Abstract
As immersive technologies have become ubiquitous today, traditional museums are finding success augmenting existing exhibits to increase visitors’ satisfaction. However, due to the immutable nature of house museums, and their tendency to place visitors in direct contact with historical artifacts, museum managers are seeking original approaches to cultural preservation. Implementing mixed reality systems into historic house museums is one such approach. The goal of this study is to develop and test a conceptual matrix that guides how designers use the affordances of mixed reality systems to create experiences that align with the range of historical narratives found in house museums. Experiences that can contribute to improving visitors’ satisfaction, self-interpretation, and understanding of the homeowner’s life and the community within which they lived. Building on human-centered design methods, the researcher developed and tested a prototype of an augmented reality (AR) mobile application centered on the Pope House Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The outcome of the research suggests house museum visitors should have agency in deciding the lens through which they experience the variety of historical narratives present in the home.
Highlights
At the intersection of history, home, and cultural preservation stands historic house museums
This paper presents an analysis of a conceptual matrix used to inform the design and implementation of an augmented reality (AR) mobile application prototype at the Pope House Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina
The goal of this research was to emphasize the cultural significance of house museums and contribute to its preservation through mixed reality experiences that complement exhibited artifacts within the home
Summary
At the intersection of history, home, and cultural preservation stands historic house museums. Viewed as instruments of communication [1], house museums are invaluable social and cultural apparatuses [2] through which visitors can experience history in the living environment of a home. Giovanni Pinna, former chairman of the International Committee for Historic House Museums, attributes the significance of these cultural sites to their ability “to evoke history and put the visitor into direct contact with it” [1]. The unchanging ethos of preserved historic homes and the impossibility of manipulating their meaning [1] make it difficult for house museums to adapt to the needs and desires of today’s visitors [2]. Linda Young, historian, and author of the book, Historic House Museums in the United States and the United Kingdom: A History, asserts that “it is a major challenge of institutional survival for many house museums to entice sufficient paying visitors to maintain their operations” [2]
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