The Hidden Cities apps

Abstract

This chapter considers how locative apps are able to change the relationship between museum collections and their audiences, both through bringing the objects into direct contact with the sites for which they were originally created and by making these connections accessible to ‘armchair’ users outside the museum. Two perspectives will be considered from museum professionals dealing with different areas of collections management. Through the example of the Deventer Athenaeumbibliotheek, we will consider how fragile manuscripts can be put in motion through narratives related to their early histories of use; how were these books shaped by the sociocultural context within which they interacted with constituents of the city of Deventer, and how can users today recover an understanding of these interactions? Instead, the example of RAMM in Exeter will focus on how apps contextualise and add value to collections and the museum’s public-facing activities; what are the benefits and challenges of using mobile technologies in the museum; and how does the Hidden Exeter app mediate between the museum collection and the wider heritage environment of the city?

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