Museum ExplorAR: Exploring Affect and Electrodermal Activity in a Museum Augmented Reality Application

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) applications for cultural heritage environments are rapidly reaching a new stage of maturity in their development and design. This study demonstrates the affective potential of AR visitor experiences. Furthermore, it considers methods for understanding forms of embodied affective response these applications create. The study investigated visitors’ experiences during an AR tour developed at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museums Wales, UK. Through an interdisciplinary approach to affective computing, affect in heritage studies, and psychology, it problematizes the use of wearable technology in the field of affective computing when working in an open, ambulatory cultural environment. Across an interdisciplinary body of literature, a tension between the claims of affective computing, the seductive nature of neat metrics, and the physiological, psychological evidence becomes apparent. The paper concludes with a discussion and reflections on the affective potential of AR, its impact on visitor experience, and the validity of physiological data in this context.