Digital Technology in the Art Gallery

As part of my MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise at University of Arts London, I explored literature that discussed the use of digital technology in art galleries. 

Digital technology in the art gallery environment is an ever-increasing topic and debate in improving engagement and learning. The literature exploring it covers a variety of topics and opinions including games, augmented reality and the internet. As general guidance, Enhuber (2015) divides digital technology and the art gallery’s relationship into two clear categories: digitisation, the conversion of physical into virtual content, and digitalisation, processing of digitised content. This literature review will explore the overarching theme of digital technology in the art gallery environment for enhancing learning and engagement, focusing on gaming through both digitisation and digitalisation.

A number of key texts were examined including journal articles, published guidance and books. Two important texts which included a collection of useful essays were Museums in a Digital Age edited by Ross Parry (2010) with a range of texts that discuss topics including virtual museums, accessibility of digital, and the future of digital in museums, and Katy Beale’s (2011) Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning which explores case studies and research with a focus around games enabling discovery in museums.

The topic for this literature review was developed from Prensky’s (2001) writing which said that Digital Natives have grown up with technology, see it as an integral part of their lives and respond best to different methodologies of teaching and engagement, for example games as learning tools and ‘edutainment’. This “arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology” (Prensky, 2001) has created opportunities for museums and galleries to reach broader audiences and engage those who wouldn’t traditionally visit these cultural institutions (Schaller, 2011).

Institutions are now changing their approach, putting the visitor experience at the centre of focus, rather than the collection and artefacts (Enhuber, 2015) which creates further opportunities for embedding digital technologies into the museum visitors experience.

Digital technologies offer opportunities for learning in museums to become a journey, with choices and control, with visitors becoming active pursuers, rather than just receivers of expert knowledge from the museum (Hawkey, 2006). Enhuber (2015) supports this, arguing that visitors add artistic value to work and active engagement through digital technology can enable this. This active engagement, rather than being a passive receipt of art, enables museums and galleries to challenge pre-conceptions that they are ivory towers, welcoming new demographics of visitors (Enhuber, 2015), and Flowers (2011) says that gaming can be the medium which reintroduces wonder into museums.

Museum collections can provide content and context for games, connecting audiences to art, science, history and technology by engaging them in a series of interesting and meaningful decisions honouring this real-world content (Schaller, 2011). Games offer new ways to experience museums and their assets, by translating them into other realms (Chatfield, 2011), and “provide ways into collections that are both interactive and accessible” (Flowers, 2011).

Games foster understanding with the real world, adding “adventure, mystery, magic and intrigue” (Flowers, 2011). Chatfield (2011) supports this claim, stating that video games can help players develop a relationship with museums, through a series of discoveries, whilst improving and investigating.

A number of authors note that the museums’ building and fabric can be used within a game as a device to create fictional narratives that transform museum spaces into places of wonder and imagination (Flowers, 2011). Games can also provide a medium to learn
through play, which unites imagination and intellect, with children learning at their own pace, in their own way (Roussou, 2010). A meaningful and memorable learning experience is created within games, by using goals, context and psychology to create an emotional response (Schaller, 2011).

Gaming in museums and galleries is much more successful than other degrees of digital technology integration, and provides opportunities for longer engagement by giving players a deeper insight into content and collections by asking interesting questions and meaningful choices, making the experience fun (Schaller, 2011), especially for Digital Natives, who prefer to access information quickly with instant gratification (Prensky, 2001). Roussou (2010) supports this, arguing that there is a need for interactivity in learning. Virtual tours may appeal to adults or Digital Immigrants who don’t have the digital literacy embedded as it’s been learnt later in life (Prensky, 2001), and they generally don’t want an active role. Children or Digital Natives have higher expectations of engagement and can lose interest quickly, meaning that games are a useful engagement tool (Roussou, 2010).

There is some contention as to whether digital technology and ‘edutainment’ does create better experiences, with the language and option changing over time. Prensky (2001) praises ‘edutainment’ as a learning tool for Digital Natives. However, Enhuber (2015) says “inappropriate use of digital media could turn art education into ‘edutainment’” arguing that this diminishes quality, creating alienating and isolated experiences for gallery visitors. Roussou (2010) supports this criticism, suggesting that ‘edutainment’ creates an environment that guides the visitor and makes decisions for them, whereas visitors should be stretched and challenged to ensure full engagement. Flowers (2011) also notes that ‘edutainment’ products create games with exogenous fantasy, where the scenario has no effect on the game, with no link between the skills practised and the game.

A further challenge discussed by a number of texts is that the successful implementation of digital technology, including games in gallery education, is reliant on the scope of technology, and level of budget, and the purpose or motivation of its use (Enhuber, 2015). However, Chatfield (2011) states that the video game industry provides a huge number of opportunities with “ready-made and highly-evolved expertise in the embedding of mechanics for engagement in public spaces” enabling museums and galleries to use alternative learning methodologies that become more relevant to Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001).

As digital technology develops, engaging with objects through 3D technology and
augmented reality can enhance experiences and learning effectiveness, promoting greater interaction between visitors and paintings (Enhuber, 2015). Another example of digital technology that can provide educational engagement, but are not games, are virtual museums such as Google’s Cultural Institute (Flowers, 2011). Chatfield (2011) claims that games, and technologies that use the buildings fabric, such as virtual museums, could be used to improve museums in the future, by learning about players or users’ preferences and exploiting this in museum design.

The research around digital technology and gaming in the museum and gallery context is ever developing, due to technology itself becoming more accessible and viable for museums. Therefore, this literature review is limited in its scope and further investigation will address gaps, especially exploring practical application of games in the museum context and the long-term affect that video games will have on these institutions.

Resources

• Atkinson, R. (2013) ‘The in-crowd’, Museums Journal, 113:11, 79.
• Arts Council England (2017) Digital Culture 2017. MTM London. Available at:
  http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/digital-culture-2017 (Accessed: 4 February 2018).
• Beale, K. (ed.) (2011) Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc.
• Chatfield, T. (2011) Telling Your Own Story: Analogies between Players’ Encounters with Game Space and Visitors’ Encounters with Museums. In: Beale, K. (ed.) Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, pages 480-485.
• Dieck, D. Dieck, M.C. Jung, T.H. (2016) ‘Enhancing art gallery visitors’ learning experience using wearable augmented reality: generic learning outcomes perspective’, Current Issues in Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2016.1224818.
• Enhuber, M. (2015) ‘Art, space and technology: how the digitisation and digitalisation of art space affect the consumption of art – a critical approach’, Digital Creativity, 26:2, 121-137. DOI: 10.1080/14626268.2015.1035448.
• Flowers, A. (2011) Transforming Galleries through Gaming. In: Beale, K. (ed.) Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, pages 286-298.
• Fors, V. (2013) ‘Teenagers’ Multisensory Routes for Learning in the Museum’, The Senses and Society, 8:3, 268-289. DOI: 10.2752/174589313X13712175020479.
• Freitas, S. (2006) ‘Using games and simulations for supporting learning’, Learning, Media and Technology, 31:4, 343-358, DOI: 10.1080/17439880601021967.
• Gavin, C. and Minett, L. (2008) ‘The Middleton Mystery: An Adventure at Belsay Hall,
  Interpreting Heritage Through the Design and Development of a Computer
  Game’, Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, London, 22-24 July 2008. 157-166. Available at: http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_eva08_paper19.pdf (Accessed: 1 February 2018).
• Gulec, A. Hummel, C. Parzefall, S. Schotker, U. and Wieczorek, W. (ed.) (2009) Documenta 12 Education: 1 Engaging Audiences, Opening Institutions, Methods and Strategies in Gallery Education at Documenta 12. Zurich: Institute of Art Education.
• Hawkey, R. (2006) Digital Technologies and Museum Learning. In: Lang, C. Reeve, J. and Wollard, V.(ed.) The Responsive Museum: Working with Audiences in the Twenty-First Century. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, pages 115-116.
• Parry, R. (ed.) (2010) Museums in a Digital Age. Oxfordshire, England: Routledge.
  Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, On the Horizon. MCB University Press, 9 (5).
• Price, K. (2017) ‘V&A Secret Seekers – designing a new mobile game for family
  visitors’, Digital Media at the V&A, 7 July. Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/digitalmedia/va-secret-seekers-designing-a-new-mobile-game-for-family-visitors (Accessed: 5 February 2018).
• Quirke, A. (2018) ‘Digital Arts: Crown Heights, The Boat, Google Cultural Institute, The Miniaturists’, Saturday Review [Podcast]. 6 January. Available at:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k0nrn (Accessed: 31 January 2018).
• Roussou, P. (2010) Learning by doing and learning through play: an exploration of
  interactivity in virtual environments for children. In: Parry, R. (ed.) Museums in a Digital Age. Oxfordshire, England: Routledge, pages 247-265.
• Schaller, D.T. (2011) ‘The Meaning Makes It Fun’, Journal of Museum Education, 36:3, 261-268, DOI: 10.1080/10598650.2011.11510707.