Playing Games with Tito

Abstract

This article brings together two distinct, but related perspectives on playful museum experiences: Critical play and hybrid design. The article explores the challenges involved in combining these two perspectives, through the design of two hybrid museum experiences that aimed to facilitate critical play with/in the collections of the Museum of Yugoslavia and the highly contested heritage they represent. Based on reflections from the design process as well as feedback from test users, we describe a series of challenges: Challenging the norms of visitor behaviour, challenging the role of the artefact, and challenging the curatorial authority. In conclusion, we outline some possible design strategies to address these challenges.

Mixed Cultural Visits or What COVID-19 Taught Us

“…The main question in this new form of museology, then, is how technology can support people in their cultural experience, independent of their physical presence in a cultural space. Researchers such as Løvlie et al [11,12] have explored how different types of technology, such as games and virtual reality, might be used for this purpose. Now, however, after three years of studying practices that mix physical and digital visitor presence, it can be observed that many terms are used interchangeably and misunderstandings have arisen from their use.…”

“…However, there is a question about the quality of the experience for the remote visitors. In the last two years, there have been research attempts to connect the physical space of the museum with the online space and allow remote visitors to play an active role (e.g., [11,12,39,40]). The cultural sector has also experimented with forms of cultural experiences, such as a theatre performance in which some actors are present in the theatre and others act online from a prison.…”

“…physical space of the museum with the online space and allow remote visitors to play active role (e.g., [11,12,39,40]). The cultural sector has also experimented with forms cultural experiences, such as a theatre performance in which some actors are present the theatre and others act online from a prison.…”

Stairway to Heaven: Designing for an Embodied Experience with Satellite Data

“…Many data visualizations in natural science museums are centered around screen-based technologies (Hohl, 2011;Schuman et al, 2022). The visitors, however, can have a hard time interpreting such visualizations (Börner et al, 2016); and museum scholars and stakeholders are concerned that screen-based technologies may have a detrimental effect on the visitor experience, distracting visitors from taking in the exhibitions (Woodruff et al, 2001;Hsi, 2003;Lyons, 2009;Petrelli et al, 2013;Løvlie et al, 2021). In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) this has been discussed through the concept of "experience blend" (van Turnhout et al, 2012;Lange et al, 2019), which describes how mixed reality experiences can be tailored to integrate well with the existing museum environment, including the visitors' expectations towards behavior in the museum and the need to support the museum's communication goals.…”