ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with a discussion of key emerging topics from the empirical study, specifically how slow technology encourages a reconceptualisation of museum dwelling. It discusses how the social, spatial and artefact ecologies of exhibition environments reflexively constitute augmented reality museum experiences and enable reflection around both technology and museum content. The use of digital technology to create engaging experiences in museum settings has attracted the interest of museum professionals, digital technologists and designers alike. One area that has seen significant development is the use of augmented reality in museum and heritage contexts. Parry traced the use of immersive and ‘make-believe’ approaches in museums back to the 1800s to establish ‘performance, theatricality and “virtuality” as defining characteristics of the museum’. The Borrowers installation was informed by a mixed method research-through-design approach. This combined the development of an artefact, an augmented reality installation, to inquire into alternative forms of interaction for young people in museums.