Information Design for Use of Museum Materials : Learning Kit for "Scenes In and Around Kyoto" Folding Screen

Abstract

This paper is about a museum outreach kit we developed featuring the folding screen of "Scenes In and Around Kyoto." The kit comprises three items: (i) replica of the folding screen (one half of the original size), (ii) nine explanation cards visualized by information graphics, and (iii) digital content for portable game device. Museums often lack the enough exhibition space, and accordingly not all items can be exposed to the visitors. In addition, exhibiting the latest findings in historical research requires high costs and tremendous cares. We aimed to develop a kit to address these issues by making use of information design. The kit we developed enables museum users a realistic experience of the unexposed historical items. Furthermore, the kit enables visitors to interpret a historical event in relation to the current society and to the site where it occurred. Accomplishing several field surveys and studies, we completed the development of the kit under the supervision of history researchers and tested its effectiveness through workshops. The kit will be used for middle and high school students' workshops that are performed during the excursion trips.