Hal Robinson, Executive Education Committee, British Interactive Media Association looks at developments in interactive interpretation in museums and science centres.
Interactivity within the museums and heritage sector
Museums and heritage sites are evolving rapidly in the ways they present their environments and their collections. Gone are the days when objects were simply labelled and placed in display cases for the public to view. Gallery talks and workshops and other face-to-face activities have long formed part of their educational repertoire but, more recently, museums and heritage sites have been obliged to become more market-orientated, with a greater focus on the needs of visitors. This is at least in part a consequence of reduced public funding and the need to implement performance measures based on customer satisfaction. The trend’s dominant characteristic is to seek new ways, and above all interactive ways, of presenting their work in order to engage visitors intellectually, physically and socially.
Hands on …
In the 1960s, science and children’s museums began to introduce a range of low-tech interactives aimed at enhancing understanding of objects through physical interaction with them. Since then, recognition of the contribution that physical handling of objects can make to the learning process has resulting in the increasing use of tactile exhibits such as discovery boxes, activity drawers, replicas and models in many different types of museum.
The pioneers of ‘hands-on’ exhibits were museums in Germany (Munich’s Deutsche Museum), Israel (Tel Aviv’s Lasky Museum of Science and Technology), the USA (San Francisco’s Exploratorium) and Switzerland (Winterthur’s Technorama, the Swiss Science Centre). But the UK has caught up with the Eureka! Museum for Children, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which was established in 1992 as the first dedicated ‘hands-on’ museum in Europe. Now boasting more than 400 ‘must-touch’ exhibits designed especially for 0-11-year-olds, it also aims to encourage not only individuals but also groups of visitors working together to understand real objects or real phenomena through physical exploration.
Digital interactivity
Computer-based interactive mechanisms first appeared during the late 1980s. Over the following decade they were adopted by many museums and heritage sites and in due course were complemented by CD-ROM-based devices and then by web technology as ways to enhance the museum experience and so to attract new visitors.
However, this period also witnessed a growing body of research demonstrating that social interaction and collaboration between visitors was a prerequisite for real learning and engagement. Consequently, initial enthusiasm for computer-driven exhibits based on standard hardware and interfaces soon gave way to a view that serving just one visitor at a time was not enough. This observation, combined with awareness of the short-term appeal of over-simplified ‘explore’ and ‘stimulus-response’ functionality, led to the realisation that many of these single-user installations were of limited value in advancing museums’ learning goals.
A third dimension
Evolving beyond the ‘two-dimensional’ computer interactives, an increasing number of today’s interactive exhibits are designed with social interaction and collaboration in mind. The latest installations offer space for people to cluster around and encourage dialogue between group members. At leading science museums such as At-Bristol, Techniquest in Cardiff and Glasgow Science Centre, single-user technology is still used, but many other exhibits can be accessed simultaneously by groups of individuals whose social interaction with one another is found to enhance engagement and learning significantly. This process is represented outstandingly in the family and other groups visiting the popular hands-on gallery Launchpad in London’s Science Museum. Launchpad was relaunched in 2007 after a £4 million refit. Open to all, but aimed particularly at 8-14-year-olds and their parents and teachers, it contains more than 50 exhibits from the fascinating (but too often opaque) world of physics, and invites visitors to engage in a glorious diversity of challenges such as capturing their shadow, launching a rocket or controlling the clouds.
Both low-tech and high-tech interactives are still predominantly associated with science and children’s museums, but some distinctive variations have also found their way into other types of museum, most notably museums of history and natural history. Those installed in the Earth Galleries of London’s Natural History Museum, for instance, enable visitors to learn about plate tectonics, to discover what influences climate, and even to experience for themselves what it feels like to live through an earthquake or a volcanic eruption.
Making the past come to life
The potential for interactives to enhance the message about the function and significance of heritage sites is also increasingly appreciated. Even though still found more often on websites than in situ, interactive technology has shown itself ideally suited to the task of displaying 3D virtual models of the various stages in the history of buildings or settlements, and of recreating the living reality such places had in their day. Opportunities for visitors to experience for themselves, albeit virtually, the process of reconstruction and repair enliven the visitor experience even further. An example of such ‘digital reinstatement’ of a national treasure to its original location is the Lindisfarne Gospels at the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre in Northumberland.
A new art form?
Where art museums are concerned, the use of high-tech interactives as an integral part of display systems is still in its infancy. Despite their relatively high level of engagement with web technology, many art museum managers remain reticent to introduce interactivity into the otherwise tranquil environment of the exhibition space. There are real concerns that dynamic interactivity might distract the primary focus from the aesthetic appreciation of objects or artefacts. For this reason, assisted visitor engagement and interactivity is often restricted to the use of portable audio devices, and even those art museums that have set up multimedia areas for research and study have tended to locate them separately from the galleries.
In contrast with this reticence, the media programs installed in the refurbished British Galleries of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum have shown that a discretely-located combination of low-volume computer interactives, videos and audio presentations, facsimile books and things to touch and handle can greatly enhance understanding of objects on display without overwhelming the collection itself. Not surprisingly the V&A model has inspired similar initiatives elsewhere in the UK.
Meanwhile, contemporary artists in increasing numbers, when presenting their work in art museums have turned to interactivity as a means of engaging the viewer dynamically and even physically in their work. Multimedia presentations requiring visitor interaction now feature regularly in the programming activities of contemporary art institutions throughout the country.
Marks of success
Comparative statistics about the use of interactives in UK museums and heritage sites have yet to be collated. But there is a growing body of reports and surveys that set out the benefits of interactivity and cite examples of both good and bad practice in specific institutions. Within these there is general agreement that the use of interactives can achieve much in breaking down the elitist image of museums and heritage sites, without ‘dumbing down’, and in so doing attract members of the public who might not otherwise feel motivated to visit.
Opinions vary on what makes interactive tools effective as enhancements for learning and engagement. Nevertheless, most agree that an attractive mix of both high- and low-tech interactives, suited to a range of ages and abilities and clustered according to various levels and kinds of activity, can make an important contribution to visitor enjoyment and understanding. Simplicity and ease of use, accessibility and durability are also seen as necessary factors. Crucially, in cases where the primary purpose of the interactive is to interpret an object or objects from a collection or site, it should display synergy with the real object and not distract users from seeking to interact with the object itself.
Interacting with the future
Research has shown that the effectiveness of computer-based interactives as tools for learning and engagement in museums and heritage sites relates directly to their capacity to offer visitors genuine exploration. This should involve challenges and provide satisfaction in achievement, permitting visitors to follow their own interests as well as engaging in peer-to-peer exchange. It is already possible to create convincing digital surrogates of the ancient world using immersive 3D computer graphics. In a reversal of the notion, the availability of ‘virtual museums’ is also here. Before long, visitors to Britain’s museums and heritage sites may find themselves donning wearable devices interfaced to high-end virtual reality systems – permitting everything from do-it-themselves undersea exploration as they drive their own submersibles, to virtual encounters with holographic dinosaurs in simulated ‘Second Life’ experiences, accompanied by their friends.
For further information please contact the author on Tel: +44 (0)20 8563 9982, Email: hal@librios.com or visit: www.bima.co.uk
Article ©Hal Robinson
