What interactive solutions for museums will make exploring art more interesting
If not so long ago museums and exhibitions were in the eyes of many not the most interesting pastime, then in 2022 the situation is quite different. Today, 43% of Russians visit them. And one of the reasons is that museums are changing, there is a huge restructuring of architectural projects: the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is expanding, a separate building is being built for the Armory collection, and the Polytechnic Museum plans to make multimedia objects and projections the core of the collection.
Museums and exhibitions are becoming “alive” - this is the main cultural trend that allows visitors to become not spectators, but participants and feel each exposition from the inside. In addition to the visual part, the impact on different senses is added. And also a mix of styles and concepts is in trend, so immersive exhibitions are becoming popular. Vladimir Rozin, General Director of IT Group OPEN, which deals with interactive projects and multimedia, spoke about the interactive solutions for museums that are in demand today and the peculiarities of the implementation of these technologies.
Interactive exhibits
Various installations like gaming touch tables, interactive maps are suitable for technology and science museums as well as museum information centers. Most of such exhibits in museums are special projectors with gesture recognition system and screens or even walls that become touch-sensitive. And touch tables are used for game installations.
For example, a local history museum can have a game screen where visitors will be offered to assemble a dinosaur from disparate parts or to see in dynamics how the Battle of Kursk took place, and then to pass a quiz game on the same topic - such an installation appeared in the Kursk Museum. And in the Surgut Museum of Local Lore with the help of an interactive installation visitors get acquainted with the history of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region.
AR and VR for full immersion in the exhibition
Virtual (VR) or augmented (AR) reality allows you to achieve the effect of real presence and dive into a painting or feel yourself a participant in the events of past centuries - for example, to see and feel the last day of Pompeii or change into a virtual Viking costume. VR and AR can also be used in museums to conduct excursions. Such solutions will be especially interesting for children. The technologies are realized with the help of VR/AR-headsets, so they are not budgetary and not very widespread yet.
In St. Petersburg's Museum of Russian Railways, thanks to virtual reality, visitors can see how a steam locomotive is refueled with water, how the old depot looked and worked. And the M'ARS Center for Contemporary Art has launched an immersive project DEEP INSIDE/GHT - a mixture of painting, sound design, video art, VR, AR and aroma compositions. All this creates a sensual and emotional experience for the visitor.
Another example is the multimedia museum at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Palace in Luzhniki, which utilizes AR and VR technologies. Visitors download an application to their smartphone, point the screen at a QR code and 3D models of champions performing programs of different years appear in front of them at arm's length.
Sensors that respond to movement
Even deeper immersion in the exhibition and interaction with the objects of the museum is provided by sensory elements that react to the movement of visitors. For example, depending on human touch or movement, light and sound change. Or in a conventional space museum, planets move after the visitor and line up around him in different positions. Such solutions are first of all suitable for museum and exhibition complexes, where technologies are easily integrated with the objects of the exposition.
We used such solutions when creating a sensory room in the Diana Gurtskaya Center for Sociocultural Rehabilitation. Inside the room there is a huge screen and stitched projectors directed at it, as well as several small objects with sensors. Moving and interacting with them, the visitor creates sounds, plays with light and so on.
Interactive navigation
The larger the museum, the more halls it has, especially those with diverse expositions, the higher the probability that a visitor will not see all the areas of interest, because he or she will get lost somewhere, will not turn somewhere - out of ignorance that it is possible to go there at all. Or, perhaps, the museum has a certain scheme of acquaintance with the expositions, which allows building a correct, complete picture in the mind only if all the stages are observed in a specific order.
In such cases, interactive navigation helps: a mobile guide with a map that leads the visitor through the expositions along a certain route or simply prompts where to look and why. If necessary, the visitor can search for the shortest way to the desired exhibit. Interactive navigation can be supplemented with notifications about what objects are nearby and why they are worth exploring.
Such a solution has been implemented in the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin: visitors can download a mobile application to their tablet or smartphone that offers navigation with an indication of the nearest showcases and their contents, as well as providing information about the halls and objects of the expositions, an audio guide and quests.
Interactive information zones
Separately arranged areas with screens on which all information about the exposition as a whole and its individual objects is displayed are valuable in historical museums. For example, they could complement the halls of the Moscow Kremlin or the Hermitage, telling in detail about the Patriarchal Chambers or the rizalits (corner ledges with living quarters) of the Winter Palace.
A similar solution has been implemented in the Hermitage-Vyborg exhibition center. This is an application and a touch screen kiosk, thanks to which visitors learn about the history of the museum complex and its attractions, and study archive photos.
Interactive information zones are also relevant for art museums, where the focus is on paintings that do not require additional engaging elements, but sometimes need explanations: for example, about the history of painting, the author, the idea, and so on.
New architectural projects and the trend to mix classical art and technology will contribute to the active penetration of interactive solutions in exhibition centers and museums. Thanks to this, expositions will become brighter, livelier and sometimes even more understandable to the untrained visitor.
Possible mistakes when combining multimedia and art
The first mistake is to introduce technology for technology's sake. When a museum wants to attract as many new audiences as possible, mainly young people, it tries to cover all innovations, but this is not always good. An interactive solution should organically fit into the exposition, complement and reveal it. Therefore, it is very important not to go overboard with them.
For example, for a classical museum like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, interactive navigation and information zones will be enough, because the focus is on the objects of the exposition: everyday objects, preserved or restored interiors, and so on. AR-technologies can be added to art galleries, and interactive exhibits can be added to local history galleries. Whereas modern art museums like MAMM can use many more multimedia solutions.
The second mistake is not looking at the project from the guest's point of view. All the technologies that appear in a museum should be intuitive. A visitor should not spend half an hour walking around the sensory room trying to understand what he or she needs to do to interact with the object and what the result will be. Or to search for a long time where and how the interactive map is switched on and how to understand its prompts. No matter how technological solutions are, their use for the guest should be intuitive.
The third mistake is the overloading of interactive zones. This problem arises mainly in modern multimedia museums, in spaces where AR/VR, interactive exhibits, sensors, and much more are used. The visitor does not understand what to look at, what to interact with, where to go first and where to go later, his attention is distracted.
In addition, sometimes museums or contracting companies create visual disharmony between multimedia and museum objects, and poorly think through the content of interactive solutions. There are also mistakes in the technical part, when there is no unified control system, which makes it difficult to work with the objects, and the equipment is incorrectly built and configured. Therefore, the introduction of interactive solutions in museums requires a very thorough and thoughtful approach.
If not so long ago museums and exhibitions were in the eyes of many not the most interesting pastime, then in 2022 the situation is quite different. Today, 43% of Russians visit them. And one of the reasons is that museums are changing, there is a huge restructuring of architectural projects: the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is expanding, a separate building is being built for the Armory collection, and the Polytechnic Museum plans to make multimedia objects and projections the core of the collection.
Museums and exhibitions are becoming “alive” - this is the main cultural trend that allows visitors to become not spectators, but participants and feel each exposition from the inside. In addition to the visual part, the impact on different senses is added. And also a mix of styles and concepts is in trend, so immersive exhibitions are becoming popular. Vladimir Rozin, General Director of IT Group OPEN, which deals with interactive projects and multimedia, spoke about the interactive solutions for museums that are in demand today and the peculiarities of the implementation of these technologies.
Interactive exhibits
Various installations like gaming touch tables, interactive maps are suitable for technology and science museums as well as museum information centers. Most of such exhibits in museums are special projectors with gesture recognition system and screens or even walls that become touch-sensitive. And touch tables are used for game installations.
For example, a local history museum can have a game screen where visitors will be offered to assemble a dinosaur from disparate parts or to see in dynamics how the Battle of Kursk took place, and then to pass a quiz game on the same topic - such an installation appeared in the Kursk Museum. And in the Surgut Museum of Local Lore with the help of an interactive installation visitors get acquainted with the history of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region.
AR and VR for full immersion in the exhibition
Virtual (VR) or augmented (AR) reality allows you to achieve the effect of real presence and dive into a painting or feel yourself a participant in the events of past centuries - for example, to see and feel the last day of Pompeii or change into a virtual Viking costume. VR and AR can also be used in museums to conduct excursions. Such solutions will be especially interesting for children. The technologies are realized with the help of VR/AR-headsets, so they are not budgetary and not very widespread yet.
In St. Petersburg's Museum of Russian Railways, thanks to virtual reality, visitors can see how a steam locomotive is refueled with water, how the old depot looked and worked. And the M'ARS Center for Contemporary Art has launched an immersive project DEEP INSIDE/GHT - a mixture of painting, sound design, video art, VR, AR and aroma compositions. All this creates a sensual and emotional experience for the visitor.
Another example is the multimedia museum at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Palace in Luzhniki, which utilizes AR and VR technologies. Visitors download an application to their smartphone, point the screen at a QR code and 3D models of champions performing programs of different years appear in front of them at arm's length.
Sensors that respond to movement
Even deeper immersion in the exhibition and interaction with the objects of the museum is provided by sensory elements that react to the movement of visitors. For example, depending on human touch or movement, light and sound change. Or in a conventional space museum, planets move after the visitor and line up around him in different positions. Such solutions are first of all suitable for museum and exhibition complexes, where technologies are easily integrated with the objects of the exposition.
We used such solutions when creating a sensory room in the Diana Gurtskaya Center for Sociocultural Rehabilitation. Inside the room there is a huge screen and stitched projectors directed at it, as well as several small objects with sensors. Moving and interacting with them, the visitor creates sounds, plays with light and so on.
Interactive navigation
The larger the museum, the more halls it has, especially those with diverse expositions, the higher the probability that a visitor will not see all the areas of interest, because he or she will get lost somewhere, will not turn somewhere - out of ignorance that it is possible to go there at all. Or, perhaps, the museum has a certain scheme of acquaintance with the expositions, which allows building a correct, complete picture in the mind only if all the stages are observed in a specific order.
In such cases, interactive navigation helps: a mobile guide with a map that leads the visitor through the expositions along a certain route or simply prompts where to look and why. If necessary, the visitor can search for the shortest way to the desired exhibit. Interactive navigation can be supplemented with notifications about what objects are nearby and why they are worth exploring.
Such a solution has been implemented in the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin: visitors can download a mobile application to their tablet or smartphone that offers navigation with an indication of the nearest showcases and their contents, as well as providing information about the halls and objects of the expositions, an audio guide and quests.
Interactive information zones
Separately arranged areas with screens on which all information about the exposition as a whole and its individual objects is displayed are valuable in historical museums. For example, they could complement the halls of the Moscow Kremlin or the Hermitage, telling in detail about the Patriarchal Chambers or the rizalits (corner ledges with living quarters) of the Winter Palace.
A similar solution has been implemented in the Hermitage-Vyborg exhibition center. This is an application and a touch screen kiosk, thanks to which visitors learn about the history of the museum complex and its attractions, and study archive photos.
Interactive information zones are also relevant for art museums, where the focus is on paintings that do not require additional engaging elements, but sometimes need explanations: for example, about the history of painting, the author, the idea, and so on.
New architectural projects and the trend to mix classical art and technology will contribute to the active penetration of interactive solutions in exhibition centers and museums. Thanks to this, expositions will become brighter, livelier and sometimes even more understandable to the untrained visitor.
Possible mistakes when combining multimedia and art
The first mistake is to introduce technology for technology's sake. When a museum wants to attract as many new audiences as possible, mainly young people, it tries to cover all innovations, but this is not always good. An interactive solution should organically fit into the exposition, complement and reveal it. Therefore, it is very important not to go overboard with them.
For example, for a classical museum like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, interactive navigation and information zones will be enough, because the focus is on the objects of the exposition: everyday objects, preserved or restored interiors, and so on. AR-technologies can be added to art galleries, and interactive exhibits can be added to local history galleries. Whereas modern art museums like MAMM can use many more multimedia solutions.
The second mistake is not looking at the project from the guest's point of view. All the technologies that appear in a museum should be intuitive. A visitor should not spend half an hour walking around the sensory room trying to understand what he or she needs to do to interact with the object and what the result will be. Or to search for a long time where and how the interactive map is switched on and how to understand its prompts. No matter how technological solutions are, their use for the guest should be intuitive.
The third mistake is the overloading of interactive zones. This problem arises mainly in modern multimedia museums, in spaces where AR/VR, interactive exhibits, sensors, and much more are used. The visitor does not understand what to look at, what to interact with, where to go first and where to go later, his attention is distracted.
In addition, sometimes museums or contracting companies create visual disharmony between multimedia and museum objects, and poorly think through the content of interactive solutions. There are also mistakes in the technical part, when there is no unified control system, which makes it difficult to work with the objects, and the equipment is incorrectly built and configured. Therefore, the introduction of interactive solutions in museums requires a very thorough and thoughtful approach.
