MuseumNext 2014: Float
Float is a location-aware pilot mobile app created by a team of researchers, students, curators and volunteers at the University of Melbourne Ian Potter Museum of Art which provides a loose go-and-seek structure around 11 universal concepts as entry points to looking at art, responding to art and seeing what other people thought about the same artwork or concepts. The app harnessed indoor location technology through Wi-Fi fingerprinting; it took advantage of infrastructure that already existed instead of buying additional and expensive technologies. Technology moves closer to being seamless because you don't have to fiddle around with ref numbers or QR codes because the method estimates which artworks you’re likely nearby. In the creation of the app, we pushed ourselves to think outside of content. We began asking ourselves “What is already occurring among visitors within the galleries? And how do we use technology to bring that process to the forefront?” We looked at the fundamentals of a gallery experience to draw our answers and very broadly decided, that in its simplest definition, visitors look at art and muse about it. So, then, how can we enhance or amplify the act of looking? And how do we make musing visual and tangible? Ray Williams' Personal Response Tour (Harvard Art Museum) served as our inspiration to engage visitors on a personal level. It was incredibly important for me to outline the app’s communication style early on so that every touch point built towards a sense of openness. These are the 4 language and design criteria I set to help us move in that direction: 1. Be approachable; 2. Acknowledge, don’t exclude, the person; 3. Have a touch of whimsy but don't encroach on being cheesy; 4. Be smart but not condescending. I believed that if we could craft the language and design with these criteria in mind, we could begin to chip away at some of top-down power dynamics visitors have long associated with museums. One way we touched on whimsy was in the name of the app itself; "Float" hints at the transcendence you experience through art. This eventually became the anchoring imagery throughout the app. It was also a play off of the multiple floor levels of the museum: the more you wander through the museum, the deeper your exploration within yourself. Because the museum's architecture communicated an imposing rigidity right when you walk in, I reimagined the museum within the app through sparse graphic elements against swaths of enveloping color planes to invite warmth and to suggest your ideas will fill the space instead. We hacked away at any and all unnecessary language, leaving just enough in its place to convey or even strengthen the same meaning. Because of the digital context, content requires efficiency and efficacy. One artwork, multiple meanings. One idea "looked" different across individuals. Create something that can live without you. Rethink museums as labs. FULL: bit.ly/floattext
