The latest edition of Museum Connectionsthe trade show for tomorrow’s tourism and cultural experience, took place on March 30 and 31, 2022 at Paris Expo. The event featured more than 19 conferences, 24 duos between cultural/tourist venues and partners, and an award presented by Club Culture & Management. In addition to this wealth of events, there were numerous online pre-show events: 8 meet-ups, 1 Webinar and 4 conferences. {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] In collaboration with Museum Connections, we’d like to take a look back at 3 key trends in innovation, sustainable development and accessibility. This article is dedicated to innovation: what are the conditions? How have these projects enriched the visitor experience and raised the profile of cultural venues?
Three axes to guarantee the conditions for the digital transformation of cultural venues
Open up to new skills and new collaborations.
In the cultural field, the richness, expertise and diversity of the profiles and skills that work on a daily basis to enrich and disseminate knowledge to as many people as possible is unquestionable. According to Les chiffres clés de la culture et de la communication 2021, 55% of professionals working in museums, historic sites and monuments, and similar tourist attractions, have a baccalaureate of 3 years or more. Nevertheless, digital skills and expertise are rarely internalized or recognized. It therefore seems necessary to open up to new ideas and fields of application.
This is the choice made by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, for example, and described by Abla Benmiloud Faucher, Head of Strategy, Foresight and Digital Affairs, in this conference: transforming itself by opening up to other sectors (intervention at the 22 minute mark). During this talk, she talks about how she recruited an engineer seconded from Nokia as a skills patron. An expert in complex project management, change management and continuous improvement, this engineer was tasked with leading an ambitious program of experiments on remote guided tours between November 2020 and March 2021. The engineer steered and coordinated the digitization campaign for 12 monuments, secured the support and training of tour leaders, and tested different online tour formats with 2,500 schoolchildren and 1,500 individuals from the general public. A white paper on the experiment was then produced, these offers were made permanent and Patrick Bergeot has now been recruited by CMN.
In this logic of reciprocal innovation, the public can also play a decisive role. In this same conference, the testimonies of Sophie Kervran, Director of the Musée de Pont-Aven and Joana Idieder, Head of Communications at the MAC VAL (12th minute of the conference), demonstrate this perfectly. With 90,000 visitors in 2019, the Musée de Pont Aven is one of the busiest museums in Brittany. Inspired by the collaborative initiatives of the Brooklyn Museum in 2008(an exhibition designed according to visitors’ choice) or the Rouen Metropolitan Museum Visitors’ Chamber, the museum launched a participatory project in 2020. This project, entitled Réserve, ouvre toi! was launched to enable web users to select, in a participative way, through an online vote 35 works to be exhibited.
The Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MACVAL) used another type of collaborative approach to revamp the content of its audioguide. The MACVAL, with its service provider Audiovisit, wanted to rework the content of its audioguides with allophone audiences (whose mother tongue is not French). 2 recording sessions were therefore carried out to work on text and discourse, encourage inclusion and develop links within the framework of these recordings, which greatly enrich the plurality of languages represented in this audioguide: Chadian, Malagasy, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Catalan, etc.
Collaborative ventures between cultural venues and the public or corporate sector enable the appropriation of external know-how while fostering the creation of links with the latter. Such relationships can also contribute to a venue’s cultural influence. They can also help in the search for support and funding.
Seek help and funding.
Identifying and seeking support and funding can also be an opportunity to set up new models of collaboration between cultural venues and funders (whether public or private).
On the public aid side, a speech by Gilles Duffau at the show provided an update on the actions taken by the Banque des territoires to accelerate the transformation of the cultural and creative industries. This commitment took concrete form in 2017, with support for the transformation and innovation of a number of cultural establishments in an entrepreneurial and co-financing logic: BnF Partenariats, Philharmonie des enfants, Grand Palais immersif or IRCAM Amplify, etc. More recently, a call for projects dedicated to the “Digitization of heritage and architecture” was launched to support digitization initiatives in various cultural fields by players as varied as local authorities, public establishments and businesses.
The search for funding can also be part of particularly innovative fundraising strategies. These strategies can, among other things, involve renewing the compensation offered to patrons. The example presented by the Nuits Noires agency (in collaboration with Ask Mona) for the patrons of Lyon’s Fête des Lumières is quite emblematic in this respect. In this context, corporate patrons were given a behind-the-scenes look at the event’s set-up via a series of podcasts, and were then able to enjoy an augmented stroll around the city in collaboration with AskMona.
Other forms of compensation can be envisaged for corporate sponsors, such as hosting exhibitions specifically designed by the cultural establishment. Simon Medina, head of corporate relations and patronage at the Musée des Confluences, spoke ata conference on new forms of fundraising. Inspired by the Louvre’s small traveling gallery, the Lyon-based museum now offers its corporate partners the opportunity, in return for donations, to build cultural projects in close collaboration with them, thereby contributing to their influence and credibility.
In addition to showcasing a museum’s expertise to its partner companies, promoting the value of its collections to the public can also help develop its own resources, which in turn can be used to develop new projects. This is the case, for example, with NFTs (non-fungible tokens – title deeds to digital files). Masha Maskina, LaCollection’s Director of Curation, spoke about the platform’s collaboration with the British Museum (38th minute of the conference). As part of the museum’s physical exhibition on Hokusai in September 2021, LaCollection proposed to sell 100 “digital twins” of works present in the British Museum’s collections but not exhibited on this occasion. During the 4 months of the exhibition, sales of these “digital twins” reached 7-figure figures. For example, the famous Hokusai painting sold for €55,000. This initiative enabled us to reach new audiences and develop new sources of financing.
Various particularly innovative types of financing can be envisaged. In the light of all this experience, there is one final prerequisite for hosting innovative projects in the best possible conditions: technical and technological infrastructures.
Put in place the technological conditions necessary for digital innovation.
In addition to the need to open up to new skills and diversify its funding sources, a third condition would appear to be essential for developing innovative digital projects: a clear technical framework.
One of these prerequisites is the availability of high-quality digitized collections. This was the subject of two presentations made during the show: one by the Musée d’Histoire de la Ville de Marseille, the other by the Mobilier National. For the Musée d’Histoire de Marseille, the digitization, carried out by Mercurio, served primarily professional purposes: scientific surveys and annotations to document a stone block dating from the 6th century BC, found on the Alcazar site in 2001. For the Mobilier National, Hélène Cavalié spoke of the need to disseminate digitized objects from the public institution’s collections as widely as possible. To raise the profile of the Mobilier national, the curator and director of collections has decided to join other, more internationally visible platforms such asEuropeana. These platforms help to promote digitized objects to a wider public, while enriching the content with additional data or automatic translation processes.
Beyond the digitization process, which is the key to a digital project, a series of conditions are necessary to ensure the physical dimension of a digital project in the spaces of a cultural link, such as network infrastructures and visitor flow management. On the technical side, innovations such as the one developed by Glorytech for the Musée Granet are particularly inspiring. Located in Aix-en-Provence, the museum has implemented a light-based Wi-Fi technology. Thanks to the use of such technology, digital mediation content is accessible, with or without a connection, and with precise geolocation. Another point to consider, beyond technology, is the management of public flows. In this respect, two particularly interesting systems have been highlighted at Museum Connections: one at ticketing level, to modulate the pricing policy according to the number of visitors to a cultural venue(feedback from the Swiss Château Chillon in collaboration with Smeetz), the other to track and monitor the number of visitors to different venues(feedback from the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in collaboration with Technis).
These different experiences highlight the richness and inventiveness of approaches that help to renew the visitor experience. Faced with severe constraints in terms of skills, technologies and funding, ambitious mediation projects can be enriched by these new approaches.
2. Three strategies for renewing the visitor experience through use- or technology-oriented approaches.
Three strategies can be envisaged to improve the visitor experience at a cultural site: enhancing the value of the site or enriching the visitor experience. These innovations can be both practical and technological.
Promoting the site and its collections.
After the long months of closure imposed by the health crisis, the reopening of these cultural sites brought home just how essential they are to the French. A number of digital and kinetic projects have emerged to help promote these exceptional sites and their collections.
The Palais Galliera ‘s project with Enter is one such example. Following the museum’s renovation, Enter filmed a mapping performance: a white line ran along the museum’s architectural lines. Closed to the public during the performance, it was retransmitted on the social networks of the Musée de la Mode and the other museums of the City of Paris.
The collections of a museum can also be the subject of a specific editorialization to be better linked to the public. This is what the Musée d’art moderne de Fontevraud wanted to achieve with Vox Culurae, by setting up a digital table to help visitors locate works, discover links between artists and schools linked to the collection, and discover it in a more entertaining way.
More immersive processes can also be envisaged to editorialize and enhance the works and spaces of a cultural venue.
Promote visitor immersion.
Immersion primarily mobilizes hearing and sight. So there have been many examples of immersive experiences, both audiovisual and aural.
A wide variety of examples of audiovisual immersions have been shared at Museum Connections, including :
- D’Eternelle Notre-Dame, presented by Morgan Bouchet, Program Director Global Head Metaverse & Extended Realities (XR) at Orange Innovation. Since its opening, this virtual reality experience, in which Orange has invested, has enabled 45,000 visitors to discover the different facets of the cathedral’s history.
- De Chambord 360° was recently launched by the château. Cécilie de Saint-Venant, director of communications, branding and sponsorship at the Domaine national de Chambord, and Arnaud Lemaire (Kemell Production) unveiled this virtual reality experience at the show. Accessible on site and subject to reservation, this is a new way of discovering the château.
- A new tour of the Maison Robert Schuman (in collaboration with Monolithe Studio) brings the famous founder of Europe to life in his home, using holograms and an immersive narrative.
- Augmented reality tours (modified with the seasons) and a serious game developed by Ohrizon and the Muséoparc d’Alésia to discover the archaeological site in a more fun and participative way.
On the subject of sound immersion, Losonnante presented an example of the use of its bone conduction audio terminal at the Vaisseau, Strasbourg’s technical and industrial cultural center. Unendliche presented an immersive strolling approach between Monnaie de Paris and the Institut de France.
In addition to immersion, personalization and the use of interactivity can also help to mobilize the visitor’s body and attention.
Personalize the visitor experience, create interaction and play.
Fostering the impression of a personalized visitor experience can be achieved through a variety of digital and physical applications, or simply by making a site your own.
The use of digital technology as part of a visitor’s itinerary can encourage the creation of personalized tours. This is what LUMA, the cultural and artistic complex in Arles opening in 2021, wanted to implement with the support of Okeenea, the Studios Architecture agency and the Cogito Ergo Sum consultancy, via an all-disability indoor guidance solution. Depending on individual needs (stairs or elevator, etc.), it provides contextual information and the ideal route to enhance the visitor experience.
Other, non-digital possibilities also make it possible to develop more playful and interactive tours dedicated to families. With this in mind, the Musée Guerre et Paix en Ardennes has created an original “young public” tour in collaboration with Unique Heritage Media. Game cards can be used to complete a treasure hunt, labels have been adapted for younger visitors, and a book is now available in the store.
Finally, personalizing a space can also mean reappropriating it in terms of its uses. This is the philosophy behind the ephemeral coworking space project set up in Montreuil’s Centre Tignous d’art contemporain with Be My Space. This initiative has enabled us to upgrade the privatization offer, identify opportunities to make the most of the space and take advantage of low-use periods.
In conclusion, there are many ways to redesign or optimize a visitor experience. Whatever the approach, it often requires recourse to a variety of skills, know-how and funding. These needs are sometimes themselves sources of innovation, and also contribute to the movement of a cultural site that wishes to transform itself. Directly or indirectly, all these projects help to raise the profile of cultural venues with their audiences and partners.
