Sometimes you have to reach beyond the standard means of presentation to reach different people. That's exactly what the Jewish Museum in New York realized. They wanted to highlight some ancient manuscripts and decided to go high tech and reached out to Morpholio to create an application for displaying the documents on the iPad.
Morpholio created an app to give the museum a “way to experience a thousand-year-old book.” The museum needed this to be able to handle “visitor involvement, spatial limitations, and experiential necessities.” White iPads were then incorporated into the Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries exhibit, with the highlight being the 922-page Kennicott Bible. The app not only helps visitors discover the documents, it also helps the museum track and record the interaction to help the curatorial team.
“The iPad applications enrich our exhibition exponentially.” Says Rebecca Pristoop, former assistant curator at the Jewish Museum and “offer our visitors an amazing entryway into the visual depths of these precious treasures.”
Using the technology behind the iPad provides an interesting way to learn and perhaps reaches out to more people than a standard exhibit would have. I can remember a board game we played when I was growing up called Masterpiece. The game was a way to trade and appreciate classic paintings, including works by Van Gogh and Picasso. That was my introduction to great art, and I probably remember it far beyond what I would have had I learned about it in a standard art exhibit.
Morpholio is now talking with other museums and art galleries with the hopes of creating more custom versions of the app they developed for the Jewish Museum. The apps will include “a customizable interface, web-based file organization and deployment to devices, and security options.”
The Jewish Museum will feature Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries until February 3, 2013.
Photo Courtesy of Morpholio