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Mattress Factory Museum
Contact: Jeffrey Inscho, +1 412.417.2144, www.mattress.org
Mattress Factory Blurs Boundaries by Using Technology to Connect with Visitors
Synopsis
Less paper, more interaction! Currently, the Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary installation art located in Pittsburgh's North Side, is experimenting with three unique technology initiatives designed to deepen visitors' experiences. From accessing information through 3G mobile phones to uploading your very own response videos to the web, visitors to the Mattress Factory are encouraged to explore their experience in a very tech-savvy way.
Overview
Less paper, more interaction! The Mattress Factory, a museum located in Pittsburgh's North Side, is experimenting with three technology initiatives designed to deepen visitors' experiences.
"Artistically, the Mattress Factory has been exploring the intersection of art and technology for quite some time," says Jeffrey Inscho, who oversees Audience Engagement programs for the museum. "We feel the natural next step is to transfer that technological curiosity to the visitor and invite them to participate with it during their MF experience."
To reduce the quantity of printed gallery guides, The Mattress Factory has introduced QR or "Quick Response" codes to relay information to visitors in a paperless way. Easily accessed in seconds from 3G mobile phones, these codes allow viewers to access an array of information from videos of the artists to short text messages about the pieces they represent.
Secondly, through a partnership with BrightKite, a location-based social network, and Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, the Mattress Factory has introduced SCREENtxt, a way for visitors to communicate with each other in a backchannel about the artwork at the museum. It can be viewed on-location at the museum, as well as online through a portal on the Mattress Factory's blog.
MF iConfess is the third project that allows visitors to record and upload their thoughts and answers to questions such as, "What does the Mattress Factory mean to you?" These responses are uploaded directly to a YouTube channel created for the project.
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