This document discusses the meSch project, which uses physical interaction and personalized digital content to enhance visitors' engagement with cultural heritage at museums. It describes two types of meSch applications, including one fully integrated into an exhibition. The document also discusses how meSch can support a do-it-yourself approach for cultural heritage professionals and provide unique experiences for visitors both onsite and online. It provides an example implementation of meSch at the Hub Kockelkorn Museon involving replicas that represent different perspectives of a historical event for visitors to interact with.

1. Hub Kockelkorn, Museon

2. • About the meSch project
• 2 meSch applications
– A standalone application
– An application fully integrated in an exhibition
• meSch and DiY

3. • Physical interaction with objects and spaces to foster
visitors’ engagement with cultural heritage
• Personalisation of content in context to provide
visitors with unique experiences onsite and online
• Easy-to-use technology to support cultural heritage
professionals to adopt a Do-It-Yourself approach

12. • Real objects
Protected against touching
• Added value
Not just information that also could be printed
• Quick to produce

16. Superb bird-of-paradise Lophorina superba (Pennant,
1781). Papua, Indonesia

17. Chinese women’s shoes, c. 1900

18. The species has an unusually low population of
females, and competition amongst males for mates is
intensely fierce. The average female rejects 15-20
potential suitors before consenting to mate.

19. For centuries Chinese men considered tiny bound feet as sexy.
In China tiny women’s feet were a status symbol. But the
women involved suffered pain and disability. They could only
hobble around and certainly not work.

20. My paradise in the museum’s storage.

21. Remembering my owner’s feet.

22. Are you competitive?

23. 'Nǐ hǎo' (that's 'hello' in Chinese)! We're more fun to
look at than wear. Have you got any clothes like that?

24. • Wrong location
• Current status not visible
• Little user generated contents

25. • PR tool
• Tool to involve the audience deeper with objects
• Help with exhibition preparation?

35. • Collections: culture, nature and science
• Regular target audience: families and schools
• Over 200.000 visitors
• Changing focus:
– Connection with The Hague as city of peace and
justice
– Global challenges and UN sustainable development
goals as guidance for our programmes

42. • April 9th – November 1st
• Individual visitors: adults
• Groups: special lessons for primary &
secondary education

43. • Connecting past and present
Connecting war with peace
• Connecting inside and outside
Connection the exhibition with the city

45. • Fully integrated
Throughout the whole exhibition
• Possible to visit the exhibition without meSch
technology
• meSch as additional layer
Personal, evocative. Not about facts
• Connected to real objects
No standalone interactives

46. • Choice between three different perspectives
– Civilian
– Official
– German
• Based on historical resources
Archives, newspapers, oral history

53. • Pushing a button?
• Using a smart card, barcode etc.?
• Or …

55. • Contribute to the visitor experience
• More immersive experience by choosing a
perspective before the visit

56. • Each replica should represent a perspective
• It should be easy and cheap to reproduce

58. • Providing information about the original
objects and the replicas
• Explaining the different perspectives
• Explaining how to use the replicas

60. Assumptions
• Loss of smart replicas
• Not aiming at quick visitors
Observations
• You can trust your public
• They want to know what they are missing

62. Starting point
• Choice of perspective as a discovery

65. Starting point
• Choice of perspective as a discovery
Observations
• Visitors do not take time to discover
• Be explicit as possible

71. • But if people never experienced technology
before…
– Low tech vs high tech / handling the replica
– Starting the sound clip
– Relationship sound and image
• Help your visitor as much as possible

74. • Drop the smart object
• Print your personal data souvenir
• Connect inside with outside
• Add your own story

78. • Total visitor sessions: 14,853
• Average sessions per day: 75
• Peak sessions per day: 187
• Dutch: 78% - English: 22%
• Civilian: 42 % - Official: 20 % - German: 38 %
• Average contents view per session: 48.5 %

79. • Exhibition appreciation: 7,7
• Use of replicas appreciation: 8,0
(100 respondents from the general Museon
audience)

80. Preference (70 persons)
• Phone: 30
• Replica: 28
• Smart card: 12
Reject
• Phone: 39
• Replica: 10
• Smart card: 23
• Replica & card: 2
• None of them: 1

82. During the visit I was sharing the
experience with my companions and/or other visitors?

84. Create, test and change and interactives
NARRATIVE
Content network and its properties
Semantic annotations / discourse relations
INTERACTION SCRIPT
Rules for the use of content in context
84
CONTEXT
Possible interaction abilities
Mapping between elementary
interactions and semantic dimensions
DEVICE
Hardware configuration

85. German
soldier
Civil
servant
Dutch
civilian
Narrative 1
Narrative 2
Narrative 3
Narrative 4
Narrative 5
Narrative 6

86. • First release of the system for external beta-users
• Widening the range of examples
• Starting a community of practice
• Any interest? Get in touch!

87. Theproject (2013-2017) receives funding from the European Community’s Seventh
FrameworkProgramme ‘ICT foraccess to cultural resources’(ICT Call 9: FP7-ICT-
2011-9) under the Grant Agreement 600851.