Evaluating the ArtBot Guide: A Toolkit for Enhancing Engagement with Digitized Museum Collections

Abstract

Museums face an ongoing challenge in creating interfaces that engage visitors with their digitized collections and accompanying content within exhibitions in a meaningful, intellectually stimulating, and affective way. The ArtBot Guide, a web-based toolkit inspired by the interdisciplinary and critical-making approach of Digital Humanities, offers a novel solution. This toolkit comprises two key elements: the PolyCube, a dynamic visual representation mapping the spatial and temporal origins of collection artifacts and their interrelationships, and a Chatbot application, a conversational digital companion that facilitates self-paced exploration of specialized knowledge. This article integrates theories of digital humanities and interface design, curatorial practices in the post-digital museum, and the critical dynamics of situated knowledge production, reception, and dissemination. The proof-of-concept toolkit is tested in its two differing prototypes within two exhibitions: one examining gender and art-historical canonization processes, and the other addressing the contested colonial legacies within museum collections. These case studies illustrate the ArtBot Guide’s potential to enhance visitor engagement while at the same time critically reflecting on the use of digital tools in contemporary museology.