural gas in its liquefied state takes up 600 times less space than regular gas - this fact can be reflected using visualization. We also identified the semantic core - the warmth of the Arctic. The concept of the exhibition was built around this paradoxical contrast: Yamal is located in the far Arctic north, but at the same time radiates warmth far beyond its geographical borders - both physically and metaphorically. This denominator, like a single line, connected all the chapters with each other.
In the case of Yamal, we had a taskshow different sides of the region: on the one hand, its powerful transport infrastructure and developed oil and gas industry, and on the other, the harsh and wild Arctic nature, crafts and traditions of the peoples of the North. We placed most of the exhibits in a kind of snowballs filled with imitation snow. Like time capsules, they store the conceptual modules of the 90-year history of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, which is why we chose this form factor.
To build complex semantic chains, museumsthey turn to creative studios that master both digital technologies and narrative practices - together they create unique exhibits, write scripts for exhibitions and promote them. Today, experts from related disciplines are also involved in working on museum projects: for example, the Peabody Museum in Essex has a neuroscientist on staff who studies the influence of visual stimuli on the human brain.
In recent years, a pool of specialists whoworking on expositions expanded. Researchers and scriptwriters, architects and designers, conceptual artists and visualizers, industrial designers, constructors and 3D modeling specialists are involved in the project. The entire process is coordinated by the technical director, but the whole team selects the appropriate solutions.
The selection of technologies in the museum environment should beapproach carefully. Fashionable and new developments do not always enrich the experience and often draw undue attention to the technological solution rather than to the essence of the exhibition. That's why experts talk about so-called technological agnosticism. The team first of all forms the message, determines the tone of the narrative and creates content. And only then does he select the appropriate technologies, for example, use robotics or use 3D printing - as an interactive element, as a means of producing exhibits, or both at the same time. For example, artist Sugwen Chung creates paintings with the help of robotic manipulators, which she independently develops and programs - before the pandemic, they even participated in her offline performances. But even in this case, it is important to consider how well the technologies correspond to the design of the exhibition, its purpose and content. The choice is also influenced by the genre of the narrative - after all, an exhibition, like a text, can be turned into either a fascinating non-fiction or an action-packed detective story.
Museum rooms in the digital age
New technological solutions affect not onlymuseum culture, but also on infrastructure. Thus, with the advent of video projections, museums began to increasingly choose more subdued lighting. And interactive sound installations changed the approach to designing exhibition spaces - designers began to pay more attention to acoustics and zoning.
Interactive exhibitions have also changed their trajectorymoving around the museum: guests began to move more freely and build their own route, without relying on a guide. Moreover, it became possible to attend exhibitions remotely. Thus, in 2020, some museums conducted remote tours using robots for teleconferencing. The visitor remotely controlled a mobile module with a webcam - this allowed him to freely move around the halls and even interact with objects and staff.
However, technology still cannot replaceguides and curators, since they have unique experience and give their own interpretation of facts and events. Therefore, today the visitor himself chooses the most comfortable format of interaction: it can be an autonomous acquaintance with the exhibition or immersion in the context with the help of a guide.
Sometimes immersive content literally leadsperson through the halls of the museum - in this case, the visitor independently follows the prescribed route and engages in active cognition. These immersive exhibitions have much in common with a feature film or theater production, and the museum experience is more like a “séance.”
Immersion technology
- Immersive elements
Of course, new technologies enhance the effectimmersion. For example, augmented reality sound allows you to construct soundscapes that accurately recreate the setting of a particular era or environment. Immersive elements help to form a more coherent and voluminous picture of the world. This is especially important in the case of tragic pages of history, such as the Holocaust or repression. Research shows that VR and AR solutions enhance empathy: even in aggressors, they create a sense of compassion for the victim. Augmented reality is often used in historical and ethnographic contexts, as these spheres are saturated with collective memory, contradictions and grievances. The immersive AR format reflects different points of view and makes it possible to build not linear, but multidimensional storytelling.
Audio andvideo broadcasting. Of course, for this it is not enough to put a powerful speaker and a standard projector. Museums use acoustic systems and panoramic screens that work in conjunction with 4K laser projectors - these are the devices we use at the Yamal. Warmth of the Arctic ".
Immersive technologies also allowtell stories in the first person, creating a connection between eyewitnesses of events and museum visitors. An interesting example in museum practice is a series of interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted by employees of the US Institute of Visual History and Education. The conversations were recorded on 23 cameras with 360-degree coverage. Using the recordings obtained, the authors of the project created realistic holograms of the characters. Visitors can not only listen to monologues, but also ask questions to eyewitnesses: an AI-based system processes their requests and selects the most appropriate answer.
- Interactive
Immerse the audience in a specificethnographic context and history allow for interactive elements: when interacting with objects, visitors take the position of a researcher rather than a passive observer. For example, how to show the speed and coverage of the Northern Sea Route transport network? A traditional museum uses an infographic or scaled-down layout. Our team found another solution - for the Northern Express exhibit, we developed an interactive object based on big data. The visitor approaches a transparent glass dome, selects any two ports in different hemispheres of the planet and looks through different route options. The virtual map displays dozens of variations, but the Northern Sea Route is always the fastest.
Another example is the Sounds of the North exhibit, whichreproduces compositions recorded in Yamal in the last century. We invite the visitor not only to listen to the melodies, but also to act as a "conductor". The exhibit is equipped with special processors that respond to touch - as soon as the visitor touches the interactive module, the sound of the music changes.
Touch panels, voice and tactile interfacesremove the barrier between the visitor and the exhibit. However, other technologies also cope with this task. For example, using 3D printing, museums recreate objects and allow people to touch them. The unusual tactile artifacts are made by Factum Arte, which recently recreated an exact replica of Rafael Santi's tomb using printed components. Thanks to realistic replicas, people with visual impairments can also get acquainted with the exhibits.
- New production technologies
3D printing technology has really made it easierthe process of creating museum exhibits - even the most complex and non-standard ones. So, for the exhibition “Yamal. Warmth of the Arctic”, the Lorem Ipsum studio team created an ultra-realistic model of the Arctic berry - cloudberry. The miniature berries were 3D printed and the leaves were made from airbrushed natural silk. To allow visitors to see the object better, optical specialists developed magnifying glasses. A model of deer antlers was also created on a 3D printer - the largest in Russia and Europe - they were hand-painted and supplemented with symbols of the indigenous peoples of Yamal.
Robotics is also used to create objects.Thus, for the exhibit “In the Footsteps of Polar Bears,” our engineers used a KUKA robotic manipulator—the device applied laser engraving to the surface of the ball.
Museums also involve experts inmaterials science - and even invent new materials. For example, to achieve the effect of a real snowball, the Lorem Ipsum team has developed a special fraction of polyethylene foam that, when combined with different types of impellers, creates a “fairy blizzard”. For each exhibit, balls were created individually by hand, so it is impossible to find analogues on the market. By the way, one of the largest and heaviest objects of the exhibition weighs about 270 kg and combines original artistic and technological solutions. This ball shows the layers of underground rocks - they are made of transparent colored acrylic, glued with epoxy resin and processed on a CNC machine.
Exhibits today are created with the help of the wholecomplex of production technologies, so museums turn to laboratories, workshops and contract manufacturing, which have a welding and painting workshop, a large-format printing department, a woodworking and milling workshop, as well as 3D printers and assembly lines. A team of integrators and distributors of equipment becomes an integral part of any project.
The MuseumTech market is growing every year, and the rangeAvailable solutions are constantly expanding due to the democratization of technology - for example, AI, augmented reality and 3D printing are becoming increasingly accessible. Developments are also appearing for the museum “back office”, for example, programs for digitizing archives and 3D restoration of objects. The line between offline and online technologies is gradually blurring. Museums are also moving to new digital platforms: virtual tours or creative stories on Instagram no longer surprise anyone. The next round of evolution is exhibitions in game universes. Gallery owners are creating interactive spaces in Fortnite, and major museums are sharing their masterpieces with Animal Crossing users. And this is just the beginning of a new trend.
A key role in the formation of new museumproducts are not played by technologies, but by narrative practices - they also evolve and, thanks to innovative solutions, become more and more effective. It doesn't matter whether the museum constructs new worlds or reproduces the historical context, exhibition spaces are becoming more lively and interactive. All this allows you to immerse the visitor in a constructed context, and most importantly - to give him a new unique experience.
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