Immersive Exhibits Take Center Stage as Museums Embrace Technology
Why Museums are integrating modern technology to cope with their recent identity crisis.
Traditional Museum, Stock Image
In recent years, the world has undergone a severe makeover. Most of our day-to-day life is centered around our phones and modern technology; for some museums, it is a wake-up call. Traditional museums have often had the stereotype of being boring and stiff, lacking diversity and excitement. But now museums, galleries, and curators around the globe are finally turning to technology to keep this industry alive and current. From immersive experiences to AI generators, curators have successfully begun the transition to keep up with the times.
For years, adolescent-targeted educational museums have successfully integrated modern technology into their exhibits to excite a wide range of visitors with diverse preferences. Children’s museums are often immersive and interactive, but the same cannot be said for the traditional art museum. With the continuing decline in engagement with their audience, museums must work towards integrating technology to stay relevant and survive.
Integration of Social Media: The Fight to Stay Relevant
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, some museums have used social media and other online tools to stay current. In 2020, the Getty Museum led the way by starting an online trend to recreate famous artworks such as The Scream by Edvard Munch to get people excited about art, even when they cannot attend a museum in person. Getty also created a ‘Show your creepiest object' trend, a lighthearted ‘battle’ between curators to showcase artwork in museums online. While everyone was stuck at home scrolling through an endless cycle of social media posts, these trends involving museums and art galleries created a new way for people to interact with art and museums.
From these trends, social media involvement in artwork has increased. Last week, the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art collaborated with Snapchat to release: “LACMA x Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives.” This new collaboration allows users to utilize Snapchat’s augmented reality feature to display virtual monuments and artwork that explore the history of diversity within Los Angeles. Featuring arts such as Mercedes Dorame, I.R. Bach, Glenn Kaino, Ruben Ochoa, and Ada Pinkston, not only will make art more accessible but will also promote a combination of modern technology and historical art.
Children's Museums: The Pros
While traditional art museums are beginning to adapt to integrate social media and modern technology into their exhibits, educational museums are ahead of the curve. From the Discovery Kids Science Museum Organics Wate Lab to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles ‘LA Underwater’ exhibit, these curations are the mecca of modern technology. Mainly appealing to children and adolescents, these museums are leading the way in cutting-edge technological innovations, and their audience is engaged and interested in the content they are seeing. Some of these exhibits include interactive games, labs, and physics demonstrations so visitors learn a thing or two while staying engaged in a high-tech way. Art museums around the country and the world are struggling with this. Engagement with all audiences is crucial if they want their audiences to engage and retain notable information about historical and modern pieces of art.
Discovery Cube of Orange County: Organic Waste Lab
The Transformation of the Traditional Museum:
Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum and the Chapman Escolette Permanent Collection are prime examples of traditional art museums that have learned to adapt to the changes and challenges of modern technology and the audience they attract. “With new technology, we are now able not only to curate exhibits faster but can include different mediums of art in various ways, " says Bowers Museum intern Hayden Yoss. Hayden has worked for the Bowers Museum for almost a year, seeing the technological improvements firsthand. “Bowers Museum has integrated videos explaining art pieces, but also scavenger hunts, with prizes, as well as the Kidszeum, which is open once to twice a month and hosts art lessons, coloring stations, and events that gear towards younger age range,” Yoss says. Additionally, the Bowers Museum now offers private virtual tours to those who want to enjoy beautiful art from the comfort of their own homes. Bowers is a small museum, and even they have recognized the need for this change and is actively taking steps toward keeping its audience fascinated in a modern way.
Bowers Musuem, Santa Ana
Curators now have an added challenge of integrating social media and technology within their field, and Chapman University is also getting ahead of the curve. Chapman’s Escolette permanent collection has seen a significant makeover in recent years. Since its initial founding in 2010, students can now submit their own perspective and explain what a piece of art means to them via QR code through Chapman’s Panther Perspective Program. The Escalette exhibit strives to see adaptations within its boundless walls through its podcast, blog posts, and virtual galleries, setting an example as to what all exhibits and galleries aspire to be in the future.
What Now?
These days, curators of educational museums and traditional museums are left with the question: What Now? The answer is limitless. With recent developments in AI, some museums are turning to the new software to curate exhibits online and in physical galleries, seen through a personal cell phone camera. Other museums are beginning to display NFTS (Non-Fungible Token) or use virtual reality to create state-of-the-art immersive experiences. While many museums are resistant to change, it is necessary to boost engagement, ignite a lost passion in younger generations for the arts, and bring back the eagerness to visit your art museums.
Sources:
Discovery CubeMuseums & Social MediaTech in Museums