Iluminace 2023, 35(3):39-58 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1768

Walking Through the Whale: Immersive Exhibition Design As a Form of Museum Communication

Ondřej Táborský

Národní muzeum

In recent years, visiting certain types of museums has become much more of an experience anchored in the mediality of the space. In a situation of gradual decline of the reach of traditional audiovisual media such as television or cinema, the museum appears as another significant platform for viewership. This shift is greatly aided by the popularity of immersive exhibition tools. The transfer of communication from objects (touchable or contextual) and dioramas to immersiveness increases the importance of bodily and emotional experience but also brings great challenges for some types of cultural organizations focused on the interpretation of history. The following article aims to provide with an overview of the use of immersive tools as part of exhibition design used in history museums. It does not reduce immersion to a digital device but rather presents it as an intermedial exhibition practice with historical roots and variability of use. Its current penetration into museum practice was made possible by the shift of museum institutions to edutainment and the influence of the so-called new museology. The article reveals that immersive exhibition design, a form of presentation working with physicality and emotionality, does not necessarily slide into manipulation but offers forms of polyphonic representation of history. The application of immersive elements in museum presentation can serve as a starting point for mediating materially unpreserved history or as a means for creating shared (inclusive) stories. However, achieving this potential requires elaborate screenwritting combining lines of knowledge and emotions, a varied educational plan and well-thought-out sequencing. At the same time, it also demands a different approach of the curators themselves – forcing them to think more about the polysemantic nature of objects, the origin of visual sources or the extent of information that can be carried.

Keywords: immersion, museum, exhibiting, history exhibitions, emotions

Received: March 28, 2023; Revised: October 16, 2023; Accepted: December 10, 2023; Published: January 16, 2024  Show citation