Exploring relationships between museum artefacts through spatial interaction

Abstract

We propose a novel approach, which involves visitors physically manipulating visual representations of artefacts and scanning with their mobile phone different groups or sequences of items in order to reveal digital information about their relationships. To explore this interaction mechanism we collaborated with a museum to develop an interactive paper map, on which visitors can place tangible representations of artefacts and scan the resulting arrangements. Based on an in-situ study of its use, we reveal that museum visitors engaged in different strategies for exploration of relationships between artefacts in the museum collection (inspection, strategic and experimental configuration), and for social collaboration (sharing the interaction space, adopting interaction roles and sharing a reaction to the "reveal"). We discuss how future interactive installations can accommodate these behaviors.

Choice, Negotiation, and Pluralism: a Conceptual Framework for Participatory Technologies in Museum Collections

“…When designing for deliberation, in a Habermasian perspective participation in a public sphere is about having access to communicative tools and belonging to a community (for example sharing the same language and culture). In HCI-research on museum practices, this can be about engaging the audience in the development of the museum (Ali et al 2018;Antoniou et al 2016;B et al 2016;Lu et al 2019), creating new forms of storytelling (Fosh et al 2016;Muntean et al 2015;R. Taylor et al 2015), or emphasizing the museum as a public sphere where history is negotiated (Affleck and Kvan 2008).…”

Examining Elementary Social Studies Preservice Teachers’ Dispositional Thinking about Museum Pedagogy

“…Researchers have examined museum visitors’ actions with artifacts. They found that participants “engaged in different strategies to explore relationships between artifacts [inspection plus strategic and experimental configuration] and for social collaboration [communicating] within the interaction space, adopting interaction roles, and sharing reactions” even with people they did not previously know (Ali, Bedwell, & Kolevap, 2020, p. 1).…”

Un-authorised View: Leveraging Volunteer Expertise in Heritage

“…HCI work with communities outside heritage management institutions include Taylor [64] who designed with residents of an inner city area in the UK, helping them celebrate their architectural heritage despite social prejudices. Similarly, 1 Country houses in the UK are historic properties, often with sizeable land holdings, normally several centuries old (often with older foundations), which are associated with the 'landed gentry' or aristocracy, which are opened to visitors as historic tourist Terracciano et al [66] explore a multisensory digital interface with diverse communities to facilitate intercultural exchange and democratise decision-making processes in cultural heritage. Schofield et al [55] also position their work with communities outside the institutions managing the site.…”

“…We focus our work on an 18 th century Baroque country house 1 , in the North-East of England (herein referred to as 'SD'). The defining event of this property is a fire in 1822 attractions.…”

“…These changes in heritage studies recognise the power-play present in institutionally authorised narratives, acknowledge increased demands of participatory culture and the need to add value for wider audiences [58]. HCI research in this multi-faceted heritage environment has largely focused around designing for visitors' engagement [1,2], on the importance of interaction and facilitating the need for social experience of heritage sites and telling stories [26,27,69], reconnecting to material objects [40,46] and incorporating play [22,65]. This is the author-created version of 'Un-authorised View: Leveraging Volunteer Expertise in Heritage'.…”