Next time you explore one of the Carnegie Museums, you could be guided by the founder himself, Andrew Carnegie, in chatbot form.
Andy CarnegieBot, a technological guide to the Summer Adventure program that provides Carnegie museumgoers with simulated conversation, trivia, scavenger hunt, event reminders and more through the Facebook Messenger app, went live this summer.
As technology evolves, museums are constantly attempting to find creative ways to engage visitors without getting in the way of the museum experience, said Ed Motznik, vice president of technology of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
According to research conducted by the Carnegie Museums, most visitors are unwilling to download an app to enhance their experience. However, because most visitors already had Facebook Messenger installed on their phones, the design team decided to create a program using the app, he said.
When visitors enter the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie Museum of Natural History or the Warhol Museum they are prompted by signs located just inside the entrance to scan a code using Andy CarnegieBot. This is done by selecting “scan code” under the people tab of the Facebook Messenger app. This checks visitors into the museum. By checking into museums and participating in activities, users earn stamps that members can be redeem for prizes at the gift shop.
At the end of the summer, the stamps will be entered into a drawing for a grand prize. Off-site, users can still interact with Andy CarnegieBot to answer lighthearted polls, learn about museum events or play trivia. The education department from each museum helped design the trivia portion.
“We’re hoping people learn about our collections, objects in the natural history museum, learn about specific artworks, learn about technology,” Mr. Motznik said. “It’s a fun way to learn.”
Depending on which museum code is scanned, Andy CarnegieBot will look different in Facebook Messenger. At the Warhol Museum, he carries a can of Campbell’s soup and is wearing an Andy Warhol-esque wig; at the Natural History Museum the chatbot is riding a dinosaur. The Museum of Art Andy’s face is encased in a portrait, and fittingly, the Andrew Carnegie for the science center is robotized.
Andy CarnegieBot was built by the Carnegie Museum’s in-house Innovation Studio using a grant from the Knight Foundation. The foundation required that the design be open sourced, in the hopes that other museums across the country could adopt the software and design. It was designed so new polls, scavengers hunts and trivia could easily be added and modified.
One of the most popular aspects of Andy CarnegieBot has been the scavenger hunt offered in the Museum of Natural History. It was designed by Carnegie Museums member Juliette Heiby, 9, and her mom, Julianna, who live in Venetia. The museum asked the Heibys to create the official Summer Adventure scavenger hunt after observing them following a scavenger hunt of their own design in the museum for Juliette’s birthday last year.
“We love the museums,” Juliette said. “I don’t just go to the dinosaurs. I mean, the dinosaurs are cool but not as cool as the rocks and all the other parts.”
At the Museum of Natural History, users can use Andy CarnegieBot to scan a sign for the hunt near the entrance, but if the first sign is missed, scanning any scavenger hunt sticker in the museum will prompt clues. At each subsequent stop, visitors will find a sticker with Andy CarnegieBot, which they scan to be given the next clue. The clues range from easy to slightly more difficult, Ms. Heiby said, but they were written so that the whole family could be engaged and have fun.
Juliette’s favorite section of the museum, the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems, was integrated into the scavenger hunt. The clues lead participants through nearly every section of the museum, from ancient Egypt to Andrew Carnegie’s first dinosaur and African wildlife.
Some of the clues are easier and geared toward younger children, instructing users to simply find a specific animal of an exhibit, while others are a bit trickier, containing puns that even parents will find amusing: “Just like Dad jokes, the next one is corny. Don’t get too a-maized, but there are two spots where you can practice your corn-grinding skills. Shucks, you might have to stalk through the rows of the exhibit before the answer pops out at you.”
Ms. Heiby has been coming to the museum for years. She remembers coming with her dad to find the beaver display as a young girl after reading Brian Jacques’ “Redwall” series. She now integrates museum visits into her home schooling curriculum for Juliette.
“We’ve been [to the museum] so many times now that we’re not really seeing anything new,” Ms. Heiby. “Just the concept of what this building represents to an industrial city and how it enriches the people who come in. ... I get all emotional about what it means for Pittsburgh to have a building like this.”
The chatbot is just the latest technological project from the Innovation Studio implemented in the Carnegie Museums and around Pittsburgh. Out Loud is an audio guide in parts of the Warhol Museum for those who are blind or have visual impairments. The Section of Mystery in the Museum of Natural History invites visitors to take a peek behind an enticing door in the Hall of Birds to see and hear holograms of various animals. The Curious Collection, located In Concourse A of the Pittsburgh International Airport, displays the favorite museum pieces of 24 Pittsburgh residents (including the Post-Gazette’s Tony Norman) in hologram form. The Dawn Chorus app, which has been downloaded 800,000 times, offers a variety of Western Pennsylvania bird calls as alarm sounds.
Each of these projects attempts to engage the community with Pittsburgh’s museum offerings, Mr. Motznik said.
“We’re hoping they feel more engaged with our collection, our objects and our museums in general,” he said. “Internally, we’re hoping we learn how people want to digitally interact with museums.”
Marie Fazio: mfazio@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 17, 2018, 3:19 p.m.
