Introduction
Museums are places where we can see different artifacts, collection items and art forms. Museums through its collections present a story about a person, a thing, any living or extinct being or some abstract concept. This basic concept of museum being a “pedia” of knowledge for all of us will continue to remain same in the future but the representation of that will change a lot in coming days because of the advancement in technology. Information exchange has seen a paradigm shift in the last few decades. Advent of computer followed by internet has changed the way we gather information. The Internet boom in the first few years of the century has suddenly transformed the way we interact with each other and use technology to perform daily activities. Smartphones or PDAs came as the second wave of change in the information technology domain. Smartphones, Pads and notebooks have brought the whole world to our fingertips. This transformation in communication has affected all spheres of our lives starting from education methods, car driving, connecting with near and dear ones, ordering foods, shopping and every other field we can think of. Museum has not been an exception. In fact Museums are at crossroads currently. Purists think museums should invariably have the objective of offering its visitors a unique experience of tangible pleasure. They believe that the evolution of technology apart from assisting in a few administrative domains will not affect the overall experience of a visitor. However, there is a bigger group of pundits believing that museum should provide a comprehensive experience making use of the available technologies in such a way that it attracts more visitors. This essay will discuss about the new technologies that are changing the way future museums will operate and the challenges encountered by the museums while implementing those changes.
How Technology can help build Museum of Future and its challenges?
As there is a string of different types of technologies available to enhance and enrich the experience of a museum visit, it is a question which one would be effective in its use. One of the major problems involves the loss of interest among people to visit museums. Information still attracts many of us, so does the thirst for acquiring knowledge about our past but only getting the information is not enough now. With the evolution of internet, information availability is no longer an issue; it is the way of providing the information that makes a great deal of difference. The challenge for the museums will be to provide the information at the right time, to the right people and in the right form so that it fulfills its purpose most effectively. Then the interest of the visitors in museums will spike up and in order to bring that result to fruition museums definitely should make use of technology.
However, too much usage of technology may not be a good thing as it may pose difficulty for visitors who are not tech savvy and as a result they may feel uncomfortable with the usage of new technologies. On the other hand, the absence of technology will beget a competitive disadvantage for the museum that will not be able to take full advantage of the information and assets available at its disposal. The solution is to make a right balance. Going forward this paper will throw more light upon the discrete forms of technologies used in the museums and about the future trend.
Providing the Right Information at Right Time
Museums have lot of information about each of its artifacts available. Neither can they display all of that nor can they display too little of that. Some part of that information can be relevant to one group of people and some other part of that will be relevant to some other group of people. The problem for the museums is to provide relevant information to the right group people. Therefore, museums need to follow some strategies. First, a device is needed to identify the relevant information about the interest of the visitors and then museums need to devise a strategy to present that information to the visitors.
Handheld devices are the most common and most used form of new technology in the museums. Many museums including MOMA, Natural History Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of American heritage in Palo Alto have handheld devices available for its visitors. There are some museums which have taken the usage of technology to a new level. While allowing entrance to the museum Singapore Science Centre enquires the visitors of their interests, the things they would like to explore and the amount of time they will be spending inside and all of these information are uploaded in the handheld devices. Based on the information a handheld device creates a customized tour for a group or an individual guiding them through the museum as per their input (Gyroscope, P 4). Another big advantage with handheld devices is the language used in giving information. In conventional methodology one expects to get information only in English in The British Museum, London. However, the handheld devices provided by the same museum offer audio tour in 13 different languages as well as British Sign language (The British Museum, 2013).
Art is a very specific field in any museum. Even within art people are very focused about the type of art forms or type of artists they like. J. Paul Getty Museum encourages its visitors to go online and select the art tour they would like to take before visiting the museum so that upon their arrival they are provided with a handheld which guides them through the tour chosen in the website (Getty Museum, 2013). The handheld technology has stepped into the future of the museums. Though the form may change in future from the current type of handheld devices into something more innovative, the technology is definitely here to stay. It is yet to become very popular among occasional visitors, but given a good marketing strategy and a thorough research work put in place, it will appeal to more visitors who will be willing to shell out the extra money to get an enriched experience of their visit by using handheld devices.
So the facility of providing input in the websites prior to making a visit to the museum and the handheld device updated based on that input would be a big advantage for the future museums. On the basis of the web inputs or pre tour inputs received from the visitors, handhelds will be able to design a tour customized for that particular visitor group. It will create a tour for the visitors in such a way that they only see what they like for more amount of time in the museum and do not see or spend time on things they do not like. They can also choose to hear the whole story about any artifacts in their own language. This will definitely enrich their museum visiting experience. Visitors will feel satisfied with the way they would utilize their time doing things they desire to do in the museum.
However, there is one hitch with handheld technology. Handheld devices are manufactured for a specific purpose only, in this case for the museums. If they are designed for museums they can only be used in a museum. The problem for the museum is to find manufacturers of hardware and software willing to create handheld devices customized to meet the needs of the museum. Further, manufacturing the handheld devices is an expensive affair and most of the museums are not sure of how much demand this technology will hold in the future. Another problem with handheld devices would be to find a buyer for purchasing the devices when they would become outdated. These devices also would not have much value in the market as they are designed for some specific tasks.
The problem with handheld technology from the perspective of a visitor is different. Visitors only get to use handhelds in the museum. In fact, the type of handheld devices used in two separate museums is likely to be different in build and usage. Often the visitor needs to learn operating the device before going on the museum tour. This may be an easy job for some people but may be difficult for many. Museums need to think how these issues can be overcome in the coming days to make handheld a very easy and effective device to use.
Convenience of getting the information in Future Museums
Another expectation from the visitors will be to get information about anything inside the museum in the form or mode in which they want it. Handheld gives them the information in a mode which is decided and designed by the museum and visitors need to learn it before using it. With the introduction of cell phones in museums visitors no longer need to learn a new operating system or device. Once regarded as a nuisance inside the museums, the image of cell phones is fast changing. The museums all across the country without fail make it a point to tell all the visitors to either switch off their mobile phones or keep it in silent mode while inside the museum. Those days may soon be over. Many Art museums like Doniece Sandoval of the San Jose and many more in Minneapolis, Washington and Los Angeles are providing cell phone audio tours. Tech companies 'Guide by Cell', 'Spatial Adventures' and 'Museum411’ have come up with technologies in which they hold the content in their servers for the museum and then run it in cell phones of the visitors. Museums will not require any extra hardware for providing this service. In this cell phone based service people can hear the audio content in their own cell phones. They need not load any software or need not carry any heavy handheld devices with them. This may encourage many to actually use technology in museum tours which they were not using beforehand. (Dan Goodin). Cell phones giving all the information visitors want inside the museum will be a big bonus for the visitors. The new generation of youngsters being accustomed to cells phones would love to get every piece of information on their cell phones inside the museums rather than carrying a handheld device. Future museums will certainly introduce more technologies to support the access of more information about the museum artifacts through cell phones and audio or video devices. However, the main problem with mobile technology for museums is privacy. Many may not be willing to accept any content sent to their mobile phones, but hopefully this technology with time may receive more acceptances.
Overall Experience enrichment using Movie Technology
Future museums definitely will not just be about static displays of artifacts or screening of few movies. The technological advancement is capable of exploiting much more. 3D movies are on its way and many museum auditoriums can use this technology to give visitors a unique experience. For example, in a Dinosaur gallery the visitors may actually feel like walking through a tropical savannah forestland with dinosaurs walking all around them. This type of mobilization and animation of the artifacts using movie, 3D tech and some other technologies can give a new dimension to the overall experience of museum visit. This will definitely bring back some of the visitors who have lost interest in the museums. For example, the 3D movie in the Hollywood Tour in Universal Studio created a huge spike in demand after it was introduced.
Museum beyond the Museum
Future museums will be stretching far beyond the four walls of a single building. A typical future museum may consist of several museum buildings dispersed through many parts of a city. For example, Boston Museum of Science has historical buildings and green buildings scattered all across the city. A traveler or a visitor may not trace the museum buildings easily by looking at the map or guide provided to them at the time of purchasing tickets. Boston has developed a map application which contains information about all the green houses across the city. Any visitor can go and download that application. They can then install the application in their cell phones and then as and when they move around the city the application will act as a GPS and guide them from one location to another (Gyroscope Inc.).
GPS technology will definitely be a part of the future museums as future museums are slated to go beyond a single building concept in many cases. GPS technology will give visitors an easy access to points they want to or need to visit as part of a museum visit.
Smart Information gathering
Otago Museum in Australia is using RFID tags created by SmarttagRFID and managed by Vernon Systems. This RFID tags are attached to each and every of the artifacts featured in the museum. Any person visiting museum is provided with a handheld device. When the visitor walks by an artifact, the RFID is detected by the handheld device and automatically the handheld plays the relevant information about the artifact (Vernon system, 2011). RFID is also used in the visitor entry passes and the museum keeps a tab on the RFID track when a visitor moves around the museum building.
RFID technology may not have a direct impact on many of the museum operations of future museum but it will be the silent performance driver. If used the way it is used in the above example, it will provide intelligence to the museums about the visitors’ movement pattern, artifact popularity, visitor-artifact correlation and so many other things. This will help them market products or events in the museums to the right kind of people. RFID will ensure almost error free identification of visitor behavior and pattern. This will be one of the strongest tools in the Museums of Future.
Conclusion
There are so many technological advances that have taken place in the last few decades that it is not easy for museums to make use of them all. The major technological impacts are captured in this essay. Handheld, RFID, Mobile devices will definitely create more impact in the museum technology and already are being used by many museums across the world in some form or the other. These technologies further can be used in many innovative ways to lure customers to museums. Aside from the technologies the use of social media through Facebook, Twitter, Podcasts, Blogs, customized websites and web cam tours will definitely provide visitors with a personalized touch that they have never experienced in conventional museum tours. Absence of new technologies in the future museums will not help the museums grow. Proper use of new technologies will definitely create future museums a happier and brighter place for everyone.
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