Bridging the Gap: Using Digital Interactives for Social Museums

Year 2024, Issue: Sanatta Dijitalizm Özel Sayısı, 129 - 141, 28.11.2024

Gamze Ergin

https://doi.org/10.17484/yedi.1494586

Abstract

Designing the built environment with an inclusive approach that allows equal access for everyone is necessary to reduce social inequalities. Creating a physical environment that includes all segments of society and activates all senses is crucial in museum spaces. Digital interactions used in museum spaces offer new possibilities and interfaces to eliminate inequalities and increase inclusiveness. This study examines the integration of digital interactives in museums with a focus on the social museum concept. Through a comprehensive review of literature spanning museum studies on social museums, digital interactives, and inclusive museum concepts, this research investigates the role of digital interactives in fostering social engagement and facilitating interactive learning experiences within museum settings. Drawing on the theoretical framework and practical examples the paper explores how to employ digital technologies strategically to enhance visitor interaction, promote inclusivity, and facilitate knowledge sharing in social museum environments. This research demonstrates the transformative potential of digital interactives in museums as social spaces and provides a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationship between technology, museum practices, and social inclusion. The result of the research shows that digital interactives used in museum environments, such as haptic tools, wearables and mobile technologies, extended reality technologies, RFID and AI technologies, offer new ways of engagement for a more social museum and increase social inclusion.

Keywords

Inclusive design, social museums, universal design, digital assistive tools, information communication technologies, digital interactives, social inclusion.

Uçurumu Kapatmak: Sosyal Müzeler için Dijital İnteraktiflerin Kullanılması

Abstract

Yapılı çevrenin herkese eşit erişim imkânı tanıyan kapsayıcı bir yaklaşımla tasarlanması toplumsal eşitsizliklerin azaltılması açısından gereklidir. Müze mekânlarında toplumun tüm kesimlerini içine alan ve tüm duyuları harekete geçiren bir fiziksel çevre yaratmak önemlidir. Müzelerde kullanılan dijital etkileşimler, eşitsizlikleri ortadan kaldırmak ve kapsayıcılığı artırmak için yeni imkânlar ve ara yüzler sunmaktadır. Çalışmada sosyal müze kavramına odaklanarak dijital etkileşimli teknolojilerin müzelere entegrasyonu incelenmekte ve sosyal müzeler, dijital etkileşimli araçlar ve kapsayıcı müze kavramı üzerine müze çalışmalarını kapsayan kapsamlı bir literatür taraması yoluyla, dijital etkileşimli araçların sosyal katılımı teşvik etmedeki ve müze ortamlarında etkileşimli öğrenme deneyimlerini kolaylaştırmadaki rolü araştırılmaktadır. Teorik çerçeveden ve pratik örneklerden yola çıkan bu çalışma, ziyaretçi etkileşimini artırmak, kapsayıcılığı teşvik etmek ve sosyal müzecilik bağlamında bilgi paylaşımını kolaylaştırmak için dijital teknolojilerin stratejik olarak nasıl kullanılabileceğini incelemektedir. Araştırmada birer sosyal alan olarak müzelerde dijital etkileşimlerin dönüştürücü potansiyeli ortaya konulmakta; dijitalleşme, müze uygulamaları ve sosyal kapsayıcılık arasındaki dinamik ilişkinin kapsamlı bir şekilde anlaşılması hedeflenmektedir. Araştırma sonucunda, müzelerde kullanılan dokunsal araçlar, giyilebilir ve mobil teknolojiler, genişletilmiş gerçeklik teknolojileri, radyo frekansı ile tanımlama ve yapay zekâ teknolojileri gibi dijital etkileşimlerin, daha sosyal bir müze için yeni katılım yolları sunduğu ve sosyal kapsayıcılığı artırdığı görülmektedir.

Keywords

Kapsayıcı tasarım, sosyal müzeler, evrensel tasarım, dijital yardımcı araçlar, bilgi iletişim teknolojileri, dijital etkileşimler, sosyal kapsayıcılık

References

• American Alliance of Museums. (2018). Diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BRIEF-DIVERSITY-INCLUSION.pdf
• American Alliance of Museums. (2022). Excellence in DEAI. https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AAM-Excellence-in-DEAI-Report.pdf
• Barroso, E., & Vaillant, E. (1993). Musées et sociétés: actes du colloque Mulhouse Ungersheim, juin 1991 Répertoire analytique des musées, bilans et projets, 1980-1993 [Museums and societies: proceedings of the Mulhouse Ungersheim conference, June 1991 Analytical directory of museums, reports and projects, 1980-1993] France Direction des musées (Ed.). Direction des musées de France: Ministère de l’éducation nationale et de la culture.
• Bau, O., Poupyrev, I., Israr, A. & Harrison, C. (2010). Teslatouch: Electrovibration for touch surfaces. In: Proceedings of the 23rd annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST’10). ACM, New York, pp. 283–292. https://doi.org/10.1145/1866029.1866074
• Bruns, A., Spiesberger, A.A., Triantafyllopoulos, A., Müller, P. & Björn W. Schuller. (2023). "Do touch!”- 3D scanning and printing technologies for the haptic representation of cultural assets: A Study with blind target users. In Proceedings of the 5th workshop on analysis, understanding and promotion of heritage contents (SUMAC '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3607542.3617351
• Caraiman, S., Morar, A., Owczarek, M., Burlacu, A., Rzeszotarski, D., Botezatu, N., Herghelegiu, P., Moldoveanu, F., Strumillo, P. & Moldoveanu, A. (2017). Computer vision for the visually impaired: The sound of vision system, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ICCVW), Venice, Italy, 2017, pp. 1480-1489, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCVW.2017.175
• Center for Universal Design in NCSU. (1997). The 7 Principles. https://universaldesign.ie/about-universal-design/the-7-principles
• Cerdan Chiscano, M. & Jiménez-Zarco, A.I. (2021). Towards an inclusive museum management strategy. An exploratory study of consumption experience in visitors with disabilities. The case of the CosmoCaixa Science Museum. Sustainability. 2021, 13(2) 660. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020660
• Cho, H. & Jolley, A. (2016). Museum education for children with disabilities: Development of the nature senses traveling trunk. Journal of Museum Education, 41(3), 220–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2016.1193313
• Ciolfi L. & Bannon L. J. (2007). Designing hybrid places: Merging interaction design, ubiquitous technologies and geographies of the museum space, CoDesign, 3(3), 159-180.
• Coates, C. (2019). Best practice in making museums more accessible to visually impaired visitors, MuseumNext. Retrieved from (May 5, 2024) https://www.museumnext.com/article/making-museums-accessible-to-visually-impaired-visitors/
• Coleman, R., Lebbon, C., Clarkson, J. & Keates, S. (2003). From margins to mainstream. In Clarkson, P. J., Coleman, R., Keates, S., & Lebbon, C. (2013). Inclusive design: Design for the whole population. Springer, Cambidge, UK, (13).
• Coleman, L.E. (2018). Understanding and implementing inclusion in museums. Rowman & Littlefield.
• Comes, R. (2016). Haptic devices and tactile experiences in museum exhibitions. Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 3(4), 60-64.
• Edelstein, R. (2022). New foundations: Principles for disability-inclusive museum practice. Journal of Museum Education, 47(2), 192–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2022.2073093
• Geometry Prague. (2018). Touching masterpieces. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZukE86YTvhk
• Gonzales, D. (2017). A path with choice: What we learned from designing an inclusive audio guide (MW17: Museum and the Web). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://mw17.mwconf.org/paper/a-path-with-choice-what-we-learned-from-designing-an-inclusive-audio-guide/
• Güneröz, C. (2023). Müze ve toplum ilişkilerinde eğitim, sosyal hareket ve katılımın yeni boyutları [New Dimensions of education, social movement, and participation in museum and community relations]. yedi Sanat, Tasarım ve Bilim Dergisi, 29 (p. 169-180). https://doi.org/10.17484/yedi.1076181
• Hatto and Partners. (n.d.). Science of survival. Science Museum. Retrieved from (May 21, 2024) https://www.hattoandpartners.com/science-of-survival
• Hoffmann, R., Spagnol, S., Kristjánsson, A. & Unnthorsson, R. (2018). Evaluation of an audio-haptic sensory substitution device for enhancing spatial awareness for the visually impaired. Optometry and Vision Science, 95(9) (p. 757-765). https://www.doi.org/10.1097/OPX.0000000000001284
• Holz, T., Campbell, A., O'Hare, G., Stafford, J., Martin, A. & Dragone, M. (2011). MiRA-mixed reality agents. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 69. 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.10.001
• Huang, H.Y. & Liem, C.C. (2022). Social inclusion in curated contexts: Insights from museum practices. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 300-309.
• Humboldt Forum. (2021). Interactive elements at the Berlin Global Exhibition. https://www.humboldtforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Interactive-elements_BERLIN-GLOBAL.pdf
• Jones, P., Clarke, H.C., Hillier, D. & Comfort, D. (2005). The benefits, challenges and impacts of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) for retailers in the UK, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 23(4).
• Jones, B. (2020). Scaffolding to build inclusive interactives: Ben Jones’ digital design approach. In Inclusive Digital Interactives Best Practices + Research, Access, Smithsonian, Institute for Human Centered Design and MuseWeb, (20).
• Lake-Hammond, A. & Waite, N. (2010). Exhibition design: Bridging the knowledge gap, The Design Journal 13(1), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.2752/146069210X12580336766400
• Llamazares de Prado, J. E., & Arias Gago, A. R. (2023). Technology and education as elements in museum cultural inclusion. Education and Urban Society, 55(2), 238-258. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131245211004576
• Lurio, A. (2016). Engaging children with autism at historic sites: Developing an audience-appropriate curriculum. Journal of Museum Education. 41(3), 165–173.
• May, M. (2018, April, 2). Breaking down accessibility, universality, and inclusion in design. Adobe Blog. https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2018/04/02/different-breaking-accessibility-universality-inclusion-design
• Morena, D. (2018). IRIS+ part one: Designing + coding a museum AI. Center for the Future of Museums Blog, American Alliance of Museums. https://www.aam-us.org/2018/06/12/iris-part-one-designing-coding-a-museum-ai/
• Museo Tiflologico. (2024). The museum. https://museo.once.es/otras-webs/english
• O’Neill B., Stapleton L., Carew, P.J., Walsh Shanahan, B., Pearson, S., Byrne, D. & Doyle-Kent, M. (2023). Artificial intelligence and the world wide web: Brain and friend? In Proceedings of the 22nd World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control—IFAC World Congress 2023. Yokohama Japan: IFAC.
• O'Sullivan, D., Murphy, E., Curley, A., Gilligan, J., Gordon, D., Becevel, A., Hensman, S., Rocha, M., Rivera, C., Collins, M., Gibson, J.P., Dodig-Crnkovic, G., Kearney, G. & Boland, S. (2023). Inclusion4EU: Co-designing a framework for inclusive software design and development. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. In Archambault, D. & Kouroupetroglou, G. (Ed.) Volume 306: Assistive Technology: Shaping a Sustainable and Inclusive World, Ios Press Ebooks, https://www.doi.org/10.3233/SHTI230668
• Rothberg, M. & Reich, C. (2014). Making museum exhibits accessible for all: Approaches to multi-modal exhibit personalization. Open Exibits. http://www.openexhibits.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/MakingMuseumExhibitsAccessibleForAll.pdf
• Royal Holloway Picture Gallery. (2024). Audio Description Tour of Royal Holloway's Gallery. https://app.smartify.org/tr/venues/royal-holloway-picture-gallery
• Sandell, R. (2011). On ethics, activism and human rights. In Marstine, J. (Ed.) The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum (p. 129-145), Routledge.
• Semper, R. (1997). Hybrid spaces, networked places: New media and museums. The Journal of Museum Education, 22(1) (17–18). http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479085
• Silva, M. & Teixeira, L. (2022). Extended reality (XR) experiences in museums for cultural heritage: A systematic review. In Lv, Z., Song, H. (Eds). Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment. INTETAIN 2021. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. 429. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99188-3_5
• Smithsonian Institution Accessibility program. (2010). Smithsonian guidelines for accessible exhibition design. https://www.sifacilities.si.edu/sites/default/files/Files/Accessibility/accessible-exhibition-design1.pdf
• Tate Sensorium. (2015). IK Prize 2015: Tate Sensorium opens at Tate Britain today. https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/ik-prize-2015-tate-sensorium-opens-tate-britain-today
• United Nations Development Programme. (2022). Digital Strategy 2022-2025. United Nations Development Programme, One United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017.
• United Nations Development Programme. (2023). From vision to action: Explaining Undp's digital transformation framework. https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2023-11/%5Bconcept%20note%5D%20digital%20transformation%20framework.pdf
• Qi, B., Zhang, M., Zhu, X., Jiang, Y. & Xiang, X. (2023). Effects of haptic interaction on learning performance and satisfaction with 3D collections. Education and Information Technologies, 29, 7793–7811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11921-3
• Xu, N., Li, Y., Wei, X., Xie, L., Yu, L. & Ning Liang, H. (2023). CubeMuseum AR: A tangible augmented reality interface for cultural heritage learning and museum gifting, International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, https://www.doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.217135
• Zaal, T., Akdag Salah T. T. & Hürst, W. (2022). Toward inclusivity: Virtual reality museums for the visually impaired, 2022 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR), CA, USA, 2022, pp. 225-233, https://www.doi.org/10.1109/AIVR56993.2022.00047
• Ziebarth, B., Majewski, J., Marquis, R. & Proctor, N. (Eds.) (2020). Inclusive digital interactives: Best practices + research, A collaboration of access Smithsonian Institute for human centered design and MuseWeb.