Ahead of its 2021 reopening, the museum has outlined a multiplatform model powered by a new experience operating system.
This will set the museum apart and establish ACMI, Australia’s national museum of screen culture, as one of the most innovative and digitally transformed museums in the world.
Conceptualised by ACMI Director & CEO Katrina Sedgwick OAM in 2015, the new model is designed to offer visitors a highly accessible and more multifaceted contemporary experience.
Sedgwick said the new ACMI offers people options for engagement: at home, on their devices and at the museum itself. “We are launching a new brand identity and entirely new online presence, inviting people to visit our museum no matter where they are in the world. In the same way we curate and design exhibitions and programmes for the physical museum, we have been developing them specifically for online across the breadth of screen culture, film, TV, videogames and art.
“We often consume the same stories via different platforms; we might read the comic book then watch the film adaptation and later play the video game. Each platform brings out something new in the story. We have taken this concept of multiplatform storytelling and applied it to our museum”, said Sedgwick.
She added that COVID-19 had slowed the physical transformation of the museum, but it also presented an opportunity to accelerate our digital expansion.
ACMI’s Chief Experience Officer Seb Chan and the ACMI team took Sedgwick’s vision and designed museum-wide technology to integrate visitor experiences across every platform, before, during and after a museum visit.
The XOS is at the core of ACMI’s digital infrastructure and will also power the Lens, a handheld device used by visitors to tap and collect objects of interest throughout the museum and later explore on any device, anywhere in the world.
A taste of this curated content is now available, with the museum launching The Story of the Moving Image – a rich, online extension of the new 1,600 sq m year-round exhibition that will be on display when audiences can visit the museum in the new year.
In addition to The Story of the Moving Image, a new online art gallery and cinema have also been announced, alongside a suite of new education resources and public programmes.