‘Smart Museum’ in China: from technology labs to sustainable knowledgescapes

Abstract

Abstract Technology has played an instrumental role as a catalyst for museum digitization. Museums are enhancing their methods of management, interpretation, and representation with digitalization, networking, and intelligentization, suggesting a move toward seamless integration, presentation, and delivery of cultural heritage resources. China’s Smart Museum Project, launched in 2014, does not foster digital museums or virtual museums but a new kind of museum composed of dynamic perceptual systems for and between people (online and offline visitors, museum staff, and board) and objects (artifacts, storage areas, galleries, and facilities) through new technologies, including cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. This article advocates the kind of museum digitization seen in the Smart Museum Project, which promotes a digital museum-based paradigm that integrates new technologies with comprehensive perception, ubiquitous interconnection, and syncretic applications. Here, we provide historical context for its development and its impact on museum activities, with further elaboration on the definition, connotation, framework, and outreach of the smart museum. We believe that museums should embrace digital opportunities to evolve from a computer-based technology lab to sustainable, synergistic, and smart knowledgescapes.