Chapter 2.1 Multimedia in exhibition
1. Introduction
This chapter is is concerned with conceptual issues regarding the
application of multimedia technology as a communication tool in museum
exhibition.
Multimedia is meant, rather broadly, as information technology presenting
the museum visitor with more than just formatted data and text. It
encompasses, by this token, interactive multimedia, hypermedia, imaging
applications, digital video, computer graphics, virtual reality, and
computer-controlled interactive displays and kactivem exhibits. To keep
this discussion focussed, it does not include non-interactive, computerised
variants of established projection, audio support and animatronic
systems.
In contrast to presentations and surveys of specific
examples, this chapter is a discussion at the conceptual level, an
invitation to think upon some central issues of exhibition design in
considering the use of multimedia. It consists of the following
sections:
2. Information issues in museum exhibition
Museums collect and preserve original artefacts (works of art, material
culture objects) and disseminate knowledge about them to the public, mainly
by mounting exhibitions. Typically, exhibitions are interpretations of
collections or parts of collections. They relate a number of original
artefacts or artworks with various types of documentation (informational
labels, captions, maps, dioramas etc.) within a spatial organisation
scheme, in order to provide visitors with a fruitful and pleasing learning
experience.
The functions of a museum exhibition can be categorised as: social, whereby
it provides a powerful focus for the construction of social identity for
its public (cf. Rivierems museum as a mirror of society); affective,
whereby it "create(s) a concrete visual experience which gives esthetic
pleasure and which leads to emotional and
motivational rewards"; and, cognitive, whereby it provides an environment
for self-education, an opportunity for visitors to teach themselves through
exposure to the exhibits. Questions related to the cognitive function of
museum exhibitions include the following:
- Does the structure of the exhibition enhance the artefacts? Does it
help visitors to appreciate them?
- Can visitors find what they want within the exhibition?
- Is the museum visit a coherent experience, or is it just a collection
of unrelated chunks of information?
- Is the exhibition succesful in stimulating learning among its visitors,
i.e., the acquisition of new knowledge, concepts, perceptual skills and
attitudes directly attributable to the exhibit experience?
- Can any set of presentation techniques be effective for the wide
variety of visitor knowledge, backgrounds, and objectives which
characterize museum publics?
R. Lacota ("Good exhibits on purpose: techniques to improve exhibit
effectiveness", in Royal Ontario Museum,
Communicating with the museum visitor,Toronto: 1976, pp. 245-279)
suggests that the cognitive impact of an exhibition may be drastically
improved by the adoption of learning support techniques. Providing a clear
conceptual frame of reference on what an exhibition is about, what it has
to do with visitors, how it is organised and what they can expect to learn
from it, Lacota claims, will actually improve their capacity to enjoy the
exhibition through discovery and "understand what it is they
discovered".
Multimedia, especially interactive multimedia and hypermedia, present
considerable advantages as an exhibition
learning support technology:
- They can deliver a wide variety of heterogeneous information related to
the exhibits, including photographic images, drawings and plans,
architectural models, simulations, video clips, music, narrated commentary,
textual screens (labels, captions, even essays) and data base records.
- They may provide visitors with a mechanism to view only the subset of
such information that is appropriate to their interests and background,
thus catering for different visitor profiles.
The use of multimedia technologies in exhibition raises, however, the
following concerns:
- They may de-focus visitor attention from the actual artefacts exhibited.
- They may encourage interaction styles not appropriate to the museum setting.
- They may infringe upon the non-technological atmosphere of the exhibition.
- They may alienate those visitors who are not computer-literate.
The appropriateness and success of using multimedia technology in
exhibition depends on an understanding of its potential advantages and
shortcomings, as was the case, in earlier times, with traditional visitor
support systems (handouts, informational captions, audio playback units,
projection systems, feedback-response devices, etc.). In fact, the
conception and design of multimedia applications for exhibition can be seen
from two complementary viewpoints: the contextual viewpoint of the museum
exhibition as a whole, and the structural viewpoint of the multimedia
application as an object in itself. The former provides a functional
context for the latter.
This section discusses how the use of multimedia may affect and is related
to considerations of exhibition design. For an introduction to interactive
multimedia design proper, see below Chapter 3.3.
For an introduction to multimedia formats, standards, and technologies, see
above Chapter 1.2.
Defining the concept of an exhibition from scratch involves decisions about
its purpose (what the exhibition aims to achieve), content (what objects
and/or interpretive concepts are used), structure (linear? based on
discovery?), target public (children? local visitors? tourists?) and
communication approach (i.e., object-led? interpretive?). Then, in concept
development, specific decisions have to be taken about the specific
storylines, media and actual exhibits used, including the development of
specific multimedia applications to support the exhibition.
Some important principles suggest themselves, regarding exhibition design:
- A chaotic exhibition, whereby the visitor is not presented with a
coherent path of traversal, leads often to information overload or a sense
of "getting lost".
- On the other hand, visual monotony leads often to visitor fatigue; when
relatively homogeneous artefacts have to be presented, this tends to be a
considerable problem.
- Prior knowledge of what is contained in a museum exhibition and how it
is structured leads to a more
satisfactory visitor experience.
- However, rather than strictly contolling the learning process,
individual museum exhibits provide the information necessary for visitors
to apply their own learning skills with greater effectiveness.
- Visitors enjoy being offered guided tours of an exhibition, especially
if they can ask their own questions
to the guide and have some choice over the sequence of exhibits visited.
- Visitors benefit from reading or attending lectures about specific
aspects of the theme of an exhibition, both before and after their visit.
- Affective or sensory arousal, positive or negative, heightens the
capacity of visitors for learning.
These principles affect thetotality of exhibition design, including the educational and other activities used to
support exhibitions, signage and written documentation, etc. Yet they also
identify the following potential functions for the application of
multimedia technology in exhibition.
Multimedia applications, typically installed in the form of kiosks near the
entrance of an exhibition, can provide
visitors with an effective way of understanding what an exhibit is about,
what parts it consists of and how they can get there. The purpose of such
applications is to improve physical orientation, typically at the beginning
of a visit. In order to improve on the solution of a brochure with a brief
introduction and plan of the exhibition, such kiosk applications could
provide:
- A clear focus on the purpose and scope of the exhibition, possibly in
the form of an "attractor loop".
- Short introductions to the main parts of the exhibition, illustrating
key exhibits and thus arousing visitorsm interest.
- Alternative main indexes (e.g., thematic, artistsmnames, provenance) to
the galleries, apart from that determining the physical layout of the
exhibition.
- Clear instructions from the kiosk to the gallery designated by the visitor.
The following recommendations may be appropriate for such "index" exhibits:
- While they can offload the work of an information front desk, they
should be seen as complementary to human assistance rather than as an
alternative.
- They should be designed so as to allow visitors to retrieve
orientation information within a few minutes and
should avoid unnecessary detail.
- They should be installed in an adequate number of kiosks near the
entrance, or, in large exhibitions, in major decision points, with visitor
flow as a major consideration.
Multimedia technology can complement the function of human guides, audio
support and loop antenna systems, in providing learning support to visitors
traversing an exhibition. Applications functioning as "visitor guides" may
be installed in the beginning of an exhibition (accessible also after the
visit), as in the case of the Micro Gallery of the National Gallery in
London; distributed in a number of access points in the exhibition itself,
as in the Networked World exhibit of the Boston Computer Museum; or,
accessible through devices carried around by visitors, as in the portable
CD-ROM system procured by the Isle of Man museum to visitors of monuments
of the island.
In order to present a credible solution, these applications can provide:
- Interesting and lucid scripted essays on selected themes, supplemented
by relevant and good quality audiovisual material that enhances the
understanding of the exhibits themselves.
- A straight-forward method of interaction allowing visitors to access
easily information that interests them and that relates to the immediate
(physical) exhibition context.
- A carefully selected set of alternative "perspectives" or "points of
view" on the exhibition for different segments of the public, possibly
personified through appropriate "talking heads", and matching different
levels of background and interests.
- Personalised exhibition plans, possibly printed, suggesting an
itinerary to galleries of interest for
- specific visitors and allowing the visitors to know where they are at
each point.
- Printed summaries of selected information, possibly illustrating pages
of information consulted during a visit.
Some specific problems that may concern these exhibits, depending on their
conception and design, are:
- The visitor flow problems associated with visitors hijacking
information stations for long periods of time, especially when they are
situated near the entrance of the exhibition.
- The intrusion (in terms of atmosphere) of interactive stations
installed within the galleries, which, for that reason, are likely (and
possibly best advised) not to support sound.
- Thehigh cost of portable devices designed to be carried around by visitors.
In visitor surveys (reported in Royal Ontario Museum, Communicating with
the museum visitor) it was noted that, perhaps counter-intuitively,
people not only "wanted to see more specimens, but apparently, they
understood more, learned more and enjoyed it more when there was more to
see".
In fact, significant applications of multimedia technology, for example in
the National Museums of Denmark and the Imperial War Museum, aim to provide
visitors with access to material not on display. These applications are a
cross between a virtual "study collection" without the associated
conservation problems, and an illustrated catalogue of the collection,
albeit with more powerful information retrieval capabilities and, possibly,
better quality images.
The following points may be made about this class of applications:
- In order to be more useful than printed illustrated catalogues, they
need to provide excellent quality images throughout, and well-researched
textual captions for works included.
- Initially conceived as applications for the museum specialist (as noted
by Goldstein B. and Renard C. (1994) Les nouvelles technologies et leurs
usages dans les musees, Paris: Direction des musees de France et.al.,
p. 7), they require the adoption of simple user interfaces and appropriate
content to be accessible to the wide public.
- Since they depend on integrated scholarly information on museum
collections, they are best implemented as front ends to museum information
systems conceived as a whole, rather than as stand-alone applications.
- They should not be limited by the linear catalogue format, but exploit
associative links to allow full hypertext navigation between artefacts or
artworks, people, events, places and concepts.
- As they aim greatly in the visual appreciation of parts of the
collections otherwise not accessible, they should be enhanced with
high-quality projection facilities so that groups of visitors can share in
experiencing their content.
A criticism that is often raised against traditional museum exhibition is
that visitors are not well supported with background information, and are
thus precluded from enriching their understanding of topics in the
exhibition during their visit. On the other hand, good museums (traditional
and otherwise) attempt to mitigate this problem by publishing educational
material about exhibitions - including exhibition guides - and by
organising series of lectures, usually coordinated with their exhibition
programme.
Multimedia technology, in its role as explainer, has to compete with these
complementary forms of interpretation and amplification. It may do so most
effectively by providing:
- A clear storyline and definition of subject-matter, appropriate and
necessary to illustrate an essential point about the content of the
exhibition.
- An easy to use user-interface, which does not get in the way between
visitors and the content of the application, and which allows visitors to
navigate simply and efficiently between different parts of the application.
- A positive approach to different visitor profiles, facilitating the
retrieval (direct or indirect) of information appropriate to their
background and interests.
- A good, quiet setting, near but not necessarily next to the relevant
exhibits, which will stimulate visitors to think about the content rather
than about the technology.
- Depending on the nature of the application, facilities for annotating
and printing appropriate information.
- Last but not least, good quality content: textual, visual, aural.
Multimedia applications that act as explainers of specific exhibits or
gallery themes may be very diverse in their user metaphor. They include
monographical collections of textual and visual information, hierarchically
arranged, such as the Classical art videodiscs installed in the Greek
galleries of the Louvre. They also include role-playing dramatisations (see
also next section), such as the hunting game in the Life in the Arctic
videodisc that ccompanied the exhibition of the same name in the Museum of
Mankind in London, and simulations, such as that of a three-species habitat
(and many others) in the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Other promising
technologies for this purpose include virtual reality and computer-graphic
reconstruction, construction and manipulation games (such as archaeological
dig simulations), video-on-demand applications with material relevant to
specific galleries, holographic displays etc.
There are no hard and fast rules on the applicability of each of these
application metaphors for explanation of museum exhibits; the choices have
to be made according to the purpose, content and intended public of the
exhibition. Where consultation of comparative material (visual, textual
etc.) is paramount - for instance, in the case of art history - hypermedia
applications are more appropriate. Where the emphasis is in explaining
processes that underlie the production of the material culture record,
simulation and role-playing may be more relevant. Where the exhibition is
addressed mainly to children, symbols and user metaphors more familiar to
them could be used to captivate their interest: humorous, cartoon-like
creatures are used in interactives in the Emmen Dierenpark, in order to
teach children about evolution.
In all cases, however, the conception and design of the multimedia
applications should be undertaken as part of the whole exhibition design
process, rather than as an isolated technical task.
Advances in computer graphics, immersive environments and virtual reality
technology provide the tools for the construction of highly affective
sensory experiences. These experiences, that may involve a high degree of
interaction, could function as triggers to heighten visitorsm interest and
involvement in the message of an exhibition, as is done very effectively in
the Holocaust Museum and Memorial at Washington, DC, albeit through simpler
means: the use of shocking projected images and narration in the
exhibition, and the identification of the visitor with an individual victim
of the Holocaust, whose fate can be traced after the visit in the
associated data base. Virtual reality experiences (e.g., fully-rendered 3-D
architectural reconstructions of archaeological sites such as the tomb of
Nefertari, commissioned by the Getty Conservation Institute), manipulation
games and role-playing or simulation applications (such as the
ship-building application in Vasa Museum of Stockholm) may be useful as
strong emotive triggers. In the Collectors of South Pacific
videodisc exhibit in the City Museums of Birmingham, visitors are invited
to "identify" with one of four different characters, and thus develop
personal involvment in the subject of the exhibition.
Little evaluation experience, however, exists yet on how effective
multimedia are for this purpose, and there are
some colleagues and institutions that are sceptical about the
appropriateness of such an approach, especially for art museums.
The use of question sheets, quizzes and revision summaries, as well as pre-
and post-exhibit question labels (e.g., of the form "how are these two
artefacts alike?"), is well-established in museum education practice. Given
its record in computer-based training and other educational applications,
multimedia appears well-placed to provide a useful and rich way of
enhancing the visitors learning potential, especially after the visit,
through the use of similar devices.
Typically, the application elicits responses by the visitor, and presents
new pages of information (according to the programmed learning approach)
and possibly a score as the result of the interaction. Little is known of
the effectiveness of this approach in the museum context, and there are
strong arguments against the use of marking as a (negative) incentive for
learning, in favour of a more creative, resource-based approach.
The introduction of multimedia application to an existing exhibition
emerges often as a pragmatic issue for museums. This process, however,
should be part of a comprehensive approach to exhibition updating, and
should address demonstrable shortcomings of the exhibition; it should not
be the result of mere availability of resources or technological
fashion.
Typically, evaluation of an exhibitionms impact (through survey, focus
group research or other means) may indicate one of the following problems,
that may be resolved through the use of multimedia exhibits:
- That the purpose and scope of the exhibition (i.e., what the exhibition
is about) is not apparent to visitors.
- That the organisational scheme of the exhibition is not clear (i.e.,
visitors cannot find easily what they want).
- That visitors are not able to appreciate the multiple contexts of
objects exhibited (e.g., functional, symbolic, stylistic, typological),
where such a multidimensional understanding is considered appropriate.
- That visitors are not able to retain in the long term information that
they encountered in the exhibition.
Typically, "serious" visitors will suffer less from these problems, which,
however, may be typical among "casual" visitors. The latter may be
under-represented in visitor survey statistics, since a museum exhibition
often "pre-selects" its visitors, discouraging visits by the less educated
parts of the public. The attitude of museums on these issues and the
importance given to tackling them will depend, naturally, on their
understanding of mission and communication policy.
In all these cases, however, multimedia technology may be an appropriate
solution, which should be evaluated against other visitor support systems.
On the other hand, succesful exhibitions that fulfil their mission to their
designated public are better left alone.
Arguments for setting multimedia exhibits in museums separately from the
exhibited objects centre on the
potential disruption, in terms of visitor flow and mode of interaction, of
the technology within the galleries. In
general, the argument holds true where a small number of interactives were
placed within (mostly art) galleries,
providing a target for fast-fingered children and a nuisance to adults
trying to have a contemplative viewing experience. On the other hand, the
consistent and integrated use of in-gallery interactives in the Haus der
Geschichte in Bonn suggests that they can be succesful and non-intrusive,
actually enhancing the visitor experience, as long as their placement and
function within the gallery storyline is planned in advance and well.
In general, multimedia are best set in separate areas from the exhibition
galleries when:
- They do not relate to the storyline or subject-matter of specific
exhibits in the galleries.
- They provide access to encyclopaedic material, which could refer to
more than one sections of the galleries.
- They depend on the creative use of music or narrative through
loudspeakers, that would disrupt the atmosphere of the galleries.
- They propose an immersive or strongly themed experience requiring
special viewing conditions, such as a virtual reality reconstruction of an
ancient site.
Multimedia applications can be useful in-gallery in the following cases:
- When their content and metaphor of use relates directly to the
storyline or subject-matter of a specific gallery.
- When their setting in the gallery does not present problems of visitor flow.
- Where the social behaviour they promote (e.g., talking to each other in
a group interactive) does not conflict with that designated for the
gallery concerned.
7. Further information
Presentations and surveys of specific multimedia museum exhibits:
- Goldstein B. and Renard C. (1994) Les nouvelles technologies et
leurs usages dans les musees, Paris: Direction des musees de France.
- Hoffos, S. (1992) Multimedia and the interactive display,
London: British Library, Library and Information Research Report no. 87.
- Koester S. (1993) Interactivity in American Museums, Pittsburgh:
Archives and Museum Informatics, Technical Report no. 16.
- Pring I., ed. ITEM, Image technology in European museums and art
galleries database, Ipswich: International Visual Arts Information
Network.
- Lees D., ed. (1993) Museums and interactive multimedia,
Cambridge: Museum Documentation Association and Archives & Museum
Informatics.
Relevant organisations:
C.J. Dallas / dallas@pegasos.fhw.forthnet.gr<
/a> / 2-5-95