Technologies have long been promoting and changing the experience of visiting museums, including by creating new digital attractions. If the Web and social media have already become the main channel of information access to cultural heritage, the advent of artificial intelligence, connoted as cognitive technology, could have even more profound repercussions.
Text and image recognition, which is now a reality, is already a valuable support to the cataloging of historical documents.This shows that generative artificial intelligence can play a key role in the regeneration of cultural heritage, not least through the possibility of devising new forms of access to culture.
The museum, which already existed in the classical age, draws its current form from the wunderkammer, the chambers of wonders of the modern age, consisting of collections of art and rare objects, kept in noble palaces and used as displays of power. Present-day museums have been open to the public for more than two centuries with the aim of collecting and preserving artifacts and works of art and together presenting them to spread culture, aesthetic sense and knowledge in society.
It may be useful in this context to recall the definition of a museum developed by the ICOM World Association in Prague in 2022: “A museum is a permanent nonprofit institution serving society that researches, collects, preserves, interprets, and exhibits cultural heritage, tangible and intangible. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums promote diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically and professionally and with community participation, offering diverse experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.”
Thanks to digital technologies, these institutions, with their characteristics and objectives well spelled out in the definition given, are now destined to experience a discontinuity from the past, both in their relationship with visitors and with those who in various capacities organize their content by shaping their existence.
Many museums today call on the public to interact, are pervasive and immersive; webXR technologies and artificial intelligence make it possible to shape a “phygital” museum, i.e., extended into the digital world and territory, and a conversational museum, i.e., one that can engage in dialogue with different targets, thus more inclusive and accessible.
Museums and exhibition organizers count thousands of operators, public and private, who have very different tasks and, consequently, very different needs, such as conservation and documentation of artistic heritage, scientific research, innovation, activation of relations with the territory, internationalization, distinctiveness, creation of itineraries and temporary attractions, management of tourist flows, audience loyalty and community creation, and research of new targets. Artificial intelligence can play a key role in supporting all these activities.
Italiano