MuseumApp Locative Lab

With the slogan Your Entrance to the City in mind, Amsterdam Museum and Waag developed the MuseumApp. The idea behind MuseumApp was to offer visitors of the museum a new experience that enables them to enjoy the collection both inside the museum and on location in the city. To achieve this, an innovative way of applying mobile telephones and locative technology was researched.

Amsterdam Museum and Waag entered a partnership to thrash out the endless possibilities of locative technology. This MuseumApp Locative Lab was a breeding space for experiment, development and knowledge exchange between professionals in the cultural sector, e-culture professionals and end users (the people who visit museums and galleries).

We currently see a development that has significant influence on Cultural Heritage and people’s experience of it. Increased access to art through the Internet and digital developments have forced the cultural sector to re-think their position, change their approach and form alliances with organisations which have not traditionally been obvious partners. Museum visitors are no longer satisfied with simply passively taking in art, they want to contribute to collections and their experience of it. To effectively respond to these developments, Amsterdam Museum and Waag, together with Stichting Doen and with the financial support of the BankGiroLoterij have developed the MuseumApp. Within the Locative Lab, using the creative research method, new media technology was applied as a catalyst to enhance people’s personal involvement with museums.

An important aim of the project was that the application can be used across the cultural sector as a whole. This way, more cultural institutions can enhance their visitors’ experience of their collection. During the Museum congress in 2010 the results of the first Lab were presented. This prototype was used as a basis for a second Lab during which the MuseumApp was turned into a commercially viable product. The final product was launched in September 2011 at the Amsterdam Museum. In 2012, the application received an 'Honarable mention' at Museums and the Web 2012 in the category 'Mobile' of the 'Best of the Web' awards.