This chapter consists of the following sections:
Visiting a museum is a "multimedia" experience. Since the first written explanatory label was placed in an exhibition museum, visitors have gathered information both by looking at things and by reading about them. Multimedia is simply a combination of two or more different media. Computerized systems form part of a long tradition of interpretive and explanatory technologies and techniques that follow slide shows, text plates, and dioramas.
Multimedia makes use of computers to store, combine, retrieve, and present information from a variety of media, and enable user-defined interactive navigation through the sources. A multimedia database of text, images, and sound can be searched quickly. The results of the search can be displayed locally or communicated over a network to a user in a remote location. These capabilities open up a wealth of possibilities in all areas of museum activity, including education/interpretation, curatorial, research or documentation.
Strictly defined, multimedia results when two or more media are combined to provide information about a subject. The media may be text, drawings, graphics, still photographs, moving images from film or video, and audio. Interactive multimedia enables communication between the multimedia system and its user, enabling the user to control the sequence and presentation of information. This in contrast to a film, for instance, which is a linear, meant to be seen by a passive viewer from start to finish.
Interactive media requires input from the user. The user must make choices, ask questions or define search criteria to activate the system and retrieve information from it. Multimedia is not by definition interactive; it can be presented as a linear performance like a slide show with additional effects. Interactive media is not necessarily multimedia; it can be based on a single media such as text. Encyclopedias where never intended to be read from beginning to end, and some new books are constructed as interactive media, where the information is dependent on the readers' choice. Within museums, interactive multimedia can be used in a variety of ways.
Interactivity is important for the users' method of navigation. Some systems are constructed hierarchically and the choices must be made on menus until the 'bottom' of the system has been reached. Others are constructed following hypertext principles, which means that pieces of information are linked together in a web and that users may browse in the system by activating the links, which may be marked in various ways. Of the two principles the latter exploits to a much greater extent the capabilities of the computer to handle large amounts of data and cross references in a flexible way.
A combination of the two principles is often employed, simply because a hierarchy is necessary for the user in order to choose a subject and because the hypertext structure without hierarchical structure can confuse the user's navigation.
The physical storage media is dependent on the intended use of the system, the target group, and the method of distribution. Not many years ago the only electronic media for storing images and film on a large scale were analog videodiscs which had to be externally linked to databases and programs stored on a computer. With the advent of digital video compression techniques it is today possible to integrate video, graphics, audio, databases, and programs in an all digital form. Digital media file formats are not standardized, however, and range from a computer's local hard disk to a variety of formats like CD-ROM, CD-I, DV-I, Photo-CD.
Multimedia installations in museum galleries can range from a single interactive video-kiosk in a special exhibition to a totally integrated exhibition and information environment with technology as the supporting element. When multimedia is featured in an exhibition design or interpretive plan, its target audience can be defined as the visitors to that exhibition. Fully integrating multimedia into museum operations requires extending this definition of audience to include museum visitors, researchers, and staff., whether in the museum or working remotely locally, nationally, or globally.
Exhibitions include supplementary interpretive material to provide information about an object, work of art or artifact which is not apparent from its visual appearance. This contextual information enables the visitor to understand and appreciate it more fully. Multimedia interpretive systems, which include sound, images, moving pictures, graphics, and text can provide a broader range of information, and enhance the visitors experience.
Within the traditional gallery environment, an object can only be exhibited in a limited context, such as its provenance, function of chronological sequence. Multimedia databases provide the opportunity to position a particular work on more than one continuum, enabling comparison and interpretation.
Limited gallery space often means museums can only exhibit a small portion of their collections. Multimedia databases enable the introduction of comparable works, which might not otherwise be seen. Interactive image manipulation capabilities can make it possible for a visitor to compare and contrast objects, and to examine works in detail. This maybe particularly useful to the specialist researcher.
Multimedia kiosks can also be used to provide visitors with general information about the museum, its building, and the subject it interprets. It may be possible, for example, to out a floor plan, identifying the location of a particular work. General systems may also include a game or quiz to test visitor knowledge, or provide a place for the visitor to comment on their museum experiences.
The museum visit can be enhanced by means of multimedia systems in which the narrative style has been emphasized, similar to advanced computer games or even virtual reality. These systems emphasize the experiential nature of visiting museums like the Yorvik Viking Center in York. This type of interpretation is not yet common in museums; it has been criticized for diverting the attention of visitors from original artifacts.
Another means of encouraging involvement invites the visitor to play an active role as a part of the exhibition. It may be done by providing the visitor with a identity card, to be used to activate information kiosks in the exhibition. If the card is coded with the visitors name, it suggests that the computer is conversing with this individual visitor (AT&T's visitor center, New York). The identification of the visitor of the exhibition can also be used to provide him/her with further information such as lists of relevant literature and a summary of the kiosks the visitor actually used during the visit (Information Age exhibition, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.) Both of these exhibitions deal with information technology making the media a natural interpretational tool.
More often multimedia is used as stand-alone kiosks which can be used to get more information and understanding about an exhibition. The understanding can be provided by means of simulations like the construction of a sailing ship with hull, equipment and cargo to show why a big 16th century vessel sunk after only a short sailing. The ship 'constructed' by the user can be tested under different simulated wind conditions, all in computer graphics (Vasa Museum, Stockholm).
Interactive multimedia is excellent as an enhanced exhibition catalog. A database can be constructed containing a complete catalog with basic documentation and images of all objects in the exhibition. Basic information can be combined with background about maker, genres, subjects, provenance, and techniques. Search facilities take advantage of all these categories, a printed floor plan with the chosen objects marked so that the visitor can plan a tour in the gallery (Micro Gallery at National Gallery, London).
An non-traditional catalog tells different stories about the same object. For example an ethnographical object brought into an European museum in the beginning of the century, can be interpreted by a missionary, a business man, a tourist and a curator from the island where the object originated from. These different points of view illustrate ethical and political issues embodied in artifacts. (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England).
An entire exhibition can provide the basis for a multimedia database. Digital images can be positioned in three dimensional "virtual space". The navigation through the exhibition is done on the monitor by pointing right, left, up or down along the walls and close ups of objects can be seen by pointing at them (Galleria Spada, Rome).
Outside the museum walls, multimedia is ideal for distribution to the professional 'market', the educational world as well as the consumer market. Several museums have already produced resource discs (videodiscs or compact discs), while the production of educational material and entertaining publications is growing, sometimes in a hybrid version under the name of "edutainment".
The question of data exchange between museums and the possibilities of joint productions with material from several museums are aspects that require consideration. The media itself are not important, apart from problems with standards, which make it difficult for a producer to choose acceptable and 'long-lived' media. The rapid development of new physical media and especially the growth of of Internet over the last few years -which showed the inclusion of a growing number of museum services on World Wide Web- underlines that more attention should be paid to issues such as user interface, system construction, navigation and content rather than to technical issues.
It is evident that technology should not be introduced for its own sake but only when it helps to fulfil a clearly defined purpose.
Multimedia is a phenomenon with many variations. Some systems deal with a single topic on a very detailed level while others are content to address a broad range of topics on a less detailed level. The success of a multimedia system is dependent on the user friendliness of the content as well as the user interface. Both must be tailored to the needs of the user.
An exhibition system in most cases will be designed more simply than a system distributed to the educational world, where it can be expected that users will spend some time to learn the 'language' of the system. And yet there will be no final key to designing user interfaces as it must be expected that multimedia literacy will grow following the increased use of multimedia in all areas of human activity. Given the speed of the technical development only one thing is sure: we have seen only a small part of the possibilities multimedia will provide in various situations and a lot of experiments are still needed before it can be judged where to set the limits for its use in museum work.
Introduction 2. Multimedia in Exhibitions