Multimedia in Museums: A Glossary of 18 Terms
A glossary for anyone planning an exhibition and hearing AR, mapping and CMS in meetings.
Planning an exhibition or a new museum display? Conversations can quickly fill up with terms such as interactivity, augmented reality and projection mapping. This glossary explains eighteen common terms through what they mean in a museum or visitor centre. We connect them with examples from projects we have worked on and questions worth asking before production begins.
Telling stories in a space
01 Multimedia and installations
Multimedia brings together different ways of telling a story: text, photography, illustration, film, animation and sound. When this content is combined with equipment and the space in which visitors experience it, it becomes a multimedia installation. An installation can occupy one corner of an exhibition or connect an entire display.
It helps when we want to explore a subject through different source material and different ways of engaging with it. The starting points are always the story, the space and the audience.
In practice: At the Kukuljević Visitor Centre, stories about Ivanec and Mount Ivančica come together through the graphic display, an interactive map, film, a virtual view towards the Old Castle and exhibition scenery. Our work covered research and content development, the graphic display and multimedia.
Planning question: What should visitors understand or experience at each point in the exhibition?
02 Video and animation
Video brings recorded scenes, people and first-hand accounts into an exhibition. Animation creates images from photographs, illustrations or 3D models. Both approaches can be combined in the same film. For an exhibition, the duration, place of presentation and relationship to everything else in the space need to be agreed in advance.
A film can bring scattered source material into a story, explain a process or show change over time. If visitors join a screening partway through, we need to plan how they can follow the content.
In practice: For Fotogenična Ivančica at the Kukuljević Visitor Centre, we used a script and animation to connect photographs of the mountain, the town and its residents. Some scenes were created with the help of AI. The film is projected onto a large wall in the centre. Director: Kristijan Kaurić; script, visual design, animation and sound design: BROJKA; voice: Adalbert Juci Turner.
Planning question: Will visitors watch the film from the beginning, or join it at any point?
03 Audio and soundscapes
Audio includes speech, music, ambient sound and other recordings. Combined, they form the soundscape of a space or an individual installation. Visitors listen through headphones, a loudspeaker or a specially designed listening point.
Sound can convey a personal account, evoke an environment or draw attention to a detail. We need to plan where it can be heard, whether it overlaps with nearby content and how visitors who cannot hear it can access the same information.
In practice: For the exhibition Sedamdesetprva, a dramatised audio reconstruction was produced from parts of the meeting at Karađorđevo. Visitors listened to selected passages by putting an ear to a door. This was a reconstruction based on a written account, rather than an original recording. We worked on this part of the exhibition with New Hint and RED Studio; the recording was directed by Natko Jurdana.
Planning question: How will people listen to the audio, and could it disturb visitors at the next exhibit?
When visitors take action
04 Interactive content
Interactive content responds to something a visitor does. Touching a screen, choosing a topic or moving a controller changes the display, starts part of a story or determines what happens next. Visitors need to understand what they can do and recognise that the system has responded.
This lets people explore in their own order, compare options or learn by trying things out. Interactivity can be a simple choice between topics or a more complex relationship between an action and its consequences.
In practice: In the Laboratory of Nature at Krka National Park, visitors choose a vehicle, a material and an energy source, then turn hand pedals to travel through the park. The film advances only while the pedals are turning. We developed the interaction and content and designed the vehicles and interface; DotGame programmed the application.
Planning question: How will visitors know what their action changes?
05 Controllers
A controller is the interface through which visitors operate content: a button, lever, pedal, steering wheel or an object designed around the exhibition’s subject. The movement needs to make sense and relate to the action it represents.
Physical controls bring the visitor’s body into the experience. Planning needs to account for reach, the force required and whether children, older visitors and wheelchair users can operate them.
In practice: The handcycle in the Laboratory of Nature at Krka National Park uses hand pedals linked to a video journey. Turning them makes the film advance. We developed the interaction, content and visual elements at Brojka; DotGame programmed the application.
Planning question: Is the link between the movement and the content’s response immediately clear?
06 Sensors
A sensor detects a physical change, such as position, movement, touch or light level. Its reading becomes an input that the system uses to start or change content. The type of sensor depends on what needs to be detected reliably.
We need to decide which action the system recognises and how it behaves when the same action is repeated or several visitors act at once.
Planning question: Exactly what change must the system detect, and how quickly does it need to respond?
07 Gamification
Gamification introduces game elements into an activity that is not itself a game, such as a visit or the exploration of a collection. Visitors receive tasks, solve challenges and follow their own progress. Each task needs a clear purpose and a defined form of feedback.
Gamification can connect several stops on a visit or draw attention to details that might otherwise go unnoticed. A complete educational game and a gamified visit are related approaches, each with its own structure.
Planning question: What should visitors notice or connect in order to solve the task?
On a phone or tablet
08 Multimedia guides
A multimedia guide connects stops on a visit with text, photographs, audio, film or animation. Visitors choose a topic and follow the content on a device they carry, whether a borrowed tablet or their own phone.
A guide offers additional layers of a story, multiple languages and content for different audiences. We need to plan how visitors recognise the next stop and how much attention the device draws away from the space itself.
In practice: At Grobnik Castle, visitors borrow a tablet to choose topics and listen to and watch content; part of the guide includes AR experiences. We produced the content, illustrations, 3D models and animation. Novena developed the application and integrated the AR content. Red Studio recorded and post-produced the audio.
Planning question: How does the digital guide connect with signs and movement through the space?
09 Mobile applications
A mobile application is designed for a phone or tablet and can combine a guide, map, audio, film and other content. Supported devices, access and required functions need to be defined. In some cases, the same experience can also be delivered as a web application.
The choice depends on the audience, the devices they own or are given to use, and how the application will be maintained.
In practice: The Grobnik Castle guide runs as an application on a tablet that visitors borrow on site. Novena developed the application and AR integration; we produced the content, illustrations, models and animation.
Planning question: Will the institution provide devices, or will visitors use their own phones?
10 Web applications
A web application opens in a browser. Visitors access it through a link or QR code, without installing it from an app store. The functions available depend on the browser, device and implementation.
Before production, we need to check internet access on site and how the application behaves on the devices the actual audience uses.
In practice: In Zagorje Stories, QR codes on interpretation boards open content in a phone or tablet browser, without a separate installation. We conceived and produced the application for the Biser Zagorja Tourist Board.
Planning question: Can visitors easily open and use the content on site?
11 QR codes
A QR code is a two-dimensional code that stores data, most often a link. In an exhibition, scanning it gives visitors access to an additional story, film, audio recording or guide on their own device.
A short instruction beside the code should explain what it opens. Placement, readability and a link that continues to work for years all matter.
In practice: At the Retrobit exhibition in Galerija Orsola, QR codes on posters led to further information about the exhibits and related content. Our work covered research, the concept, graphic display and illustrations, the website, animation and AR. Robert Šumaković and his team created the exhibition scenery.
Planning question: Who maintains the link and the content that opens after scanning?
12 Augmented reality / AR
Augmented reality (AR) adds digital elements to a view of the real environment. An animated character, model or other content appears on screen alongside an object, marker or space. How the experience starts and what it recognises are chosen to suit the location and purpose.
AR reveals a layer of a story connected to a particular place or object. Visitors need clear instructions and visible feedback that the device has recognised the right point.
In practice: At Grobnik Castle, visitors point a tablet camera at markers to start AR content featuring animated characters. We designed the content, illustrations, 3D models and animation; Novena developed the application and integration.
Planning question: What does the digital layer reveal about the object or place visitors are looking at?
13 AR markers
An AR marker is an image the system recognises through a camera. Recognition connects content to a particular point and determines where it appears. The system can also recognise a selected photograph or illustration in place of a specially designed marker.
We need to know exactly which image the system recognises and under what conditions. Position, lighting and camera angle are part of the planning.
In practice: At the Retrobit exhibition, a marker on an old television triggered a film.
Planning question: What does the system recognise, and how will visitors know where to point the camera?
The space around the visitor
14 Interactive maps
An interactive map connects a spatial view with information visitors choose for themselves. Tapping a location opens a description, photograph, audio, film or other information. A map can help people explore a subject within an exhibition, prepare for a visit or continue exploring outside the museum.
It is particularly useful when a story covers several locations, routes or historical layers. We need to decide what the map shows immediately and what opens on request.
In practice: At the Kukuljević Visitor Centre, an interactive map shows trails, mountain huts, viewpoints and other landmarks on Mount Ivančica. Visitors can download selected trails and locations to their phone using a QR code. Map programming: BROJKA.
Planning question: Is the map’s main purpose to explain a subject or help people find their way on the ground?
15 Virtual reality / VR
Virtual reality (VR) uses a device, usually a VR headset, to place visitors in a digital environment: a recorded scene or a computer-generated world. How much they can look around, move or act depends on the content and equipment.
VR offers a different perspective or a visit to a place that is not physically available within the exhibition. We need to plan where visitors stand or sit, how long the experience lasts and who helps them use the device.
In practice: For the interpretation centre in Ilok, we filmed a 360° journey in a čikla boat on the Danube, prepared for viewing in VR. Visitors watch the film through VR headsets while sitting in a physical čikla boat installed at the centre.
Planning question: How does the experience fit into the physical space, and how many visitors can use it at once?
16 360° video
360° video records the full scene around the camera’s position. Viewers choose where to look while the recorded action follows its own course. It can be watched on a screen or through a VR headset.
It is useful when we want to convey an environment and the view from a particular position. If viewers are to make choices or solve tasks, those interactions need to be designed separately. Choosing a viewing direction does not, by itself, let viewers change the course of the recorded action.
In practice: The čikla boat journey in Ilok was filmed as a 360° video. The recorded surroundings let viewers choose where to look during the journey.
Planning question: What happens around viewers, and how will we guide their attention towards the important part of the scene?
17 Projection mapping
Projection mapping adapts a projected image to the shape of a surface. Video and animation follow a vault, façade, model or object, making the surface itself part of the story.
The content, surface, lighting and projector position are planned together. Content needs to be checked from the places where visitors will actually stand.
In practice: For Živa fasada at Veliki Kaštel in Kotišina, we created animations for the stone walls, including a wall collapsing and rebuilding itself. For Grobnik Castle, we designed and animated a film mapped onto a stone vault.
Planning question: How do the surface and the light in the space affect the story we want to tell?
Behind the screen
18 Content management / CMS
A content management system (CMS) lets editors prepare and change the content visitors see: text, photographs, translations and other material, depending on the implementation. How a change reaches a screen or device in an exhibition depends on the particular system.
A CMS is useful when content changes regularly. We need to agree who edits, who approves changes and what the institution can change on its own.
Planning question: What will the institution be able to change on its own after the exhibition has been handed over?
Planning a new exhibition?
Let’s start with the story, the space and the audience. Together, we can choose content and ways of presenting it that suit your subject. Get in touch
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