There has never been such an exciting time to be in the cultural sector. I will show some of the new and emerging digital technologies that are helping to shape the way audiences experience museums and their collections.
This is an opportunity to learn more about how technology can be used in many diverse areas of museum practice.
From haptics and 3D printing to virtual reality, augmented reality and much more,I explore the exciting possibilities that digital technology can offer museums.
7. Museums today need to fulfil
their mission and create a
sustainable future, which means
that they must take care of their
core assets, the collection, and
also invest in strategy and
leveraging technology to reach the
connected consumer.
AA
18. ”We are in a technology tsunami. Whether you
love it or hate it, ultimately we have to figure out
how to survive it and make it work for us”
19. Incremental change will not be
enough, radical transformation is
required if we are to meet these
challenges
Notes de l'éditeur
Touch, contribute learn! This is an expectation from toddlers too!
Occulus Rift is a real one to watch and has amazing collection discovery, global learning and income generating potential
Augmented Reality provides interpretation and access to digital heritage and collections. This app transposes old images onto new – how it used to new and emerging technologies to local communities, maximising how personal devices can be better used and enliven history with interactive temptation boards and displays.
3D printing - Now becoming as standard as internet access across the country
3D printing is being deployed in several successful projects to support conservation, transport and engagement with collections. Take, for example, the work done by Loughborough University using 3D printing to help conserve the beautiful collections of the Forbidden City Palace Museum in Beijing. or the recent project by the Smithsonian in Washington to use 3D printing techniques to create a full-scale replica of a statue of Thomas Jefferson as the pre-cursor to a programme to open up more of its collections for public enjoyment.
In much the same way that 3D printing has the potential to disrupt pretty much every corner of the manufacturing and retail worlds, it seems likely that its impact for libraries and museums will be equally far-ranging.
3D printing, however, offers the potential to create a limitless supply of durable copies of objects. Depending on which printer we use and the complexity of our scans, these reproductions can be indistinguishable from the real thing. Imagine the new kinds of access and engagement that happen when you can just toss a copy of an object over to a group of schoolchildren and let them hold it, examine it, turn it over and pass it between each other.
Not only this, but 3D printing opens up the real possibility of creating tactile copies of precious works so that they can be shared with people who are blind or whose vision is impaired. And it doesn't stop with the onsite experience - imagine a teacher preparing a lesson plan, and as part of the process sending a 3D model of an object from your museum to print via the Cloud onto a printer at her school so that she can pick it up the following morning.
Yes the space is critical as is the customer / community need. Equally so is the shift in customer behaviour to interactivity. People want to touch and to get involved
Working with history and maps – groups or individuals