Museum, Human Archive, and Technologies: Digital Serving Oral Culture

In a museum, digital technology can strongly influence the perceived experience, the content creation and transmission, and the environment or visitor actions. However, we wonder whether it is always appropriate to introduce it and how, as well as wondering when technologies are actually able to contribute to the extraction of cultural value. This article, aware that the digital dimension should not compensate for the lack of content but rather help in conveying it, highlights the key role of technology in the staging, storage, and transmission of intangible heritage with a particular focus on the culture of orality. Far from the abstractionism of pure theoretical reflection, a concrete example is here examined, highlighting the backstories of the design. “Made with Care” is the multimedia exhibition organized in the new Kohelr museum in Reggio Emilia to keep the immense human heritage of the company alive, usable, and enduring. A direct experience in the design and production of this multimedia exhibit enables us to deal with the main topic in a systematic and concrete way, testing in the real dimension the sharp intuitions of theory.