The mystery of origin, the long river of life, the way of evolution, the exploration of the earth, and the ecological Vientiane … … More than 11,000 specimen models from seven continents are displayed in dozens of exhibition areas of Shanghai Natural Museum (Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Branch). Since its opening five years ago, the new museum has held 90,000 educational activities with an audience of 1.52 million, with an average annual passenger flow of more than 2 million. It is one of the most popular natural museums in China.
In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, a digital city is rapidly forming. Wang Xiaoming, director of Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, said that the future development of the venue should be closely integrated with the three keys of big data, sharing and high quality. In the cross-border integration, the knowledge system of the venue should be reconstructed with digital technology, namely, education is being reconstructed, collections are being reborn, research is being reshaped and history is being reproduced. Venues should meet the new development stage with new ideas, new measures, new breakthroughs and new achievements. Seeking the integration of science and technology and culture, and innovating and transforming in exhibition education and academic research, Shanghai Natural Museum has explored a new way for the development of popular science venues in the digital age.
Modern technology empowers "historical reappearance" and "collection rebirth"
Strolling in the Shanghai Museum of Natural History will not only yield a visual feast, but also generate multiple thoughts. Migration, Pursuit and Feeding … … African elephants, lions, giraffes and antelopes vividly reproduce the vibrant African prairie in a 1300-square-meter step-by-step restoration scene. Ultra-clear dynamic images combined with classic hand-painted background paintings tell the story of Yuan Ye, Africa, from dry season to rainy season, from dawn to dusk, which is tragic and warm. "Augmented Reality" technology enables the audience to watch the "resurrection" of Mamen Xilong and Fengshen Pterosaur with their smart phones when they are near the exhibition area, and appreciate their strange pictures "moving" on the mobile terminal. The three extreme environments, the Antarctic, the Arctic and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, are displayed in the same space in the museum. Animals distributed at different altitudes in the Qinling Mountains are vivid on the corresponding branches … …
As for the "elaborate layout" of the museum, Wang Xiaoming is a few treasures. He introduced that it took about eight years before and after the layout planning of the museum. It is one of the important directions of the museum’s continuous reform to bring immersive experience to the audience by using digital technology, and systematically displaying the species of different time and space in the same area will bring intuitive comparison to the audience, which will generate problems and promote the solution of problems. This is a concrete embodiment of the educational process. Wang Xiaoming emphasized: "Every inch of space in the museum should be a space for questioning." Sharks have dominated the ocean for 400 million years, but now they are struggling to survive. What can we do for them? "Giant salamander" is the largest amphibian in the world. It is named because it cries like a doll. Do you know its real name? Small problems like this can be seen everywhere in the Shanghai Museum of Natural History. Museums don’t convey knowledge to visitors in a boring way. Such blank space and questions bring the audience space for thinking.
"Relying on digital technology, science and art should be linked in museums. All layout and planning are based on ingenious ideas, which is not only a unique manifestation of the original concepts and models of each museum, but also gives the audience different dimensions of thinking." Wang Xiaoming said.
Integrating Cross-border and Constructing Popular Science Education Cluster
It is not confined to the space of the museum. The Shanghai Museum of Natural History also uses games, movies, popular science forums and other modes to build a bridge between knowledge resources and the general public, and is committed to bringing together the originally separated educational space and audience groups, which not only changes the "flow" into "reserve", but also further extends the educational significance of the museum.
It is reported that Shanghai Natural Museum and Polk City jointly developed a popular science game — — "jigsaw puzzle bird-hunting tour" This game selects bird photography works from 21 countries, adopts creative production of digital culture, presents bird popular science knowledge in a gamification way by means of puzzles, knowledge contests and stories, and combines fun with bird popular science knowledge, thus achieving the effect of scientific communication by using fragmented time. The new popular science media product "Fingertip MuseuM" jointly produced by the Documentary Center of Shanghai Radio and Television Station and Shanghai Natural Museum allows viewers to find it on WeChat WeChat official account, Video No.,Tik Tok and other platforms with just a click of their mobile phones, and simultaneously open the "Cloud Visit Museum". In addition, the popular science films jointly produced by Shanghai Natural Museum and SMG are also continuously exported, and have received good response in many countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. Wang Xiaoming said that the meaning of films and games lies in breaking the specific time and space scenes of learning, overthrowing the barriers of school education and museum education, and conveying the concept of lifelong learning.
In addition to the transmission of popular science games and works, in order to promote the exchange of museum resources around the world and revitalize the popular science resources in the Yangtze River Delta, in 2018, eight popular science venues in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui initiated and established the "Yangtze River Delta Popular Science Venue Alliance". Wang Xiaoming said that this alliance means the sharing of human resources and expert resources, and the systematic integration of popular science resources will also bring richer knowledge dissemination to the audience. At the same time, Shanghai’s high-quality popular science resources are gradually radiating to the western region. In October, 2020, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, together with Xizang Natural History Museum and Xinjiang Science and Technology Museum, jointly held the series of "Going into the West" of Shanghai Popular Science Forum and the first broadcast lecture in Shanghai, Tibet and Xinjiang, which once again successfully transported popular science lectures to the western region and made contributions to improving the scientific literacy of young people in Xizang and Xinjiang.
Wang Xiaoming emphasized that the public welfare of the museum has always been in a priority position, and the first function of the museum is education. In the digital transformation of the city, the museum should not lag behind. In the future, in the museum, we should rely on AI, digitalization and other technologies to make "history reappear" and "collections reborn", so that the audience can gain new knowledge and start thinking in the immersive experience and exquisite layout; Outside the museum, it is necessary to "open the roof of the museum", reconstruct the inherent education system, truly share resources, and make the dissemination of knowledge more fair, which coincides with the theme of the 2021 International Museum Day "The Future of Museums: Restoration and Reconstruction".
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