ABSTRACT
It is vital for the outlook of a society that its members care about cultural heritage and regard museums as institutions that are worth visiting and supporting. However, in the twenty-first century the survival of museums is not self-evident. Museums must redefine themselves from “temples of cultural heritage” to forums for social engagement and debate where the visitor is an active participant. This chapter demonstrates that design can help to sustain and expand this terrain of civic participation by exploiting the potentials of digital technologies. First we examine the new audiences and their habits of media consumption, communication and learning habits. Next, we discuss new ways of addressing museum visitors in a participatory manner, on different levels and time-scales. A conceptual frame of reference is provided to describe and judge individual digital installations and applications that aim to serve these functions. This is followed by a series of case studies that are introduced from the authors’ own projects, which demonstrate how technology can serve the participatory attitude in several aspects, as of the number of visitors engaged or extension of the visit in time and space. Finally some key issues of design and assessment installations are discussed.
