Research has shown that chatbots can support visitors by allowing them to ask uncomfortable questions and feel more willing to engage than with a human guide (Bickmore et al., 2013; Nelson et al., 2017). Museum visitors may perceive chatbots as both valuable and risky for museum experiences due to their potential to (de)humanise experiences with heritage and cultivate an (in)authentic experience with heritage (Kist & Moshfeghi, forthcoming). The ability of chatbots to humanise heritage and create a sense of authenticity can potentially support visitors’ empathetic learning. 

As such, this PhD aims to further investigate how chatbots could affectively support such empathetic experiences to enable critical understandings of difficult heritage. This research project unpicks further whether and how chatbots should be designed for engaging with difficult heritage through art. This PhD research is one track of a larger research programme aimed at understanding the relation between the design of chatbots and learning experiences with heritage across CH (art gallery, library, archive, museum) contexts. Art galleries are an excellent context for this research as they are vibrant creative spaces for testing new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), for interpreting art and heritage – recent examples include the virtual holograms of Salvador Dali (Salvador Dalí Museum, 2019) and Van Gogh (Musée d’Orsay, n.d.).  

Art galleries are also places where multiple truths can be revealed through creativity, and digital can further mediate this truth – prompting important reflection on topics such as conflict/war, colonisation, and lived experiences of trauma. Previous research has also demonstrated the range of questions visitors pose towards art, further highlighting a range of curiosity that could be fulfilled by chatbot initiatives (Schaffer et al., 2022). The findings of this research will guide professionals (museum staff & industry partners) in designing chatbots to engage visitors with difficult heritage topics and advance social equality and inclusivity by supporting educational initiatives.

What are the aims and objectives of the project? 

This funded PhD aims to bridge computer science and digital cultural heritage to inform the design of chatbots (through frameworks/design ‘sensibilities’) for engaging audiences with difficult heritage in art galleries.

The objectives of the project are as follows: 

• identify how conversational agents have been used to engage visitors with difficult heritage in art galleries
• understand the impact/implications of these designs for visitor engagement
• based on stages 1-2: produce and trial a prototyped chatbot for engaging audiences with difficult heritage through art
• based on stages 1-3: produce principles for guiding the design of chatbots for engaging audiences with difficult heritage through art

Why iSchool/CIS/Strathclyde/Glasgow? 

As part of a passionate research group (the iSchool) consisting of staff, PhD students, and post-docs who investigate a range of exciting topics – you will be in a supportive environment and exposed to a range of ideas and methods for developing your own research and transferable skills. You will have access to a wide range of university-level and departmental-level training, support, and resources: The PGCert in Researcher Professional Development run by the university covers a range of foundational research(er) skills and attributes, the researcher development programme helps students create a tailored development plan, and the doctoral research group can help early career researchers to develop their leadership and teamwork skills/experience. Departmentally, support, feedback and training are offered informally through regular information behaviour meetings and iSchool meetings, and research seminars.

References

Bickmore, T. W., Vardoulakis, L. M. P., & Schulman, D. (2013). Tinker: A relational agent museum guide. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 27(2), 254–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-012-9216-7 
Kist, C. and Moshfeghi (forthcoming) Designing chatbots for informal learning in museums.
Kist, C. (2024). Discursive AI Infrastructures: Envisioned and Overlooked Museum Futures. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Putting People First: Respnsibility, Reciprocity, and Care in Information Research and Practice, Alberta, Canada. 92024https://www.asist.org/am24/2024-annual-meeting-papers/ 
Kist C. (forthcoming). Chapter 6: Sociotechnical imaginaries of the museum: conversational agents and visitor engagement, in ed. Quoc-tan T., Gertruad K., and Olsen A., Digital Futures in the Making: Imaginaries, Materialities, and Politics. 
Musée d’Orsay. (n.d.). Digital technology· Hello Vincent | Musée d’Orsay. Retrieved 29 April 2024, from https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/articles/digital-technology-hello-vincent-275618 
Nelson, B. C., Bowman, C., & Bowman, J. (2017). Designing for Data with Ask Dr. Discovery: Design Approaches for Facilitating Museum Evaluation with Real-Time Data Mining. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 22(3), 427–442. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9313-4 
Salvador Dalí Museum. (2019). Dalí Lives: Museum Brings Artist Back to Life with AI. Salvador Dalí Museum. https://thedali.org/press-room/dali-lives-museum-brings-artists-back-to-life-with-ai/ 
Schaffer, S., Ruß, A., Sasse, M. L., Schubotz, L., & Gustke, O. (2022). Questions and Answers: Important Steps to Let AI Chatbots Answer Questions in the Museum. In M. Wölfel, J. Bernhardt, & S. Thiel (Eds.), ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation (pp. 346–358). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95531-1_24