meSch – Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The {meSch} project, Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage, has the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools for the creation of tangible interactives that will connect the physical experience of heritage with relevant digital cross-media information in novel ways. A wealth of digital cultural heritage content is available in on-line repositories and archives, but is used in a limited way and through rather static modes of delivery. {meSch} enables heritage professionals to create physical artifacts enriched by digital content without the need for specialised technical knowledge. The approach adopted is grounded on principles of co-design, the broad participation of designers, developers and stakeholders into the process, and on a Do-It-Yourself philosophy to making and experimentation. The ambition of the project is to enable the creation of an open community of cultural heritage institutions driving and sharing a new generation of physical/digital museum interactives.