Defining the Museum of the Future: Revealing Krishna
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How can exhibitions make scholarly topics engaging for anyone? During a global pandemic, curatorial and digital leaders united to create the highest rated exhibition at a 100+ year old museum. Immersive experiences give context to global artifacts and issues, where digital enhances rather than distracts, distilling narratives and encouraging engagement with art on a personal level. With a recent exhibition as a case study, the Cleveland Museum of Art shares a roadmap for the museum’s evolved role in the 21st century as a caretaker of objects, where damaged and dispersed objects are digitally restored and reunited. The exhibition included 4 digital galleries alongside sculptures, with the largest application of HoloLens 2 in a museum-setting with a continuously running XR tour.
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Defining the Museum of the Future: Revealing Krishna
- 3. with fragments lost to time
- 4. uncovered
- 7. in tandem with discoveries from another sculpture in Cambodia
- 8. and international collaboration rearranged again through an exchange of fragments
- 9. Cleveland, 1978 - 2017 Phnom Penh, 2020 - present Cleveland, 2020 - present Phnom Penh, 2005 - 2015 end up solving a mystery
- 10. and lead to a groundbreaking, immersive experience?
- 11. CMA used a track record of innovation, from ArtLens Gallery to a comprehensive Open Access policy
- 12. to create a state of the art exhibition
- 13. Bringing cooperation, conservation and collaboration into focus. Taking fragmented sculptures on pedestals,
- 14. and bringing the visitor into the original context.
- 15. With the unique geography, where you must travel through waterways to reach Phnom Da
- 16. an understanding Krishna as one of 8 gods on the mountain
- 17. 1973 1978/1979 2020 Artist's Digital Reconstruction reinvigorating a story that began centuries ago.
- 18. Taking popular immersive experiences to a new level, where technology is in support of the physical art
- 19. thoughtfully crafted, alongside the masterworks
- 20. Click to add text To be awe inspiring.
- 21. How we used a mixed media exhibition to make a complex story relatable to more audiences through experience design:
- 22. JOURNEY A cinematic landscape of the waterways surrounding Phnom Da Introduce the setting, a two peaked mountain in Cambodia situated on a flood plain
- 23. Use gesture based interactives to give visitors the understanding of the sculptures iconography
- 24. The impact of global history and diplomacy
- 25. See the factors that impacted how Krishna looks today
- 26. Beginning with: A cross-departmental process and brainstorming
- 27. Concepting
- 28. Global partnerships and onsite location research
- 29. Lidar scanning and filming in Cambodia
- 30. Prototyping during a pandemic
- 32. Custom software
- 33. Small scale prototyping foe life size Gods
- 34. and larger scale prototyping
- 35. Developing with Interactive Commons a first of its kind HoloLens experience
- 36. Loung Ung and Angelina Jolie Working with narrators for whom Cambodian- American collaboration is important
- 37. Creating a large scale, continuously running mixed reality tour
- 38. 76 days 8 hours/day 6 people every 2 minutes! 10 minute experience
- 39. A cinematic script, with the voice of a Cambodian student
- 40. User Experience(UX) Design, using sound physical and digital to guide through 6 stations
- 41. Creating an experience for all users
- 42. With an immersive grand finale
- 43. Krishna as he originally looked, before years of wear and tear, polished with his original jewelry
- 44. Click to add text Putting the art in context, not only on pedestals
- 45. See the discoveries in real time, then meet the sculptures in person.
- 46. Audience Experience: The highest rating of any exhibition
- 47. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- Discovery of fragments
- Digging them up
- Discovered other Krishna
- Thanks Beth, Obviously to tell this complex conservation story, we needed to use digital to make the story more relatable. I’m going to give you a behind the scenes look at how we used components like immersive mixed reality, large scale projection and gesture-based interactives bring to life the story of a CMA’s Krishna,
- For the last decade, we have been creating innovative, awe-inspiring experiences, making art matter to a wide range of audiences. We are known for Gallery One, ArtLens Gallery, ArtLens Studio, and our comprehensive Open Access Initiative – and during the pandemic, we were recognized for a plethora of relevant and inspiring web-based AI toolsets.
- Revealing Krishna was a state of the art exhibition that used ancient artworks and mixed reality to tell a complex story of conservation, and global collaboration.
- As you know, the discovery cooperation and conservation of this sculpture is the focus of this exhibition.
- The sculpture was originally installed in a cave temple in 600 ad
- on Phnom Da, a sacred, two-peaked mountain.
- And was one of 8 monumental stone sculptures portraying the Hindu Gods that was installed on the mountain.
- From the start, it was clear that this story of collaboration, diplomacy, scholarship and research, and the puzzle of the limb fragments called for a richer and more nuanced retelling. This is an example of a scholarly exhibition that is so complex that we needed digital and curatorial to work together to make this exhibition relatable to more audiences.
- Just want to take a moment to note, “Immersive“ is a buzzword these days you probably all recognize immersive van Gogh – but there is a difference between a stand alone experience which is for entertainment value, versus at CMA, where we use digital innovation to enhance and support the artworks. I feel Digital is successful when people leave talking about the artwork.
- My job, is to make art matter to all audiences, so when you see sculptures on pedestals in galleries away from their original context it is difficult for the average person to understand
- By using Digital in 4 of the 6 Galleries we were able to make the story matter to more audiences, not only bringing deeper understanding to the sculptures, but the culture and the global history.
- Well first we start with Learning Goals.. We work with curatorial, and interpretation develop a set of goals that would help the exhibition be impactful and relatable to more audiences.
- The first gallery, Journey to Phnom Da brings visitors into the exhibition. Many people don't know where Phnom Da is, we wanted visitors to understand where Krishna came from, so we created an experience that emphasized the importance of waterways, showing the landscape and soundscape of southern Cambodia, and allowing visitors to take the pilgrimage to Phnom Da just as many did centuries ago.
- In Gods of Phnom Da, It was important to explain that the Cleveland Krishna was one of 8 god sculptures installed on Phnom Da, Introducing the 8 Gods and making it easy to understand the meaning of their iconography.
- In the Immersive Timeline, we wanted the visitors to explore the impact of global history and diplomacy on the sculptures of Phnom Da, and the evolving role of museums in stewardship.
- And in the HoloLens Experience, a mixed reality walking tour gives insight into the factors across time and place that impacted the way Krishna looks today, visitors understand the sculptures original context, by communicating the look and feel of Krishna’s original cave temple on Phnom Da.
- We brought together a collaborative team of people from the museum – getting the right people in the room not only from Digital, but also from curatorial and conservation to interpretation and design, to brainstorm ideas to implement a thoughtful experience about the learning goals.
- And so then from there, in 2019, we worked together to come up with four distinct digital concepts as well as a set of project goals and media design principles, understanding that we wanted it to be inviting, story-focused, and about the art. We want to be relevant, and with that wow factor. But in the end… we enhance the physical, its always about the art
- We worked cross collaboratively as a team, and brought in expertise and skillsets, such as interactive designers to photogrammetry specialists, sound designers, and 3D artists that we worked with very closely.
- As well as photogrammetry, captured on-site in the conservation labs and galleries of the National Museum in Phnom Penh, which could only be done after hours, and we often worked well into the night.
- We also reached out to the Interactive Commons at Case Western Reserve University – known worldwide for their work in mixed-reality development with the Microsoft HoloLens
- The key at this stage is refining the content – like finding the perfect playback speed and framerate in order to slow down motorboat footage.
- For the Gods experience we created software that reacts to visitor engagement, with details for each God, and an outro that shows the full sculpture in 360
- We created small scale prototypes to test the software of all 8 gods
- We tested content at a 1 to 1 scale to look at text placement, resolution and user experience
- And as developers deployed new code, we would meet as a group to test accuracy, engagement and usability, we worked with our partners throughout the pandemic
- Relevancy of narrator is also important. Since the Immersive Timeline tells the story of the global histories and stewardship, we worked with Loung Ung, a Clevelander from Cambodia, author of First they Killed my Father, and also with Director, Actor, and Humanitarian Angelina Jolie, an American with deep ties to Cambodia
- By far, the most complex and ground breaking digital component of this exhibition is the HoloLens walking tour. It also has the most useful component to understand the life of the Cleveland Krishna sculpture, sharing its original context on Phnom Da, the provenance and the conservation.
- What makes this mixed reality experience unique, and to make it possible to get 20,000 people through the tour, we built the experience like a ride at an amusement park. Every two minutes, new groups start the tour. This is the first time anything like this has been attempted with HoloLens 2.
- We brought in a film script-writer to make the story more impactful, cinematic, and engaging. We changed the story to be told from the point of view of Krishna.
- In order to seamlessly let visitors know it was time to move, we created three cues: 1. visitors hear the sound of a Cambodian flute, 2. they see the digital particles that guide them to each station, and 3. there are actual physical foot markers
- HoloLens is a device that projects holograms into your physical environment, this is mixed reality, and allows us to tell the sculpture’s complete story. With HoloLens you can interact with people and maneuver through space; with a seamless blend of physical and virtual. It is a social experience, easy to wear, and comfortable for those who have never tried it before.
- Visitors actually step into Krishna's original cave temple on Phnom Da,
- Visitors enter the cave to see Krishna as he originally looked, before the years of wear and tear.
- Our conservators would never alter an object to this degree, but through technology we can recreate how the sculpture most likely would have looked, with its dark, polished surface, and its original gold jewelry. This artist rendering puts the art in context instead of on pedestals in galleries, and gives visitors the toolsets to look closer and appreciate the conservation.
- Exit the tour, the holograms melt away, and you step into the gallery with the CMA Krishna in person. This moment, where digital leads you to the physical is at the core of what we do, making experiences that connect you to the artwork.
- Even though the pandemic limited the show’s attendance, Revealing Krishna’s visitor experience was remarkably high, as you can see in this graph, where Krishna is at the top for Overall Experience Ratings or OER.
- Not all museums have the same resources, but collaborating gives us the opportunity to share. This exhibition is something that can live beyond it’s time on view, as something online, traveling to other institutions and as an example for best practices in museums moving forward. It was truly a proof of concept for how museums can think of scholarly exhibitions in the future.
- Visitors begin with a quick onboarding to make sure they feel comfortable, and then the tour begins
- Start at the sacred peaks of Phnom Da, introducing you to the 8 Gods and connecting you to geography of the flood plain
- In station 2, you’ll see a recreation of the Stoclet Palace
- At the same station, visitors are introduced to the crate which opens and unloads the fragmented pieces
- But with the device, they get up close and explore the multiple limb fragments alongside Stan Czuma, former CMA curator as he discovers them underground in the garden in Brussels in the 1970s
- The fourth station is the most important station. Moving forward through time, the story heads to the conservation labs of CMA and the National Museum of Cambodia and over multiple decades, shows how the fragments were exchanged and rearranged.