When it comes to the blending of digital and physical in the realm of history, I prefer to focus on not what are we doing today, like the digitization of documents or the running of a website, but on where we will be moving forward towards. Then coupling that with the best way to involve the public and you really find yourself more into the sphere of experience design (not UX design) and telling the story of a location or exhibit. I guess I operate on the notion that every single historic document should be scanned, available online, and searchable is basic fact and therefore not something we need to discuss.
The developments of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will really be the next steps of bringing history to life. Embracing the technological advances will allow museums to fully immerse visitors in an experience, to thoroughly encapsulate them in a moment in time.
A historic house museum could have VR tours of the house in different decades without having to physically change their furnishing plan. Then using a 3D printer, they could even replicate some items for guests to interact with. Or even an AR filter in their app which lets you see different interpretations, whether it be different decades or something as simple as seasons, on your phone screen while retaining their basic house interpretation in reality.
This of course means investing in tech far more difficult to use that the basic blog and website, which may prove to be costly in the short term. Never mind the fact that far too many museums and historic sites have difficulty maintaining a website. There may even be backlash from the notion of museums becoming more of an educational for of entertainment.
The notes for this week discuss the differences between handling an actual old piece of parchment versus reading it scanned vs reading it transcribed and the emotional differences, but what if that original piece of parchment was recreated? There would be no worry about the loss of an artifact and then museum visitors could get the full experience. This of course would be more meaning full with an object like a Viking shield or Roman helmet.
Mostly the use of VR and AR has been segregated to the realm of just entertainment and gaming. But the idea of a game does not have to be something devoid of learning, nor is entertainment bad.
The VR Titanic kickstarter is a example of the real-nonreal. It proposes to allow people the experience to explore the ship while it sails as well as the experience of the ships demise.
A common theme currently is diving or deep sea VR adventures as there are at least two I am aware of: UnderCurrent and World of Diving. I've actually played World of Diving and is is absolutely fascinating, as I am sure the others are as well. It was my first VR experience at the VALA Eastside art gallery in Seattle, and what really had me interested is the fact that they had mapped specific oceans, down to some of the artifacts that could be found around plane wrecks. Just think of the archeological possibilities! How students can be trained for underwater salvages, how to explore wrecks after they have been recovered, or if combined with more science, recreate the decay process of the artifacts.
The Real NonReal can easily be seen in the viewing of any kind of
painting. You can see Titian's online all day, but nothing compares to
standing in front of one of his giant paintings. Like seeing a Monet,
Manet, or any of the Impressionists really. The sheer size and the
vibrance of colors cannot be understood from a computer screen. And
while these may not be considered local references, the basic idea can
be applied to any and every item.
There are just so many possibilities if the real and non-real are allowed to exist together for they both have their place and uses.
Well done on this. What many small museums don't realize is that a really great website, or VR experience, will bring people to the museum
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