Decoding Artifacts for the Museum Viewer: Case Study of a Virtue from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the Nasher Museum of Art

Decoding Artifacts is a project that explores the ways in which technologies and interactive media enhance the museum visitor’s learning experience with art. The digital components of the project include a website and a mobile application, both hosting historical content, educational videos, images, 3D models, and an augmented reality experience. These virtual tools offer information to the viewer beyond the museum label, and aim to create a multi-sensory learning environment through an interactive dialogue between the public and the work of art. The thesis paper discusses how and why art museums are adapting to modern technological trends and the affordances of digital tools in museum education and outreach. The Decoding Artifacts project will use the example of medieval sculpture and the process of stone carving as case studies which discuss and demonstrate the effectiveness of virtual technologies in museum experiences.