In collaboration with ICOM Italy – Regional Coordination for Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino – Alto Adige e Veneto
The digital transformation in the cultural sector, one of the key priorities of the European Union, is reshaping the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage and artistic expression. As new technologies and media evolve, immersive exhibitions are becoming more frequent and popular, with many museums now focusing on attracting a young, transmedia audience through the use of new media and the integration of Mixed reality into their galleries.
Mixed reality (XR) is a technology that seamlessly blends the physical and virtual worlds. While augmented reality (AR) overlays digital elements onto the real world and virtual reality (VR) immerses users entirely in a virtual environment, XR creates an interactive space where real and virtual elements coexist and actively interact. This technology, which has been used for nearly a decade, is not a novelty but a proven tool in the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage as well as in contemporary art. By enhancing the museum experience, XR offers new spatial dimensions for interpretation, interaction, and contextualization, providing richer and more immersive storytelling opportunities. It supports already existing methods in the museum work and helps uncover multi-layered heritage and hidden narratives behind objects with the ultimate goal to “expand” the narrative.
While it’s important to note that mixed reality, enriches the real world by layering digital information onto it, providing a more immersive and interactive experience – the question is however, if cultural professionals are already abandoning the technological innovations before using them in all the potential and going back to more traditional media of representation and storytelling due to the lack of information on the XR possibilities and availability of applications supporting it.
In this webinar we will explore the following issues:
How can curators, artists, and museum professionals use applications for XR creation in their work? How have these applications developed in recent years, and how accessible are they in traditional museum contexts? What possibilities do these applications offer for presenting content in museums? What European funding options are available to support the integration of these technologies into museums for regular use? Is additional training required for curators, artists, and museum staff to effectively use these applications? What does audience research show about public engagement with mixed reality experiences? The webinar is not limited to these topics, but will also address other related issues following participants’ interests and concerns.
Presenters:
Marco Marinuzzi is an independent expert in the design, management and evaluation of cultural policies, programmes and projects at local and transnational level. Among his clients we can mention EACEA, Italian Ministry of Culture and many other Italian, French, Austrian and Belgian private and public cultural organisations. Remarkable experience in drafting EU cooperation projects funded by Culture 2007-2013, Creative Europe, AMIF, Interreg Italy-Slovenia, Interreg Italy-Croatia, Interreg MED, Interreg South East Europe, Interreg Europe. Evaluator of Creative Europe projects for the European Commission.
More than 900 hours of teaching experience in Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Romania and Azerbaijan on European policies for culture, audience development and European planning. He is currently working as Project Manager for GO! 2025 Nova Gorica – Gorizia European Capital of Culture and as Coordinator for the drafting of the UNESCO Management Plan of the Botanical Garden of Padua. He has recently carried out, as Senior Evaluator, the evaluation of outcomes of cohesion policy investments 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 in culture in 8 selected areas (Coordinator of 4 case studies) for the Italian Government. Member of ICOM Italy and Councillor of ICOM Triveneto.
Jana Rodić, LiveViewStudio a creative agency at the intersection of art and technology. Our multidisciplinary team develops bespoke exhibits and experiences, tailored to cultural and commercial needs. With two decades of expertise, we’ve delivered compelling narratives and cutting-edge digital content through innovative interaction models and display technologies. We specialize in: building innovative narratives, Designing concepts and experiences, Producing digital media, Innovating software and hardware. Holograd is LiveViewStudio’s flagship XR platform, a mobile solution for crafting and hosting engaging spatial narratives and immersive experiences. Trusted by over 30,000 users and featured in major exhibitions, it bridges physical and virtual worlds, empowering cultural institutions, curators, and artists to connect with audiences in innovative ways. With a focus on spatial storytelling and accessible design, Holograd provides organizations with the tools to create impactful narratives, fostering deeper engagement and unlocking new creative potential in the cultural sector.
Javier Campos, Aumenta Vilanova – Aumenta Vilanova, a tech-driven startup with expertise in AR/VR/XR, aims to enhance quality through technology. We tackle challenges in health, culture,tourism, and industry, offering specialized courses with educational partners. Our SaaS platform, VorTX, revolutionizes augmented reality experiences, featuring an intuitive UI, multimedia integration, and universal compatibility. empowering non-technical users to harness advanced technologies without coding or programming knowledge. With internal metrics for insightful analysis, VorTX ensures scalable, autonomous experiences across devices, embodying our commitment to transformative innovation.
Moderator:
Milena Jokanović, a senior research associate and lecturer within the Seminar for Museology and Heritology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and as a guest lecturer at the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She is also associate of the Museum of Yugoslavia. Her research interests span museum identity and audience research, memory studies and links between heritage interpretation and contemporary art and media. Milena is author of a book „Cabinets of Wonders in the Art World“ and of many papers. She coordinated several international projects dealing with the new manners of cultural heritage interpretation and curated exhibitions in the mentioned fields of interests.
Agenda:
10:00 – 10:20 – Welcome address and introduction of participants
10:20 – 10:30 – Theoretical overview of the use of mixed reality in the museum context, challenges, and potentials of this approach to interpreting heritage and artistic expression
10:30 – 10:40 – The European context. Funds for supporting the development and application of digital technologies and creating narratives in mixed reality spaces. Current prevalence and success of such applications – Marco Marinuzzi
10:40 – 10:50 – Presentation of the Aumenta Vilanova – Javier Campos
10:50 – 11:00 – Presentation of the Holograd – Jana Rodić
11:00 – 11:05 – Highlighting the methodological differences between the two presented approaches
11:05 – 11:20 – Questions and comments
11:20 – Presentation of examples and open discussion with all participants
Join us for an engaging discussion on how museums can leverage augmented and mixed reality technologies to transform cultural heritage presentation and enhance visitor engagement.
Date: 22nd of January 2025
Time: 10:00 – 12:00 CET (Central European Time)
Location: online (the link will be provided before the webinar)
***The Webinar is organised within the CC:XR – Connecting experiences across physical, digital, and virtual worlds project. Democratizing XR Storytelling for Cultural Transformation. CC:XR bridges the gap between cutting-edge XR technology and traditional cultural institutions, tourism players and individual artists empowering them to create immersive, XR-driven experiences that redefine content, presentation, audience engagement and drive the sector’s digital transformation.
This project has indirectly received funding from the European Innovation Council and EISMEA, European Commission COSME- SMP-2021- CLUSTER. FRIEND CCI PROJECT***
We look forward to seeing you!
