76% of French people believe that the development of digital technologies is an opportunity for museums and heritage sites (cf. survey Harris Interactive). Over the past twenty years or so, with the emergence of the web and social networks, the public has had easier access to works, collections and content posted online by museums. This simplicity of access seems to encourage the general public to get closer to art and culture. But access is not the same for everyone.
According to a study byEmmaüs Connect, 26% of the French population is considered to have digital difficulties. Wouldn’t giving a cultural establishment an online presence confront some of these audiences with a double barrier to access, both social and digital? Furthermore, is this really the role of museums? That’s what Jean-François Chougnet, President of Mucem, for example, has in mind when he talks about the museum’s role as “antidote to virtuality”. antidote to virtuality “The physical, sensitive presence of collections is essential to a cultural experience.
In the light of these figures and positions, it might be interesting to take a closer look at what digital technology can potentially bring to sensory, human or material mediation, and how it cannot do without the latter. Convinced of the need for a global approach to digital in the missions entrusted to it, {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] proposes some answers in this article.
1. Online audiences = in situ audiences?
44% of French people say they have used the Internet in connection with a heritage visit in the last 12 months (see article by Laboratoire Société numérique).
The relationship between these potential visitors and the online presence of a museum or monument is, however, much denser in terms of uses than simply preparing for a visit: discovering works of art, learning online, following museum news… By way of illustration, here’s a presentation of how Muséum national d’histoire naturelle uses social networks.
This presentation was produced as part of a training course for the museum’s audience development and communications teams run by {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] between 2016 and 2018.
Beyond these considerations, in 2016-2017, for the publication of issue 134 of Culture et Recherche, Yves Evrard and Anne Krebs wrote an article that opens up a fine reflection on the relationship between real and virtual visitors to the Louvre museum.
In fact, this study distinguishes between “exclusive physical visitors”, “exclusive virtual visitors” and “complete visitors”. This categorization already implies that certain audiences may only know a site through its online presence, and benefit from the mediation provided by its teams on these media. This implicitly recognizes the relevance of an audience policy for the web and social networks.
Among the main findings of this study, both virtual and physical visitors recognize the primacy of the in situ experience: 81.9% for “exclusive physical visitors” and 82% for “exclusive virtual visitors”. The physical relationship with the work is considered irreplaceable (94.3% and 87.1% respectively). The museum would seem to be the place of delight evoked in the current ICOM definition, which has been the subject of so much debate recently.
These findings are a fine counter-argument to those who believe that investing in the web is detrimental to the number of visitors to a physical location.
Conversely, there is a clear divide between physical and virtual visitors in terms of their understanding of the web and its relevance to cultural discovery. The “exclusive virtual visitors” are more inclined to recognize the possibility of aesthetic recollection on the web , thanks to the excellent resolution of the photos made available on the web, and to the fact that the internet seems an antidote to over-visiting a museum such as the Louvre.
A study that is particularly necessary to evoke the complexity of interactions between visitors as they relate to a cultural site in all its dimensions.
While physical contact with a work of art seems to be the preferred choice of museum visitors, the use of digital technology can also contribute to a better analysis of the relationship visitors have with the work.
2. Can digital technology contribute to a better understanding of the physical relationship with a work of art?
The physical visitor is the subject ofregular visitor surveys conducted by Ministère de la culture or directly commissioned by museums from university laboratories or research firms. Over the past few years, a number of highly relevant research firms have sprung up in this field, employing marketing professionals (such as L’œil du public), statisticians(GECE) and doctoral students(Voix publics).
Most of these studies focus on audiences, their socio-demographic characteristics, their uses and practices.
To do this, these professionals draw on other academic disciplines, such as neuroscience, and use digital devices to fuel their diagnosis. We could, for example, mention oculometric glasses to measure a visitor’s attention based on eye movement, or electrodermal bracelets to record emotions based on epidermal skin reactions.
In 2017, Mathias Blanc, as part of a project entitled Ikonikat, carried out a study of how visitors perceived, in the most intimate way, the works by Le Nain then on display at Louvre Lens.
Within the framework of this project, the tools used conventionally in sociology (observations, interviews, etc.) were combined with other tools used in a neuroscience approach (tablet and oculometric glasses).
Equipped with these devices, visitors were invited to look at the works. Their eye movements were captured by the goggles, allowing us to identify which areas of the paintings were the most frequently viewed, and which had been overlooked.
To corroborate these initial results, they were then invited to trace a set of vanishing lines they had perceived on the painting they were observing, using a tablet to compare what they were actually looking at with what they considered to be the structure of the painting.
Lastly, these various surveys were shared during interview and observation sessions.
Visitors revealed thatthey interpret their perception of the works according to a set of sociological constructs that differ according to their age, gender, social situation or origin.
Beyond these sociological constructs, the location and layout of spaces have a particular influence on physical visitors’ sensitive and intelligible relationship with a work of art or a collection. The same is true of their relationship with the digital mediation systems available to them.
3. Can digital technology “mediate” on its own?
On this point, the global approach to mediation that we recommend in our consulting and training missions is clearly a negative response to this question.The digital mediation devices that can be used, whatever their type (video projection, tablets, mobile apps, glasses…) cannot ignore all the visible or less visible mediation already at work in a physical place: sensitive, material, scenographic or human mediation.
To illustrate this, here’s the feedback from an experiment we carried out in 2015 with Ecole du Louvre students at the Pantheon. The aim of this experiment was to raise students’ awareness, through evaluation, of the need to take into account audience usage and all the components of an exhibition to best integrate digital mediation into a venue.
2015, in a particularly traumatic context for our country, between two attacks, 4 male and female Resistance fighters were then pantheonized: Pierre Brossolette, Geneviève Antonioz de Gaulle, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay. Visitors to the Panthéon were invited to view an exhibition evoking their memory. Located in the monument’s north transept, the exhibition featured no works of art or objects, giving pride of place to testimonials, stories and facts. Highly documented, written panels accompanied by photos presented the lives of the various members of the Resistance.
To accompany this written mediation, various digital devices were deployed to provide access to in-depth content (photos and videos from the archives of the Institut national de l’audiovisuel) or to encourage involvement and interactivity with the public. These included audiovisual terminals, an interactive timeline, a mobile visitor application (for young visitors), a digital guestbook(Guestviews), and a videomaton (to record video testimonials from visitors about their perception of the Resistance, and feed into a webdocumentary that can be accessed online and remains part of the exhibition).
The study therefore consisted in carrying out a series of surveys on the scenographic layout of the exhibition spaces (including the integration of digital devices into this exhibition), visitor flows, visitor behavior, their use of digital devices (including the ease or complexity of use of the latter) and the editorial content offered to them.
To carry out this work, observation sessions were carried out on the premises and on visitor practices. To this were added various experimental sessions and interviews with visitors and floor staff.
Analysis of these surveys revealed two main findings:
- It seems necessary toinclude digital devices in a scenographic reflection to better integrate them into exhibition spaces.
- To better respond to the needs of the public and define appropriate content, test and experiment as much as possible during the design phase with the devices you wish to implement, to encourage visitors to get to grips with them.
The development of an online presence or the integration of digital devices in a cultural venue therefore does not fundamentally change the relationship between the public and the works or collections on offer. On the other hand, the use of these devices can be a source of enrichment in the relationship that a cultural venue can have with its audiences, provided that the projects undertaken deeply respect the identity of the venue, its scenographic spaces, its links with the public or the practices of the professionals who work there. We’ll soon be talking about other particularly fascinating studies on the relationship between professionals and audiences, and digital technology in particular. Stay tuned!
