Developing Experiential Exhibitions Based on Conservation Science Content of Bronze Mirror

Abstract

In museums, exhibition content focuses mostly on cultural heritage’s historical values and functions, but doing so tends to limit visitors’ interest and immersion. To counter this limitation, the study developed an experiential media art exhibition fusing bronze mirrors’ traditional production technology and modern conservation science. First, for the exhibition system, scientific cultural heritage contents were projected on the three-dimensional (3D) printed bronze mirror through interactions between motion recognition digital information display (DID) and the projector. Then, a scenario of 17 missions in four stages (production process, corrosion mechanism, scientific analysis and diagnosis, and conservation treatment and restoration) was prepared according to the temporal spectrum. Additionally, various media art effects and interaction technologies were developed, so visitors could understand and become immersed in bronze mirrors’ scientific content. A user test was evaluated through the living lab, reflecting generally high levels of satisfaction (90.2 points). Qualitative evaluation was generally positive, with comments such as “easy to understand and useful as the esoteric science exhibition was combined with media art” (16.7%), “wonderful and interesting” (11.7%), and “firsthand experience was good” (9.2%). By combining an esoteric science exhibition centered on principles and theories with visual media art and by developing an immersive directing method to provide high-level exhibition technology, the exhibition induced visitors’ active participation. This exhibition’s content can become an important platform for expanding universal museum exhibitions on archaeology, history, and art into conservation science.