There are numerous examples of digitized museums, i.e., enriched by technological solutions, but entirely digital museums, i.e., without physical exhibits, are also becoming more common today. The all-digital museum omits the function of artifact preservation (which it lacks), while enhancing the communicative and cognitive function: it thus becomes akin to a technological palace dedicated to knowledge that actualizes the ancient “palaces of memory.” The museums themselves, in a sense, give physical form to the ancient palaces of memory. The virtual space of the art of memory, described by Cicero, was organized into places (loci) and rhetorical figures (agentes imagines) designed to stimulate memorization and knowledge. The “loci” in the actual museum become the halls and the “imagines” become the exhibits. The technique of loci is thus the basis of “spacetelling” in museums, that is, their design, and is surprisingly relevant today in immersive and interactive museums.
Italiano