Cultural satellites
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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en
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94 + 11
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Abstract
The mission of museum institutions is currently facing fundamental change. The greatest challenges of our time such as increasing inequality of wealth and income, identities and changing norms in society, as well as the transformation in information technologies (Ten Grand Challenges for the 21st Century - 21st Century Lab, n.d.) also affect museums (Chaliakopoulos, 2020). Nowadays collecting, protecting and exhibiting cultural artefacts—what was once the original duty of the museum—is only one part of the duty a modern institution is committed to. In recent years the empowerment of cultural exchange and strengthening of the community as well, as a diverse and ideally free teaching program became equally part of the responsibilities of a contemporary institution (Tate, n.d.). From art-preserving temples that radiate institutionalised hierarchy museums ideally develop into cultural hubs that set themselves the goal to reach the widest possible audience. In view of these changes it seems logical that when it comes to the question of how museums could develop even further in the future, a prediction that repeatedly appears is the one of decentralisation (Szánó, 2022). Some renowned museum architects imagine, that, in addition to the main building, museums in the future will appear in the form of satellites across the entire city as a structural element within the cultural layer (Szánó, 2022, p. 49). Subsequently, the way artefacts will be exhibited and experienced would change accordingly. To achieve these goals, digital technology for visualisation and communication purposes can be considered to be an increasingly important tool (Szánó, 2020, p. 303) (Szánó, 2022, p 49, p. 278) (Thorne, 2015) (Hannon, 2016). The development of an initial concept of how this new experience and ways of exhibiting could look like is the aim of this work. A profound understanding of the design parameters was achieved through readings about the expectations that a contemporary museum institution faces and the analyses of four exhibition examples. A speculative concept was designed that takes up the prediction on the decentralised museum. The result is a physical structure implemented in the cityscape, that is accessible at any given time. This structure takes up a double function: it serves the community as a public gathering place while at the same time works as an anchor point for a digital, multilayer art experience that is accessible through devices such a smart phone or tablet. For the proof of the concept a digital art exhibition was created through the CAD software Rhino. The software Fologram is used to stream the digital exhibition, allowing the user not only to experience art pieces in a mixed reality setting but furthermore actively participate by selecting the exhibition content and the scale to which they want to be immersed in the digital realm. As a result of the research and the design process, it can be assumed that digital art experience embedded in the cityscape has the potential to provide a broad community access to art. The concept of the decentralised museum therefore can be seen as an excellent way for institutions to become more democratic and accessible. The act of decentralisation can deliver art to places where no museums exists and so initiates the interest of people in arts. It can give opportunities to exhibit to minorities who‘s art was and still often is excluded from shows in museum institutions. Additionally immersive and mixed reality experiences can engage those with arts who would maybe not visit a museum as they might consider the place as too elitist. The aim and limitation of my work was to transfer the spoken speculations of decentralisation into a real space that supports the imagination of such a space. The outcome of my practical work can be considered as a foundation for future debates. Therefore the practical work of my thesis examined how a decentralised museum space could be seen as an opportunity to support several aspects of the democratisation process such as visitor accessibility, participation and community exchange. Questions such as about stakeholders, owners, financial aspects and maintenance are not subject of this work.Description
Supervisor
Kareoja, PenttiThesis advisor
Siitonen, TuomasCerpnjak, Tina