Tech Links
Examining Participation vis-à-vis Digitized Museum Objects through Socratic Dialogue: Diversity Perspectives in the Participatory Experience of DigitaltMuseum and Thingiverse Visitors
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne Ogundipe
This study contributes to the development of a relational, object-based understanding of participation. Despite the recent material and participatory turns in the humanities and social sciences, co-examining efforts within a context of aesthetics (i.e. culturally embedded sensation and perception) have been limited in number. Though oft employed in discourse on digitization, the notion of participation remains resistant to clear-cut definition. In order to discuss the notion’s ambiguous content and examine aesthetic and techno-cultural diversity dimensions of participatory experience, Socratic dialogue (SD) is used. SD allows participants to thoroughly reflect on their own experience, as they strive to agree on answers to the question posed. SD is rarely used in empirical research, and the study contributes to further development of the method in a qualitative research context. The study is a phenomenological analysis of online museum visitors’ reflections on accessing digitized artworks on Norwegian web museum portal DigitaltMuseum.no and online 3D design community Thingiverse.com. Through visitors’ attempts to answer the question “what does it entail to participate when encountering an aesthetic object?” the participatory potential of photographic and 3D rendered digital surrogate objects and the platforms on which they appear is explored, while co-examining perspectives of participation and materiality.
Sharing Heritage at the Lubbock Lake Landmark through 3D Technologies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Susan Rowe, Jessica Stepp, Eileen Johnson
Technology represents a set of tools museums leverage to connect with visitors. The Lubbock Lake Landmark (Landmark), an active archaeological and nature preserve in Lubbock, Texas, utilizes 3D models and 3D printed objects in the exhibit “Engaging Folsom (10,800-10,200) Hunter-Gatherers with 3D Technologies.” The exhibit has created an opportunity for additional inclusive educational programming that introduces visitors with a variety of learning levels to 3D technologies. The programs include 3D modeling and photogrammetry workshops and summer youth camps. The Landmark’s summer youth programs give students, ages nine to twelve, the opportunity to explore 3D technologies with two-weeks of activities focused on exhibit development. The pilot program “Exhibits and 3D Printed Artifacts” combines science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) curriculum techniques with twenty-first-century learning skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. During the camp, students create an exhibit about the Landmark and use 3D modeling and 3D printing to bring their designs to life. The exhibit is displayed at the Landmark’s Learning Center. The objective of improving a student’s information and communication technology abilities is reached through the exhibit creation activity. Students share their understanding of the Landmark’s natural and cultural heritage by experimenting with emerging technologies.
Perceptions and Experiences of Selected Participants Engaging with a Digitally Curated Environmental Outsider Art Collection
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Richard Higgs, Sarah Schäfer
This study uses the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda as an exemplar for interrogating the possibilities of digital curation in South Africa. It draws on a conceptual framework encompassing the digital humanities, museology, Baudrillard’s notion of simulation, as well as contemporary research and similar studies. Digital curation of a Visionary Environment, which falls within the ambit of Outsider Art, is a largely unprecedented practice. This qualitative study is situated in a social constructivist paradigm and uses elements of a phenomenological approach. As an instance of qualitative research, at the heart of this study is an emphasis on understanding how people construct their realities and interpret their experiences. The experiences of interpreting and viewing digital artifacts outside of a museum are not the same as viewing them in real life. This inevitably changes the way that someone experiences and interprets a collection. The challenge of digitizing a museum is thus to understand what this transformation process (physical to digital) does to the integrity of the original collection. Digitisation within museums offers so many possibilities, especially in the context of site-specific museums that are largely inaccessible. A digitally curated collection of high-quality digital media can allow for a museum like the Owl House to be visited digitally, and moreover, that visitors can have a rich and layered museum experience. The data for this study was collected from interviews with participants who engaged with a digitized sub-collection of the Owl House.
Hack your Ethno Heritage!
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zvjezdana Antos
Hack your ethno heritage is a project of the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb (2017-2019). It aims to find innovative ways to present, promote, and reuse museum collections by using new technologies like artificial intelligence applications (AI) for new permanent exhibitions. Audience development is an integral part of the project. This includes involving and motivating young people and non-users who are interested in new technologies (ICT specialists, students, designers, freelancers, amateurs) in planning and creating content (co-creation); and the testing and development (co-programming) of the mobile application for a new permanent exhibition at hackathon. This paper explores the project realized in cooperation with Zagreb University of Applied Sciences IT Design and Technology students during which several groups of interested students worked together to explore museum collections and co-create a series of digital responses. Cooperation included two visits and guided tours to the old permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions in the Ethnographic Museum, familiarizing themselves with the museum's information assets behind the scenes, and lectures about mobile museum applications and good museum practice examples. The outputs, eight designs for the mobile application and a research study about the museum, were presented, led and evaluated by participants. In November 2018, a "hack marathon" is coming up for students and others interested in IT to work on testing and development of novel solutions through co-programming of the mobile application.
