Danish blog Fyrskibet.dk has a post about “Teknomagi” in museums (to roughly translate into English, click here.)
The concept sounds simple. One upon a time, touch screens and electronics in museums were once impressive. Now, we have these things in our homes. Museums therefore have to make technology invisible in order to improve the sense of wonder/illusion/”magic”.
The problem is how easy we get used to new things. For instance, can you remember the first time you saw an animatronic dinosaur? The Natural History Museum in London has a giant T-Rex wobblying around, which I think I first saw at 8 years old. Then Jurassic Park came out, as well as the documentaries about how they did it. Now, dinosaurs can walk around in the museum corridors, but I know its now a very clever robot instead of a very clever puppet.
But “teknomagi” (I’m keeping the Danish word as it sounds cooler) doesn’t have to be so complicated. The “Mejlbystenen” at the Cultural History Museum in Randers, Denmark, used only sound, light and a lot of motion sensors.
The ending of this video is particularly impressive. To think, all this information on display could have just been on a panel, and the visitor would be staring at a rock in a box. This “teknomagi” brings to life an object through a innovative use of narrative and the visitor leaves with the narration, not a distraction of the inner technological workings.
