Experimental Museum Exhibition Design

The project develops a generic digital/spatial framework which facilitates the design of interactive installations. The framework provides possibilities for visualization, sound and animation, as well as the interaction by user-tracking, position-aware image and sound. Based on the concept of the experience cylinder, the project implements semiotic resources, narratives and expressions in an immersive 360 degrees environment. The goal is to create a generic tool for non-technical designers. The project is related to the main focus area Aesthetics, Experience and Learning, and involves computer science, art, aesthetics and museum studies as well as ethnography.
A close collaboration with the Viking Ship Museum (VM) has developed during the project period. As part of the museums aim to disseminate knowledge about marine archaeology and marine archaeological heritage, the museum will open a new exhibition area in 2016 (the Marine Archaeological Experimentarium) dominated by interactive installations to let visitors study underwater archaeological spots and experience how marine archaeologists work. The main installation in the new exhibition is a copy of the experience cylinder developed in this DHT project. A related activity resulting from the close RUC/VM museum exhibition collaboration is a fall 2015 Interaction Design Course at RUC, where 62 students as the main practical assignment will develop ideas and implement prototypes of installations for the Experimentarium area at VM. As an evaluation activity the students will exhibit their results at the museum for the public and the media during a special VM exhibition day in November 2015.
Being the main activity in Experience Lab(ExLab)/RUC 2013-2015, this DHT project has had a crucial influence on the development of ExLab as active experimental research lab.