The COVID-19 pandemic forced museums and cultural venues across the world to embrace virtual modes of engagement and accelerated the trend towards digitisation. While this rapid shift brought many benefits — enabling the public to connect and engage with cultural organisations while their doors were shut — there have since been scant opportunities for museum and cultural workers to pause and reflect on the implications for our sector.
The Muse-Tech working group composed of professionals from a cross-section of Irish museums met online to discuss the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies such as AI, VR, blockchain and the metaverse, and their applications in a cultural context. This document attempts to distil their research and present it in an accessible way. Each of the seven sections focus on a different area from their discussions. It explains the terminology, explores how it can be applied in a cultural context, and finally offers some key considerations.
This primer is principally aimed at those in the cultural sector, but can also be useful to the ‘technophobic’ as well as those with an established interest. The working group was a space to reflect deeply about new technologies and their place in our cultural life — the professionals involved hope this text can continue these conversations and spark new ones. Museums must navigate today’s ‘brave new digital world’ and move beyond a reactive position towards more assertive long term strategies that actively shape how technology is used in cultural institutions.
