The museum and cultural heritage sector has been pioneering in its use digital technologies, including social media; digitised collections; online exhibitions; 3D scanning and printing of artefacts; and the use of digital art installations in gallery. However, the dominant mode of interaction between museums and cultural heritage sites and their visitors has remained very much the same: curators provide information - whether in the form of printed labels or digital 'interactives' and displays- and visitors consume it relatively passively. Museums that have experimented with web-based exhibitions and digitised collections have realised that, however compelling, such content does not replace the experience of visiting a museum or heritage site. Current developments in Virtual and Augmented Reality techniques offer exciting new possibilities for cultural heritage. But we are only beginning to understand the range of ways in which such technologies may be used to engage with visitors.
This presentation will therefore argue that to make the best use of the potential of digital technologies, museums and cultural heritage organisations may need to reconsider the true meaning of visitor interaction and engagement. This will entail a re-examination of the potential and properties of digital information spaces, and how they relate to the physical museum space
Lecture Slides will appear here soon.
Video footage will be added in the future.