Humans versus machines: Who is the better museum mediator?
Why this panel? - A bit of context
The session at the ECSITE Conference 2018 was set up by the two organisations, mediamus and Cultural Mediation Switzerland. mediamus is the Swiss Association of professionals in the educational field of museums. It has 300 members and establishes professional standards, organizes specific trainings as well as opportunities for exchange and debates like, for instance, this session. mediamus also collaborates very closely with similar organisations such as Cultural Mediation Switzerland. Cultural Mediation Switzerland has 64, mostly institutional members and is working in an interdisciplinary way (meaning not only in museums but also for artistic domains as theatre, dance, literature etc.). It mainly concentrates on networking, and lobbying on a national level. But it also realises own projects such as conferences or publications on topics of a broad interest for its network and interested public.
About one and a half years ago, mediamus as well as Cultural Mediation Switzerland decided to emphasize to topic of digitalisation in the context of cultural mediation. Not because their members were specifically computer nerds. On the contrary, museum and cultural mediators often have a creative, artistic or educational background and are looking for opportunities in order to strengthen their knowhow and skills in this field. Cultural Mediation Switzerland and mediamus decided together to open spaces for discussion and sharing of knowhow in various formats.
When cultural mediators talk about Artificial Intelligence
Machines and Artificial Intelligence are about to find their way to about every sector in the private as well as to the public domain. And it is also applied more and more to cultural projects and in museums, possibly leading to a profound transformation of the profession of museum educators and mediators. AI can enrich human learning processes in museums, enabling the audience to participate and create new content as well as to live absolutely amazing experiences. At the same time can be considered as a threat to traditional jobs and not appropriated to treat delicate subjects or to replace human interaction.The two organisations took the opportunity at the Ecsite Conference to discuss the subject in a broader context in order to reflect about new opportunities for cultural mediators and to develop a coherent attitude towards it.
Read here the entire article talking about AI and the new professional profile of the "Communicator" in the MfK, including the presentation and the results of the workshop
