At what stage of an exhibition's development do you start to think about including digital content? Is it primarily a way to add movement & sound to a static collection of objects, or do you consider it integral to the design, presentation or functionality of an exhibition?
Digital elements such as downloadable content, interviews, social networking or games, can replace other traditional aspects of an exhibition to create a dramatically different look and feel.
With so many people carrying smart phones these days, mobile device tours are a new take on the traditional audio guided tour. I've often spoken about the suitablility of the Public Art Collection for this type of tour, well now there's an accessible mechanism to help us build one! The My Tours site lets you easily build your own mobile application for the public to download onto an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Whilst this doesn't cater for all visitors, a few iPod Touches could be made available for use within the exhibition space, with other visitors using their own device to navigate through an exhibition, or around our venues.
Caz has shown us some examples of Brooklyn Museums iPhone apps. The American Museum of Natural History have also developed one. Another site of interest discussed at a recent Culture Victoria forum on the topic of mobile tours includes this beautiful interactive soundscape developed for a sculpture park.
Thanks Ro. The My Tours site looks very user friendly and I definately agree that the Art Collection would be a great test case. I love the soundscape too. It's always nice for us wordy-types to be reminded that exhibtions can be enhanced in so many other ways.
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