~Digitising information stored in museums enables it to remain accessible to future generations.
Museums are the guardians of human history and culture, promoting learning and research in society. Goa is home to several museums that are keepers of its vibrant heritage, carefully curated and documented to give visitors in-depth educational and research-oriented insights. Some of these museums have ensured that they have adapted to the current digital age, by implementing technological interventions and presenting their daily operations in interactive and immersive formats to encourage education and research.
The ‘Aguad Interactive Museum: Goa – The Land, The Struggle, The People,’ located in the Sinquerim-based Aguad Port and Jail Complex, is Goa’s first interactive digital museum. Paving a path for creating immersive experiences via console kiosks equipped with joysticks, buttons, touchscreens, wall projections and interactive photo booths, the Interactive Museum ensures that visitors’ experiences are educational yet entertaining.
“By digitising information on Goa’s history, culture and heritage, the ‘Aguad Interactive Museum – Goa: The Land, The Struggle, The People’ has rendered accessible to the public an intense subject like History. Organising the information into engaging and immersive packets in English and Hindi with audio-visual media accompaniments enables visitors of all age groups to enjoy their learning experience at the Interactive Museum,” said Naveen Chopra, Group CEO of Waterfront Experiences, the organisation that handles the maintenance of the Aguad Port and Jail Complex.
According to Chopra, implementing interactive games and puzzle experiences to reveal information further enhances the art of storytelling for children and adults. The mechanisms present in the consoles are also easy to use and predominantly tactile, enabling visitors to control the pace of the information presented. A notable exhibit is the ‘Story Machine’, which generates an information slip at the press of a button, leaving visitors with a tangible memento of their visit.
Similarly, the Museum of Goa (MOG), located in the Pilerne Industrial Estate, utilises innovative pedagogy to merge traditional and contemporary storytelling formats and make art accessible to all. Renowned artist Dr Subodh Kerkar, who founded MOG in 2015, stated that MOG fosters the spirit of education and research through “traditional guided tours for visitors and an amalgam of traditional and digital storytelling through the MOG Sundays sessions, which enable creative experts to engage with large audiences through workshops, film screenings, panel discussions, lectures and audio-visual presentations.”
Sharada Kerkar, operational head at MOG and co-founder of Children’s Art Studio at MOG, added that “MOG interacts with a 21,000-plus audience through its Instagram handle via programmes like ‘Artist Diaries’ to educate people about an artist and ‘MOG Spotlight’ where a museum educator shares their interpretation of an artwork in the museum.”
The Museum of Christian Art (MoCA), located in the 17th-century Convent of Santa Monica, Old Goa in South Goa, showcases almost 500 years of Indian artistry and craftsmanship with multicultural influences and has adapted itself digitally to host virtual exhibitions, maintain digital archives, conduct online education and outreach and also have social media engagement.
“The preservation of artworks in high resolution in digital archives ensures their accessibility to future generations. We also offer online courses, workshops and educational resources. Since 2021, MoCA has been facilitating Heritage Hour sessions both online and at the museum, where various guest speakers and field experts explore such themes,” stated Natasha Fernandes, curator, MoCA.
Ancestral Goa, known as the Big Foot Museum, located in Loutolim, South Goa, is a mock-up of a Goan village that traces over 100 years of Goa’s heritage and has infused technology into the exhibits to ensure information is accessible to all visitors. “A sound system present across the Museum explains the artefacts as you walk past them, accompanied by music to enhance the experience. Our ticketing system has also been digitalised,” said artist Maendra Jocelino Araujo Alvares, founder, Ancestral Goa.
Victor Hugo Gomes, founder, Goa Chitra Museum, which is a conglomerate of three museums that focus on Goa’s ethnography through relics, and written, oral history stated that “museums are laboratories of culture where people come to study and learn about a certain subject from the past; hence, digitising the knowledge archive for future reference is of utmost importance.”
Victor Hugo Gomes, founder, Goa Chitra Museum, which is a conglomerate of three museums that focus on Goa’s ethnography through relics, and written, oral history stated that “museums are laboratories of culture where people come to study and learn about a certain subject from the past; hence, digitising the knowledge archive for future reference is of utmost importance.”
