Museum: Digital Transformation
24 - 25 Mar 2017 at Centro Arte e Cultura Firenze

How can a museum, research or any cultural center make its contents more accessible through games while respecting the complexity of the subject? In this workshop we will work hands on existing applied games, analysing them through different lenses and hence progressively acquiring the game design language. This will lead us to: 1. define the basic game design work from knowledge base to concept and mechanics 2. define estimations for the work required to prototype and develop applied games.

A great morning of activities with the Museomix Italian Community for all those who want to take part to the edition 2017, approaching the format that changes the way to experience museums. We will start from an introduction to Museomix, creative and multidisciplinary makeathon, born in France 7 years ago and arrived in Italy in 2016. 3 days of intellectual and manual lab, during that, different team, work inside the museum, among the collection, to develop innovative ideas and to create prototypes that will be test by visitors, the last day. Than, we will learn to prepare a museum and its community to live this unique experience, thanks to the mentoring of key players of the last edition of Museomix.

We are experimenting a new way to narrate old stories! Through a process of listening, synthesizing and of course drawing, we apply our visual thinking to the art in museums, with the aim of creating a worldwide language that can put together the complexity and the majesty of our iconographic cultural heritage with a new, easy, fun and modern way to see!

Nell’ambito di una comunicazione museale sempre più incentrata sul web, lo strumento video diventa un asset imprescindibile per veicolare i contenuti dell’offerta culturale. I format commerciali delle grandi aziende possono essere declinati in una forma diversa per adattarsi alle esigenze dei diversi attori. Nel corso del Workshop proveremo a strutturare un piano di videocomunicazione in storytelling per il Grande Museo del Duomo.

L’esperienza di elaborazione del Nuovo Museo dell’Opera del Duomo raccontata dal suo Direttore, in collaborazione con lo studio di architettura Natalini-Guicciardini&Magni, focalizzandosi sulle ragioni sia pratiche che estetiche, che ne hanno segnato le scelte museologiche e museografiche. Fine delle soluzioni adottate è stato quello di creare un luogo di conservazione per i capolavori della collezione, ma anche di educazione per il grande pubblico, mediata per un’esperienza di visita con effetti museografici attraenti, che garantiscono la corretta fruizione delle opere nei loro spazi originari, ora rievocati, seguendo il binario della correttezza filologica e del rigore scientifico e lontani da qualsiasi spettacolarizzazione puramente sensoriale delle opere. Allo stesso tempo, l’evoluzione della comunicazione e delle nuove tecnologie coinvolge la fruizione stessa del patrimonio artistico: possedere un “hardware” culturale – monumenti, architetture, opere d’arte – non è più sufficiente di per sé a produrre ricchezza, sia economica che culturale, e ad attrarre visitatori da ogni parte del mondo. Nella scia di questi intenti il relatore si apre alla questione di arricchire i servizi di comunicazione ed educativi del museo con gli strumenti offerti dal grande sviluppo della tecnologia digitale: dalla App contenente didascalie parlanti alle possibilità offerte dalla realtà aumentata, dalla realtà virtuale, ai big data e i social media. Un museo digitalizzato, infatti, offre la possibilità di dare nuova vita ad opere e materiali della propria collezione e – al tempo stesso – di ampliare il target di comunicazione: dai più giovani agli adulti fino agli esperti di settore, instaurando un percorso di arricchimento della “user experience” del visitatore. Concetto centrale sarà lo studio del corretto utilizzo di questi nuovi media, e della prudenza da usarsi nella loro applicazione, per evitare il rischio di trasformare un’esperienza che dev’essere di conoscenza in un semplice tour di svago sensoriale. A maggior ragione in un museo come quello dell’OPA, che per essere d’Arte Sacra, ha per fine imprescindibile quello di comunicare i contenuti – spirituali, oltre che storici e artistici – di cui le sue opere sono foriere. A margine, una riflessione su come le possibilità offerte dalle visite museali virtuali possano assolvere al dovere della conservazione e della quieta fruizione delle opere a fronte di un aumento costante di richiesta dal settore turistico.

Anno 2017, il cliente medio è diventato ‘social / mobile’. Perennemente online, viene spesso distratto da interazioni su svariati canali e soprattutto da un numero eccessivo di messaggi pubblicitari. Questo sovraccarico cognitivo non lo aiuta certo a distinguere facilmente i messaggi che sono di suo interesse. Conseguenza legge e condivide esperienze sui social network, per avere pareri, suggerimenti, conferme. Perciò questo intervento si focalizzerà proprio sull’ascolto delle conversazioni online come leva strategica per interagire con le persone che stanno già parlando online del tuo museo. Obiettivo: ingaggiare con loro conversazioni profittevoli e trasformare i ‘conversatori’ in visitatori.

In 2012, Rijksmuseum made its collection digitally available to all – in high resolution on the museum’s website, freely available, without limitations. In this digital application, called Rijksstudio, 370,000 pictures can be examined in close detail. The museum intends to attract new audiences and enhance its brand awareness. Linda Volkers explains the choices that Rijksmuseum has made, the projects and programmes around Rijksstudio and their impact on the museum.

One of the main objectives of the research group ArtesMechanicae – of which Alexander is founder – is to work inside museums which deal with technological culture to make them evolve. For many museums this is a time of big updates: thanks to the continuous and quick evolution of technology we have now the opportunity to give in a simple way information not otherwise easily accessible to the public. Not always, however, we see an equally effective evolution of contents. A deeper transformation of museums is possible today: the very concept of exhibit can be enriched, as a hybrid of advanced communication methods and content processed in new ways. In a try to answer to the increasing demand coming from the public for museums to follow the same schemes in giving information to which people are accustomed in their daily life, in line with the progress of storytelling of the last 15 – 20 years.

This presentation will provide an overview of the digital tactics used by The Met to overcome some of the most significant barriers between The Met’s encyclopaedic Collection and audiences around the world.

Cultural institutions are facing now a double challenge: to attract new visitors from one side, to communicate the contents, in a way that is closer to the audience needs of knowledge and experience from the other. If museums seem to have adopted quite widely a communication based on social media, there is still a big gap in terms of digital strategies for making contents accessible. The reasons behind this gap are different, motivated quite often with lack of resources or lack of technical skills within museums. But the real problem goes beyond these barriers: it is created by a lack of structured dialogue between content curators and techies. Technology solutions for museums are the most diverse and do not necessary need a high budget to be effective. The first real question to be answered when thinking to a digital innovation process within a museum is in fact: what is the best technology to communicate my visit experience? This answer can be given only if the dialogue between curators and technology providers is seamless and bilateral: content curators must be free to design an experiential path for the visitors, techies must then identify the most suitable solutions to drive the message. In this presentation we will present some case studies of different digital solutions to museums and discuss their application field.

As Franco Russoli wrote in 1971 “It must be shown that the museum means something entirely different from what is believed to be a museum. And I believe the most direct and effective way to do it is to promote the image of the museum as a crucible and producer of culture.” This presentation looks at the way in which the museum serves as an “institution for the prevention of blindness”, by creating a wide variety of means for visitors to engage with the works in the museum’s care, and share their own experiences with other visitors. These means range from personal contact, innovative labelling, educational activities and digital enhancements.

It is said that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”: but what happens, inside and outside museums, when people play with it? The talk focuses on threats and opportunities of designing video games with historical settings and interactive experiences about cultural and artistic topics.

This speech is a kind of trip into the evolution of the relationship between technology and entertainment and how the first has influenced our life in general and all our experiences in particular, up to contaminate the art and the way we can enjoy it. Today technology can even get close people of all ages to art in a simple and engaging way. This result brings the art in general (exhibition-museum services, artistic events, etc.) considered like a consumer product that can be positioned, sold and communicated into a specific market through marketing strategies.

For the new museum, the Opera del Duomo in Florence made the tough decision to build a custom app, with the intention to allow it to grow step by step through the observation of user needs. The result is a product which was released in record time, and allows visitors to discover the wonders of the museum, both from home and in interactive mode while enjoying the museum experience. Thanks to the information collected by the system, stakeholders can imagine and plan new developments. The talk is a walkthrough of the design of this project: the problems encountered and the solutions that have lead to the success execution of a courageous choice.

We’ll review Autography’s design as an exemplary case of persuasive application. We will immerse it in the context of applied and persuasive games built around gameful mechanics and interactive learning. We will then contrast it with superficial gamification efforts. We will propose some guidelines for an effective process of cooperative design and process for these complex media productions.

Are we the same visitors we were yesterday? When we step into an art gallery, do we look at it in the same way as we would have done a decade ago? What do we expect to be surrounded by when we set foot in a museum? The approach of the so-called experience economy with its focus on specific trends and lifestyles has described a shift of attention from the enjoyment of goods per se to the emotional impact that comes with it. And the resulting picture tells us that the way we interact with the world’s cultural heritage has sensibly changed over the last decades. We are visitors in search of experiences that are first of all emotional and customizable depending on our preferences. Today’s generations of cultural consumers present us with a new set of challenges that forces culture-related institutions to rely on a new sensitivity and new tools if they want to meet the ever-growing needs for customization, involvement and sharing.

Since its foundation in 1753 the British Museum has always been a Museum of the world, for the world – a public collection freely available to all. In the 18th century that meant to a public primarily based in London, but in the past decade of the Museum’s history this revolutionary founding principle has been made a reality in the most meaningful way. Now digital technologies enable us to share our collection and tell our stories to a truly global online audience. Museums have a unique opportunity to use social media to deliver a visitor experience for those who may never physically visit, to engage and converse with audiences and to build their global brand. Hannah Boulton and Kate Carter will talk about the development of the British Museum’s social media strategy, the opportunities available and how we manage risk. The talk will highlight both successes and failures, the battle between reach vs engagement, the development of digital customer service and a look to what the future may hold.

Today, millions of travellers choose to visit destinations or museums according to information, comments, reviews left by fellow travellers on the internet. On the other hand, often times virtual potential visitors don’t convert into actual visitors because their digital experience should be as rich, powerful and emotional as the real one. This is the biggest shortcoming of the Italian cultural and tourism ecosystem. Can technology – using big data, artificial intelligence and algorithms – help understanding new dynamics in travellers behaviours and help them making better decisions? Here’s Travel Appeal’s case with MiBACT.

For the first time in summer 2014 the ban on photography was lifted and free public Wi-Fi installed inside the National Gallery. This encouraged the visitors to do exactly what they liked doing when they saw something that amazed or moved them – snap it and share it with their friends, family and social networks. This marked the start of a transitional journey for the National Gallery – a journey towards connecting an Old Master Collection with the modern visitor. Mona Walsh will talk us through the journey (so far) and highlight how the National Gallery have integrated digital thinking and practice into developing the brand, content and design, to inspire and guide people through their Personal Art Journey.

The idea of adding BOTs in a customer care context is ever more tempting and the door to futuristic scenarios. According to the most important voices in the tech landscape (one above all: techcrunch), BOTs give the impression to be the cure for all diseases, the solution for all problems. The virtual assistant topic is no news; but now the tech landscape has completely changed, shifted by Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence affordable for any company. The raise of a new disruption is always connected to its ability to develop new behaviours: BOTs are not just about the creation of a virtual assistant, but about the possibility of real time interaction. Not another app to install, no new account to create, no new interface to deal with: just a chat – probably the next big OS. Thus, let’s see BOTs’ potentiality and limits.

A new definition of service desk. Integrated, fast scalable and automated.

Set a great content strategy plan with remarkable goals and a fine knowledge about time to win!

Round Table with all speakers