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Back to the Future Museum -- Speculative Design for Virtual Citizen-Curated Museums

Richard Rhodes, Sandra Woolley

TL;DR

The paper addresses the gap between physical museum displays and accessible virtual experiences by using speculative design and design fiction to envision a future where citizen-curated virtual museums enable AR/VR exploration and personal asset-pack collections. It introduces asset packs—comprising artefacts, curation assets, and experiences—as a mechanism to extend and personalize museum encounters, illustrated through a Mesopotamian case study. A narrative of user workflows (scanning QR codes, AR inspection, personal museum curation, and cross-user sharing) demonstrates practical uptake and interconnectivity via portals and interlinked galleries. The work highlights benefits such as accessibility, engagement, and intangible heritage integration, while acknowledging challenges in digitisation, funding, asset-pack curation, and the need to complement rather than replace traditional museums, pointing to stakeholder-driven future research.

Abstract

This forward-looking paper uses speculative design fiction to explore future museum scenarios where citizen curators design and share immersive virtual reality museums populated with tangible heritage artefacts, intangible virtual elements and interactive experiences. The work also explores takeaway 'asset packs' containing 3D artefact models, curation assets, and interactive experiences, and we envisage a visit to the future museum, where the physical and virtual experiences interplay. Finally, the paper considers the implications of this future museum in terms of resources and the potential impacts on traditional museums.

Back to the Future Museum -- Speculative Design for Virtual Citizen-Curated Museums

TL;DR

The paper addresses the gap between physical museum displays and accessible virtual experiences by using speculative design and design fiction to envision a future where citizen-curated virtual museums enable AR/VR exploration and personal asset-pack collections. It introduces asset packs—comprising artefacts, curation assets, and experiences—as a mechanism to extend and personalize museum encounters, illustrated through a Mesopotamian case study. A narrative of user workflows (scanning QR codes, AR inspection, personal museum curation, and cross-user sharing) demonstrates practical uptake and interconnectivity via portals and interlinked galleries. The work highlights benefits such as accessibility, engagement, and intangible heritage integration, while acknowledging challenges in digitisation, funding, asset-pack curation, and the need to complement rather than replace traditional museums, pointing to stakeholder-driven future research.

Abstract

This forward-looking paper uses speculative design fiction to explore future museum scenarios where citizen curators design and share immersive virtual reality museums populated with tangible heritage artefacts, intangible virtual elements and interactive experiences. The work also explores takeaway 'asset packs' containing 3D artefact models, curation assets, and interactive experiences, and we envisage a visit to the future museum, where the physical and virtual experiences interplay. Finally, the paper considers the implications of this future museum in terms of resources and the potential impacts on traditional museums.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 9 sections, 6 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. The Future Museum
  4. A Visit to the Future Museum
  5. Implications of Virtual Citizen Curated Future Museums
  6. Future Museum Benefits
  7. Future Museum Challenges
  8. Discussion and Future Research
  9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: Alternative virtual galleries with style-appropriate curation assets for future museum citizen curators
  • Figure 2: ‘Takeaway’ 3D asset pack of cuneiform artefacts can be unlocked by scanning QR codes. Artefact scans are courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (World Museum).
  • Figure 3: Asset pack content examples - Cuneiform tablet artefact (left), gallery lighting curation asset (middle), and Mesopotamian game experience (right).
  • Figure 4: Virtual galleries interconnect with each other and with ‘experience portals’
  • Figure 5: Over coffee, cuneiform tablet viewed with AR
  • ...and 1 more figures