=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2687/paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Cultural Heritage and Social Experiences in the Times of COVID 19
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2687/paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-2687
|authors=Maria Vayanou,Akrivi Katifori,Angeliki Chrysanthi,Angeliki Antoniou
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/avi/VayanouKCA20
}}
==Cultural Heritage and Social Experiences in the Times of COVID 19==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2687/paper2.pdf
Cultural Heritage and Social Experiences in the Times of
COVID 19
Maria Vayanou Akrivi Katifori
Athens Research Center & Department of Informatics and Athens Research Center & Department of Informatics and
Telecommunications, University of Athens Telecommunications, University of Athens
Athens, Greece Athens, Greece
vayanou@di.uoa.gr vivi@di.uoa.gr
Angeliki Chrysanthi Angeliki Antoniou
Department of Cultural Technology and Communication Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies
University of the Aegean University of West Attica
Mytilene, Greece Aegaleo, Greece
a.chrysanthi@aegean.gr angelant@uniwaop.gr
ABSTRACT alternative ways to reach their audience and even expand their clien-
During the COVID 19 pandemic, cultural institutions were severely tele by organizing cultural activities online. For example, theatres
affected. To this end, they made an effort to enhance their online organized online performances releasing numerous plays online
presence and online activity became the main way of approaching (e.g. Greek National Theatre, https://www.n-t.gr), music festivals
the public. Although the social aspects of a physical visit are well were broadcasting live on the Internet (e.g. Prague Spring Festival,
acknowledged and valued today, they nevertheless seemed to be https://festival.cz), operas streaming on social media (e.g. Metropol-
largely neglected in the virtual museum world. In this position itan Opera, https://www.metopera.org), visual arts openings were
paper, we discuss current practices during the pandemic period and organized through ZOOM calls (e.g. https://www.acg.edu/the-kids-
also explore challenges for the after-COVID era. are-asking), all wishing to continue with their cultural activity and
maintain operation as normal as possible.
CCS CONCEPTS Especially museums increased their online presence by 80% dur-
ing the lockdown, offering more social media interactions, broad-
• Information systems → Collaborative and social computing sys-
casts, virtual tours and online exhibitions, and observed more
tems and tools; • Human-centered computing → Collaborative
than 40% increase in online visits [17]. Online museum presence
and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms.
may take several forms, ranging from traditional online catalogues
and digital exhibitions that include narratives and audio-visual
KEYWORDS content to virtual representations of the museum’s physical en-
Museums, Virtual experiences, Social experiences, Social distancing, vironment, in which online visitors may move and closely ob-
COVID 19 serve the exhibits on display, thus simulating the actual visiting
ACM Reference Format: experience (see for instance the Google Art Project, where sev-
Maria Vayanou, Akrivi Katifori, Angeliki Chrysanthi, and Angeliki Anto- eral museum spaces have been represented, or custom applica-
niou. 2020. Cultural Heritage and Social Experiences in the Times of COVID tions such as the VR Museum of Fine Art, available on steam
19. In Proceedings of 𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020: Workshop on Advanced Visual Interfaces - https://store.steampowered.com/app/515020/The_VR_Museum_
and Interactions in Cultural Heritage (𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020). ACM, New York, NY, of_Fine_Art), or “Hold the World”, with David Attenborough virtu-
USA, 4 pages. ally guiding remote visitors at the collections of London’s Natural
History Museum (https://www.factory42.uk/holdtheworld), among
1 MUSEUM ACTIVITY DURING THE others).
LOCKDOWN Despite the wealth of cultural resources that are currently acces-
sible online and the remarkable diversity in the adopted experience
With the outbreak of COVID 19 and the world pandemic, many
design approaches, a close look at the most popular and most visited
countries globally proceeded with population movement control
online museums during the lockdown (https://www.theguardian.
practices or even complete lockdowns in an attempt to restrict
com/travel/2020/mar/23/10-of-the-worlds-best-virtual-museum-and-
the spreading of the virus. Cultural institutions were severely af-
art-gallery-tours) shows that cultural online visits are commonly
fected since many had to stop their activity or significantly alter
designed as private, single-user experiences. However, museum
it while trying to cope with the new reality that the virus has im-
studies have repeatedly highlighted the importance of the social
posed in our lives. In this climate, cultural institutions had to find
context [10], suggesting that social interactions are key elements
in the design of engaging cultural visits.
𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy In this paper, we posit that the digital empowerment of social-
© Copyright 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons ity is an important and pertinent issue not only in the museums’
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
physical space but also in the virtual museum world. Moreover,
𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy Maria Vayanou, Akrivi Katifori, Angeliki Chrysanthi, and Angeliki Antoniou
we claim that virtual visits offer an incredible opportunity to cope social perception of the corresponding artworks and enable a so-
with the physical constraints that may be posed to one or more cially derived retrieval mechanism for accessing online collections.
members of a social group, enabling them to experience a joint, In all the above approaches, visitor interactions are indirect; they
synchronous, social activity without requiring to be co-located in are accomplished by providing shared access to objects and applica-
the same physical place - a need that highly increased due to the tions, which occur at different times and without prescribing direct
recent pandemic lockdown. We thus, report practices that promote communication between the parties involved.
social interactions and discuss important challenges. We believe that synchronous interaction is a key element that
notably fosters the social context of cultural experiences. Previous
work on the topic has experimented with systems that support
2 FROM PHYSICAL TO DIGITAL museum co-visits between onsite and remote visitors suggesting
The advent of online leisure and edutainment at the beginning of that social presence is closely related to engagement and enjoyment
the new millennium created a fierce competition for onsite museum and thus, an improved remote experience [14, 18]. When it comes
experiences and brought about a significant response by museum to entirely online strategies, besides offering free access to digital
professionals and researchers who rallied to highlight the advan- resources, some institutions have opted for broadcasting at specific
tages of physical visits and interactions with the curated content. times. Leaving aside the proprietary issues that may have motivated
As is evident in the museum research literature, apart from the this approach, there is also a social side effect of the broadcasting
unique and powerful features that make physical objects and places scheme. But how will the users be aware of their common activ-
springboards for learning, engagement and authentic experiences ity? In the broadcasting scheme, there is no shared environment
[15], one of the most valued aspects of the museum experience is of interaction between the spectators, yet we believe that its so-
related to the socio-cultural characteristics of a visit [10]. Social cial dimension may be notably increased by digitally mediating
interaction is pervasive in museums and cultural heritage sites and the co-presence of other visitors: from indications of who or how
enhances learning, even in cases lacking such a design intention many people are watching the same cultural content at the same
or mandate [2]. In this light, the first digital interactive applica- time, to personalized notifications about acquaintances (obtained
tions that attempted to provide more rich and engaging visitor from social networking profiles) who are currently watching or
interpretation were heavily criticized for prioritizing the individual now joining the same activity. The use of awareness supporting
user while overthrowing the inherent social affordances of exhibits technologies that are traditionally applied in collaborative systems
for co-participation and collaboration as processes of knowledge (see [16] for a recent systematic literature review) may also benefit
construction [12]. This led to the growth of a promising research the design of cultural experiences to foster their social dimension,
area looking at ways to enhance digitally aided social experiences particularly when experienced remotely.
in the context of museums and cultural heritage sites [13, 19]. Delving into the matter of spectators’ representation, a novel
scheme of “live performances in Virtual Reality worlds” was re-
cently proposed [http://hamletvr.org]: To Be With Hamlet is a live
3 SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS theater performance that enables collocated groups of visitors to
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS navigate in the virtual 3D story world using VIVE equipment, in
Sociality may be examined through several perspectives. We first which they may see their fellow audience members alongside the
classify visitor interactions as synchronous or asynchronous and live performance of actors (captured with motion-tracking tech-
highlight the social affordances offered in each case, while focusing nologies). Although this example is targeted towards collocated
on the latter category. experiences, we believe that it paves the way for a new form of cul-
Asynchronous interactions are typically accomplished through tural productions, showcasing how virtual 3D environments may
“content sharing”. Realizing the value of visitor participation, as serve as the stage of live performances where audience members
insightfully elaborated in the definition of the “Participatory Mu- are explicitly represented through avatars and can socially interact
seum”, several works have aspired to empower active visitor in- with their companions.
volvement by supporting the creation and public access to user- During the pandemic outbreak, several conferences took place
generated content (e.g. comments or tags, personal stories, emo- in the virtual world like IEEE VR, http://ieeevr.org/2020, (offered
tions, opinions etc), or even the authoring of personal digital collec- a desktop VR option through mozilla hubs, slack and a teleconfer-
tions and cultural exhibitions. These systems cultivate the concept encing system, with presentations happening in VR according to
of “museums as social places” and aim to promote social awareness, the participant’s decision). Due to the increased need, ACM also
showcasing the presence of prior museum visitors and visualizing published a guide for virtual conferences with multiple platforms
their contributions. This objective is addressed both in the scope and tools [1]. The first objective of using these platforms was to
of onsite and remote visits. Some systems deployed for museum provide a shared multimedia presentation environment that would
environments include Imprints [3], ArtLinks [8], MobiTags [7], and support question-answering interaction between the presenter and
the Room of Opinion at the Hunt Museum [11]. In some cases, the audience. In the cultural experiences offered by the Natural
the user-generated content is also leveraged for improving public History Museum (London), the same goal was addressed through a
access and engagement with on-line cultural collections. See for different scheme, i.e. by live broadcasting scientists’ talks in which
instance the steve.museum project [5] where online visitors are question-answering was accomplished using social media platforms,
prompted to annotate the displayed artworks with free-form tags. an approach that is nowadays often used alongside physical confer-
The collected data is used to create folksonomies that indicate the ences as well, taking more and more ground. In this case, the focus
Cultural Heritage and Social Experiences in the Times of COVID 19 𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy
of the experience design is to serve the communication between or obsolete endeavor. Fully immersive spaces of interpretation and
the presenter and the audience, rather than the social interaction co-located social interaction such as Caves, Panoramic Cylinders
between audience members (although such instances often occur and iCinemas may also witness a severe decline because they are
as well). But was this objective reached? Did these platforms foster very costly to create while the chances of revenue due to social
social interactions between the attendees? Despite the significant distancing measures are significantly reduced. Nevertheless, in the
technological advances in related hardware and software compo- case of families and dyads, it is important to build on previous work
nents, we observe that the promotion of social interactions within that enhances sociability through conversation [13, 19].
virtual worlds continues to raise significant challenges, echoed also In terms of providing a shared environment for online interac-
by prior research in the cultural heritage field. tions, virtual museums need to first support direct voice or/and
text-based communication between visitors. To avoid attention trap-
ping on separate interface elements, “bubble-based” approaches
4 CHALLENGES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE are often employed for text-based interaction - as for instance in
FUTURE the virtual multi-user museum of Piet Mondrian by MUSEUM3D
COVID 19 found cultural institutions unprepared, without an es- (https://museum3d.eu) or in the virtual exhibition implemented by
tablished and effective virtual presence for something other than [20].
dissemination of their on-site activities. Those few, on the other Moreover, the representation of the virtual self and others in-
hand, offering digital products possibly lacked the approach to dis- cludes several complementary aspects, such as avatar form, gaze,
seminate them under the right context and in the proper channels. facial expressions, gestures and posture, which continue to pose
One would argue that this critique is harsh. As discussed in [21], important challenges in the virtual reality community. Comparing
many institutions, going beyond a basic web presence with general to collocated interactions that unfold in physical museum environ-
information, offer different types of digitized content, available af- ments, social encounters in virtual worlds often need to cope with
ter the organized investment on the digitization of the past decades. the absence of behavioral social cues (particularly when experi-
Many museum websites offer access to hundreds of digitized arti- enced with desktop-based interfaces), which however provide an
facts through high-quality images and their relevant information. important, indirect way of communication. We expect that in the
These offerings have, in theory, “opened up the museums to wider virtual museum context these issues will be sufficiently addressed
and more diverse user groups” and have led to an increase in the to enforce the social dimension of cultural visits.
number of on-line visitors. A great percentage of these visitors, how- We observe that only a few systems have addressed the “hybrid
ever, leave the website after looking at one or two pages, generally visit scenario”, enabling local and remote visitors to share their
in less than 10 seconds [6]. experience in real-time and communicate with each other [4, 20]. In
As regards onsite visits, during the times of COVID 19 museums the after COVID 19 era, hybrid visits may potentially provide a very
are likely to face significant challenges that will influence social promising use-case, offering important socialization opportunities
interaction design in the following areas: a) visitor strategy and for vulnerable groups, who are currently facing the danger of being
management policies, b) spatial configurations and exhibition de- left out.
sign and, c) movement flow based on social distancing parameters. Finally, it seems that the technology is there to support social
Considering the above, will we witness a return to individual user experiences in cultural heritage, either onsite or online. The tech-
interfaces? if so, will we still continue to design for social interac- nology has been extensively tested and validated in many contexts,
tions? or is this something that due to the necessity of staying safe, and for many years, from gaming applications to social media.
keeping the numbers down and the curve flat, will be completely The main challenge lies in the successful application of these ap-
abandoned? proaches in defining concrete and relevant objectives and realizing
Overall, cultural institutions need to re-invent the way they ap- them through an informed experience concept design. Cultural
proach both their audience and technology, they need to transform institutions are complex ecosystems and social experiences are im-
their narratives from object-centric to people-centric. “Stories are portant parts. The during and post-COVID museum experience
about people, not things”, as discussed in [9] and stories have al- should include carefully designed social interactions, respecting
ways been the most basic method we communicated experiences, the social distancing requirements of different groups of visitors
oral traditions and knowledge, always in a social context where and users.
the storyteller and their audience are involved in a dynamic and
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