interactive exhibitions

Design your exhibition as a modern world of experience

Interactive and Digital Concepts for Exhibitions

Let’s face it, digging up fossilised facts from a desert of words doesn’t appeal to even the most ambitious archaeologist. That is why modern museum technologies are based on didactic concepts that work in the here and now – and will continue to do so in the future, thanks to their flexibility and adaptability. Interactive ways of sharing and transferring knowledge enable both playful and comprehensive learning and information processes for your visitors that take place almost unnoticed. Through entertaining storytelling in museums or exhibitions, learning new things or accessing new areas of knowledge becomes a pure pleasure, and immersive learning experiences facilitate better recall of not only the facts, but the experience itself.

Exhibition technologies redefined: For today’s interactive museums

Typically, visitors to a museum or exhibition come to you with their own backgrounds, prior knowledge and expectations. They speak different languages and have different and individual ways of processing information. This makes the versatility of integrated multi-touch technologies a valuable and appropriate tool for knowledge transfer:

  • Do you speak French? Visitors can choose the language and level of content that suits them best.
  • From tidbits of knowledge to full-blown brain-teasers: whether a brief description of an exhibit or a long excursion into the depths of the subject, it is up to your visitors to decide how far and how fast they want to go.
  • The fun of facts: playful and interactive knowledge transfer that sticks.
  • Flexibility that pays off: With a web-based CMS, curators and exhibition managers can independently change settings and content within minutes. This not only saves time, but also resources.
  • Feedback for fine-tuning: Stop guessing which elements or content are most popular – the interactive installations give you detailed information about the content, languages and activities most used by your visitors.

Multi-touch Display Case

A traditional showcase’s clear superior

You want to keep your exhibit safe from harm – but your visitors want to touch it. And who can blame them for being curious? Our interactive display‑case is such a perfect and beautiful compromise between these two conflicting demands that you hardly notice it as a compromise: visitors can interact with the exhibit by touching the display case glass. For example, they can rotate the turntable that holds the object or call up additional information about the object. Lighting and additional high-resolution monitors provide the perfect backdrop for your exhibit.

Interactive showcase prototype

Multi-touch Scanner Table

In the future, the only things collecting dust will be your obsolete shelves

Multitouch scanner table at 2,670 metres in the Hohe Mut Alm in the Ötztal Nature Park ©Archive Naturpark Ötztal - Thomas Schmarda

Have you ever been on an excavation without getting your hands dirty? With our multi-touch scanner table, you can do just that – whether the finds are virtual bones or detailed information on any exhibition-related topic. You can feed the CMS as much knowledge as you like and have it “spit out” in any quantity or complexity, depending on the exhibition and your requirements. Objects and documents that previously had to remain in storage due to lack of space can now be integrated into your exhibition, thanks to the multi-touch scanner table and its interactive visualisation capabilities. Of course, excavations take time. So this table allows up to four users to explore the site at the same time and even interact with each other.

Virtual Reality

Break the boundaries of your building’s dimensions

Your visitors have chosen and traveled to your museum or exhibition. So you might ask, “Why send them somewhere else?” and rightly so. However, the selective use of Virtual Reality can be a valuable addition to an exhibition, for example, to make the impossible possible – time travel to the past or future, or a journey to otherwise inaccessible locations. VR opens the doors not only to your own world, but to countless others. All at no extra charge.

Multimedia Application Laboratory Natural History Museum

Augmented Reality / Mixed Reality

Add another facet to reality

Rotatable screen for immersive views and all-round panoramic perspectives

Bring exhibits to life or share information in a playful – and at first glance hidden – way. For example, with a multi-touch revolving screen that gives your visitors a different view of your exhibition space – with extra digital information or even a glimpse into the space’s past.

Exhibition Control and Content Management

All systems smart and go!

With our CMS, tailored to your specific content, you can start and stop your entire interactive exhibition and activate, change or add individual content. In short, you have instant access and full control. For example, over the individual access rights and roles of your staff. What’s more, you can control your exhibition from the comfort of your tablet PC or smartphone. In addition, our interactive installations are fully self-sufficient, with automatic updates via network access or robust 24/7 offline operation.

Visitors interact with large multi-touch wall in the German Spy Museum

Step by Step Towards an Interactive Exhibition Experience

You may already have some experience of using interactive digital elements or components in an exhibition. You may have had this experience in your own institution or during a visit to another museum. Wherever you are, we are here to help you every step of the way towards an interactive museum. And while we are always the first to marvel at the hardware and software when we visit a museum, we never want the technological aspects of your exhibition to take centre stage. Instead, we aim to integrate the technologies seamlessly into your existing exhibition – to enrich it, not overshadow it. Remember, you don’t have to change and upgrade everything all at once. However, the following steps are recommended. Which one are you in right now?

Best practice: Interactive exhibition with immersive projection room

Garamantis Full Service for Your Exhibition Project

Thanks to our long-standing cooperation with Ars Electronica, we have already been able to support a number of museums and exhibitions on their way to becoming digital worlds of experience. We know exactly what works – and we know exactly how to get there:

  • Stocktaking: we take a look at your exhibition concept, your exhibits, and your room situation.
  • Brainstorming: in a creative exchange, together we devise ways of interactively involving your visitors and decide on the thematic focus.
  • Conception: we then translate those ideas into a concrete project plan for the implementation and use of interactive museum technologies, which includes – besides an overall concept, software, and CMS – the necessary hardware as well as its architectural/constructional integration within a fixed schedule.
  • Implementation: in collaboration with you and, if applicable, additional service providers we put said plan into practice and within just a few months realize your interactive exhibition at your desired location.

Of course, all this is only possible if you first tick off item number one on the agenda: contact us for a free, no-obligation initial consultation to answer your questions or to take stock – in our showroom.

Interactive exhibitions - examples

Networked exhibition technology for an entire interactive museum
Smart Mirror is automatically activated by scale in front of it
Multitouch scanner table at 2,670 metres in the Hohe Mut Alm in the Ötztal Nature Park ©Archive Naturpark Ötztal - Thomas Schmarda
For the Ars Electronica Center, Ars Electronica Solutions developed an interactive exhibition for the ESA
Centerpiece des Vergangenheits-Pavillons in der interaktiven Ausstellung
Museum visitors at the multitouch table with object recognition for the Long Night of the Museums 2017
Interactive exhibition of the Vienna Chamber of Labour on digital traces and data security
Interactive stations bring samurai fighters to life
Projection mapping and interactive stations in the Samurai exhibition
The interactive showcase presented the winners of the Austrian Museum Quality Seal at the Austrian Museum Day
Eight 4K high-performance projectors, active stereo at 120Hz, total resolution of over 50 million pixels.
interactive station shows melting glaciers

Project Examples

Free consultation on interactive exhibition and museum

Benefit from our experience and be inspired by successful digital exhibition concepts.
We will be happy to advise you individually and without obligation.

Ina Badics

Over the entire course of the project, Garamantis were at our side with advice and hands-on action. In a major project such as the Samurai Museum Berlin, having a familiar and reliable partner like Garamantis is priceless. Together – and with a lot of fun and lifeblood – we were able to achieve the goals we had set ourselves for this interactive exhibition. Now the result of our joint efforts is ready to be marveled at in the center of Berlin.

Ina Badics, Project Manager, Ars Electronica Solutions
Ruth Rosenberger

By contributing the exhibition’s screen design and with their conception and implementation of the multi-touch evaluation table, Garamantis have supported the Haus der Geschichte Foundation both actively and with great expertise. From the very start, the team saw right through the technical and the content-related aspects of the complex profile of requirements and specifications and then creatively put them into practice. The collaboration was pleasant and fun.

Dr. Roth Rosenberger, Director of Digital Services, Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Foundation
Michaela Fragner

At the Global Shift exhibition in Bregenz, our task was to bring the topic of climate change closer to a predominantly young target audience. We wanted to let visitors actively participate in it. The well thought-out topics, the professional implementation of the software by Garamantis and the great cooperation with ESA contribute significantly to the success of this exhibition, which hits the pulse of the times.

Michaela Fragner, project manager, Ars Electronica Solutions
Janine Koehler

In a time far away from business as usual, together we succeeded in implementing a great and innovative project. The special challenges of working with a large public authority, the enormous amount of content and the short processing time did not cause any problems thanks to Garamantis’ professional approach. I appreciate the great cooperation and look forward to further exciting projects!

Janine Koehler, Projectmanager, mediapool
Michael Mondria

Integrating a Deep Space 8K into the newly refurbished Sinaloa Science Center in Cualicán as its highlight and centerpiece has been quite a challenge, on various levels. Under these difficult circumstances, Garamantis not only proved themselves one of our most reliable partner businesses but, with their outstanding commitment, flexibility, and professional expertise, were a cornerstone of the project’s success.

Michael Mondria, Senior Director Ars Electronica Solutions
Restauro

Digital mediation methods such as interactive installations or multi-touch systems can expand the so-called museum narrative space and reach new groups of visitors. Many natural history museums already use technologies such as those developed by the Berlin start-up Garamantis.
Digitale Strategien für neue Erlebniswelten

Restauro, 7/2019
Ina Badics

Our partner Garamantis collaborated with us expediently, pragmatically, and with a lot of enthusiasm and love for the project. The extensive wall projection with its storytelling features has become one of the exhibition’s highlights. Visitors marvel at the effects of the numerous interactive stations inside the exhibition, which operate and fulfill their duties absolutely reliably.

Ina Badics, project manager at Ars Electronica Solutions
Robert Richter

For the Long Night of Museums 2017 Garamantis designed an interactive application that thrilled both the museum’s visitors and it’s staff. Despite the very short lead time this project was a complete success from start to finish – technologically, design‑wise and organizationally speaking. The collaboration was totally uncomplicated and I am looking forward to further projects with Garamantis in the future.

Dr. Robert Richter, Scientific Director of the ProductTestLaboratory, Berlin Museum of Natural History
Blach Museumsreport

In order to turn the museum’s singular treasure‑trove of data and its potential into a concrete experience immediately perceptible for companies and businesses, Garamantis will design an interactive multi‑touch installation which is going to be presented during the Long Night of Museums.
Garamantis ist offizieller Partner des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin

BlachReport Museum, 07/05/2017
Blach Museumsreport

Whereas conventional display cases only offer static ways to display an object and afford protection against dust, damage and theft, the new interactive display case by Garamantis is designed to encourage its user to explore the exhibit playfully. The previously passive spectator thus becomes an active user and interacts with the object on display intuitively via the transparent multi-touch display.
Garamantis stellt interaktive Vitrine vor

Museumsreport, 4/20/2017
Elke Kellner

The display case demonstrated state-of-the-art museum technology and excited the Austrian museum community with its elegant design and intuitive user interface. In this way a lot of additional information on and around the object on display becomes available to the visitor, in the best sense of the expression “modern museum storytelling”

Elke Kellner, Managing Director of ICOM Austria
Franz-M. Günther

For me, the collaboration with Garamantis on this – in every aspect – very complex and complicated project in the German Spy Museum, Berlin, can be summed up under the following three results: First, “This won’t work” is not in their vocabulary. And even if so, this was rather because our wishes and requirements were phrased too vaguely, and Garamantis helped clarify them by suggesting possible solutions. Second, Garamantis’s ideas and networks, like the interactive display cases, have opened up new and innovative ways of presentation for our exhibition concept as a whole and have consequently been integrated into the permanent exhibition. Third, this project took an immense toll on everybody’s nerves and strength. The entire Garamantis team was always an important “filling station” of “garamantic” sense of humor and mediating easiness for all of us. It has been great fun and we consider a recommendation imperative!

Franz-Michael Günther, Curator at German Spy Museum

References