SMK Expo for SMK

Here is the front page of SMK Expo, where the user is encouraged to explore SMKs online collection. The digital design is kept in line with SMK’s current visual identity.

Sharing exhibitions with other users: In addition to creating own exhibitions, the user can also explore other users’ exhibitions.

Exhibition templates from SMK: When creating an exhibition, you must choose which exhibition room the exhibition will be shown in.

Virtual 3D exhibitions: You move around the room using the arrow keys (in this case the user has created an exhibition named “Greed”.

When viewing an exhibition, you have the option to click on information buttons that display customized descriptions.

SMK is the largest art museum in Denmark and in 2019, a new online collection was launched under the name SMK Open. This project focuses on how SMK can engage users in their online collection by expanding the concept SMK Open. The collection can become more than just a static archive of our cultural heritage. SMK Open has the potential to offer an interactive and engaging space for users, where they are involved and encouraged to explore art.

I carried out a series of semi-structured interviews with people in the target group. Among other things I got the insight from the interviews that SMK can benefit from adapting exhibitions more to the individual.

Imagine being a curator on a museum for a day. What would you exhibit at your personal exhibition? This imaginative picture was what led me to develop the final concept: SMK Expo.

SMK Expo is a website that allows users to create exhibitions with works from SMK Open, which they can curate themselves. The subject of the exhibition is optional – the only restriction is that works are chosen from SMK’s current online collection. Users themselves have the opportunity to add titles and descriptions of the individual works. Once a number of works have been selected and described, they will be presented in a virtual 3D exhibition. SMK Expo also provides the opportunity to view other users’ exhibitions.

Selected advantages of the solution:

• Activation of the user: SMK Expo can be used as an activating and immersive tool for teaching, but can also be used as a creative tool by other art enthusiasts.
• Use of new technology: The solution can be expanded and connected to technology such as virtual reality.
• Promotion of SMK: SMK Expo conveys knowledge about SMK’s exhibition rooms and digital collection. The tool also allows for the sharing of material on social media.
• Data: The solution gives SMK knowledge about the users’ fields of interest in relation to exhibitions.