EUREGIO KARELIA: MUSEUM HYPERTEXT project
KA426
FINAL REPORT
Lead Partner:
Partners in the Action:
Implementation period of the Contract:
Creative Industries and Cultural Tourism
Development Fund
Center of Cultural Initiatives
National Museum of the Republic of Karelia
Regional museum of Northern Priladozhye
Medvezhyegorsk regional museum
Cultural museum center (Kostomuksha)
North Karelian Museum/City of Joensuu
Karelia Expert Tourist Service Ltd
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia
Ilomantsi Museum Foundation
12.01.2013 - 31.12.2014
Summary
The project was completed according to the schedule. During the project period from January
2013 to December 2014 all planned activities were finalized.
The Opening Karelia workshop gave start to the project. It was a get-together activity that was
aimed to introduce partners to each other, discuss work to be done and start the cooperation.
The project team arranged and held six experts’ sessions in each participating partner museum.
Together with the museums’ staff they discussed the development strategies for the museums,
analyzed and selected the main exhibits that could be used as hyperlinks when creating museum
hypertext exhibitions. Requirements for the content for the new exhibitions and the Open Karelia
system were also elaborated during the sessions.
The results of the experts’ sessions gave ground to the development concepts and exhibition
scenarios for the museums in Kostomuksha, Sortavala and Medvezhyegorsk.
One of the most significant results of the project is the Open Karelia information system. It’s a
museum that is always with you. Open Karelia is a virtual guide on the Euregio Karelia region
that puts together and presents the museums’ collections and exhibits, cultural heritage,
traditions, historical facts about the Russian and Finnish Karelia. Every participating museum
placed QR codes in their exhibitions that lead you to the Open Karelia system. The partner
museums were provided with tablet computers and touch screens for the visitors to use this new
information resource. The North Karelian Museum created a Virtual Sortavala website that
introduced life in the city of Sortavala in the 20th century and draws information from the Open
Karelia system. This website was made with the help of the project partners. The National
Museum of the Republic of Karelia used the Open Karelia system to develop an audio guide for
the visually impaired people. Quest games on museum exhibitions were also developed based on
the Open Karelia system. They have different difficulty levels and are aimed at different age
groups. All games are only tools. Computer programs were developed so that the museum
workers can create and change content and scenarios of the games themselves depending on
possibilities of this or that museum and the needs of the visitors.
The primary content for the Open Karelia system was created, translated into the Russian,
Finnish and English languages and fed to the system. The museum workers are constantly adding
new information.
A lot of video materials that was provided by the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia
was digitalized and entered into the Open Karelia system. The system also contains audio
materials provided by the Petrozavodsk State Conservatory which were gathered during folk and
ethnographical expeditions.
A lot of audio and multimedia materials were created during the project which was also used in
the new museum exhibitions and in the Open Karelia system.
Upgrading exhibitions in participating museums is another important achievement of the project.
In September - October 2013 a closed competition for exhibition designs was held. Participating
designers suggested their solutions for the three Karelian museums in Medvezhyegorsk,
Sortavala and Kostomuksha. Renovation works had been carried out in these museums prior to
the installation of the new exhibitions. Modern information and multimedia technologies are
widely used.
A new permanent exhibition "Sortavala Stone Keys" was created in the Regional museum of
North Ladoga in Sortavala. It features stones typical for this area like granites and marbles and
tells about different ways of mining and processing. The exhibition also introduces the city of
Sortavala with its history, architecture and culture.
The first permanent exhibition "Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace" was opened in the
Cultural and museum center of Kostomuksha. This exhibition is devoted to the today’s life of the
young city and the history of the construction of the mining plant and the city which was built in
the 1970-1980s by joint efforts of the Soviet Union and Finland.
The third exhibition "Zaonezhsky Junction" was opened in the Medvezhyegorsk regional
museum. It resembles a portal that introduces visitors to the history and culture of the
Medvezhyegorsk region. The project also gave start to the renovations and upgrading of all
exhibition halls in the museum which began in 2014 with support from the Ministry of culture of
the Republic of Karelia.
Outdoor sites with WWII cultural heritage objects in the fortified region area in Medvezhyegorsk
were partly improved and provided with information stands and signs. The development actions
for the Fighter's House in Hattuvaara, Finland, which was built on authentic fighting grounds of
the Finnish Continuation War, concerned creating new visual and audio content and exhibitions,
designing and producing of permanent information points for outdoor exhibitions, points of
interest and war history objects of the Fighter´s House, the Fighter’s Trail and Palovaara
Memorial site based on hypertext principles in Finnish, Russian and English.
In the course of the project an exhibition in the Fighter's House. Particularly, the museum staff
improved an outdoor exhibition of artillery weapons with an information stand that includes
photographs and battle maps, sounds of battles and QR codes.
A series of trips were undertaken by photographer Anastasia Khoroshilova and media artist
Jaakko Heikkilä to take photos of local people living in Karelia on both sides of the border. As a
result, an exhibition "Destination - Karelia" was created and displayed in Moscow, St.Petersburg,
Joensuu and Petrozavodsk. An exhibition catalog was released. Aside from the project the artists
published a 168-page book called Karelia of anthropology, family stories, and thoughts of past
and today.
The Russian-Finnish symposium "Horizons of the Euregio Karelia region. Museums 3.0." was
held to present the first-year result of the project.
Information booklets and souvenir products featuring the Open Karelia system and the
participating museums were produced.
A series of educational events were organized for the participating museums including hands-on
trainings on the Open Karelia system and seminars on museum pedagogy, communications and
marketing. In December 2014 a final tour to the partner museums was organized to see the
project’s results. It was completed with a final press conference in Petrozavodsk with
participation of the representatives from other projects, local media and authorities.
Project activities and results
ACTIVITY 1. LAUNCHING DAYS. BUILDING TEAMS OF EXPERTS
The project started on January 12, 2013 after the contract for the implementation of the project
was signed.
To facilitate the implementation of the project several teams were established, namely:
- a team of project experts;
- a team of Russian designers specializing in museum exhibitions, information environments and
web design;
- a team of Russian and Finnish engineers and technicians specializing in museum multimedia
and IT technologies.
In order to provide up-to-date information and news about the project two Facebook tools were
used: a community "Museum Hypertext - Euregio Karelia" was created at
www.facebook.com/museumhypertext to publish the basic information and a project's group was
created at http://www.facebook.com/groups/423484411078214/ for the instant feedback and
discussions.
A website for the project was created in April 2013 at http://project.museumhypertext.com with
information about the project, its participants and the key activities as well as the project's news,
photographs and documents from the implemented activities.
ACTIVITY 2. HOLDING AN OPENING KARELIA WORKSHOP
On March 20-22, 2013 an Opening Karelia workshop was held in Petrozavodsk as a kick-off
project event at the Onego Palace hotel. Among the participants were the project partners and
associate partners, researchers, IT experts, and designers. The workshop was conducted by Denis
Kuznetsov, co-manager of the project. Art critic Georgy Nikich (Moscow), museum expert
Nickolai Nikishin (Moscow) and Helena Lonkila from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland were
invited as experts. A three-day workshop program was very intense with several experts'
presentations, museums' introductions, work groups sessions, discussions, game sessions and a
visit to the National Museum of Karelia.
The first day of the workshop was devoted to broadening views on the Euregio Karelia region,
its outer and inner, state, administrative and other borders. The round table "Euregio Karelia:
positions, perspectives, introductions" gave start to the workshop. Experts from different fields
made their presentations and speeches on the following topics:
- "Karelia as an example of creating and projecting meanings" by Ilya Solomeshch, Ph.D. in
History, associate professor of the Department of history of countries of Northern Europe, head
of the Laboratory on the problems of the Scandinavian countries and Finland
During the presentation Karelia was introduced as a notion. Mr. Solomeshch explained how
different groups of people view Karelia and what meanings it has in terms of territories, people,
brands, and history.
- "Experiencing Karelianism" by Helena Lonkila, University of Jyvaskyla, Department of art and
culture studies
During the presentation Karelia was taken down to different meanings as something basic, as
points of entry, and as a reason to start thinking about the place of a human in the nature, about
the tight interaction between a human and nature, about the Karelia region as a unique and
valuable place and about the need to preserve the traditional culture.
- “Traveling between Russia and Finland: expectations and preferences of tourists” by Natalia
Aluferova, director of Around.ru travel company (Petrozavodsk).
The workshop proceeded with the group work on the following topics: Brands of the Euregio
Karelia region, Natural and geographical characteristics, Cultural landscape (ethnocultural
characteristics) and Historical destinies.
The task for Day 2 was to transfer the idea of hypertext from the regional level to particular
museums and their information environment created with exhibitions by:
- giving the description of the current exhibition of any participating museum not as the only
possible message to the visitors on the suggested theme but as a hypertext that allows the visitors
to read (identity, form) their own custom texts that carry various meanings;
- identifying available (and missing but necessary) hypertext elements in the system of
traditional museum exhibition such as interfaces, hyperlinks, information carriers, contexts,
meanings.
Later in the day the workshop participants visited the National Museum of the Republic of
Karelia to see the permanent exhibition and continue group work on the following themes:
- Transport routes of Karelia on both sides of the border:
- War history;
- Stone, mining, architecture;
- Ethnography and folklore.
Day 3 was devoted to revising current and preparing the terms of references for developing new
methods, instruments and technologies for creating an information environment of the Euregio
Karelia region as museum hypertext. The concept of the Opening Karelia game to be developed
in the project was also discussed.
Based on the work done during the workshop the participants suggested the following
requirements to the information system:
- Behavior patterns of museum visitors and their locations should be taken into account;
- The level of personalization should be quite high;
- The system should be module-based;
- The system should be open;
- The system should have a possibility for other museums to join;
- Integration with social networks in the internet should be provided.
The system should provide access to a maximum number of gadgets like touch screens,
information kiosks, personal computers, mobile devices. Internet access should be a must. QR
codes and other markers such as NFC (near field communication), geo tracking, images, etc. are
preferable for using as markers. Light and sound installations, projectors, chargers for mobile
gadgets are also advisable. Augmented reality technology is suggested as a separate module.
The participants also prepared a set of requirements for the game:
- The game should be quest-based (a tour of exhibitions and museums);
- The game should virtually connect museums that are located relatively far away from each
other. The game is a sort of a portal to the museums. Therefore the game should have a common
concept and a style and, preferably, characters (same characters in all museums or each museum
has its own character);
- The game should have different levels of complexity that determine formats and possibilities
for choosing a route;
- Meanwhile the game should be easy-to-use and limited in technical means and information.
The players should get familiar with the game on their own and they should instinctively
understand it;
- The game should be diverse with questions, puzzles, tasks, quests and possess interactive and
tactile features;
- The reached goal of the game can be awarded with a prize, an award, a diploma, etc.
The game can be simple, i.e. targeted at getting acquainted with a particular museum in the form
of a quest/quiz/journey and being played by a visitor on his/her own. The game can go on and be
extended with visits to several museums or become more complicated when going from one
level to another.
The results of the workshop are:
During the workshop partnerships were established between the following museums:
- Regional museum of Northern Priladozhye, Sortavala and North Karelian Museum, Joensuu;
- Medvezhyegorsk regional museum and Joensuu bunkermuseum - Fighter's House, Ilomantsi;
- Cultural museum center, Kostomuksha and Outokumpu Mining Museum;
- National museum of the Republic of Karelia, North Karelian Museum and Regional museum of
Northern Priladozhye;
In the course of the workshop a whole range of issues was discussed, namely:
- general vision of the basic parameters of description and presentation of the Euregio Karelia
region as a multicultural, natural and historic phenomenon;
- the museum hypertext as a new approach to creating modern exhibitions;
- design solutions for new exhibitions in participating museums;
- resources of modern information technologies for the open museum information system;
- possible types and scenarios of the game for the museum visitors;
- principles for selecting the content for the museum information system.
Besides, an action plan was confirmed with experts and museums' representatives for the coming
months, in particular the experts’ sessions in the participating museums.
Quantitative results of the workshop:
- 68 participants;
- 1 round table "Euregio Karelia: positions, perspectives, introductions";
- 6 presentations by experts;
- 10 presentations by participating museums;
- 4 group work sessions with presentations of results;
- 1 visit to the National museum of the Republic of Karelia;
- 1 game session.
ACTIVITY 3. ELABORATING OR UPDATING DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS AND
EXHIBITION SCENARIOS FOR MUSEUMS
Prior to the experts' sessions all museums received questions to work through connected with
preparation of materials for the development concepts for each museum (SWOT analysis) and a
table (matrix) to fill in that reflects the materials that the museum possesses and that are located
in the region that will be presented in the museum information system.
(the following information is originally presented in the table format)
- Immovable objects of heritage: Ethnography and folklore 5, Stone, architecture 5, War 5,
Transport routes 5, Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 5;
- Exhibits: Ethnography and folklore 10, Stone, architecture 10, War 10, Transport routes 10,
Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 10;
- Personalities: Ethnography and folklore 5, Stone, architecture 5, War 5, Transport routes 5,
Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 5;
- Audio- and visual materials: Ethnography and folklore 5, Stone, architecture 5, War 5,
Transport routes 5, Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 5;
- Articles published in the web: Ethnography and folklore 5, Stone, architecture 5, War 5,
Transport routes 5, Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 5;
- Photographs, illustrations, documents: Ethnography and folklore 10, Stone, architecture 10,
War 10, Transport routes 10, Place of birth/ deposits (metallurgy, etc.) 10;
where Ethnography and folklore, Stone, architecture, War, Transport routes and Place of birth/
deposits (metallurgy, etc.) are theme/types of material.
- Immovable objects, photographs + description;
- Exhibits - dimensional (three-dimensional, not photographs, not documents, not illustrations).
These are the objects from the present exhibitions or from the museum collections which will be
used in the new exhibition;
- Personalities - photograph(s) + possible documents + description;
- Audiovisual materials - video, audio recordings (with a note whether they were digitalized or
not), what carrier, how they are used in the museum;
- Articles in the web written by museum staff or other people that cover the topic - author, name,
link, summary;
- Photographs, illustrations (pictures, etc.) and documents - flat exhibits or museum objects that
will be used in the new exhibition.
After having processed the information received from the museums, experts' sessions were
organized:
19. - 20.4.2013 - Regional museum of Northern Priladozhye, Sortavala;
13. - 14.5.2013 - Medvezhyegorsk regional museum, Medvezhyegorsk;
15. - 16.5.2013 - Cultural museum center, Kostomuksha;
17.5.2013 - National museum of the Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk;
22. - 26.6.2013 - North Karelian Museum (Joensuu), Fighter's House (Ilomantsi) (and a visit to
the Outokumpu Mining museum).
During the experts' sessions the project experts and managers met with the representatives of the
local administrations and museums and the local community members to hear their opinions
about the place of the museum in the cultural life of the region. During the sessions the SWOT
analysis was carried out and the directions for the development were discussed. Besides, the
experts reviews and updated the matrices that were filled in by the museums before the sessions.
Quantitative results:
- 6 experts' sessions;
- 1 visit to the Mining museum in Outokumpu;
- 68 participants;
- 9 matrices that structure the material for the museum information system.
Based on the results of the work done during the experts' sessions three development concepts
were elaborated/updated for the museums in Medvezhyegorsk, Kostomuksha and Sortavala. The
scenario concepts for new hypertext-based museum exhibitions were also created. The
development concepts and scenarios for exhibitions were negotiated with partner museums.
Besides the SWOT analysis the museum development concepts comprise the following sections:
- Mission, values and goals;
- Target groups for museum products;
- Place of the museum in the museums' regional network;
- A functional model of the museum;
- Field-specific area of expertise;
- Priority lines of the museum activity;
- Concept of educational activity of the museum;
- Priorities in research activities of the museum;
- List of resources integrated into the museum's activities;
- Marketing strategy of the museum.
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SORTAVALA
Being responsible for identifying, collecting, preserving and increasing the values of natural and
cultural heritage of the North Ladoga region, the Museum sees its social mission as follows:
- to provide free access to the values and relevant information to the visitors (institutions,
individuals, locals and guests, including foreign visitors);
- to offer visitors as equal partners of the museum a set of communication and other associated
services that are connected with beneficial use of museum resources and technologies to meet
their cognitive, educational, creative, economic and other needs.
SCENARIO CONCEPT OF THE EXHIBITION IN THE MUSEUM OF NORTH LADOGA
REGION
Name: Sortavala Stone Keys
Place: Entrance exhibition hall (50 sq.m) and its outside area (museum yard) (300 sq. m.)
The exhibition targets at:
- Presenting the North Ladoga Region (and Sortavala as its symbolic key) as a group of (stone)
blocks that form a common (stone) basement as one of the most important (stone) supports for
what (construction, bridge) binds the Russian, Karelian, Finnish and All-European cultures into
one.
- Creating a special type of the exhibition in the system of exhibitions, tours and travel routes of
the Regional Museum of North Ladoga Lake that combines the functions of (a) a monographic
narrative devoted to a particular topic and (b) a hypertext-based reference and information guide
designed to help the visitors find their way in the information environment of the museum.
- Creating a friendly high tech information environment within the museum exhibition in order
to help the visitors to create their own strategies, scenarios and tours to get familiarized and
interact with this particular museum and other museums in the region, with the city, with the
area, with the Republic of Karelia, with Russia and the world (including their geography, history
and culture).
Structure of the exhibition:
1. Natural history (local minerals and rocks of different composition, age and origin)
2. Archaeology (materials used by ancient people to make tools, weapons, cult objects)
3. Ethnic history (materials to make household utensils, dishware, decorations, amulets)
4. Industrial history (iron ore, copper ore, silver ore, other minerals for the industry)
5. War history (materials to make fortresses, cannon charges, flint weapons)
6. Political history (stone materials to mark state borders and to produce symbols of power);
7. History of communications (samples of materials used to make roads, bridges, piers,
computers)
8. History of architecture and design (building materials, finishing materials)
9. Art history (materials used to make famous monuments, bas-reliefs, gravestones)
***********************
MEDVEZHYEGORSK
The museum mission: being a collector, a keeper, a researcher and a popularizer of natural and
cultural heritage of the areas of Zaonezhye, Segozerye, Vygoretsiya and the adjacent areas the
museum is ready to assist people and organizations that are looking for:
- business connections and personal contacts;
- maps, landmarks and good travelers' recommendations;
- knowledge, experience, useful information;
- positive emotions, feelings and impressions;
- demonstrations of personal achievements and testing of personal capacities.
SCENARIO CONCEPT OF THE EXHIBITION IN THE MEDVEZHYEGORSK REGIONAL
MUSEUM
Name: Zaonezhsky Junction or the Roads We Take
The exhibition targets at:
- Presenting the Medvezhyegorsk region as a system of communications: walking paths, side
roads, concrete and asphalt roads, railroads, water ways, airways, crossroads, junctions,
passages, crossings, bridges, ports, terminals, lines of ethnic and labor migrations, cargo and
passenger flows and travel routes.
- Creating a friendly high tech information environment within the museum exhibition in order
to help the visitors to create their own strategies, scenarios and tours to get familiarized and
interact with this particular museum and other museums in the region, with the city, with the
area, with the Republic of Karelia, with Russia and the world (including their geography, history
and culture).
Short scenario structure:
1. Stone alleys (geological maps - geological routes);
2. Water ways (maps of hydrographic network; the White Sea - Baltic Sea Canal; water trips;
extreme, water and sport tourism);
3. Lines of life (maps of landscape, forests, natural habitats and migration routes of animals, eco
tourism);
4. Crossroads of history (archaeology and history maps; population settlement maps; maps of
monuments and museums; expeditions; travel routes);
5. Anthropological streams (ethnographic, demographic, historical and cultural maps;
ethnographic tourism);
6. State roads (political and administrative borders, layouts of railroads, federal and other
motorways, auto-, motor-, and bicycle tourism);
7. Stages of sorrow and grief (GULAG maps, mass burials, necropolises, monuments,
memorials, memorial events);
8. Inscrutable ways (battle maps, fortresses, fortifications, military and historical campaigns)
***********************
KOSTOMUKSHA
The mission for the Cultural and museum center in Kostomuksha is defined as follows:
- We know our city and its people as no one else;
- We know all local enterprises and organizations from their start as no one;
- We know the dates of the construction of every house, every building, every street and every
park;
- We remember each event that happened in our city from the beginning;
- We are in contact with the participants and eyewitnesses of these events;
- All our knowledge is supported by documents and physical evidence;
- We know and love our city because we are its cultural and museum center;
- If you are a local or a visitor we are at your service;
- We will share our knowledge. We will tell, show, guide, introduce, help and notify;
- This is our professional duty, public acknowledgement and cultural mission.
SCENARIO CONCEPT OF THE EXHIBITION OF THE CULTURAL AND MUSEUM
CENTER IN KOSTOMUKSHA
Name: Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace
The exhibition targets at:
- Assisting the development of local community of Kostomuksha, shaping its identity, common
consciousness and urban patriotism by constituting a becoming phenomenon of the city cultural
heritage which is a system of locally significant symbolic initiatives, achievements, objects,
personalities and the dates of their birth.
- Introducing a chronicle of Kostomuksha as a unique settlement that boast short but distinctive
history and cultural heritage that can be a source of development for culture, social sphere and
economy of the young city by using a unique photo archive and the latest mobile technologies.
- Creating a special exhibition unit within a system of exhibitions and tours of the Cultural and
museum center that combines functions of (a) a historical narrative illustrated with unique photo
documents, and (b) a reference retrieval system (chronological directory) that guides in the
information and cultural environment of the city.
- Creating a friendly high tech information environment within the museum exhibition in order
to help the visitors to create their own strategies, scenarios and tours to get familiarized and
interact with the city of Kostomuksha, its geography, history, culture, heritage sites and objects,
and different aspects of their interpretation and presentation.
Thematic structure of the exhibition:
Born in Kostomuksha:
1. The city (and its elements)
2. Objects (and achievements)
3. Enterprises (and corporations)
4. Organizations (and communities)
5. Monuments (and memorial sites)
6. Happenings (and specific events)
7. People (and "names")
*******************
In other participating museums, where exhibitions were not upgraded, the exhibits were analyzed
and some of them were selected to be the elements of the hypertext mark-up system that
provides visitors with an opportunity to explore different layers of the museum exhibitions.
These exhibits can be found in the Open Karelia system.
The projects’ corporate identity was also developed to be used in all project documents such as
letterheads, letters, business cards and printed materials for all participating museums.
ACTIVITY 4. HOLDING A CLOSED COMPETITION “MUSEUM HYPERTEXT OF
KARELIA. MODULES, JUNCTIONS, LINKS”•
In the beginning of the project a group of designers was formed out of the Russian experts in
museum exhibitions including:
1. Expomania Ltd. from Moscow;
2. Ludi Architects Ltd. from St.Petersburg;
3. Creative group (artist Sergei Terentyev and Artnavolok Ltd.) from Petrozavodsk.
These three design organizations took part in the Opening Karelia workshop in March 2013 to
get an understanding about the project's goals.
Along with the development concepts and exhibitions' scenario concepts a technical specification
was developed for each museum (Sortavala, Kostomuksha and Medvezhyegorsk) to hold a
closed competition for the exhibition designs. Together with additional materials about the
museums and the matrices which were filled in by the museums the technical specification was
sent to the competition participants. On September 2-5, 2013 the designers undertook a trip to
Sortavala, Kostomuksha, Medvezhyegorsk and Petrozavodsk to see the museums' premises.
The closed competition comprised 2 stages:
1. Participants submit design drafts; the winner is chosen;
2. The winner makes design projects for the three museums; a technical specification for
renovation works is written.
In order to choose the winner, a special experts' council was formed. Based on the submitted
design drafts Artnavolok Ltd. from Petrozavodsk was announced a winner.
The evaluation of design drafts was based on a 3-point rating scale:
1 - low
2 - medium
3 - high
(the following information is originally presented in the table format)
LUDI ARCHITECTS: 9 points
Adaptation of the contents of both the project and museums 1
Concept 1
Creative design 2
Compliance with the technical specification 2
Feasibility 3
EXPOMANIA: 11 points
Adaptation of the contents of both the project and museums 1
Concept 1
Creative design 3
Compliance with the technical specification 3
Feasibility 3
ARTNAVOLOK: 12 points
Adaptation of the contents of both the project and museums 3
Concept 3
Creative design 2
Compliance with the technical specification 2
Feasibility 2
where Adaptation of the contents of both the project and museums, Concept, Creative design,
Compliance with the technical specification and Feasibility are the criteria.
A contract was signed with Artnavolok Ltd. and the creative group from Petrozavodsk
comprising artist Sergei Terentyev who has extensive experience in making exhibitions for the
Republic of Karelia and young designer Egor Permyakov (Artnavolok Ltd.) started their work on
developing the design projects for the three museum exhibitions.
Unfortunately, with time it turned out that the mutual understanding and communication within
the creative group has not been properly organized and the young designer doesn't have enough
experience in drafting engineering designs and descriptions. According to the plan the design
projects for all three museums were supposed to be ready by January 15, 2014 and renovations
and the production of exhibitions were to be followed right after. But in reality the first design
project for the Medvezhyegorsk museum was ready only in March 2014. When it was obvious
that the Petrozavodsk designers’ team will not meet the deadlines, the project managers made a
decision to complete design projects for Kostomuksha and Sortavala with other companies.
Thus, a design project for the Sortavala museum was ready in June 2014 and the design project
for the Kostomuksha museum was completed in the beginning of September 2014. In spite of
these challenges the new exhibitions were created and set up in the museums before the end of
the project.
In January 2014 an exhibition of design projects “How to Show the Museum Hypertext”•
submitted to the competition was organized in Petrozavodsk in the Vykhod Media Center. It
featured design solutions for the new exhibitions in the Regional museum of North Ladoga
(Sortavala), the Medvezhyegorsk regional museum and the Cultural and museum center of
Kostomuksha.
Egor Permyakov and Sergei Terentyev from Artnavolok Ltd. (Petrozavodsk) who won the closed
competition among the designers presented their design project. Designs by the other two
participants - EXPOMANIA (Moscow) and LudiArchitects (St.Petersburg) - were also presented
at the exhibition.
A video about the opening of the exhibition made the Sampo local TV company can be found at
http://sampo.tv/video/7426.mp4.
ACTIVITY 5. HOLDING A RUSSIAN-FINNISH SYMPOSIUM “HORIZONS OF THE
EUREGIO KARELIA REGION. MUSEUMS 3.0”•
On February 6-7, 2014 Joensuu hosted a Russian-Finnish symposium "Horizons of the Euregio
Karelia region. Museums 3.0". Over 60 participants representing different professional fields
came together to talk about modern museum strategies, museum information technologies,
museum marketing and communication. The symposium was moderated by Elena Zelentsova,
the first deputy head of the Moscow Department for Culture. Experts from Moscow were invited
to take part in the symposium. Among them were art critic Georgy Nikich, museum designer
Nickolai Nikishin, experts of the Museum Solutions creative group Natalia Kopelyanskaya and
Alexander Artamonov, expert of the Museum Development Center Darya Agapova.
Representatives of the cultural authorities of Russia and Finland, IT experts, experts in marketing
and designers were also invited.
During the two days the symposium participants listened to the experts, participated in
discussions and tested the Open Karelia information system in the exhibition of the North
Karelian Museum. During the symposium the development concepts for the museums in
Kostomuksha, Sortavala and Medvezhyegorsk were talked over. Finnish and Russian experts,
including an expert from the National Board of Antiquities of Finland, made presentations on the
IT development in the museum and cultural heritage fields in Russia and Finland and how new
information technologies can be adopted in museums. A round table “Towards the museum 3.0”
was held during the symposium. Representatives of the FRUCT Association of Open
Innovations (Finnish-Russian University Cooperation in Telecommunications) who are the Open
Karelia system developers presented the concept of the cognitive game “Opening Karelia”. The
partners from the North Karelian Museum introduced their future Virtual Sortavala website.
The second day gave start to the educational program for museum specialists. Among the topic
discussed were the museum communication 3.0 and how to work with today's visitors, marketing
of museum products and services, and the key terms of the new marketing strategy for the
Euregio Karelia museums (new markets, target groups, services, souvenir products, and
promotion technologies). The symposium program as well as all the presentations can be traced
at the project's website.
On February 6, 2014 the Destination - Karelia photo and multimedia exhibition by Anastasia
Khoroshilova (Russia - Germany) and Jaakko Heikkilä (Finland) was opened in the Carelicum
cultural and tourist center as part of the symposium program. The exhibition was open until
March 5, 2014.
Quantitative results:
- 2 days, 60 participants;
- 15 presentations;
- 1 round table discussion “Towards the museum 3.0”;
- 1 opening of the Destination - Karelia exhibition.
ACTIVITY 6. PHOTO AND MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION "DESTINATION KARELIA"
During the preparation for the exhibition several trips were undertaken by photographers
Anastasia Khoroshilova (Russia-Germany) and Jaakko Heikkilä (Finland) to the Euregio Karelia
region. The first photo trip was taken by Anastasia Khoroshilova in June 2013. Two more trips
for Anastasia Khoroshilova and Jaakko Heikkilä were organized in August 2013 to the cities and
villages of the region.
Both artists focused on Karelia with its historical, ethnographical, natural, geographical, social
and cultural diversity. They viewed Karelia as a unique place which, on one hand, is separated
by the state border of Russia and Finland and by the social, military and economic history. And
on the other hand this area has a lot of common features that form the phenomenon called the
Euregio Karelia region.
Anastasia Khoroshilova focused on making a series of portraits of the residents of Karelia who
guided her through the cities and villages they live in and the places that matter to them. Through
this exhibition both photographers made an attempt to show how the inner world and the identity
of the local people correlate with the national split by traditions, historical memory and the way
of life.
The exhibition was displayed in 4 cities:
- Moscow, ZIL cultural center, 21.09. - 27.10.2013;
- St.Petersburg, Peter and Paul Fortress (Exhibition Hall "Postern and Casemate of the
Gosudarev Bastion"), 05.11. - 24.11.2013;
- Joensuu, Carelicum cultural, museum and tourist center, 06.02. - 05.03.2014;
- Petrozavodsk, City exhibition hall, 14.03. - 04.04.2014.
In Moscow the exhibition was held along with the 5th Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art
and was included into the program of the biennial. In all venues the exhibition was opened by
curator Georgy Nikich. In Moscow, St.Petersburg and Joensuu photographers Anastasia
Khoroshilova and Jaakko Heikkilä joined the opening ceremonies. Press conferences for mass
media were held during all exhibition openings. The exhibition aroused great interest and
positive feedback from the visitors, the photo shooting characters, and the media representatives.
The representatives of the Karelian Communities were among the guests at the exhibition
openings in Moscow and St.Petersburg. The photo shooting characters were special guests at the
opening in Petrozavodsk.
Following this successful exhibition project both artists decided to publish an artistic 168-page
book of anthropology, family stories, and thoughts of past and today called “Karelia” as a
continuum of their cooperation outside the Euregio Karelia: Museum Hypertext project. It was
designed and published by Kehrer Design in Berlin, Germany in autumn 2014. The book is
available at http://www.artbooksheidelberg.de/html/en/program/detail.html?ID=815.
Quantitative results:
- 3 photo trips to more than 10 cities and villages of the Euregio Karelia region;
- 4 exhibitions in 4 cities;
- Over 7 000 exhibition visitors;
- 1000 copies of the exhibition catalog (in Russian and English);
- 1 artistic book “Karelia” (published in Germany).
ACTIVITY 7. DEVELOPING AN OPEN MUSEUM INFORMATION SYSTEM OF THE
EUREGIO KARELIA REGION AND CREATING ITS CONTENT
1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEM
The first step was to understand and comprehend the idea of museum hypertext and find ways to
implement the idea taking into account available technologies, funding and timeframes. The
team focused on elaborating the draft technical documentation in order to develop the vision and
define functional features of the system as well as on analyzing present and future information
systems in Russia used in the museum field.
The project team agreed that in order to fully correspond to the idea of the project, the Open
Karelia museum information system should take into account personal preferences of the users,
provide freedom in their behavior when choosing the objects of interest and tours, have a flexible
retrieval system and an open architecture for further work and decrease of costs in the postproject period.
The information systems that were analyzed could be divided into two big groups:
- Databases such as Europeana, Google cultural project, Musketti system (Finland), KAMIS
system (Russia). The first two databases are the systems that present information. Europeana is a
portal and the Google project is a website. Musketti and KAMIS are the museum databases that
prioritize information protection and internal museum recordkeeping functions. However, they
have special modules that provide access to the databases through the Internet. KAMIS also has
a module that provides access to its database through the information kiosks/terminals installed
in the exhibitions. Being different, they do have common features - big information content,
significant financial and organizational support, participation of important state and commercial
structures. On the other hand, as a rule they are closed systems in terms of information and
possibility of using it in other projects. They are targeted at specific tasks to record museum
objects and have a number of technical, financial and organizational requirements;
- Information reporting system (guides, audio guides, etc.).
Guides have relatively closed and limited information on particular museums with no possibility
for fast changes of content and a requirement of qualified technical support. Mobile applications
require constant modifications to comply with operational systems of mobile devices updated by
the producers.
SmartMuseum was considered the most interesting development which boasts features like
modular programming and rapid introduction. The project team met with the SmartMuseum
management to discuss possibilities of using this system in the project.
Negotiations were also held with other developers such as SurfCity guides, OPAS system
(France), etc.
To specify technical capacities of the system, contact was taken to Softline group that represents
the Google Company in Russia. A teleconference was held with Google USA.
The following companies were selected as potential developers of the information system: the IT
Park of the Petrozavodsk university, I-Free company (developers of "Walking in Oranienbaum"
augmented reality program), Wikipedia community in Russia (developers of WikiSemantic
program product), Fruct association.
Some of the potential developers were invited to take part in the Opening Karelia workshop in
March 2013. The goal was to give a clear picture of the philosophy and target groups of the
information system and its functional features, to introduce project experts and to collect
feedback.
During the workshop the potential developers were targeted at finding options for the system
architecture that would most correspond to the idea of the hypertext. The following suggestions
were made:
1. Data base with information retrieval also in external resources;
2. Free search in available resources, a museum information retrieval engine;
3. Combination of both options with possible use of advantages of each system.
It was also considered important that the system provides data from available museum
information systems, both Russian and Finnish, and that the data formats are followed for
possible integration into the Europeana system for a fuller representation of the Euregio Karelia
region in the European information space.
The following are the essential details of the system: consideration of behavior patterns of the
visitors and their locations, high level of personalization, modular programming, new
participants in the future, and integration with social networks. The system should provide access
to the maximum number of devices such as touch screens and information kiosks, personal
computers, mobile devices. Wi-Fi is a must. QR codes and other tags such as NFS and geo
tracking are appropriate.
After the workshop a series of experts' sessions were organized in participating museums to
gather information and to evaluate museums from the technical side.
The team summarized information, built their vision about the system and collected proposals
from potential system developers: the IT Park of the Petrozavodsk University, I-Free Company,
SoftLine group, SurgCity guide, Fruct association, WikiSemantic development. The decision
was made in favor of the Open Innovations Association FRUCT.
The choice was made based on the following criteria:
- Price;
- Open software used to decrease further costs to maintain the system in the post-project period;
- Use of Geo2tag platform as a data storage which is one of the leaders in geolocation systems in
the market of open free systems. Information created and published by the project participants
can be used as the basis to produce other applications such as audio guides, virtual tours, etc.
through any other project;
- Convenient information input; it is suggested that information is entered both manually and
automatically from different sources and data bases to provide prompt update of information in
case of changes. This is one of the modern ways of the Internet development in general.
- Prompt joining of other parties for the mutual benefit - expansion of information, introduction
of different objects and links.
- Wide variety of means of visual representation of stored information which is easily
supplemented by different modules.
Presentation of the Open Karelia museum information system in a testing mode was made during
the Russian-Finnish symposium "Horizons of the Euregio Karelia region. Museums 3.0" in
February 2014. The symposium participants had an opportunity to evaluate the hypertext
principle of the exhibition of the North Karelian Museum both inside and outside the museum
getting information about objects and sights in the center of Joensuu. The system was
demonstrated using both tablets bought through the project and personal mobile phones and got
high evaluation of users and IT experts.
The Open Karelia information system is up and running in the project’s pilot museums of the
Euregio Karelia region. The system is free and open for other museums from Russia, Europe and
CIS countries to join.
The Open Karelia system is based on the Geo2Tag platform, the world's most popular open
source LBS platform. The system follows the principles of Web 3.0 + LBS by maximizing
freedom of search based on personal preferences and not limiting information to ensure freedom
of choice. The system provides advanced geo-location tools and libraries for automated
processing of content received from various sources. The source code is open for free
downloading and has the following characteristics:
- Provides multi-dimensional architecture of connections between the database elements;
- Implements a set of modern methods and efficient toolkit for configuring information search
engine;
- Implements efficient scheme of data classification and flexible system of tags;
- Supports cloud configuration;
- Provides open interfaces for programming (API);
- Provides tools for creating new modules and extensions.
The system enables any user to easily access all museum content, regardless of the brand or the
operating system (Android, iPhone, etc.) of the mobile phone or tablet. The system does not
require installation of additional applications. The system can be accessed directly from the
museum by scanning a QR code on a museum object with a camera on your device. The system
is also accessible from the touch screen information kiosks located in the museums and from
home PCs. Moreover, the system provides travelers with outdoor support by automatically
identifying the user's location and advising the nearby objects. Smart search and analysis of data
are the key features of the system.
Data input to the museum system can be done manually or by automated import from various
reliable public sources that contain relevant content. For example, the system provides
automated import from the Finnish museum system “Musketti”, and associated articles from
Wikipedia. The Open Karelia system is the first example of partnerships between the Finnish and
Russian museums on creating a joint museum database, which is all-time synchronized and
serves to the common interest of the whole region. The automated data input is one of the
enablers that connect the museum system with the outside world and so replacing traditionally
very static museum database information by changing modern data array that stays up-to-date
and provides a lot of supporting information.
The system provides tools to assist museum visitors to form personalized tours in the exhibition.
This is achieved by combining several museum objects into the so-called stories that are created
by the museum staff based on different parameters. With permission from the museums, the
Open Karelia system enables third party developers to access content and use it in independent
projects and applications. This inspires involvement of volunteers and community. It also opens
museum services market to the public and SMEs and results in delivery of the new generation of
services for the tourists. It also helps in keeping data up-to-date as part of content work is done
by the community and companies for their services and the museum staff can focus on selecting
and arranging new content.
The aim of the system is to create a single interface for managing museum information and
representation of relevant to the user information in most convenient way, enhanced by the open
sources in Internet:
- By simplifying and optimizing the information management and exposures accounting
processes;
- By increasing attractiveness and getting more visitors to museums thanks to the mutual
promotion by museums based on cross-links in collections, and by using new technologies for
presenting content in a more attractive way;
The Open Karelia system has an advanced audio guide feature that gives visitors freedom to
choose their own route and freely navigate in the museum without assistance. An audio guide is
not just a set of predefined audio records, but a full scale extension to the museum informational
system, which allows listening to the information about exhibits of interest, including those that
are not included in the conventional museum routes. In the current version of the audio guide any
museum worker or volunteer can add their own descriptions for objects and areas in the museum,
by simply recording an audio about it and upload it to the system. In 2014 this service was
named the best service in the category "Solution for people with special needs" in the Internet
multimedia festival "Museum GEEK” contest (http://www.gmir.ru/special/gik/winners/). By the
end of the project 90 audios were created and recorded. In the future the audio guide can be
improved by adding a new feature that allows converting written descriptions of museum objects
to speech in different languages which will make audio recordings on each object unnecessary.
By the end of the project 2121 objects were fed to the Open Karelia database. Among them 900
objects are in the Russian language, 726 objects are in Finnish, 344 objects relate to the Virtual
Sortavala. 22 stories were created that linked objects from different museums using different
criteria. 20 users have an administrator’s access to the Open Karelia system and can enter and
edit information there.
2. CONTENT OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEM
Work in this direction started in March 2013 during the Opening Karelia workshop. The
participating museums made presentations about their museums introducing the most important
information for the project, namely the content of their exhibitions and collections, and local
sights. This information was essential for developing profile of the Euregio Karelia region in its
diversity of cultural, natural, economic and other features and finding common traits. During the
preparation for the workshop the research team suggested five initial topics as possible links ethnography and folklore, stone and architecture, war, transport routes, and place of birth. The
workshop participants elaborated on the topics during work group sessions and offered a system
of categories and layers of information display. They created the development models and
interconnections of different layers to be used in the system. They presented the region as
information flows that penetrate and connect it in different directions and ways and ended in the
vast cloud of conceptions and meanings.
During the experts' sessions with assistance from museums' staff objects, personalities and
exhibits were selected out of a great variety of available information which can form
intersections and links with other museums. The project group developed a matrix to collect
structured information as possible content for the information system.
Apart from working with participating museums the project team negotiated with potential
partners that have reliable information resources and data bases on historical and cultural
heritage. Among them is the Institute of geology of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian
Academy of Sciences (Mining Road project), the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia,
the Petrozavodsk State University, the Kizhi Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of the Republic of
Karelia, the Petrozavodsk State Conservatory, Heninen.net website, Musketti system, etc.
Information partners were also found in Sortavala - the Serdobol magazine and the Kronid
Gogolev's Gallery. All materials were fed to the Open Karelia system.
The project team is constantly selecting reliable and interesting information. It is being edited,
translated and fed to the Open Karelia system.
A lot of additional audio and multimedia materials were created for further use in the Open
Karelia system. Over 4 hours on the videotapes from 1980-1990 that were kept in the collections
of the Medvezhyegorsk museum were digitalized to be used in the new exhibition and the Open
Karelia system. The Medvezhyegorsk museum held a follow-up event for the local community
for attribution purposes. Following the development of scenarios and video filming in
Kostomuksha, the materials were used for the exhibition for the production of widescreen films.
Some of the video materials were used in the Open Karelia system.
A lot of work was done by the North Karelian Museum on creating and translating content of the
Virtual Sortavala web exhibition. The lay out, structure and technical solutions of the Virtual
Sortavala were completed by the end of July 2014. A lot of pilot content to the site was
produced.
Special attention is paid to services that help attracting children and youth to use the Open
Karelia system. The main purpose of this group of services is to inspire interest in learning more
about the history and cultural heritage of the region, when the materials are delivered in the most
comfortable, interactive and playful way. At the moment the Open Karelia system already has
two gaming modules integrated into the system - "A Regional History Quest" and "With One
Word", which is the museum version of a popular game "4 images - 1 word".
The basic idea of the Regional History Quest game is to use historical and cultural information
on the region in order to create tasks (quests) so that the user can learn about the local history
and culture by playing in this real environment, fulfilling tasks and having fun. Users can access
this game from any personal device (e.g., a smart phone or a tablet computer) and enjoy the
game tasks. The main idea of the game is to identify relationships between the played objects
and reconstruct the story that unites them. Any database object could be used in game scenarios
and museum workers can easily prepare and release new scenarios and edit available scenarios.
The game "With One Word" is a special version of the popular game "4 images - one word". The
player should correctly and with minimal time find a word that defines a logical connection for 4
presented pictures from the museum’s collection. The game comes together with an admin tool
for creating new game scenarios based on the objects from the Open Karelia database.
In addition, there is one more game based on the Open Karelia system. It is called "The Museum
Puzzle". The player should in minimal time restore the sequence of objects on the game field.
For example, the player should correctly place objects on the city map or put historical events on
a timeline or build a correct sequence of steps in the reconstruction of the production and so on.
These games can be downloaded from the official Google Play store for Android-based devices:
- Game “Mystery of Museum Objects” (for children 6-8 years old)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.suai.karmus6
- Game "Museum Quest” (for children 8-11 years old)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.suai.karmus8
- Game “Regional History Quest”•
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.fruct.karmus2
All games have a specially designed program shell and are based on the data from the Open
Karelia system. The back office is developed so that any museum worker can create own games
and change content and tasks depending on certain goals and focus of this or that museum. These
games were successfully tested in the National Museum in Petrozavodsk on November 4, 2014
and December 14, 2014 with 150 children participating. In February 2014 the games will be held
and new games will be created in the National Museum during the Kalevala festival.
In May 2014 the project team together with the developer presented the Open Karelia
information system at the ADIT international museum conference in Vyborg, Russia which
promotes information technologies among museums and other cultural institutions. The
Conference introduces the best practices in museum and library information technologies,
encourages the exchange of experiences and provides expert opinion of the leading specialists of
Europe, Moscow and St.Petersburg on the already developed IT products and those that are
being created. The first public presentation of the Open Karelia information system was made
during the discussion “Mobile Technologies in Museums”. The Module of the system which was
developed for people with vision impairment and which won the nomination at the first Museum
Geek Festival http://www.gmir.ru/special/gik/winners/ was also presented at the Conference as
well as a demo of the mobile version of the Open Karelia system which was introduced during
the discussion “The Museum Start-Up” at the ADIT youth club.
All presentations aroused great interest among the Conference participants. During the
conference the project representatives held negotiations with the representatives of the Novgorod
State Museum Preserve, the Vyborg Castle Museum and the Lodeinoe Pole Museum of Local
History about their possible participation in the project.
Besides, the Open Karelia system was introduced at the demo section at the 16th FRUCT
conference in Oulu in October 2014, the SLUSH exhibition in Helsinki in November 2014, the
demo section of the Digile IoT SHOK program in Helsinki in December 2014.
Quantitative results:
- 1 information system;
- 1 advanced system-based audio guide for visually impaired people;
- 2121 objects fed to the Open Karelia database;
- 344 objects in the Open Karelia system relate to the Virtual Sortavala;
- 22 stories created;
- 20 users have an administrator’s access to the Open Karelia system;
- 2 game modules “A Regional History Quest" and "With One Word" integrated into the
system", 1 game "The Museum Puzzle" created by external developer;
- 2 games held in the National Museum in Petrozavodsk with 150 children participating.
ACTIVITY 8. RENOVATION AND TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT OF PARTICIPATING
MUSEUMS, INCLUDING ENGINEERING DESIGN
The area of WWII fortifications near Medvezhyegorsk which is under the supervision of the
Medvezhyegorsk regional museum was improved. Three information stands were installed near
historic sites and the museum building.
Renovations were carried out in the Medvezhyegorsk museum in accordance with the design
specification in its entrance area, an exhibition room and the corridor that now hosts a new
exhibition section "Zaonezhsky Junction". Renovations included changing of floors, putting up
suspended ceilings and upgrading electric wiring from the electric service panel. Modern
exhibition equipment was purchased including touch screens, TV panels, electronic light control
units, lighting, exhibition hanging systems and additional exhibit cases.
In the Kostomuksha museum floors were changes and leveled, walls were painted, electric
wiring was changed and a separate circuit panel in two exhibition halls 130 sq m total was
installed. Exhibition equipment (TV screens, LCD projectors, UPS, etc.) was purchased for the
new exhibition.
In the Sortavala museum the main exhibition halls were renovated. After holding an open
auction, money saved was used for renovations in two more exhibition halls. The whole entrance
area of the museum was redesigned including a coat room, a ticket desk, bathrooms, and an
information area. Exhibition equipment including photo frames and light was also purchased.
For the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia equipment was bought including a server
for the Open Karelia system, a computer, tablet computers, UPS, and a photo camera.
Tablets computers were acquired for museum visitors of the North Karelian Museum, Joensuu
who want to scan qr -codes of the Open Karelia system. The museum’s free wi-fi connection for
visitors has been strengthen by an extra station. Touchscreen monitor with display stand has been
acquired for the Virtual Sortavala to the museum permanent exhibition for the visitors.
Museums are equipped with computers for feeding information to the Open Karelia system.
Photo cameras and scanners were purchased for creating content. Printers were bought for QR
codes. The system of audio guides was purchased for the Sortavala museum to hold tours outside
the museum.
The Regional Museum of North Ladoga, Sortavala and the Cultural and Museum Center in
Kostomuksha were supplied with documentation on their new multimedia exhibitions. A very
thorough manual for the users and administrators of the Open Karelia system and related games
was developed. A set of multi-language QR codes was made for each museum. Museum
personnel were taught to create and print QR codes from the Open Karelia system. Information
panels explaining visitors the potential of the Open Karelia system are located in the entrance
areas of the museums.
9. CREATING NEW OR RE-DESIGNING PRESENT EXHIBITION SECTIONS
Sortavala Stone Key (Sortavala)
Sortavala Stone Keys permanent exhibition was created in the Regional Museum of North
Ladoga. It features stones typical for this area like granites and marbles and tells about different
ways of mining and processing. The exhibition also introduces the city of Sortavala with its
history, architecture and culture.
The exhibition contains:
- The central module - maps of North Ladoga area with a set of play figures;
- Six exhibition sections, “the keys” (four in the big exhibition hall and two in the small
exhibition room) - each presents museum objects, posters with photographs, electronic
presentations;
- There is a wi-fi connection in the exhibition. Selected exhibits have QR codes that lead to the
Open Karelia system. Visitors can use their own gadgets or borrow a tablet computer from the
museum;
- An interactive sandbox is installed in the small exhibition hall. It helps visitors to imagine
stages of landscape evolution of the Earth.
Two design solutions of the open-air exhibition for the museum’s backyard were developed and
suggested. These solutions can be used for further development of the Sortavala Stone Keys
exhibition. The project provided financial support to deliver exhibits (large building stones, trim
stones, decorative stones) from the mining sites to the museum. They will be used in the future
open-air exhibition.
Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace (Kostomuksha)
Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace exhibition was opened in the Cultural and museum
center of Kostomuksha. Before the project the museum had no permanent exhibition and used
temporary exhibitions to show its collections. A new exhibition is devoted to the history of
construction of the mining plant and the city which was built in 1970-1980s by joint efforts of
the Soviet Union and Finland and to the today’s life of the young city.
The exhibition occupies two communicating rooms and has two sections:
1) The City is a dynamic exhibition which consists of seven theme sections. Six of them are
devoted to one year of the city’s life and the seventh one introduces the local iron ore deposit, its
discovery and the iron ore production. Each section has cells with photographs, documents and
museum items, a touchscreen control computer, 2 or 3 TV sets with videos and photo
presentations. All sections are interconnected into a local information system which runs the
touchscreen computers and TV sets. It is also used by the visitors and museum staff to transfer
information to the big screen by means of the control terminal and an LCD projector. A dynamic
nature of the exhibition is provided by module exhibition equipment and electronic information
display. This equipment is quick on responding to new content in the exhibition and allows
adding new exhibits (photographs, objects, videos, etc.).
2) The Plant is a movie room with wide-angle screens and three multimedia projectors to
demonstrate four films about the mining and processing plant and the city which were produced
during the project. Computers in this room are used to create a media library which was started
thanks to the project and which contains videos on Kostomuksha. A neighboring TV studio has a
video camera, special light, work clothes for visiting the plant and virtual backgrounds with
different production sites of the mining plant. In this studio visitors can take photos that imitate
their presence at different production sites of the plant and immediately publish them on the web,
for instance, in the social networks. A sandbox is another interactive element of this section.
Wi-fi is provided in the whole exhibition.
The project team supervised all stages of the development and production of the exhibition in
Kostomuksha. Some of the exhibits were selected by the project team from the collections of the
National Museum of the Republic of Karelia (photographs, documents) and the National Archive
of the Republic of Karelia (films from the Soviet times) and provided for the exhibition.
Zaonezhsky Junction (Medvezhyegorsk)
Zaonezhsky Junction exhibition was opened in the Medvezhyegorsk regional museum. It is
displayed in a long corridor (50 m) that has entrances to the main exhibition halls along its way.
It introduced visitors to the Medvezhyegorsk city and region by means of interactive information
technologies. This new exhibition element serves as a hypertext junction. It’s like a portal that
leads to the main museum exhibitions and presents historical and cultural themes that the main
exhibition is devoted to. It is also a guide on the history, culture and nature of the
Medvezhyegorsk region.
The exhibition is designed to resemble the constructions of the White Sea - Baltic Canal. It
comprises seven theme sections or the canal sluices. Each section has the main exhibits museum items, a theme map, audio and video files, photographs, presentations, web resources.
A local information system combines the content of touchscreen computers and TV sets that are
placed in each exhibition sections.
The project team with the director of the museum supervised all stages of the exhibition
production. The project organized production of large-format theme maps, eight cartographic
presentations on history, culture and nature of the Medvezhyegorsk region, short video and photo
shooting and editing to be used in the exhibition, selection of theme web resource, etc. The
project managers selected and made arrangements for using unique video materials of the 19201970s from the collections of the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia.
Four rooms of the permanent exhibition were upgraded including the replacement of old
exhibition equipment, production of new posters with two-dimensional exhibits (photographs,
documents, and texts), production of a model of fortification constructions on Lysukha Hill, and
completing the main exhibits with audio tracks.
The project’s implementation in the Medvezhyegorsk museum triggered renovations and reequipment in all exhibition halls of the permanent exhibition in the museum which were started
with support of the Ministry of culture of the Republic of Karelia in 2014.
The Fighter’s House exhibition (Hattuvaara, Finland)
Development of war historical sites and memorials (Fighter´s Trail, Sikrenvaara and Palovaara
memorials, Artillery Shelter) was undertaken by the Ilomantsi Museum Foundation in
Hattuvaara, Finland.
The Fighter´s Trail Sikrenvaara is about 1.5km long path, which runs through the battle terrain.
Along the path there are information boards in which war veterans describe the course of the
battle. The 13 information signs were replaced with new boards. The content of the information
boards was produced in Russian and English. The trail was marked in the grounds by marking
the trees along the trail.
At the beginning of the trail a new information board was produced introducing the battles in
Hattuvaara. A QR code was added for accessing the Open Karelia system.
A virtual guide “Taistelijan Taival” was produced for the Fighter´s Trail. This virtual guide can
be downloaded from:
- App Store (IOS)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taistelijan-taival/id949460811?mt=8
- Google Play (Android)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.efilon.taistelijantaival
- Windows Marketplace (Windows Phone)
http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=63028143-d9d6-4396-9484-96b100396728
Palovaara memorial site was built for the memorial of the battle of Ilomantsi. The old and very
rundown information board was renovated. The content of the board was reproduced and
information can now be found also in Russian and in English. A QR code was added for
accessing the Open Karelia system.
The Artillery Shelter is located next to the Fighter´s House. It is an exhibition site for 13 types of
artillery used in Ilomantsi battles. Each artillery was named and 13 nameplates were installed.
All information concerning artillery was produced also in Russian and English. A QR code was
added for each artillery nameplate for accessing the Open Karelia system. A new exhibition was
produced and installed at the Artillery Shelter. About 30 meters long and 1,5m high “Stories
from behind the artillery” exhibition describes the historical facts of the Ilomantsi and
Hattuvaara battles. The new exhibition is composed of authentic black and white photographs
and quotations from the people during the wartime. A soundscape was installed at the Artillery
Shelter.
Wartime objects and exhibition of Karelian parishes previously belonged to Finland are
presented in so-called outdoor showcases at the Fighter´s House. The exhibition boards were in a
bad condition. Also the exhibition board for the Finnish Border Guard was in a bad condition
and the information was outdated. The new exhibition boards, totally 5 boards, were produced
and installed in the outdoor showcases. New content was produced for the exhibition and all
information is in Russian and in English. Content for the Finnish Border Guard was renewed in
cooperation with the local Finnish Border Guard office. A QR code was added for accessing the
Open Karelia system.
A roll-up exhibition “From the Vyborg Civil Guard to the Jungles of Vietnam - Törni, a citizen
of the World” was produced. It replaced the previous collection of fact sheets on Törni. This
exhibition describes a very international career of famous Finnish soldier Lauri Törni. He and his
troops also fought and stayed in Hattuvaara during the continuation war.
Downstairs at the Fighter´s House there is a small auditorium where an av-presentation is shown.
Outdated av-presentation described the historical facts of the Second World War and especially
the events and battles related to Ilomantsi and Hattuvaara. A new av -presentation, also subtitled
in English and Russian, was produced for the Fighter´s House. Presentation equipment was
renewed by installing a new subwoofer to create adequate audio environment. Equipment for
enabling the pc-presentation at the auditorium was installed.
A seminar and the opening of the three new exhibitions was organised at the Fighter´s House on
18th October 2014. Over 50 participants interested in war historical events, lectures and new
exhibitions took part the event. Seminar and exhibitions gained interest in media and was
reported four times in newspapers.
The North Karelian Museum (Joensuu, Finland) and the National Museum of the Republic
of Karelia had their exhibitions expanded with information. The main exhibits were supplied
with QR codes. Museum visitors can use museums’ tablet computers. The quality of wi-fi
connection was improved. The exhibition of the National Museum is now fully covered by wi-fi.
The main exhibit in the North Karelian Museum, the model of the city of Sortavala of 1939, is
now being interpreted by means of the Virtual Sortavala website which can be accessed from the
touchscreen computer placed near the model.
Mobile phone virtual tour was planned to produce cooperation with Contemporary Old City project because in that project mobile application of cultural sites in Joensuu was made and one
of the most marked site is Carelicum/North Karelian museum. One virtual tour version was made
also for the North Karelian museum´s website. It was published in September 2014 in Finnish, in
English and in Russian.
Altogether, the museums were supplied with:
- hypertext mark-up system of the museum information environment;
- the system of introductory navigation centers and integrated communication junctions with
modern computer and multimedia equipment placed in the exhibitions;
- QR codes in the exhibitions and public spaces in the museums;
- new version of audio and visual content in the Russian, Finnish and English languages.
ACTIVITY 10. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSEUMS’ STAFF
After the negotiation with potential moderators and participants the intended online seminars
were held as a 3-day seminar “Museum communication and marketing” on October 13-15, 2014
in the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk.
38 participants from Karelian museums gathered together to talk about museum communications
and marketing. Modern approaches to interaction with visitors, competencies of museum
workers, participatory culture and differences between Finnish-speaking visitors of the Russian
museums and Russian-speaking visitors of the Finnish museums were on the agenda of Day 1
moderated by Darya Agapova, an executive director of the Museum Development Center and a
curator of the Children Days in St. Petersburg festival from Helsinki and St.Petersburg.
The second day was devoted to new museum marketing strategies. The key question of the day
was how to attract more visitors to museums. Natalia Kopelyanskaya, a cultural and museum
project designer from the Moscow center for museum development talked about motivation of
museum visitors, methods and tools to attract them, educational packages of small museums and
services.
The seminar was completed with a hands-on training on the Open Karelia information system
which was developed in the framework of project. Representatives of other museums of Karelia
which are not project partners but which express interest in joining the Open Karelia system
were part of the last seminar day. Specialists of the Kizhi Museum and the Fine Arts Museum of
the Republic of Karelia also joined the seminar. The Open Karelia system was presented from
the point of view of a user, a museum worker and a system administrator.
A live broadcast of the seminar was arranged for the Finnish partners of the project on Youtube
and a skype connection was used for feedback.
Following this seminar, a special hands-on training on the Open Karelia system was held for the
Finnish partners in Joensuu on October 20, 2014.
Quantitative results:
- 1 seminar “Museum communications and marketing” in Petrozavodsk, 3 days, 38 participants;
- 2 hands-on trainings on the Open Karelia system.
ACTIVITY 11. INFORMATION PROMOTION OF MUSEUM PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES OF THE EUREGIO KARELIA REGION
In September 2014 the designers started work on developing printed and souvenirs products for
the participating museums from Karelia. The list of souvenir products was shortened to a
magnetic bookmark, a magnet, and a calendar. Images for the produced souvenirs were
suggested by the participating museums from their collections. Besides, as promotional products,
t-shirts and fabric bags were designed and produced. They bear the word “Karelia”. The font and
spelling of this name was taken from the 16th - 17th century maps of Europe. The developed
designs were passed to the participating museums to be used in their further work. The North
Karelian museum developed an extra souvenir which is a little textile bag that can be used as a
toilet bag, a pencil case, etc. It was designed by a social company Nuorisoverstas. Five photos
were chosen from the North Karelian museum´s photo collection and their information was fed
to the Open Karelia system. Photos and QR codes were printed to the special textile and sewed
on the textile bags. Nuorisoverstas prepared written production instructions which were from
Finnish to Russian and shared to all partners.
Several printed materials were designed and produced in the framework of the project by and for
the partners: a brochure on the Open Karelia system, four information booklets about the Russian
participating museums, a Pielisjoki river tourist map which uses possibilities of the Open Karelia
system and QR codes, a brochure about the North Karelian Museum, a brochure about the
Fighter’s House.
The brochure on the Open Karelia system is registered in the IEEE Xplore international library
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=7000932 and is indexed in Scopus. It
means that the brochure is available to all libraries and universities of the world with their free
subscriptions to this database.
Quantitative results:
- Magnetic bookmarks (3 types x 500 copies for each of the 4 Karelian museums; total 6000
copies);
- Magnets (3 types x 500 copies for each of the 4 Karelian museums; total 6000 copies);
- Calendar (6000 copies in Russian/English/Finnish);
- T-shirts with “Karelia” print (font and spelling of the word taken from the 16th - 17th century
maps of Europe), 100 copies;
- Fabric bags with “Karelia” print (font and spelling of the word taken from the 16th - 17th
century maps of Europe), 100 copies;
- Souvenir bags (50 copies);
- Booklet on the Open Karelia system (3000 copies in Russian/English/Finnish);
- Information booklets on the Regional museum of North Ladoga, Sortavala (3000 copies in
Russian/English);
- Information booklets on the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk (3000
copies in Russian/English);
- Information booklets on the Medvezhyegorsk regional museum (3000 copies in
Russian/English);
- Information booklets on the Cultural and museum center of Kostomuksha (3000 copies in
Russian/English);
- Tourist map of the Pielisjoki river (3000 in Finnish, 300 in English, 500 in Russian, total 3800
copies);
- North Karelian Museum brochure (3000 in Finnish, 3000 in English, 2000 in Russian, total
8000 copies);
- Brochure about the Fighter’s House (2500 in Finnish, 2500 in English/Russian, total 5000
copies)
12. CLOSING DAYS. A VISIT TOUR TO PARTICIPATING MUSEUMS
The final visit tour to the participating museums took place on December 8-12, 2014. The
partners travelled over 1500 km through the Russian and Finnish Karelia following the route
from Petrozavodsk to Sortavala, Joensuu, Parppeinvaara, Hattuvaara, Kostomuksha,
Medvezhyegorsk and back to Petrozavodsk. Each visited museum presented their local results of
the project’s implementation. The most significant output of the project is the Open Karelia
information system. Each museum placed QR codes in its exhibition that lead to the system.
They received tablet computers and touch screen information kiosks for the visitors to access the
Open Karelia system. The North Karelian Museum (Joensuu) created the Virtual Sortavala
website that introduces the life of Sortavala in the 20th century and fetches information from the
Open Karelia system. The National Museum of the Republic of Karelia developed an audio
guide for the visually impaired visitors based on the Open Karelia system and created quest
games for children and families. These games can be used by other museums as well. All these
achievements were tested by the final tour participants.
Another important achievement of the project is the upgrade of exhibitions in participating
museums. During the final tour three new exhibitions were presented: The Sortavala Stone Keys
in the Sortavala museum, The Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace in the Kostomuksha
museum, and The Zaonezhsky Junction in the Medvezhyegorsk museum. An indoor and outdoor
exhibition in the Fighter’s House (Hattuvaara, Finland) was also upgraded with new exhibition
sections, audio guidance, information stands, etc.
On December 9, 2014 a seminar on further cooperation between partners in the post-project
period was held in Joensuu. On December 12, 2014 the tour was completed with a final press
conference in Petrozavodsk with participation of the representatives from other projects, local
media and authorities.
Quantitative results:
- Over 1500 km travelled;
- 5 days;
- 6 museums visited;
- 1 seminar on further cooperation in Joensuu;
- 1 press conference in Petrozavodsk.