Experiments with Mobile Drama in an Instrumented Museum for Inducing Conversation in Small Groups

Abstract

Small groups can have a better museum visit when that visit is both a social and an educational occasion. The unmediated discussion that often ensues during a shared cultural experience, especially when it is with a small group whose members already know each other, has been shown by ethnographers to be important for a more enriching experience. We present DRAMATRIC, a mobile presentation system that delivers hourlong dramas to small groups of museum visitors. DRAMATRIC continuously receives sensor data from the museum environment during a museum visit and analyzes group behavior from that data. On the basis of that analysis, DRAMATRIC delivers a series of dynamically coordinated dramatic scenes about exhibits that the group walks near, each designed to stimulate group discussion. Each drama presentation contains small, complementary differences in the narrative content heard by the different members of the group, leveraging the tension/release cycle of narrative to naturally lead visitors to fill in missing pieces in their own drama by interacting with their fellow group members. Using four specific techniques to produce these coordinated narrative variations, we describe two experiments: one in a neutral, nonmobile environment, and the other a controlled experiment with a full-scale drama in an actual museum. The first experiment tests the hypothesis that narrative differences will lead to increased conversation compared to hearing identical narratives, whereas the second experiment tests whether switching from presenting a drama using one technique to using another technique for the subsequent drama will result in increased conversation. The first experiment shows that hearing coordinated narrative variations can in fact lead to significantly increased conversation. The second experiment also serves as a framework for future studies that evaluate strategies for similar adaptive systems.

Empirical Evaluations of Interactive Systems in Cultural Heritage

“…These works typically are organized into a comparative evaluation, like the work of Ijaz et al (2016) who conducted an evaluation study of their proposed system (virtual world, city of Uruk) with three groups of students (n=20) who used the system in contrast to a book and a video. In addition, some systems investigate user engagement (9.4%, 5/53), although this is not always explicitly declared as such but with statements like 'increased conversations among groups of users' for the case of DRAMATRIC, a mobile presentation system that delivers hour-long dramas to small groups of museum visitor (Callaway et al 2014); or 'usage time' for the case of the installation for the visualization of a 3D reconstruction of a castle chapel (Madsen and Madsen, 2016).…”

“…Another considerable number of systems allow users to identify POIs in urban cultural sites as well as inside buildings of cultural value (15.1%, 8/53), like the work of Duguleana et al (2016) who present a mobile application that allows outdoor exploration of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy) and the nearby Cathedral and the Baptistery, throughout different periods of time. In addition, several systems present to the user some kind of fiction or plot (13.2%, 7/53), like DRAMATRIC (Callaway et al 2014), which is a mobile presentation system that delivers hour-long dramas to small groups of museum visitors.…”

“…of publications Anagnostakis et al 2016;Andreoli et al 2016;Arends et al 2012;Bellotti et al 2012;Bellucci et al 2015;Callaway et al 2014;Chalvatzaras et al 2014;Coenen et al 2013;Correia et al 2014;Creed et al 2013;Di Franco et al 2015;. Diaz et al 2014;Duguleana et al 2016;Falvo, 2015;Floch and Jiang 2015;Froschauer et al 2013;Georgiadi et al 2016;Graf et al 2015;Han et al 2014;Huang et al 2013;Ijaz et al 2016;Jylhä et al 2015; Kassapakis et al 2016;Katsouri et al 2015;Kennedy et al 2013;Koutsabasis and Vosinakis, 2016;Loizides et al 2014;Lorenzini et al 2015; Madsen and Madsen, 2015;Maina and Suleman, 2015;Marshall et al 2016;Marton et al 2014;McCaffery et al 2015;O'Keefe and Benyon, 2015;O'Sullivan et al 2014;Panayiotou and Lanitis, 2016;Pietroni and Adami, 2014;Rennick-Egglestone et al 2016;Reunanen et a;2015;Rizvić and Skalonjić 2015; Rojas et al 2015;Rubino et al 2015;Shih et al 2015;…”

Accessible Cultural Heritage through Explainable Artificial Intelligence

“…Visitors preferences have been studied [13], and more engaging approaches have been proposed for stimulating the visitor interests by using presentations such as film or drama [14]. The drama was adapting to the visitors so that different available independent drama segments were played to be group based on characteristics of the group of visitors, the specific context of the visit, and implicit input from the visitors themselves.…”

Investigating the Artist’s Role in Social Group Games

“…The value of social interactions during cultural visits is advocated in several museum studies [1]. Aiming to foster verbal communication between a pair or group of visitors, research and commercial works have exploited a variety of techniques, ranging from synchronized audio listening [2,3], to creating shared projection spaces [4,6], or/and offering content variations on the mobile phones of the group members [5,6] to promote information exchange between the participants. Several group games have also been proposed to that end, ranging from short quizzes, puzzles and shared "enigmas" [13,16], to scavenger hunt and role-playing approaches [14, 15,18] or collaborative story crafting [17].…”