How Not to Do Tecknomagi

A little while ago, I spoke about the concept of “museum teknomagi“, the idea of technology made invisible to improve a museum’s curatorial mise-en-scene.

Daniel Winfree Papuga, over on his blog on the ning.com social network Museum 3.0, speaks about his experience with the Paris Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’ Immigration, and their “cutting edge” infra-red audio guides with a “point and click” addition.

“Infra-red audio guides have been prominent in museum exhibitions since the 1970′s. That aspect is certainly not new. Is it the combination of “point and click” choice with the ambient infra-red that could be considered innovative, then?”

Looking at his photos and description of how the technology works, the “teknomagi” is lacking because you can see all the workings. Big ugly infra-red sensors or large glowing red lights. If this was hidden and maybe made smaller, more numerous, then this simple technology could have made a bigger impact. Say, a hundreds low-range sensors that activatle within inches. You then had to really get next to them, in particular angles. You look very close at a sword point and a voice whispers in you ear to “Be careful, that’s sharp. I, Dick Turpin, killed 30 people with that sword” or something to that effect.

I don’t think you can do that with a great big sticker and flashing light telling you what to do.