Page 235 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015235that is by no means obsolete thanks to its ability to evolve and adapt and provide a means of boosting interactivity with visitors.From the outset the purpose of screens has been to show the “multimedia museum” side that institutions of this kind and similar ones have sought to develop by incorporating new technologies, apart from audio guides and the subsequent development of mobile applications with a similar focus that now belong to a technological stage prior to the one we will be analysing here – which we have called “third generation”.The first screens were used chiefly as an educa- tional resource (both to provide accompanying information on the exhibitions and from an educational approach aimed at school visits)or more as entertainment. Their possibilities range from historical recreations in the manner of documentaries to multimedia resources that allow visitors, through tactile technology, to sort, explore, play, seek and add information to the exhibition they are visiting. All these examples will be familiar to any regular visitor to the museums that were the earliest to incorporate this technological device. Science and history museums in particular were early adopters.A paradigmatic example of the adoption of interactive screens in museums is the use given to them by the Indianapolis Museum of Art through the ETX42 project between 2002 and 2003. With three screens, two on the wall and one on an oval table, up to three visitors could take part simultaneously in its interactive proposal from any side of the table. The screensgather browsing information in order to improve and anticipate searches and the relationship between works. When a visitor selects a work that interests them from the collection, the screen changes to highlight the connections between this work and other pieces in the collection, as well as to provide further details about the work and allow the visitor to view its spatial location in the museum galleries. This type of search information has also been useful to the museum in connection with re-siting works in different rooms.ETX, Indianapolis Museum of Art.The Churchill Museum, which is part of the British Imperial War Museums, has a screen resembling a large table that measures fifteen metres long. It consists of a timeline that allows visitors to trace the events in the life of the important English statesman year by year as well as in their historical context and in relation to other important contemporary events and people, from his birth to his state funeral. It provides access in full detail to more than 4,000 digital files that visitors can open: documents,3. Technology associated with the actual visit