Web-app for playful engagement with the artwork through collective sharing of emotions.
Visitors’ Album was a web that prompted the visitors to share with others their personal connection to the artwork that was in front of them. Their response was then archived to the database for future visitors to read. The visitor is also able to explore the various answers, and search for other artwork connected with those answers. The goal was to create a playful interaction that allowed visitors to explore artworks that are connected with different emotions and personal connections.
The app was developed as part of the GIFT project. The app was temporarily deployed in the space of the National Gallery of Denmark and the Munch Museum.
Role: Interaction Designer
I designed and develop the web application. I also conducted user research in both the space of the National Gallery of Denmark and the Munch Museum. The initial version of the app was developed as part of my Master Thesis. During that time the target of that experience was the National Museum of Photography placed inside the Royal Danish Library. I developed that initial version for an exhibition of the work of Keld Helmer-Petersen. The Keld
Helmer-Petersen exhibition was selected since its digital collection contains
over 16000 photographs. Due to the nature of the exhibition, and the space that will host the exhibition, only a small subset of the artist’s work was present. The goal of that initial version was to expose the visitors to that digital collection and allow them to annotate it with their personal stories and emotions for other visitors to read.
Once my thesis was done, the GIFT project hired me to continue working on that application and make it adaptable to any kind of digital collection. The aim was that museums can easily set up the app on their own servers and use their own photograph archive. The scope of the installation also changed to include works that are present in the exhibition spaces. That decision came after user testing the original version in a lab context. The testers were interested in engaging with the physical artwork while using the app to look at other visitors emotions. As a response, we decided to deploy the app for a specific section of National Gallery of Denmark and approach visitors to test it. Visitors reacted positively to being exposed to the various stories and emotions of other visitors.
