Blog

Bridging Cultural Gaps for Older Adults

We’re thrilled to share that the BeauCoup Project is being highlighted on NANO TV! Starting at minute 20:52, viewers can explore how this forward-thinking initiative is transforming cultural access for older adults who may experience physical or social barriers to visiting museums. NOUS, as the leading technology partner, is helping drive BeauCoup’s mission to connect people with art and cultural heritage in new and engaging ways. read more

Our brand new magazine

We launched our first digital museum guide 20 years ago. Today, we are expanding our projects beyond the cultural field and are experiencing a cross-fertilization between culture, business and media. In our new magazine, we look back and ahead: Interviews with Sarah Kenderdine and Hannes Werthner as well as articles by Franziska Mucha, Nikolaus Franke and Robert Pfaller focus on digital humanism, transformed participation and business concepts, computational museology and new visitor typologies. read more

The international research and development project BeauCoup was funded by the European Commission as part of the Active Assisted Living (AAL) program: Over a period of 2.5 years, the consortium of nine partners developed solutions that enable various institutions such as museums, exhibition venues or tourism agencies to provide older adults and visually and hearing impaired people with cultural experiences. read more

Hannes Werthner is an Austrian computer scientist and former professor of e-commerce at the Institute of Software Engineering and Interactive Systems at the Vienna University of Technology as well as former professor and head of the Department of Information Systems at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. In addition to e-commerce, his academic work also focuses on recommendation services and e-tourism; Werthner is also co-initiator of the Vienna Manifesto for Digital Humanism. read more

In a groundbreaking move to revolutionize Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) launched with us and our partners ARtGlass the Middle East’s first wearable XR tour, thrilling travelers from around the world to the ancient archaeological site of Hegra. The 2-hour experience combining Augmented and Virtual reality elements on transparent smartglasses emerges from the country’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan to sustainably host 100 million annual tourist visits by decade’s end. read more

Sarah Kenderdine is a leading researcher on interactive and immersive experiences in galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Her widely exhibited installations combine tangible and intangible cultural heritage with new media art practice, particularly in the areas of interactive cinema, augmented reality and non-linear storytelling. read more

In Spook Country (2007), William Gibson still had fictitious artists to anchor virtual works in 3-dimensional spaces using spatial coordinates. Gibson‘s protagonists were able to see these works with special devices at their respective positions in space. read more

On a frequently neglected benefit of museums and other cultural institutions

It is highly laudable when museums try to reach out to as many sections of the population as possible, offering them incentives and inducements – what we might call appetizers and aids to digestion, aperitifs and digestifs – to partake of the kind of high cultural fare that is not always immediately appealing or easily digestible. read more

What do you do in a museum? Engage with the art and the objects intellectually? Or is a visit to a museum for you primarily a shared experience with friends and family as a kind of entertainment? read more

Digitalization is transforming the relationship between manufacturer and customer. For centuries, the roles were clearly divided between these institutions: one produced, while the other consumed. However, the Internet and new flexible production technologies are pushing the boundaries and creating the possibility for new business models in which the customer can become a product designer. read more