Description
Building Confidence Through Cultural Heritage
The META-MUSEUM proposal centres on empathy as the key to understanding cultural heritage (CH) in a constantly changing world. It emphasises the role of empathy, co-creation, and individual interpretation in fostering a deeper connection with CH and building confidence when facing social transformations. META-MUSEUM envisions a museum experience that transcends the traditional model. It aims to create a pervasive, unconventional, and emotionally engaging space that integrates people, activities, and places.
The proposal highlights the impact of constant societal change on people’s well-being. Rapid technological advancements, economic challenges, and global crises lead to anxiety and a sense of losing control.
The Transformative Nature of CH: Cultural heritage is dynamic, not static. Its meaning evolves through societal interpretation. Historically, interpretation and presentation of CH has been the domain of a select few, employing a one-way communication model. This has limited public engagement and connection with it.
Understanding Change Builds Confidence
Recognising CH as a constantly evolving entity allows people to connect with it in the present, not just as a historical artefact. This promotes a sense of ownership and boosts confidence in the face of change. Crucially, CH’s resilience lies in its ability to adapt and thrive through change, not in maintaining a fixed state. META-MUSEUM aims to make citizens aware that they have the right to interpret and transform CH. Everyday actions and interpretations by ordinary people shape the value and meaning of cultural heritage. While accessibility remains important, the project emphasises the deeper right to interpret, co-create, and have a personal connection with CH.
The project focuses on archaeological heritage, often perceived as distant and requiring specialised knowledge. META-MUSEUM aims to bridge this gap and make it accessible to all. Understanding that CH belongs to everyone and its transformation depends on everyone fosters a stronger attachment and a sense of ownership. This builds confidence in facing change by recognising our collective ability to shape the future.
The Excellence of META-MUSEUM
Transformative Encounters
The project focuses on creating evidence-based principles for designing cultural experiences that are transformative, democratic, and engaging. This includes developing the “TransforMeans theory” (TMt) – an approach to “empathic cultural mediation” for crafting impactful experiences.
Transdisciplinary Approach
It brings together museography, CH communication, social sciences, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and geomatics. This collaboration aims to understand how citizens engage with CH and how it can improve their confidence and resilience.
Measuring Confidence
META-MUSEUM goes beyond statements to measure the actual impact of CH experiences on confidence, considering both conscious and unconscious mechanisms.
Objectives
The META-MUSEUM project adopts an empathic approach to Cultural Heritage (CH) to understand its transformative nature, fostering inclusion, participation, social cohesion, and improved quality of life. The Transformative Means theory (TMt) principles, initially based on project assumptions, will be progressively developed, tested in pilot studies, and refined into a final evidence-based version.
Pilot studies will be conducted in three distinct settings, each preceded by a “status quo measurement” to monitor participants’ cognitive and neurophysiological responses without external stimuli, establishing a baseline understanding of how people currently perceive CH’s transformative nature and their existing confidence levels.
In subsequent sessions of Pilots 1 and 2, participants will engage in experiences designed to convey CH’s transformative nature through narrative and participatory components developed using the evolving TMt; these experiences will incorporate digital storytelling, co-creation, and methods for generating empathic responses, with participant responses measured again after these experiences. Pilot 3 will consist of a single phase, taking place in diverse settings, including a physical urban location during a public event like European Researchers’ Night, and extending to social media platforms to reach a broader audience.
In the traditional cultural setting of museums (Pilot 1), museum-goers will be the primary focus, but efforts will be made to include less frequent visitors; participants will complete pre- and post-visit questionnaires to assess their understanding of CH’s transformative nature and confidence levels, alongside neurophysiological monitoring via wearable devices linked to an indoor positioning system.
Pilot 2 will take place in hospitals, measuring neurophysiological responses of patients during treatment sessions, focusing on individuals with demonstrably lower confidence levels, though it’s crucial to emphasise that this pilot is not art therapy but an assessment of CH’s impact on confidence. Similar questionnaires and wearable devices will be used, with some patients experiencing immersive cultural experiences based on TMt while others continue their usual therapy.
Pilot 3 will involve a public event and social media engagement, employing the M4 system (based on multisensory cameras) to track participants’ affective, emotional, and physiological states when exposed to cultural content and stimuli, integrated with AI and the “attaCHbox” app for real-time customisation and co-creation.
The “attaCHbox” app will facilitate co-creation and sharing of content and empathic reactions, inviting users to “step into the shoes” of people from the past evoked by archaeological heritage, interpreting and even enacting roles in short videos. The project aims to develop new skills related to museum mediation and cultural experience design, disseminating these through training modules and webinars, and establishing a META-MUSEUM Competence Centre to offer expertise, services, and further research beyond the project’s conclusion.
The project’s ambition lies in scientifically measuring emotional responses to cultural experiences, particularly confidence and resilience, providing cultural operators with evidence-based principles and tools to foster empathic engagement with CH.
A core element is the use of engaging narratives and storytelling, with the project aiming to develop evidence-based principles for effective CH storytelling that emphasises empathy and the connection between past and future. Recognising the democratising influence of social media and user-generated content, META-MUSEUM will integrate co-creation practices into CH experiences, fostering trust, community, and a sense of ownership among participants.
The project will also explore how human movement can reveal emotional responses, combining this data with other measures to provide a comprehensive understanding of visitor emotional states. Utilising smartphone technology with Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) sensors, META-MUSEUM will track visitor locations within museums to understand their behaviour within these spaces. Building upon existing work from the partner, Vilnius Tech, the project will develop a real-time system (M4) for measuring visitors’ emotional, affective, and physiological responses.
META-MUSEUM’s ambition is to scientifically measure emotional reactions to cultural experiences, including states of confidence and resilience, and to provide cultural operators with evidence-based principles and tools to design experiences that foster empathy, understanding, and enhanced confidence and resilience. The project also seeks to equip cultural operators with tools to monitor visitor responses and assess the effectiveness of their interventions. The project acknowledges the challenges of conducting real-world experiments and applying findings across diverse institutions and audiences, META-MUSEUM specifically addresses the perceived difficulty of understanding archaeological museums, aiming to develop approaches that enhance their accessibility and engagement.
Methodology
The META-MUSEUM project aims to improve understanding of the transformative nature of cultural heritage (CH) and how this understanding can support EU citizens in facing change with confidence. The project recognises that deep understanding, confidence, and resilience are fundamentally emotional responses and states. Building on existing research that highlights the under-researched role of heritage in building social capital, META-MUSEUM’s vision centres on the crucial role emotions play in human experience and the premise that these emotional states and responses can be measured to develop evidence-based principles. The project explores three core concepts: “confidence,” a complex construct encompassing positive thinking, a sense of security, mental openness, a sense of control, feelings of well-being, inner peace, active engagement, and social relations; “resilience,” defined as the ability to cope with and overcome dramatic changes, accepting crises as opportunities for positive evolution without losing one’s core identity, encompassing positive thinking, an active role, a sense of control and challenge, feeling heard, and strong social ties; and “empathy,” the ability to share another’s feelings or experiences, arising from a neurophysiological reaction linked to mirror neurons, generating identification and inner transformation.
The project’s methodology rests on two key assumptions. Firstly, CH is not only transformed by society but also transforms societies and individuals in turn, recognising heritage as a dynamic process of cultural production involving various stakeholders. This acknowledges that heritage is constantly reinterpreted and adapted to current needs, highlighting the importance of co-creation in improving social cohesion and strengthening international networks. Secondly, “transformative encounters” with CH trigger personal appropriation and active participation, generating confidence and resilience by increasing understanding, self-esteem, and a sense of control and agency. META-MUSEUM aims to deepen understanding of empathic CH communication to foster this inner, emotional appropriation, increasing self-esteem and confidence, and promoting an understanding of CH’s transformative nature and identification with it. To achieve these objectives, META-MUSEUM will engage in ongoing dialogue with a Lead User Panel (LUP) of CH institution representatives and an Advisory Board (AB) of international experts.
The project’s work is structured around theoretical work (WP2-WP4) and experimental work (WP5-WP8), based on a strong interaction between theory and robust experimentation. Key methodological challenges include a lack of interdisciplinary dialogue among social sciences, CH disciplines, psychological and neurophysiological sciences, and computer sciences; a lack of experimental data on affective responses to CH, and a lack of tools and guidelines for developing empathic cultural experiences. The experimental backbone consists of two phases: “status quo measurements” to establish a baseline of participants’ emotional involvement, confidence, and resilience during typical museum visits and hospital therapies; and “pilot measurements” after implementing Transformative Methodology (TM) solutions, including digital prototypes, physical prototypes, and the “attaCHbox” app, across three settings: museums, hospitals, and hybrid environments (physical spaces combined with social media). The differences between the two measurement phases will inform the development of the TMt.
Implementation challenges include measuring emotional states in cultural experiences, defining confidence from a neuro-psychological perspective, identifying significant parameters for detecting cognitive and emotional responses, conducting experiments in real-world conditions, using indoor location techniques to link neuro-physiological monitoring with spatial position, and intercepting representative user samples from diverse audiences. The project will also focus on integrating technologies to develop the M4 system for Pilot 3, using AI to process and adapt cultural content in real-time based on participant responses. The M4 system will be designed to be technically and socially robust, reliable, and capable of explaining its decision-making processes. The methodology will integrate various theoretical frameworks and analytical techniques, building on previous projects and aligning with relevant EU initiatives and organisations. The project will also consider the social dimensions of CH experiences, exploring how these experiences affect participants’ social circles, and will address gender and diversity issues throughout all project activities, aiming for inclusive cultural content and representative samples. Finally, META-MUSEUM is committed to open science practices, ensuring data is managed inclusively and results are openly accessible, and will address data management and sharing in a dedicated plan.
Outcomes
META-MUSEUM’s pathways to impact are structured around a defined timeframe, focusing on delivering tangible results, outcomes, and long-term impacts.
Expected Results (by project end)
- experimental data and reports on the emotional understanding of CH’s transformative nature, linked to confidence and resilience;
- a final version of the TMt;
- the “attaCHbox” app;
- a fully qualified M4 system;
- a replicable format for a travelling “hybrid event”;
- initial training modules/workshops on TMt skills;
- the concept for a META-MUSEUM Competence Centre; and
- several testable prototypes (digital, co-creative, and museographic) made available to the three associated partner museums.
Expected Outcomes (2-5 years post-project)
- A “Neurometric toolkit alpha version” will be developed for user experience evaluation, accessible to researchers and museum professionals.
- Experimental data and reports will be disseminated through academic channels and public events.
- The TMt will be further refined and taught to cultural professionals and students.
- Prototypes developed for pilot studies will be available for reuse in the partner museums, potentially reaching one million annual visitors and increasing active and empathic participation in CH.
- The “attaCHbox” app will be available online, promoted by partner museums and the Lead User Panel, encouraging co-creation and public understanding of CH transformation.
- The established META-MUSEUM Competence Centre will support further research and experiments, assist museums and stakeholders in implementing TMt-based practices and solutions, and facilitate the export of experiences to other contexts, such as care homes. The Centre will also oversee the continuation of the hybrid event as a recurring, travelling initiative across Europe.
Expected Impacts (6+ years post-project)
The project anticipates several impacts on museums, cultural professionals, citizens, students, policymakers, and researchers.
- Museums are expected to adopt the TMt approach, increasing public engagement and promoting sustainable development.
- Cultural professionals should have deepened their understanding of TMt and moved away from linear communication models, fostering participation and co-creation.
- Citizens are expected to better understand CH’s transformative nature, actively participate in shaping its meaning, and experience increased confidence.
- Students will gain TMt skills, while policymakers will be involved in the hybrid event and interact with the Competence Centre.
- Researchers will benefit from enhanced transdisciplinary collaboration and access to new research avenues.
Scientific Impact
The project aims to generate new knowledge through its transdisciplinary approach, particularly in studying confidence and effective cultural narratives. The research will be disseminated through conferences and publications, reaching a wide academic audience. Collaboration with museum networks will extend the research to diverse CH typologies.
Societal Impact
The TMt and related protocols will promote a new approach to CH communication, leading to new professional skills. Training modules and workshops will be delivered, reaching thousands of cultural professionals and students. The hybrid event will engage a diverse audience, including those not typically involved in museum activities. The “attaCHbox” app will encourage empathic co-creation and enhance understanding of CH’s transformative nature.
Economic/Technological Impact
The M4 system, developed to TRL 9, will be available for purchase or hire by cultural institutions and event organisers. The “Neurometric toolkit beta version” will be promoted to researchers, fostering career development and potentially leading to new research paths. The integration of precision positioning techniques will enable customised services and public behaviour monitoring in museums.
Potential Barriers
The project acknowledges potential barriers such as limited resources in cultural institutions, resistance to change, and public biases against CH. META-MUSEUM will address these through inexpensive and user-friendly products, promotion and communication strategies, and by demonstrating the value of participatory processes and empathic approaches. The project also recognises the importance of policy maker buy-in and seeks to overcome potential local policy changes through the travelling nature of the hybrid event.
