Future Museums
Virtual Reality and Van Gogh Collide -
Technology is Turning Museums into a Booming Industry.
- Towards Tomorrow
Museums are not history. They are embracing gamification, NFTs and metaverses. Visitor numbers at the world's most famous museums have dropped by as much as 77% during COVID, increasing the urgency for the cultural sector to diversify its revenue streams.
While attendance will recover as restrictions ease, numbers may never return to pre-COVID levels as consumers now want a different experience. To survive in the long term, museums must respond to the growing demand for digital content and "closer to home" and "at-home experiences."
Rapidly advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will impact human life in the near future. Conscious machines can evolve to enhance our minds and bodies, reorganize our family lives, and manage complex social and economic systems. This transformation will bring new opportunities and challenges.
Facing tomorrow, museums now more than ever need to keep up with technological developments that will irrevocably change the way they interact with their visitors and manage their services.
- Technology for Museums
As technology revolutionizes art consumption, museums are seeking the largest number of visitors ever. From human augmentation to emotional machines and superintelligent algorithms, a range of new gadgets have been added to their collection, such as iPad-guided gallery tours, eye-tracking devices that track gaze, and symbol decoding software.
Museums use many technologies, including:
- Preservation technology: Includes artifact monitoring systems, climate-controlled storage, and artifact tracking
- Augmented reality: Allows museums to overlay digital information, such as images, text, or 3D models, onto real-world objects and environments
- Digital mapping solutions: Provide visitors with a seamless navigation experience
- Visitor flow technology: Helps museums understand how people experience their exhibits
- Interactive technologies: Include apps, QR codes, touch screens, virtual and augmented reality, and many other interactive technologies
Other interactive technologies: Include motion-sensing games on floors and walls, tactile solutions, projections, and many others
- Virtual Reality (VR)
Our generation grew up on video games. The goal is to make media that speak their language, for example, virtual reality (VR) is an incredible form of experiential storytelling. But the number of consumers able to use smart devices and the increasing computing power of those devices is staggering and will open up new possibilities. These new possibilities include technological innovations in invisible and conversational interfaces, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into museums and cultural experiences.
Virtual reality offers your visitors a new and engaging experience without taking up a lot of space in your museum. Visitors can virtually tour the museum, explore different time periods and locations, and play games using virtual reality technology.
Part of what makes virtual reality exciting is that the technology is still relatively hard to come by because of the price and the space required to have your own virtual reality headset at home. Trying out this new innovative technique is a great way to attract new people to your museum and engage them in exciting ways.
- Immersive Exhibitions
Many museums deal with young people not participating in exhibitions because they are not as immersive as possible. Video walls solve this problem, allowing you to create immersive environments that immerse visitors in, as well as huge artwork displays or large touchscreen walls. Help younger visitors feel a greater connection to your exhibit by making them immersive.
- Goals for the Museum of the Future
Learn about the dynamic nature of our cultural, political and economic landscape, which directly impacts how we interact with museums. It helps museums navigate the future.
The museum of the future aims to:
- Monitor cultural, technological, political, and economic trends critical to museums.
- Equip museums to help their communities meet the challenges of the future.
- Forge strong connections between museums and educational, corporate, civic, nonprofit, and government organizations.
[More to come ...]