All that is solid melts into bits: Advanced ICT technologies for converting fashion into museum exhibits

Museums and similar institutions are historically locations where content is typically only intellectually appreciated following linear visiting patterns. No interactions, in fact, are typically implemented and no possible choice is drawn in front of a visitor regarding the exhibits that will be shown. In addition, exhibition experiences are typically confined within their buildings' walls, not projecting themselves beyond those limits. In this work we present an installation that aims at breaking such limitations for fashion exhibitions, particularly relevant for the simple fact that their exhibits cannot typically be relocated, experienced or shared with the outside world. With this installation, namely PreTAporTek, visitors, along with museum curators, become active players within museums, that, in turn, can extend their reach beyond their walls. Pretaportek, in fact, implements a special mechanism that enables, at once: (a) the active participation of a visitor within (visitors are led to choose their own and personalized visiting patterns), and, (b) the publication of personalized exhibitive content on social media. The contribution of this paper is hence that of describing how both of these objectives have been reached at once.