The extended museum is a “phygital” museum, i.e., physical and digital together, thus extending into the network and the synthetic world, and through these it opens up to society and the territory, using immersive technologies and artificial intelligence. The two worlds, physical and artificial, meet inside and outside the museum, before, during and after the visit. The Internet, social media, and mobile devices are already the main information channel for art tourism, the context where the trip and visit are prepared, and increasingly the ticket is purchased. But even at the site visit stage, digital is becoming increasingly relevant: providing augmented guides, enabling immersive experiences. After the visit, social becomes the place for sharing and word of mouth. None of these steps should escape the cultural operator who is developing an integrated digital strategy.
Today, extended reality is an increasingly popular tool in museums, case histories are multiplying all over the world. The use of artificial intelligence is just beginning. The museum experience, thanks to digital technologies, is becoming interactive and immersive and invests people before and during the visit. Prior to the visit, the web, social media, and mobile devices are already the main information channel for art tourism, the virtual context or place in which people prepare for the trip and visit, and increasingly people are also buying tickets there. Even at the site visit stage, the digital presence becomes increasingly relevant: it provides conversational guides, enables various forms of interactivity, and enables unprecedented multisensory experiences.
The evolution toward immersive media-virtual and augmented reality-and toward artificial intelligence is further accelerating the digital transformation of museums: it is increasingly common to enjoy them in innovative ways, such as immersive displays, newly developed initiatives such as virtual exhibitions without physical works, or highly immersive experiences for the public such as virtual archaeology applications, which among archaeological remains reconstruct by making them visible the buildings and context of the past. Augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are key to bringing museums, archaeological and monumental sites into the new “Phygital” dimension, which does not replace the physical visit but promotes and enriches it. Particularly in Italy, museums, churches, palaces, historic centers and archaeological sites are already extraordinary physical time capsules, and digitally reconstructed historical stratification makes it possible to extend the journey into the time dimension, in a kind of time machine.
Italiano