The New Frontiers of the Museum Experience

Immersive exhibitions, augmented reality, video games? The next game for the museum world will be played in a world halfway between real and virtual

History is full of examples showing how innovation (technological, technical, artistic) is the fruit of brilliant intuitions that "dared" to challenge the status quo: the recent one, especially in the field of marketing, shows how this phenomenon has intensified in relation to the enormous strides made in the field of tech.

The museum world cannot avoid following these trends that, through the hybridization of real and virtual, are profoundly shaping our cultural experiences: here are some examples to draw inspiration from to rethink the Italian Museum and the museum exhibition in a new light, the one of tomorrow.

Augmented reality (in make-up) for an engaging museum experience

We talked about augmented reality in the article The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Revolution for Museums, especially in the make-up field.

We had already talked about Astra Make Up, the made-in-Italy brand that lets customers test its products directly through their smartphone by displaying a preview of their own made-up face.

Another example, though, is Perfect Corp, a Taiwanese company specializing in virtual beauty, known to consumers for its beauty app "YouCam Makeup", which lets users "try on" virtual samples from over 300 global brands, including those of beauty conglomerates Estée Lauder and L'Oréal Paris.

What should really matter, though, is Perfect Corp's technology (and soon Astra's too), which is also used for retail sales in stores, e-commerce and social media.

The museum of tomorrow will necessarily have to look at and draw inspiration from benchmarks like this too, because they show how integrating technology through artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality will unlock truly significant benefits. Among others, the amplification of digital sales channels, greater personalization and deeper engagement of customers/visitors.

An example? Here it is.

Conceiving, producing and marketing large digital and immersive exhibitions

The Réunion des Musées Nationaux et du Grand Palais (RMN – Grand Palais), the French public-law entity that manages 34 national museums (including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée Rodin), launched a new subsidiary called Grand Palais Immersif.

This division specializes in the production, creation and distribution of large exhibitions, especially immersive ones.

The agency's mission is built around three points:

• conceiving and producing digital and immersive exhibitions in partnership with museums, audiovisual and multimedia producers, and startups specialized in digital
• launching them in Paris, in a Grand Palais renovated for the occasion and in dedicated spaces
• marketing them both in France and abroad

The primary goal is to spread culture across the territory and make art accessible, in addition to promoting digital innovation in all its forms: immersive set design, new digital media, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality.

The aim is to become a key player in the digital exhibition market, with a demanding editorial line that manages to blend spectacle, storytelling and knowledge transmission.

The idea came about following the production of some highly successful exhibitions, such as the one on Pompeii organized at the Grand Palais, which brought as many as 200,000 visitors to the halls of the Parisian museum in four months (from July 1 to October 31, 2020), and will benefit from the expertise of all the players involved in the operation.

According to Maud Franca, deputy director for digital at Banque des Territoires:

"Immersive technologies will be one of the next revolutions in digital platforms, and are an area in which the American and Chinese digital giants are already investing heavily.

Innovating in this new field of creativity and cultural outreach is today a matter of cultural sovereignty. And artistic creation, which is a way of thinking about the world and of freeing our imagination and our emotions, evolves over time."

I am equally convinced that no form of culture replaces another: forms, if anything, add to one another, to respond to all tastes but also to feed our daily need for wonder ever more intensely, and therefore for art, beauty and knowledge, which we badly need today amid the crisis we are going through".

Art comes to life with Augmented Reality

The Norton Museum of Art, in Florida, has charted a course: by launching a new augmented reality app, it now gives visitors greater access to its collection in 2021. Since January, the Norton Art+ app has been available in English and Spanish for anyone who wants to explore the artworks housed in the gallery.

The app was commissioned by the museum in 2019, when it chose the design studio Local Projects to develop a software system that could showcase its collection in new ways. The subsequent work was completed in collaboration with the museum's curatorial department and its education department.

The final result? An app for tablets, provided to visitors directly by the museum: the use of these devices is included in the price of the standard gallery admission ticket.

With the app, visitors can, for example, use the gallery's tablets to change the facial expressions of a sculpture or try out new and different textures. It also lets visitors "move" the artwork they are looking at into a virtual environment, such as a sculpture garden, alongside other AR creations made by visitors.

The AR app lets the gallery introduce younger visitors to art in new and never-before-imagined ways. Norton Art+ generates fun experiences and at the same time offers new perspectives on contemporary art, also because it will help inspire a new generation of art lovers.

Talking about the future means, in fact, talking about tomorrow's visitors and how to engage them in unprecedented museum experiences: Nintendo, on this front, has already made its move…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons for gamifying the Museum

At the height of the Covid pandemic, Nintendo launched Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a "non-game game" that lets every player escape the real world. The goal is to immerse yourself in an oasis of peace and quiet and give in to relaxing daily routines that help turn your own deserted island into the place of your dreams.

What makes Animal Crossing special is that there are no levels to complete, no challenges, bosses or princesses to save: the only real goal is to live freely on the island.

But why should this game interest cultural professionals? Because some museums have thought about making objects and artworks from their collections available to turn players' virtual homes into a personal museum, which can also be opened up to friends.

Even though the resolution of the objects displayed on Nintendo Switch may not let players fully appreciate the details and features of the works, this is a way for museums to interact with over 13 million players worldwide. But there's more.

On the occasion of International Museum Day, a stamp collection event was organized, through which players could earn various rewards. From May 18 to 31, 2020, players completed a Stamp Hunt within their own museum to earn special rewards.

Could this kind of experience be the next frontier for bringing collections to new and unexpected places, reaching new audiences?

We can't be certain, but on the other hand the classic claim that "only museums with huge budgets can venture into this kind of innovation" doesn't hold up: the discussion isn't just about budgets and funding, but rather about those who decide to be one step ahead compared to those who are slow to move, because equally innovative solutions, but less costly ones, are already a reality.