Introduction
For museums, merging art with technology presents complex challenges. However, with a clear vision and the right tools, this intersection can unlock limitless opportunities for engagement and inspiration. Museums also face the essential task of bridging the gap between conservation and public outreach. This bridge makes their collections understandable and relevant to visitors, ensuring that preservation and education work together seamlessly.
The Museum of Art and History (MAH) in Geneva, Switzerland, holds over 78,000 artifacts spanning human creativity across millennia. The museum’s goals were ambitious — make this vast collection accessible to all, digitize its treasures to share globally, and create an experience that connects visitors to the artworks in meaningful ways.
Traditional approaches struggled to meet these ambitious demands. Manual digitization and translation of the collection were not feasible at this scale. Physical and language barriers obstructed on-site engagement, while static presentations prevented dynamic interactivity with the exhibits.
The MAH sought a significant breakthrough to achieve its goals. It saw technology as a means of revitalizing its collection, transforming artifacts into interactive dialogues, data into captivating narratives, and visitors into deeply engaged explorers. This approach aimed to enhance the museum experience through innovation.
This vision found an ally in Livdeo and its innovative platform, GEED. With expertise in enriching digital experiences through emerging technologies, GEED proved to be the ideal partner for the museum’s digital metamorphosis.
Together, they embarked on an exciting journey to shatter the conventions of the traditional museum experience. To craft something more adaptive, accessible, and alive. The MAH project became a quest to create ripples of transformation through the intersection of art and technology.
I. Facing the Hurdles
The MAH faced huge challenges as they worked towards their ambitious goals. They needed fresh ideas and technology because the usual ways of digitizing and involving people with their collections weren’t enough. They wanted to use new methods to make their collection lively and engaging.
Details on the specific challenges and pain points
With over 78,000 artifacts and 5,000 diverse miscellaneous objects on display, the sheer scale of the content posed enormous digitization and translation challenges. Manual processes were not an option. On-site, physical barriers such as glass display cases limited interaction with the exhibits. Static information did not allow for an immersive experience.
For non-French speakers, language constraints prevented meaningful engagement with the exhibits. Visitors wished for personalized interactions to discover the history of the objects. MAH sought to make unlimited information instantly accessible and to enable multilingual exploration.
Constraints of traditional approaches
Both on-site and online, traditional approaches fell short. Manual digitization and translation could not feasibly handle the enormous collection. Physical showcases and basic labels created detachment between visitors and exhibits.
Traditional digitization was factual and limited to presenting content rather than enabling active dialogue and participation. It failed to meet modern audiences’ expectations for immersive, social, and personalized digital experiences.
The growing need for an innovative solution
The MAH sought to push boundaries in engagement and access. The museum envisioned technology informing visitors and transforming their relationship with the collection. This demanded solutions as multifaceted as the artifacts themselves.
We had to re-imagine how visitors could connect with the stories behind the objects, contribute their points of view, and participate in creating knowledge. The MAH needed to evolve rapidly to provide next-generation physical and digital experiences. The time had come for a bold, innovative approach to breathe new life into the museum’s treasures.
II. The Digital Bridge
GEED became the MAH’s bridge to the digital world by providing a robust platform and custom-built apps powered by cutting-edge technologies. This allowed the museum to create next-generation experiences that made the collection come alive.
How did GEED provide the technology and tools needed?
The GEED platform offered an ever-evolving suite of technologies like computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing to unlock innovative use cases. The partnership went beyond installing software; it aligned GEED’s technical expertise with the MAH’s creative and curatorial ambitions.
GEED’s agile approach meant the tools and apps could quickly adapt to the museum’s evolving needs. The team provided tailored solutions for digitization at scale, immersive on-site interactions, multilingual access, and crowdsourced content. The partnership enabled the MAH to completely rethink how visitors could connect with heritage more naturally and personally.
Key features like CMS, ETL, image recognition, and crowdsourcing capabilities
To realize the MAH’s vision, GEED provided robust capabilities tailored to the museum’s needs. The platform included cutting-edge technologies to enable next-generation experiences and optimized tools to manage daily operations efficiently.
Key features of the GEED platform included:
- CMS for effortless content management: A user-friendly CMS enabled the MAH team to efficiently organize, publish, and update a vast amount of digital content. This made it possible to keep pace with the ever-changing exhibitions and programs.
- ETL for rapid, scalable digitization ETL (extract, transform, load) mechanisms enabled seamlessly migrating the museum’s collection to digital formats at scale. This unlocked unprecedented preservation and access.
- Image recognition for interactive on-site experiences allows visitors to instantly access artifact information by scanning objects themselves. This created more immersive and self-directed interactions using computer vision.
- Multilingual support with voice-over narratives, automated translation, and text-to-speech generated narrations in multiple languages. This removed language barriers to engage broader audiences.
- Crowdsourcing for collective knowledge features allowed visitors to contribute perspectives, descriptions, stories, and more to enrich exhibit information. This collectively created a knowledge base around the artifacts.
III. A New Era of Engagement
Increased interactivity through scans and instant access
The image recognition feature truly transformed on-site engagement. Visitors could uncover a trove of multimedia just by scanning objects with their smartphones. Audio narratives brought context to life.
This “scan to engage” made static displays interactive adventures. Visitors could indulge unique interests with endless layers of information at their fingertips. The technology guided personalized journeys tailored to individual curiosities and available time. For quick visits, the feature delivered impactful bite-sized discovery at a glance.
Hybrid experiences
This technological innovation offers a hybrid experience on-site, blending the structured depth of guided tours with the personal freedom of self-guided exploration. By navigating through the museum following a guided tour on their smartphone, visitors benefit from a unique flexibility that allows them to step aside at any time to explore rooms outside the guided narrative. The GEED Web App serves as a digital key, directly unlocking rich information about each piece through the camera lens, democratizing access to knowledge, and enriching visitor engagement with the museum’s treasures.
This seamless integration of digital technology into the physical space ensures that each artifact, statue, painting, or exhibition becomes an interactive portal, offering in-depth, personalized exploration at the visitor’s fingertips.
By making the entire collection accessible in this way, the museum experience is reimagined as a dynamic journey that combines the expertise of guided tours with the personalized discovery inherent in self-guided exploration, all facilitated by the innovative use of smartphone technology.
More inclusive experience through multilingual narratives
The MAH’s global collection demanded universal access. Automated translation and text-to-speech generated immersive narrative guides in visitors’ languages of choice. Now, non-French speakers can enjoy audio tours in English, German, Italian, and Spanish.
This dissolution of language and accessibility barriers was integral to the MAH’s vision. The museum became a welcoming space where anyone could engage meaningfully regardless of origin, ability, or learning style. Inclusivity became woven into the fabric of the museum experience.
IV. The Takeaway
The MAH and GEED’s collaboration pioneers a promising blueprint for museums pursuing digital transformation with human-centered design.
Summary of project results and benefits
Concrete results include:
- 78,000+ artifacts digitized for global 24/7 access
- 5,000+ on-site objects interactive via visual recognition
- Multilingual text/audio narratives in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
- Guided and free tours are available for visitors.
- These include some 50,000,000 words translated and generated in text-to-speech using GEED technologies.
These achievements unlocked new dimensions of access, engagement, and creativity. Visitors gained personalized adventures, and curators obtained creative flexibility. The museum evolved into an immersive, participatory experience.
Importance of reimagining museum experiences
This undertaking exemplifies the vital need to reimagine museums for the digital age. Technology can no longer be an afterthought. It must become an integral medium woven thoughtfully into operations, curation, and engagement.
The MAH provides an invaluable template to lead this evolution with human-centered design. Their vision leveraged technology to remove barriers, spur creativity, and strengthen human connection.
GEED is helping MAH achieve its vision of access
As a partner, GEED provided the versatile digital canvas and expertise to turn the MAH’s ambitions into reality. The platform unlocked new possibilities, from digitization at scale to immersive interactions to crowdsourced content and beyond.
This project provides a guiding star for museums that embrace digital capabilities with creativity, inclusion, and human connection at the helm. Organizations courageous enough to reinvent themselves around these values will define the future.
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