Indianapolis Museum of Art | Engaging Places

As museums continue to evolve, so do the tools we use to connect with our audiences. Projection mapping is creating new opportunities to bring stories and objects to life. Although it’s been used for decades, it is increasingly adopted by museums and historic sites. I’m excited to share my new video, now available on YouTube, where I explore some fascinating projection mapping experiences in museums that I encountered while on the road this past year.

In this video, I take you through the basics of projection mapping, explaining how it works and offering real-world examples of its use in museums and historic sites in England, Italy, and the United States. From the virtual ledger of servants at Kensington Palace to the immersive storytelling at the Capitoline Museums in Rome, projection mapping is proving to be a versatile tool for creating memorable and educational museum experiences.

Whether you’re familiar with projection mapping from iconic attractions like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, or this concept is new to you, the video is designed to inspire museum professionals to think creatively about how to integrate this technology into exhibitions, tours, and programs. I’ll also show how more advanced applications, like the complex presentations at the Handel Hendrix House, are pushing the boundaries of how we engage with historical spaces and objects.

Projection mapping is about more than just projecting images—it’s about creating interactive, immersive environments that deepen the visitor’s connection with museum collections.

Check out the video now and see how your museum can harness the power of projection mapping to enhance visitor engagement and interpretation. Just be aware that it’s a handcrafted video that took me two days to edit and narrate, but it’s a topic better explained in a video than in text.

Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/c3WX7kdD0Jg

I look forward to your comments and learning how you might use projection mapping in your own work!

WebWise 2012 in Baltimore.

It’s been a couple weeks since the WebWise conference in Baltimore, but the information hasn’t gone stale yet. It’s still cutting edge and thought-provoking because most of the projects discussed are still underdevelopment and it’s unclear if they’ll succeed or not. However, they do provide a glimpse of current and potentially future practices in the use of technology for historic sites. The webcast videos are now available except for LeVar Burton’s presentation, which is waiting for broadcast permission. Heritage Preservation will be using portions of the webcasts to create webinars that will be available later this summer including, “Crowdsourcing in Public History” and “Oral History in the Digital Age.”

The first panel session, History Places and Spaces: Learning and Participation on the Move, was moderated by Nancy Proctor and looked at the ways that mobile technologies (that is, technologies that are aware of your location) can provide new and better experiences for visitors.

Rob Stein at the Indianapolis Museum of Art opened the session by stating that the field already recognizes that location should be a required element in basic content but the challenge is the proliferation of software and hardware platforms. Every digital device (website, cellphone, tablet) seems to be in a unique format and requires special treatment. To overcome this, Stein suggested we rethink Continue reading →