ZKM Karlsruhe: AI paves the way to the intelligent museum

The transition of the arts into the digital age was already included in the remit of the ZKM I Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe firmly anchored. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the digitalization of media art since March 2020. Now the ZKM wants to continue along the path it has taken and work flat out to develop models for an intelligent museum in 2021.

“The idea itself is not new. But thanks to developments in the field of artificial intelligence, further innovative exhibition formats can now be put into practice,” says Ludger Brümmer, Head of the Hertz Lab at the ZKM. In order to gain new impetus, the ZKM and the Deutsches Museum in Munich now want to bring in guest artists to develop creative concepts. Interested parties with knowledge in the fields of AI and machine learning can apply for a three-month scholarship until February 28. From June to August 2021, the guest artists will then be responsible for their projects in the Hertz Lab. The funding of the guest artists is part of a three-year process to explore future concepts for the museum landscape.

AI supports museums with design and communication

“New technologies offer numerous possibilities, especially when it comes to communicating with museum guests,” says Brümmer.

For example, visitors could indicate their native language at the entrance to a museum. All information about the artworks could then be automatically shown on digital displays in the respective language of choice via facial recognition. By using intelligent recognition software, cultural institutions can also draw conclusions about the behavior of visitors. “Then you know exactly which people spend how long in front of the individual works,” says Brümmer. However, AI can unfold its greatest potential in the conception of new works of art. The “Open Codes” exhibition, for example, was already a large real-world laboratory for exploring how visitors interact with the artworks. According to Brümmer, the path taken with “Open Codes”, namely the further development of a museum from a pure art space to a place to linger, work and communicate, will definitely be continued with the “Intelligent Museum”.

Analog museums still have a right to exist

According to Brümmer, there will be no complete shift of museums to virtual worlds in the future, despite the increasing digitalization of society. “Exhibitions and installations will remain the soul of museums and cannot be replaced by the preparation of artworks for the Internet in the future. However, technology will not stop at classic art museums,” says Brümmer. Thanks to its great expertise in the field of modern media art, the ZKM sees itself as a trendsetter for forward-looking hybrid exhibition concepts.

Hybrid museums must be wanted and supported by politicians, demanded ZKM Director Peter Weibel at an impulse conference on the topic of “The museum of the future is no longer a museum” with several high-ranking museum directors. After all, a higher staffing budget is needed to run analog and virtual spaces at the same time and this is not feasible without state funding. However, like Brümmer, Weibel rejects the complete transfer of content to the internet. “A museum is not just a collection of objects. It is also a gathering of people”. A real museum community has formed around the free permanent exhibition “Open Codes”. “Because there was no admission charge, people kept coming back,” says Weibel. “Once admission is charged, it’s mainly one-time visitors who only come to see part of the exhibition.”