{"id":301872,"date":"2025-06-06T15:44:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T13:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amuseapp.art\/the-metaverse-for-museums\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T15:44:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T13:44:52","slug":"the-metaverse-for-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amuseapp.art\/en\/the-metaverse-for-museums\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metaverse for Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, we have been players in phygital<\/strong> andonlife<\/strong>, a situation that leads us to live in a constant contamination and mixing of the real and virtual.<\/p>\n\n

Today, however, this experience is getting closer and closer to having a \u201cclearer\u201d area of action, where instead of simply viewing a content, we will find ourselves moving within it.<\/strong> We will experience a place that will not simply surpass reality, but will be a space that, according to our friend Fabio Viola<\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n

\u201cgoes beyond the mere idea of digitizing physical experiences by creating new ways of action, interaction and reaction by taking advantage of virtual reality, blockchain, nft and immersiveness, which have now come to full maturity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

This space is now known to everyone as the metaverse<\/em><\/strong>: with this article we will try to understand whether and to what extent it will affect the museum sector. <\/p>\n\n

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What is the Metaverse and why you should care about it <\/h2>\n\n
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“The metaverse is like sex for teenagers: <\/em><\/p>\n\n

everyone talks about it, no one really knows how to do it, <\/em><\/p>\n\n

But everyone thinks others do it, so they say they do it.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n

(semicit. Dan Ariely). <\/p>\n\n

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Although the name is traced back to writer Neal Stephenson<\/strong>, who created the word to describe the virtual environment in which the digital avatar of the protagonist of the dystopian novel Snow Crash<\/em> (1992) lived, the first time I began to understand the real implications of the concept of the metaverse<\/em> was through the words of Matthew Ball<\/strong>(HERE<\/a> his blog). <\/p>\n\n

The promise of the metaverse is to enable greater overlap of our digital and physical lives through a combination and amplification of multiple elements of technology<\/strong> (AR, VR, video) made everyday through wearable devices.<\/p>\n\n

At the same time, our behaviors and actions in the metaverse will influence what happens and appears in everyday life thanks to forms of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Ownership of objects, bought and created, will be physical and digital thanks to blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, without friction or barriers to entry. <\/p>\n\n

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American singer Travis Scott in his concert within the video game Fortnite has exceeded 12 million viewers <\/p>\n\n

Proponents of the metaverse envision a future in which we can go to work, meet, live and spend leisure time using holograms<\/strong> that will allow us to virtualize once exclusively physical experiences. <\/p>\n\n

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The revolution at the gates: Meta and Big Tech aim for the Metaverse<\/h2>\n\n
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As evidence that we are at the beginning of what will be a revolutionary stage in the tech world, of a change that could be epochal, I share with you an excerpt of the thoughts of Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong>, founder and CEO of Facebook,<\/strong> taken from the Founder’s Letter, 2021<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

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“In recent decades, technology has given people the power to connect and express themselves more naturally. When I started Facebook, we mostly typed text on websites. When we had phones with cameras, the Internet became more visual and mobile. When connections became faster, video became a richer way to share experiences. We went from desktop to web to mobile; from text to photos to video. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

But this is not the end of the line.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The next platform will be even more immersive-an embodied Internet where you are in the experience, not just watching it. We call it the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence-as if you were right there with another person or in another place. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

To feel truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

That is why we are focusing on building this.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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On the same day, the birth of Meta<\/strong>, the company that controls Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger and Oculus services, was announced. <\/p>\n\n

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<\/a>Not only a new name, but also a new vision for the new creature (in Greek, m\u00e8ta means \u201cafter, beyond,\u201d and is meant to symbolize the opening of a new corporate chapter aimed at building the Metaverse).<\/p>\n\n

Meta is a \u201csocial technology<\/em> company ,\u201d<\/em> which is a company that produces technologies that help people connect<\/strong>, find communities<\/strong>, and grow businesses<\/strong> Beyond the current two-dimensionality. The horizon is to bring <\/strong> immersive experiences such as those of augmented and virtual reality, to help build the next evolution of social technology.<\/p>\n\n

But Zuckerberg is not alone. <\/p>\n\n

Indeed, given the possible applications in the social, gaming and business genres, the metaverse is also attracting the growth ambitions of a variety of tech companies(Epic Games<\/strong>, Tencent<\/strong>, Microsoft<\/strong> foremost among them), each intent on competing to create its own metaverse. <\/p>\n\n

And this affects you closely. <\/p>\n\n

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Toward a Metaverse for the world of culture<\/h2>\n\n
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Of the need to create tailored experiences for museum visitors, we talked about it starting with the <\/strong>revolution<\/strong> BYOD<\/strong><\/a> underway. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Other thoughts had also emerged during the discussion on topics such as immersive exhibits<\/strong>, augmented reality<\/strong>, and video games<\/strong> (to get an idea read The new frontiers of the museum experience<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

But what exactly will happen to museums? What will they become? <\/p>\n\n

It is Zuckerberg<\/strong> himself who facilitates the task by taking us inside his vision of the metaverse in Meta’s first commercial set in a museum of all places.<\/p>\n\n

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Four students are looking at French artist Henri Rousseau<\/strong> ‘s work (“Fight between a tiger and a buffalo”) when, at one point, they find themselves immersed in the painting, among the 3-D animals and drumming theme music in the background.<\/p>\n\n

Will this actually be the case? <\/p>\n\n

I decided to ask Fabrizio Gramuglio<\/strong>, former speaker at the Italian Museum Summit<\/a> and founder and CEO of XPLUS-a<\/strong> startup whose goal is to enable everyone to have unlimited experiences by removing all geographic, economic and physical barriers-an opinion on the matter. <\/p>\n\n

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The word from Fabrizio Gramuglio<\/h3>\n\n
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“Without a doubt, metaverses represent – and will represent in the coming months – the new trend capable of bringing together social lovers, investors, technocrats and gamers. I mention the latter because they are the target audience that is well acquainted with these new universes and has already been frequenting them for years. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

At the risk of being repetitive, one cannot fail to mention the success of Fortnite, which, with its 350 million subscribers <\/a>, has been able to transform itself from a \u201cgame\u201d (for gamers, a battle royale) into a real social universe capable of entertaining with events and concerts with tens of millions of viewers<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Not coincidentally, Epic games, producer of Fortnite, announced on April 13 this year<\/a> an investment of $1 billion in the creation of its metaverse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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But back to our Meta.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Regarding the great promise of Facebook, if you had the pleasure of attending Zuckerberg’s keynote presentation(find the short version on Youtube<\/a>), many of you will have noticed a couple of things, including:<\/em><\/p>\n\n