An investigation on strategies for remote interactions with cultural spaces

The global spread of Covid-19 has turned remote technologies into a basic requirement for people to participate in daily social life. Accordingly, the pandemic has forced cultural institutions to adapt and focus on remote experiences in order to sustain their service offerings and patronage. In this study, we analyse 15 recent case studies exploring novel interfaces for hybrid and virtual cultural venues, offering progressive approaches from physical to virtual interactions. In particular, we posit sociability and physical situatedness as core features that should be considered when designing remote interactions with cultural spaces. Based on that, we propose a preliminary method to rank those two features (the Local-Social Index), and utilise it to compare the different emerging implementations against each other, as well as against traditional in situ visits. Finally, we discuss potential ways forward for designing hybrid social visits where local and remote visitors can jointly partake in cultural appreciation.