Digital meets Culture

A research project on the current state of digital museums and visitors’ attitudes, conducted at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam

Digital Museums: Hype or Future?

Research project of MA students in the Museums in Context course at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, MA Cultural Economics led by professor Trilce Navarrete.

Authors: Tessa de Boer, Emmy Hermans, Julia Rokos

During the first lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic you could find digital museums on every corner of the internet, could this have been a prelude of a digital future for museums? Digital museums, accessible from anywhere in the world, are becoming more common. Many household names such as the Louvre, the Guggenheim, or the Uffizi Gallery are already offering vast online tools to make their collections more accessible and future-proof. The impact of world-wide lockdowns increased the demand for virtual experiences like those offered by digital museums (Tissen, 2021). However, it remains unclear whether this trend will carry on, leaving museums unsure of how to make sure their impact is built to last and how digital could benefit the physical museum.

Rijksmuseum Eregalerij video presentation

Mauritshuis video presentation

In order to understand how audiences of a traditionally physical museum interact with the digital counterpart thereof, we conducted a research consisting of a content analysis of two Dutch digital museums followed by a short survey to test our findings in a small audience. We chose two renowned Dutch museums that share their collection digitally, the Mauritshuis en the Eregalerij of the Rijksmuseum. The content analysis focused on, amongst others, user-friendliness, quality of the paintings and availability of additional information. The table below shows the presence or absence of certain aspects in both digital museums.

In short, both museums offer a virtual experience of their otherwise entirely physical collections. The Mauritshuis made its entire permanent collection available online, and the Rijksmuseum virtually opened up the Eregalerij, featuring some of the museum’s most prominent artworks.

The digital museum of the Eregalerij starts with a small introduction video and welcome, however, no additional information about the museum or digital tool is given. The user can walk around using a mouse or buttons on the screen and an orientation map with all the artworks on it guides the user. The user can zoom in to some extent on both the artworks and the labels, although labels are not always readable. For some artworks, zooming in to a great extent is possible, as well as playing an informative video, wherein more is told about the artworks, and textual information, extends the museum label. Lastly, the digital museum offers a game for children.

The Mauritshuis digital museum starts at the first floor. Users start with an introductory video, giving a tour through the digital museum about the digital museum, the Mauritshuis itself and the collection guided by the Mauritshuis’ director. Walking around is possible by moving from room to room or by using the map. Zooming in and reading labels of each artwork is possible, however, only on some artworks, it is possible to zoom in to an even larger extent, allowing users to see the artwork in great detail. Aside from the labels, no additional information is available. Whereas the Rijksmuseum only shows the Eregalerij, digital visitors of the Mauritshuis can walk through the entire museum and enter any room they wish. An extra of the Mauritshuis digital museum is the option to view the museum in VR using Google Glasses.

To follow up on the content analysis we conducted a small survey (Rijksmuseum N=12, Mauritshuis N=12) where respondents were asked to visit one of the digital museums and rate specific aspects of their online visit as well as their overall experience. First of all, the interesting part of this research was that we could see that a portion of the respondents would not complete the survey after being asked to visit one of the digital museums for approximately 5 minutes. Apart from other reasons to not fill out a survey for such a long period of time this could indicate that digital museums ask the visitor to put in effort which they are not always willing to.

Respondents that were willing to visit a digital museum rated the visual qualities of the museums such as visual quality of the artworks and zooming-in options. As the content analysis shows, the Eregalerij of the Rijksmuseum offers a number of technological extras and options for the visitor such as audio, videos for certain artworks and a challenge for children. The results show that while an online exhibition is technologically enhanced like the Rijksmuseum, visitors do not necessarily rate this experience higher. Surprisingly, visitors gave an overall grade (0= worst, 10=best) of 6.85 for the Mauritshuis and a 6.23 for the Rijksmuseum.
The score indicates room for improvement for digital museums. Another question that was posed to respondents was whether or not they are now interested in visiting the physical museum. Interestingly, respondents of the Mauritshuis showed a higher interest in the physical museum, underlining the importance of a digital presence in attracting potential museum visitors. Additionally, digital Mauritshuis’ visitors were more interested in visiting a digital museum again.

Which aspects of a digital museum can be enhanced? The visual qualities of the Mauritshuis exhibition were overall rated higher than those of the Rijksmuseum, as seen in table 2, which could influence the higher overall experience. However, the information quality of the Rijksmuseum exhibition scored relatively higher than the Mauritshuis’. The content analysis also shows that the Rijksmuseum provides various types of additional information options and more information in general than the Mauritshuis. Possibly resulting from this; respondents rate the novelty of information in the Rijksmuseum with an average of 7.86 compared to Mauritshuis’ 6.38, although this does not result in a better rated overall experience. When considering the set up of the online exhibitions and the content analysis this could be credited due to the greater awareness of the Mauritshuis of where to start the exhibition. Falk and Dierking (2012) suggest that the museum visit does not only exist within the museum but the time leading up to and following the visit affects the overall experience of a museum. Mauritshuis seems to be aware of this by placing the visitor immediately on the first floor, in which the exhibition space is more visually appealing, donning bright colors and lighting.

The quantity of artworks or state of the art technological enhancements does not necessarily result in a high visitor’s satisfaction with a digital museum visit. As the Dutch report ‘Stand van het Nederlands Digitaal Erfgoed’ (Kemman et al., 2021) concludes, in 2021 digital heritage specialists and museums focus on the improvement of quality of the heritage that they exhibit such as providing information rather than the quantity (e.g. online databases), which can be seen in both museums as well. The Dutch ministry of OCW has set a goal of making heritage accessible to everyone by intensifying the supply of digital heritage and thereby focusing on visitor’s needs. Being aware of the visitor’s perception of a museum could increase visitor’s satisfaction as well as considering the before, during and after stages of a digital visit like the Mauritshuis. However, important to note is that a digital museum can never be the same as a physical museum and by implying it is, visitor’s will always compare it to the ‘real deal’. Museums could possibly increase their visitors’ experience by not focusing on imitating the physical museum, as seen in both Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum, but should aim to create a completely new digital experience, making it a heritage destination in itself (Li, et al., 2012). This way digital heritage tourists visit the museum merely online and not in relation to a potential or past physical visit (Navarrete, 2019). Future research could explore the possibilities and limitations of such a digital museum.

In conclusion, our analysis identified several key elements of the two digital museums, suggesting that there is a sort of ‘formula’ to developing such digital experiences. Most notably, many of the elements present in a physical museum were translated rather literally into the digital sphere. For example, the orientation maps, the audio guides, and museum labels. These are key elements expected at a physical museum, hence, they are also included online. Compared to the physical museum, both were exact digital models thereof, mimicking the physical visit as closely as possible.

Furthermore, the findings from the survey suggest that there are some specific elements visitors look for and expect from digital museums. First, we concluded that the preference for the Mauritshuis is related to its physical appeal, with bright and inviting colors and rooms as opposed to the gray and muted rooms of the Rijksmuseum. Additionally, features such as zooming in and additional information (text, videos, audio) were appreciated, however not all respondents made use of these. We also saw that visitors who enjoyed the digital tour were willing to visit the physical museum after. Although physical and digital museum experiences cannot be the same and valued similarly, digital museums could serve as a “preview” in addition to physical museums, allowing visitors to experience the museum before deciding to physically visit.

Bibliography

Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (2012). The museum experience revisited. New York, NY: Routledge.
Li, Y., Liew, A., & Su, W. (2012). The Digital Museum: Challenges and Solutions. Encyclopedia of Information Sciences and Technology. 4929-2937. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch486
Navarrete, T. (2019). Digital heritage tourism: innovations in museums. World Leisure Journal, 61(3), 200–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2019.1639920
Kemman, M., Hanswijk, M., Grond, A., Weemhoff, J., Bongers, F., & Van der Graaf, M. (2021). Stand van zaken van het Nederlands digitaal erfgoed 2021. Rapport | Rijksoverheid.nl. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2021/12/22/stand-van-zaken-van-het-nederlands-digitaal-erfgoed-2021
Tissen, L. N. M. (2021). Culture, corona, crisis: best practices and the future of Dutch museums. Journal Of Conservation And Museum Studies, 19(1), 1-8. doi:10.5334/jcms.207

on 10th June, the closing public event of the RURITAGE project included the Rural Regeneration workshop

INCULTUM at the RURITAGE final event in Paris

INCULTUM was invited to take part as a guest of the public session of RURITAGE Final Conference, that takes place in June at the UNESCO HeadQuarters in Paris.

The programme of the 2-days event includes various session and particularly during the second day the 10th June was organized a public event: the Rural Regeneration Conference, whose first session was dedicated to the EU Regeneration Workshop.

View agenda (PDF, 317 kb)

This first part involved representatives of local communities within rural territories participating in EU funded projects networking with RURITAGE, discussing the aspects of our paradigm (such as heritage as driver for rural development, rural challenges, sustainable tourism, etc.). Focus of this session will be the methodological approach and the local communities, grouping in RURITAGE with projects establishing local hubs and/or living labs, that could inspire RURITAGE consortium.

For this reason INCULTUM was invited as an Inspirational example with regards to cultural tourism, and presented by Network Coordinator Antonella Fresa, Promoter s.r.l.

Download INCULTUM presentation (PDF, 5 Mb)

Overall scopes of the event were:

to present results of regeneration led strategies to Eu regional and national stakeholders, in particular from countries where actions were implemented.
to exchange view on potential uptake of Ruritage innovative solutions in other EU territories
to deliver an information Session on Rural Regeneration Presentation of final major outcomes to UNESCO Member States and to EU/UN representatives

on 17th May 2022, WEAVE organized a consultation event with experts, about Roma heritage collections

WEAVE LabDay, Data Asset and Storytelling

images courtesy TopFoto.co.uk

On 17th May 2022, the WEAVE team held a special consultation event with invited experts from the Roma community to review the beautiful TopFoto’s photographic collection of Roma heritage, which will be delivered to Europeana as part of the new digital contents relating to intangible heritage and minority communities.

In the evening around the camp fire the family sing and play their violins. ©Topfoto.co.uk

Within the scope of WEAVE’s capacity building work and another important strand of the project to improve the quality of collections (in terms of building more representative content and metadata), the consultation investigated potential problematic issues with current Roma heritage collections and tried to find potential solutions to these.

The consultation took place in two parts: Part 1 ‘expert commentary/review’, aims to understand the main ‘problems’ encountered in looking at the collection, the most recurrent metadata/terminology-related corrections and any other issues that may result in offense or misrepresentation of the minoritised community. In Part 2 ‘guided storytelling’, a participatory discussion between our invited experts and project partners, we explored how different images read (e.g. Which images best represent the community? Which images are more nuanced?).

Although a closed event, the process was documented to be able to share our thinking and findings with other content owners and Europeana Aggregators who may hold problematic heritage collections.

1950s: the people who live in the camp earn their living by working on the farms of Kent during the season, and in the hopfields during the short hop harvest. ©Topfoto.co.uk

4-6 May, 2022

MESOC meeting in Athens

These days, from 4 to 6 May 2022, MESOC project is holding a 3-day event in Athens, hosted by DAEM S.A. (City of Athens IT Company), organized in three workshops that explore different topics:

a workshop on the Delphi consultation with invited experts exploring the survey’s results
a public workshop on the toolkit applications developed by MESOC and their objectives for cultural policies
a working session on the results of policy dialogues.

These three workshops allow MESOC to articulate and converge around the results to confirm the evaluation variables. That will be a crucial step for the subsequent activities of the project.

UNCHARTED, as a partner of MESOC, was invited and is present in Athens to participate in the consultation.

Further information
The Delphi consultation is a qualitative technique used to arrive at a group opinion by surveying a panel of experts. This exercise is coordinated by the University of Barcelona in order to validate the results of MESOC activities and provide direction for the next steps, and it provides for three-step consultation.
the first questionnaire was launched in July 2021 and aimed at exploring the typologies of social impacts, the transformative effects of cultural experiences, the elements of local context that affect the impact generation process; a second survey in February 2022, had the aim to go more in-depth in the topics of social impact evaluation. The results of the first and second survey will be corroborated through the presential Delphi workshop in Athens.
Policy dialogues. A qualitative analysis of 35 cases selected by MESOC’s partners was coordinated by Politecnico di Milano and led to identifying elements that help describe the conditions affecting the social impact generation capacity. Furthermore MESOC is conducting a series of conversations with policymakers and cultural operators to explore themes as: the role of cultural experience, the impact of norms and regulation, the dynamics of knowledge and competencies formation and transfer, the relevance of resources and infrastructures, and finally. The results of this exploration will ultimately be used to enrich the testing of the MESOC toolkit.
The MESOC toolkit is a geo-referenced visualization tool developed by the University of Rijeka to assess the value and impact of cultural policies and practices throughout Europe. This Toolkit aims to set up relevant indicators to measure current and future cultural policies, which can become a useful resource for cultural operators, policymakers and researchers.

the presentation illustrated various participatory activities carried out in the Altiplano de Granada

Presenting INCULTUM in scientific conference on sustainable education

images courtesy of Elena Correa Jiménez.

On 27 April, the project coordinator’s team at University of Granada presented the paper: “From the School to the balate: Education as a tool for the recovery of cultural landscapes” at the Scientific Conference The school in the landscape. Proposals of teaching innovation for a sustainable education.

In this conference, we talked about the recovery activities of the Jérez ravine (Jérez del Marquesado, Granada) that were carried out in past months in the Altiplano de Granada.

Conference website https://www.uax.com/eventos/jornadas-cientificas-la-escuela-en-el-paisaje

the presentation will discuss the role and importance of an old farmhouse and its heritageheme is water, takes place at the University of Algarve, in May 2022

INCULTUM Pilot in Portugal presented at Taller de Arquitectura Iberia Sur

Professors Desidério Batista of University of Algarve delivers a presentation in a seminar at Taller de Arquitectura Iberia Sur on May 13, 2022 with the lecture: “Recreation farms as one of the most recognizable features of the landscape in Portugal. In the case of Quinta da Penha in Faro (Algarve)”.

The talk will include presentation about INCULTUM and the Portuguese pilot, considering the role and importance of the old Quinta da Penha (18th and 19th century farmhouse) and its hydraulic and agrarian heritage in the historical process of construction and transformation of Campina’s landscape.

organized by Project Coordinator the University of Granada, it includes a field trip in a rural environment

INCULTUM second project meeting

all images courtesy of Promoter.

On 2 and 3 June 2022, the second general assembly of INCULTUM partners is happily going to be an old-fashion style project meeting, finally held in person after many months of telcos and virtual gatherings, and including nice side activities on location. The group of partners stayed in a rural tourist complex with caves.

The first day was an intense session dedicated to a global internal review of the project, carefully analysing the challenges in each Work Package. The activity leaders reviewed the progress of the various tasks and present the actions planned for the next period.

[Show as slideshow]

On the second day, the coordinator José Maria Civantos and his team at University of Granada guided the group to a field visit through desert landscapes and medieval irrigation channels in the area of Galera on the Altiplano of Granada.

[Show as slideshow]

Agenda of the meeting (PDF)

Mapping parameters, formats, standards, benchmarks, methodologies and guidelines

EC study on quality in 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage

In order to support the objectives of the Recommendation on a common European data space for cultural heritage adopted on 10 November 2021, the European Commission commissioned a study to help advance 3D digitisation across Europe.

The aim of the study was to identify key parameters of the 3D digitisation process of tangible cultural heritage and to further the quality of 3D digitisation projects by enabling cultural heritage professionals, institutions, content developers, stakeholders and academics to define and produce high-quality digitisation standards for tangible cultural heritage.

The study, recently published, was led by Cyprus University of Technology and has identified all relevant elements for successful 3D digitisation of cultural heritage, classifying them by degree of complexity and purpose or use.
It also collected a number of projects and success stories serving as benchmarks for 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage.

More information and all downloads are available at https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/study-quality-3d-digitisation-tangible-cultural-heritage

A bridge between opera professionals and specific marginalised communities

Opera co-creation for a social transformation: Traction H2020 Project

TRACTION project, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, aims to use opera to define new forms of artistic creation through which the marginalised groups can work with artists to tell the stories that matter now.

Opera, a cornerstone of European cultural heritage, has always spoken to both elites and people, expressed both authority and revolution, inspiring generations with its passion, its beauty and its drama.
In recent decades its popular roots and radical edge have been lost and it is often seen as the staid preserve of the elite.

The project intends to design and develop a toolset to foster democratisation of opera, using technology as a means to reach new audiences and to connect artists with audiences.

TRACTION project carries out three trials as experimental activities to test and share new ideas through an opera co-creation: in Barcelona’s inner-city neighbourhoods, Ireland’s rural communities and Portugal’s prison for juvenile delinquents in Leiria.

To support these three trials the projects has created two different tools:

The Co-creation space: a tool that fosters and promotes asynchronous communication during co-creation activities between diverse communities and participants.
The Co-creation stage: a tool to connect communities and individuals in real-time, allowing multiple co-located stages and participants to perform together.

The long-term objective of the project is to define how art can be used and renew to build cohesive societies and a common culture in which everyone can feel that they belong.

More information at: https://www.traction-project.eu/

This Study, addressed to Cultural Institutions and professionals, presents recommendations and all relevant elements for successful 3D digitisation of cultural heritage

Study on quality in 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage

This unique study on 3D digitisation demonstrates that complexity and quality are fundamental considerations in determining the necessary effort for a 3D digitisation project to achieve the required value of the output.The overall aim of this study is to improve the quality of 3D digitisation projects for tangible cultural heritage, in support of European Union cultural heritage strategies.

The study, led by Cyprus University of Technology, has identified all relevant elements for successful 3D digitisation of cultural heritage, classifying them by degree of complexity and purpose or use. The study also looked at what determines the quality of a 3D digitisation project and made an inventory of existing formats, standards, guidelines and methodologies used by the industry.

This study will enable cultural heritage professionals, institutions, content-developers, and academics to define and produce high-quality digitisation standards for tangible heritage.
The elements of the framework include:
+ The technical parameters that determine the level of quality of 3D digitisation.
+ Existing digital formats, standards, benchmarks, methodologies and guidelines for 3D digitisation.
+ Past or ongoing 3D digitisation projects and existing 3D models and data sets that can serve as benchmarks.

Dr. Marinos Ioannides of the Digital Heritage Research Lab (DHRLab) at Cyprus University of Technology and Director of UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage (CH) led this complex and all-encompassing project, working with nine important players in the industry and a number of external experts providing their research contributing to this exceptional study.

Access the Study and all Annexes

View the study: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/study-quality-3d-digitisation-tangible-cultural-heritage
Download Leaflet (PDF)

Summary

The 3D digitisation of movable and immovable cultural heritage can be an exceptionally complex process.
Factors such as the stakeholder requirements (available budget and time, expected use, required quality/accuracy), the characteristics of the object (size, geometry, surface, texture, material composition, state of conservation, location), the level of competence of the personnel involved and the type of equipment used, condition the production effort and have a direct impact on the quality of the final output.
There are no internationally recognized standards or guidelines for planning, organising, setting up and implementing a 3D data acquisition project.
As acquisition technologies and software systems become increasingly accessible, with photorealistic renderings now commonplace, it is even more crucial to understand the physics behind the hardware, the fundamentals of data capture and processing methodologies.
The definition of the complexity of a 3D digitisation project should cover both data capture and data processing (point cloud/modelling), should be calculated objectively, should be estimated before the data acquisition phase, should connect quality, technology and the purpose of use.
In cultural heritage projects, image-based data acquisition is usually preferred to other methods, such as laser scanning, because it is efficient, non-intrusive, easily deployable indoors and outdoors and low cost.
Quality parameters refer to different stages of the 3D digitisation process and vary depending on the type of tangible cultural heritage and the equipment and methodology used and the possible purposes or uses of the resulting 3D material.
There is no generally accepted standard for specifying the detail and accuracy requirements for geometric recordings of tangible objects. Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true or correct value, whereas precision is how close the repeated measurements are to each other. A reliable survey instrument is consistent; a valid one is accurate.
There are no guidelines on ways and minimum amounts of data to be collected or the quality to be achieved during data acquisition, which entirely depends on the stakeholder requirements.
There is a pressing and urgent need for a technical specification to ensure interoperability and longer term sustainability of 3D data metadata and paradata, defining among other harmonised means to annotate 3D content, to combine 3D with audiovisual content, or to embed additional dimensions (e.g. time, material and story).
Advancements in 3D data acquisition software leveraging artificial intelligence will make 3D digitisation easier, faster, more accurate, and more informative. Faster connections, bigger bandwidth and lower latency, will improve real time global use and long-term availability and preservation, allowing to work with larger data volumes and bigger 3D models of higher resolution.