Mobile in Museums: From Interpretation to Conversation

This chapter retraces the history and kinds of mobile technologies used in museums, and explores some of the new mobile experiences and applications now possible using the latest generation of mobile and related technologies such as location‐aware systems, computer vision, and augmented reality. In the process, it examines models for understanding the role of the museum in a multiplatform environment and suggests that the museum's relationship to global audiences should evolve to reflect the distributed network structure of the Internet itself. Drawing on Judith Mastai's feminist critique of museum visitor services models, as well as the work of artist Halsey Burgund, Proctor proposes the use of crowdsourcing in mobile applications as one route to greater relevance and sustainability for both mobile applications and the museum's mission.