The 3.0 Showcase

The project that I am introducing is called “The 3.0 Showcase. The smart glass as an interactive element”, it is a research proposal of my group at the Laboratory of investigation and experimentation of Madrid (LIME). This program, LIME, suggests a multidisciplinary exercise in which artists, industrial designers and architects will propose alternatives for the traditional exhibit supports. Due to my educational background, I started as the artist member of the showcases group along with a product designer and an architect. We worked closely to determine the necessities of this particular exhibit support today.

During the research process, we had the opportunity to participate as speakers in the International Conference <<The Limits of Art in the Museum>>, which was held at the University Complutense of Madrid on November last year. We presented “The 3.0 Showcase. The smart glass as an interactive element” an exhibition support prototype that integrates tactile technology. Particularly, we had focus on provides interactive capabilities to the traditional showcase glass for the purpose of encourage the participation of the visitor.

When we started the investigation at the laboratory, we realize that the showcase has significantly improved the conservation and the security of collections at museums. However, the glass remains a physical barrier for the visitor to the comprehend and enjoy the exhibited works. Due to this limitation, the 3.0 Showcase pretends to approach the visitor to the artworks generating a fullest and personalized experience, so they could observe and interact with them through the sense of touch.

The material that we have chosen is an emerging technology which is still developing. It is called OLED and consist of a tactile and transparent screen that can be placed in any flat surface, such as the glass of the showcases at museums. Concerning to design solutions, we have taken example of retail and advertising events that have already used this technology. The exciting thing about OLED is that allows to overlay digital content onto objects placed behind the transparent display, due to his organic light-emitting diodes that made the screen completely transparent when they switched off.

Furthermore, we propose a precise formal example of the 3.0 showcase, based on two sculptures of the “Mutatis Mutandis” project that I developed during my last academic year at the Fine Arts University. In this way, we suspended both sculptures behind the screen prototype of the 3.0 showcase. His large glass screen serves as a dissuasive element for the spectator and provides access to an interactive app, where the visitor could find information, videos, games or social networks related with the artworks.