Digital environments as third spaces: analyses of simple artefacts in the rooms of the MOdE

Abstract

With the spread of digital environments that allow the user to design and produce contents, we have asked ourselves whether digital museums can be considered as ‘third spaces’ in which it is possible to exhibit, research, aggregate and re-elaborate, in a shared narrative, materials and experiences coming from different contexts. Conceiving the digital museum as a third space of contamination between formal and informal, presence and distance, real and digital presupposes the rethinking of the functions of the museum itself, capable of connecting both the demands for safeguards and those of accessibility to the cultural heritage, for an access to knowledge that is increasingly open. Starting from these premises, this contribution references the digital museum Museo Officina dell’Educazione (MOdE) as a third space by specifically analysing the digital settings produced by students of the upper secondary schools and by university students.

Keywords

• third space
• digital museums
• digital learning environments
• artefacts
• knowledge process