BNM : The Brief
Museums are commonly perceived as the shrines of knowledge, the institutions that are meant to preserve and, at the same time, promote the knowledge on different aspects of human activity. When talking about museums, thought naturally points towards fine arts and, more generally, to the territory of art and design. Several museums however are operating in totally different domains, where the aesthetic quality of the exhibits might not be the primary driver for the audience. Many of these museums, usually around areas of science and particularly children’s museums, have been recently setting new standards in exhibition set-up, providing unexpected experiences and highly engaging discoveries.
Using the framework of the Archeological Museum of Valle Sabbia, in Gavardo, 14 international students from the I-design course are asked to devise interactive solutions, capable of engaging and captivating the museum visitors.
The workshop is meant to stimulate the students to explore state of the art technologies and appreciate their creative potential, while really understanding the context of the museum. They will be asked to develope and hone skills which they will have then to apply to the creation of functional prototypes. These prototypes are meant to communicate the conceived ideas in a more engaging and direct fashion than a simple mockup. Tinker.it! assists in leading the workshop by the involvement of the 2 founders Massimo banzi and Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino.
Objective:
The objective of the present workshop is to encourage the Interaction Design Students to investigate and create innovative ways of interacting with the contents and the information that a museum would likely be communicating. Projects, therefore, must pay attention on the level of performance of the final solution.
Students are encouraged to create functional mock-ups and prototypes of their ideas as both active experimentation and proofing tools of their design choices.
Ultimately the final concept must be illustrated by means of a working prototype which will outline the main features of the interactive system devised.
