Ben Farahmand: Museum and the Web Conference 2011

The recent Museum and the Web conference was a great opportunity to meet thinkers and doers that are passionate about technology and using it to enhance the museum experience. The projects I was involved with and demonstrated were well received. The following images and paragraphs captures the purpose of each project and its demonstration during the Museum and the Web reception.

Reception area with food.

Electrofolksonomy:
Electrofolksonogram (EFG) is the fusion of electroencephalogram (EEG), which is a device that measures brain waves, and folksonomy, which is a collaborative method to categorize content.

The EFG adds a new layer of information by recording the user’s engagement, excitement, and opinion about a particular piece of art. As a proof of concept displaying the potential applications of the Emotiv EEG, the data gathered from the EFG can be turned into a database in order to find correlations amongst large populations of people and to better cater to museum goers.

This was a collaborative project between:

Slavko Milekic M.D., Ph.D.

Benjamin Farahmand

Electrofolksonomy demonstration area.

User looking at his results on my computer.

Demonstrating how the EFG works.

User smiling and having his brainwaves
recorded as he is shown an art piece.

User looking at an image and deciding
whether he likes or dislikes the image
as his brainwaves are recorded.

Collabritique:

Collabritique brings people together in a museum space to create a dialogue and foster collaboration by providing the tools necessary to help them reach a mutually agreeable opinion about a piece of art.

In this way, Collabritique not only promotes interaction and fosters new discussions and critiques about art, but also highlights the inherent connections created when artworks are juxtaposed. All this will provide a richer experience for the museum patron and a more satisfied customer for the museum.

This project was the result of collaboration between:

Dominic Prestifillippo

Nicolas Coia

Benjamin Farahmand

Preparing for a focus group to test Collabritique.

Soldered an old keyboard and prototyped the pads.

Dominic demonstrating collabritique.

Art Amplified:

Art Amplified provides the museum patron greater access to contextual references for a piece of art. The use of augmented reality allows the overlay of a digital layer on the real world. This overlay connects the user to a wealth of contextual information. The power of this system lies in its ability to build on other systems, and thus create a robust network of information, which can be easily accessed through a variety of means.

This was a collaborative project between:

Dominic Prestifillippo

Nicolas Coia

Benjamin Farahmand