Home » Interactive paths, augmented reality and digital collections: innovative technologies for transforming cultural institutions

Interactive paths, augmented reality and digital collections: innovative technologies for transforming cultural institutions

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Virtual workshops and guided tours, applications, digitization of collections, podcasts: in the many transformations that the pandemic has brought with it, cultural institutions have been unable to help but accelerate their propensity for digital, placing it as an alternative to use in presence. Once again (finally) open, the museums, sometimes made vaccination hubs if necessary, as in the case of the Science Museum in Milan or the Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo, have returned to welcome visitors. What can we hold back from this momentum towards technology, which has suddenly become necessary even for the most suspicious?

The digital evolution that affects the world of culture, in particular in terms of production and use, is at the center of a wide scientific debate. Are we in the presence of a new form of expression, or in a more radical sense are we facing a new form of language capable of activating social implications?

From the evidence, it is clear that if certain attempts by some institutions turned out to be contingent views, for example developed exclusively around social media, others were articulated in a more organic and innovative way. Projects, therefore, not in antithesis but to complement the visit in the presence, part of a strategic and dynamic process aimed at widening and diversifying the public and improving the conditions of use.

Concrete examples are the three (out of 57 projects submitted by 49 cultural institutions) finalist projects of the Spina Award, established by the Digital Innovation Observatory in Cultural Heritage and Activities of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, BreraPLUS+ is the online platform created by the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, which, as director James Bradburne points out, “increases the visitor experience, in order to combine the two forms to enjoy the contents of the museum”. In its first six months, the platform, which is constantly updated, hosted 30,000 users. By replacing the concept of visitor with that of a member and the ticket with that of a free card, the user / visitor is offered an interactive and customizable navigation through multimedia contents, documentaries, special programs, concerts, previews.

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Augmented reality and virtual reality are instead the technologies of Circo Maximo Experience, an innovative enhancement project promoted by the Department of Cultural Growth of Roma Capitale and by the Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage. For the first time the Circus can be visited in all its historical phases through interactive technologies, immersive viewers and stereo ear systems, in a journey lasting about 40 minutes available in eight languages.

Finally, the winning project, MARCH 3.0, by the director Eva Degl’Innocenti, consisting of a series of actions implemented by the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto: from technological innovations for the back office, to the 3D virtual tour, of the creative and digital craftsmanship of the Museum’s Fab Lab – between 3D printers and scanners, but also Arduino technologies and other digital devices – up to the digitization of over 40 thousand works in open data and open source. In addition, a new set-up is in progress, an exhibition itinerary that will be enhanced by immersive content and artificial intelligence. “The” MArTA 3.0 “is a project of education and research, innovation, inclusion and development – underlines the director Eva Degl’innocenti – which sees the museum at the center of an osmotic and proactive process of social formation, civic innovation and sustainable development in a vision of archeology to the future “. Digital channels, therefore, intended not only as a means of promotion and information, but as a means of disseminating knowledge.

According to the latest report by the Digital Innovation Observatory in Cultural Heritage and Activities, thanks to digital the opportunity has opened up to rethink the relationship with the user as an extended experience, in time and space, as it is not confined to place and time of the on-site experience, but potentially continuous and accessible from anywhere and at any time.

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In the survey conducted between February and April 2021 on a sample of 561 Italian museums and archaeological areas, there are encouraging data: if 80% offered at least one content online during the closing months, more generally 95% of cultural institutions has a website, 83% an official account on social networks – with a strong growth in the presence on Instagram compared to 2020 -, almost half offers workshops and educational activities online (48%), as well as tours and guided visits (45 %) and 70% have published the digitized collection on their website. A small percentage, 13%, jumped into podcasting. One in four cultural institutions makes an application available to its users. Despite this, the institutions that have created a structured and sustainable strategic innovation plan are still a minority, or 24%, exactly like a year ago.

“Today it would seem that the widespread awareness has been reached that physical and digital are not mutually exclusive – he underlines Eleonora Lorenzini, Director of the Digital Innovation Observatory in Cultural Heritage and Activities – but rather that they complement each other. However, if a certain level of approximation in the production of digital content was acceptable in the emergency period, it is now necessary to invest in ad hoc products and in the skills necessary for their creation, management and promotion. This is in order to avoid a mere digital translation of services previously offered in presence and instead offer a specific selection for online use to be integrated with direct physical experience, in order to guarantee usability unthinkable until just a few months ago. “.

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To understand the processes in progress and the changes in cognitive styles that are taking place, it is essential not to oppose the theses of the apologists of technology to those of its detractors. Between “apocalyptic traditionalists” and “digital residents” – as a research of a few years ago by Censis with Istituto Treccani called them – it is possible what Walter Benjamin figured as a mysterious appointment, between generations that have been and those that are.

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