Manovich describes many more techniques than what we observed in our Ethonographies of Public Spaces activity that could have greatly enhanced the experience. While we did observe some of the paradigms of information technology that Manovich highlights, there are many that the MIT Museum lacked and could have benefited from. Of the technologies the MIT Museum did exhibit, the most prevalent was probably tangible interfaces - bringing closer the human to the computer in HCI by employing physical space as part of the interface. Touch screens and other tactical exhibits were plentiful throughout the museum (i.e., interactive staircase playing music with each step). On the same hand, ubiquitous computing, intelligent spaces, context-aware computing/ambient intelligence, and sensor networks all go hand-in-hand to help make tangible interfaces possible.

However, the museum does not go far beyond this, not employing much of any cellspace technologies at all which is a large component of Manovich’s essay, or wearable technology, augmented reality, or building intelligence. And what the museum does employ is in modest, not highly immersive, engaging, or paradigm-shifting, with interactions brief and limited in scope and scale. I think what the MIT Museum could probably capitalize on the most would be in building intelligence, since there seems to be a lack of connection / harmony between the contents of the museum and the building itself. Exhibits seemed somewhat arbitrarily tossed into the spaces and I felt, as a visitor, that I could have been better oriented and more engaged with the space if it were better at “fusing” building and exhibition, as described by Ineke Schwartz (p. 234).

The museum also incorporates a now interesting mix of “white cube” and “black box” displays, with spaces littered with small black screens as well as large projected surfaces. While this may have seemed compelling and innovative at the time and to an average museum-goer, it in retrospect seems almost amateurishly motley, given Manovich’s comparison of the two.

Black Box Versus White Cube example