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The Diary of Niels: Affective Engagement Through Tangible Interaction with Museum Artifacts

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Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection (EuroMed 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12642))

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Abstract

This paper presents a research through design exploration using tangible interactions in order to seamlessly integrate technology in a historical house museum. The study addresses a longstanding concern in museum exhibition design that interactive technologies may distract from the artifacts on display. Through an iterative design process including user studies, a co-creation workshop with museum staff and several prototypes, we developed an interactive installation called The Diary of Niels that combines physical objects, RFID sensors and an elaborate fiction in order to facilitate increased visitor engagement. Insights from the research process and user tests indicate that the integration of technology and artifacts is meaningful and engaging for users, and helps introduce museum visitors to the historic theme of the exhibition and the meaning of the artifacts. The study also points to continued challenges in integrating such hybrid experiences fully with the rest of the exhibition.

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Acknowledgments

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727040 (the GIFT project: gifting.digital).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Mette Muxoll Schou & Anders Sundnes Løvlie

Authors
  1. Mette Muxoll Schou
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  2. Anders Sundnes Løvlie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anders Sundnes Løvlie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Marinos Ioannides

  2. Arlington, VA, USA

    Eleanor Fink

  3. USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Lorenzo Cantoni

  4. Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Erik Champion

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Schou, M.M., Løvlie, A.S. (2021). The Diary of Niels: Affective Engagement Through Tangible Interaction with Museum Artifacts. In: Ioannides, M., Fink, E., Cantoni, L., Champion, E. (eds) Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection. EuroMed 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12642. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73043-7_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73043-7_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-73042-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-73043-7

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