Week 7

For this week’s blog post I looked at the article Personal and Social? Designing Personalised Experiences for Groups in Museums which covered a kind of experiment that involved allowing the visitors to become the curators for their friends’ and families’ experiences in the museum. To do this they offered a mobile app which had a basic template from which the designer could choose whatever pieces they felt their respective loved one should visit. After making those selctions they could add an audio element through song to better create the mood of the moment. Additionally they could provide instructions on how the loved one should interact with the chosen piece and textual information they should know about it. The purpose of the piece was to blend the personalization of self-curated tours of museums with the social experience of coming to a museum with others which can be lost when individually creating personal experiences.

In terms of how successfull the app was, I think they achieved their purpose in creating something that was both personal and social since they were able to watch as both pairs and groups interacted and reacted towards how their loved ones wanted to view an object. Though I think the argument could be made that this still removes the agency of the patron since they are stll not controlling their own experience, I think the personal element is still clearly evident in that the people who likely know them best are specifically designing something for them to enjoy which is pretty cool. The tour then perhaps becomes more personal then something purely self-curated since patrons are sharing an experience in which each object is chosen to have a special meaning. In that way I feel like there is a greater sense of resonance with each object since they would then be able to connect to the personal moment and interaction curated by their loved one. Thus in this way the technology enhanced the connection between the patron and the art.

One thought on “Week 7”

  1. The app sounds very interesting, I can see how it enhances the user experience (while simultaneously not really giving the user any more agency), but personally, the concept seems weird. It definitely could be some thing that drives discussions — if the person who is acting as the curator and you have differing opinions, then it opens up a gateway for thoughtful conversation. At the same time, you’re also being forced to see things that you may not necessarily want to see, and that is also an issue.

    What would be interesting to see is if they made this a reciprocal process — have the two people design visits for each other. While it means they both will have had to visit beforehand, it would also give them a new lens to view the museum through.

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