Could it be that the ‘Gaming Generation’ is unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of a museum that the general public has enjoyed for centuries?
The Center for the Future of Museums has brought in Dr. Jane McGonigal to attract future museum goers. Together they seek to quantify and qualify their decision to advise traditional museums in this direction. They address the need for increasing the attraction of museums to newcomers by looking at positive human psychology. Enter the Science of Happiness (Video on TED). It states that there are…
4 things human beings need to be ‘happy’:
- 1. have work to do (a concrete task),
- 2. be good at something (an applicable strength),
- 3. spend time with people we like (social interaction), and
- 4. have the chance to be a part of something bigger (meaning beyond life).
Museums are great at facilitating #’s 3 and 4, but what about 1 and 2?
“Most gamers have never known a time without games, and see them as a perfectly valid tool for solving problems, relating to other human beings, and discovering one’s identity.”
- John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, authors of “Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever” (quote from Interview with Harvard Business School)
Museums should be in the business of making people happy instead of leaving them feeling overwhelmed, out of place, or even dumb. Today’s visitor also needs clear goals, feedback, a successful outcome and social interaction for a complete fulfilling experience. McGonigal suggests that adding elements of ‘gaming’ to a museum’s program could help to increase attendance. She states:
Museums can learn and benefit from studying popular games because:
- - Games are museums’ competitors—vying for people’s increasingly scarce leisure time.
- - Games present an opportunity for museums to engage new audiences and interact in new ways with existing audiences.
- - Successful games can teach museums how to create experiences that are deeply satisfying.
- - Games may provide new ways for museums to have a profound impact on society if they are designed, as alternate reality games are, to change people’s real world behavior.
A great example of new interaction is now happening at the Milwaukie Art Museum, and here’s a wonderful review.
It is getting easier to find a museum that has opened itself up to civic activities such as concerts, dance parties, and even yoga. This year the Oakland Museum of California will host exhibitions based on the “wiki model,” with curators holding open office hours at desks in the galleries…
Is this a lot to ask of our institutions?
Could this be pandering to the under-educated, or disinterested, or perhaps a solution to a serious problem?
Related Links:
Wired Magazine - “Dream Machines”
Xbox Natal Project - requires no controller.
Reshaping the Art Museum - ARTnews
* sol⋅ip⋅sism [sol-ip-siz-uhm]
–noun
1. Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.
