Interactive Media & the Museum Experience

"Interactive mediat' has become a favorite buzzword in the museum world. Most of the attention, and much of the R&D, has focused on the "Interactive" aspect of the technology. For the most part, this is because the technology has been used behind the scenes, in collections management, image banks, etc. This is the most pioneering aspect of the medium and it holds the promise inherent in new technologies. But the emphasis on the technical aspects of hypermedia is misdirected if we want to bring interactive media onto the exhibit floor. Instead, we need to highlight the "media" available to this technology. We need to rethink the image-based media, whatever its format, and evaluate how we design and produce these images for nonlinear, museum applications.