META-MUSEUM has officially reached the midpoint of its implementation — a milestone that the consortium marked with the successful completion of its first annual report and a productive Review Meeting with the European Commission, whose reviewers engaged closely with the project’s themes and provided valuable feedback. With the next General Assembly scheduled for April, the consortium enters the second half of its journey with confidence and clear momentum.
At the theoretical core of the project, the first version of the TransforMEANS Theory (TMt) conceptual framework has been developed. Drawing on museography, psychology, neuroscience, and related disciplines, TMt models how cultural heritage experiences can foster empathy, resilience, and confidence in visitors. The framework will be made publicly available shortly, with empirical validation through pilot activities and experimental applications as the immediate next step.
Underpinning this empirical work is a strengthened data infrastructure. Deliverable D3.2 on data cleaning and integration has been completed, and a consortium-level preprocessing framework has been defined and implemented to ensure consistency and quality across heterogeneous datasets — neurophysiological, behavioural, and questionnaire-based. The METAbase platform is now operational and actively supports interdisciplinary data exploration and visualisation. Several datasets have already been cleaned, validated, and integrated, with further harmonisation, expanded analysis capabilities, and dataset preparation for upcoming activities as the next priorities.
On the prototyping front, the UNI JENA team has developed two digital prototypes — one audio-based, investigating sound as a medium for stimulating emotional engagement and reflective experience, and one XR (Extended Reality)-based, exploring immersive virtual and mixed reality environments for cultural heritage settings. A structured deliverable documenting the theoretical and methodological framework, prototype design, test settings, technical specifications, and implementation guidelines has been completed, providing a foundation for future testing and cross-contextual application.
In parallel, a laboratory study conducted by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with the University of Jena has completed data collection. The study investigated how historical, contemporary, and AI-generated cultural heritage images shape emotional and cognitive responses, using EEG, skin conductance, heart rate, and postural sway measured concurrently. Stimuli included imagery related to the first recorded labour strike in ancient Egypt (1152 BCE) and contemporary human rights documentation, with participants fully informed of the AI-generated nature of relevant materials. Analysis is now underway, with preliminary findings expected later this year.
This summer, the project moves from the laboratory into the museum. Preparations for Pilot 1 have been officially restarted, with field activities planned across partner museums in Italy, France, and Spain. Teams will conduct behavioural, physiological, and cognitive measurements to test narrative components grounded in the TransforMEANS theory, capturing both conscious and unconscious visitor responses within real museum environments.
Finally, preparations are advancing for a clinical study assessing the psychological effects of virtual cultural heritage stimuli — artworks and archaeological artefacts presented in virtual reality — on patients undergoing chemotherapy or haemodialysis. The study will evaluate potential reductions in stress and increases in confidence relative to standard treatment sessions conducted without such stimuli, extending the reach of the project’s research into clinical and social wellbeing contexts.