Museum of the Future —17 Digital Experiments
Many fascinating objects are difficult to display in a museum. Some are too big, some too delicate; others cannot be touched or moved for reasons of preservation. Exhibiting objects is always a balancing act between the two main objectives of a museum: conservation and sharing knowledge. As a result, many exhibits can only be experienced by visitors in a limited fashion. With 17 interactive experiments, the “Museum of the Future” exhibition at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich transforms the exhibition space into a laboratory of the future and explores how digital technologies and artificial intelligence can be used to exhibit and communicate objects in a new way – and thus enable an exciting museum experience of tomorrow.
Take part in the scientific research of the exhibition and make a contribution to the museum of the future!
The Citizen Science Zurich (UZH/ETH) team collects visitors' personal impressions of the exhibits to scientifically examine the exhibition. There is no right or wrong – the focus is rather on opinions, thoughts and ideas. The aim of this accompanying research is to gain an impression of the individual experiences of different museum visitors. What emotions does the exhibition evoke? How can objects that are too large or too small for an exhibition be experienced digitally? What moves or irritates? What new insights could possibly be gained?
How is the research carried out?
Citizen Science Zurich uses qualitative social research methods for the investigation. What exactly this means and how the research process works is explained in more detail below.
Two methods are used for the research:
- Feedback tour
Visitors are equipped with a tablet for the one-hour feedback tour through the exhibition. With the help of an app specially designed for the exhibition by Citizen Science Zurich, visitors can use text and voice messages to share their impressions of the exhibition.
The feedback and impressions received via the app are very valuable and will be incorporated into the development of exciting future exhibitions! As a thank you for your participation, you will receive a goodie bag from the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
Data protection: All collected data is stored exclusively on a server in Zurich, so that no information is transferred to third parties or external cloud services.
- Participatory observation
The Citizen Science Zurich team visits the exhibition and also accompanies two public tours as part of what is known as participatory observation. The employees move through the exhibition, take part in what is happening and observe the exhibition experience. The impressions gained are recorded in notebooks. The following questions are of interest: How do visitors come into contact with the exhibition objects? Is the opportunity for participation recognized and used? How much time do visitors spend with individual objects? Do visitors stay longer with interactive objects than with “classic” objects? Are visitors disturbed in their interaction when they are observed by spectators? Do visitors talk to others about the exhibition areas?
Data protection: No personal data is collected in the course of participatory observation. No information is recorded that could be used to draw conclusions about an individual person. The team's aim is to observe and understand how visitors behave in this interactive exhibition format.
Visitors to the exhibition who participated in the accompanying research will receive the results of the study as a report by e-mail if they are interested.
Participation in both formats is voluntary. Interested parties can register on the Museum für Gestaltung website (only in German):
