Museums are embracing digital technology in order to enrich the visitor experience and to bring exhibits to life in new and interactive ways. In a previous article, innovations from Singapore and South Korea were showcased. A look into the wonders of digital technology continues in this article.
A common theme with both articles is with each museum experience drawing on technology from Zytronic. Zytronic is a developer of touchscreens and the company also manufactures ElectroglaZ transparent power delivery technology. This concept enables electronic devices to be powered invisibly through a pane of glass.
In terms of illustrative technological innovations, the Louvre has embraced virtual reality with their immersive Mona Lisa experience. In another innovation, the Smithsonian is asking visitors to question their knowledge of mobile phones and their development through interactive games and group chats with fictional characters.
These two further innovations are explored below:
Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass: The Louvre, Paris
Running from 2019-2020, Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass, marked The Louvre’s first foray into virtual reality (VR) exhibitions. In collaboration with HTC VIVE Arts, the installation brought new life to Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting through the use of ground-breaking technology.
Visitors were able to interact with a digital imagining of Mona Lisa by wearing a VR headset. The subject of the painting is famously mysterious – not much is known about Lisa Gherardini, also known as La Gioconda. But this experience allowed for a new and layered understanding of the woman behind one of the most recognisable paintings in the world.
The aim of the installation was to invite viewers inside the universe of the painting and help them understand the historical world that Da Vinci existed within. VR experts worked to bring the Mona Lisa to ‘life’, using infrared, x-ray and 3D-modelling technology. They mapped the face seen in the painting and created an entire environment around the figure. Viewers can now see a digital version of the Mona Lisa moving and posing, as she might have looked when Da Vinci was painting her.
Visitors were immersed in the iconic painting in an entirely new and unique way, lending a new level of interactivity to art and history.
Cellphone: Unseen Connections, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
The Smithsonian’s new exhibition, focused on our mobile phones and their evolution, begins in June 2023. The installation asks visitors to consider their connection to their phone and what it means to them.
Harnessing the power of interactive technology and projective display, the experience includes an interactive group chat which visitors can contribute to, as well as a graphic novel which covers three gallery walls. Visitors can hear stories from a diverse range of people about how they have contributed to the development of our phones.
The huge graphic novel charts the influence of mobile phones on our modern lives and introduces visitors to a number of characters. Visitors can then ‘chat’ with these characters via an interactive group chat and voice their own opinions about the topics discussed.
Visitors can also play interactive games and learn how to repair a mobile phone, via a virtual programme. This exhibition submerges museum-goers into the world of mobile phone evolution, whilst also asking questions about our dependence on technology in our extremely connected world.
The interactive elements help to engage imaginations and bring a new understanding to an object we use and rely on in our everyday lives.
