Traditionally, cultural experiences have taken place in physical spaces such as museums. However, museums are struggling to attract new and young visitors. Therefore, the oldest public aquarium in the world, the aquarium de Paris embraces emerging technologies such as the metaverse and non-fungible tokens(NFTs). This shift exemplifies how the Metaverse disrupt cultural engagement as the digital and physical worlds converge.
People from around the world can now immerse themselves in the world of jellyfish without leaving their homes with the Jellyfish NFT collection. The Jellyfish NFT collection is a first-of-its kind scientifically accurate marine biology NFT project (Aquarium de Paris – Metaseum, n.d.). Aquarium de Paris has the largest jellyfish collection in the world, outside of Japan. A collection of 1234 Jellyfish based NFT’s on 64 species have been launched in December 2022 in collaboration with the Metaseum, a metaverse of culture and cultural institutions. The particular thing about these jellyfish NFT’s is that they are a 1:1 replication of real jellyfish swimming in the aquarium (Desk, 2022). The NFT’s have been verified by a team of marine biologists. So all characteristics of the NFT correspond to the jellyfish in the aquarium, such as their names, scientific families, geographical locations, ages and more. By acquiring a jellyfish NFT, you are also promoting the sharing of knowledge on a relatively unknown animal; jellyfish. With the launch of this collection, Aquarium de Paris is the first one in history to use metadata to categorize scientific traits as NFTs (Desk, 2022). For the first time, scientific data is encoded on the blockchain, which makes science and art come together.
Moreover, the aquarium de Paris is opening its doors in the metaverse in Oktober this year. The Metaverse is a digital space that empowers users to interact socially, using digital avatars, to generate value and co-create experiences (Gursoy et al., 2022). Using this emerging technologies, they hope to create a new community. I personally think it is super interesting to see an old established organization such as the aquarium de Paris to be open for change, and explore emerging technologies such as NFTs and the metaverse.
In the next post, I will look further into the interaction between the creator and the consumer, and discuss whether I think these emerging technologies can help cultural experiences reach more people and increase engagement. Do you think that the use of emerging technologies stimulates the interaction between people and culture?
Sources
Aquarium de Paris—Metaseum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2023, from https://www.metaseum.space/aquarium-de-paris
Desk, A. P. (2022, December 9). The Aquarium de Paris and Metaseum launch the world’s first scientifically accurate NFT collection. AlexaBlockchain. https://alexablockchain.com/the-aquarium-de-paris-metaseum-launch-worlds-first-scientifically-accurate-nft-collection/
Gursoy, D., Malodia, S., & Dhir, A. (2022). The metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry: An overview of current trends and future research directions. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 31(5), 527–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2022.2072504
Hi Lisa, very interesting story. The progression of economic value from commodities, to goods, to services, to experiences have learned us that customization and differentiation can create more economic value. It seems like the aquarium has taken a next step in building an experience, by finding a way to deliver it to the customer (no longer a visitor).
Personally, I think that tapping into these emerging technologies makes the experience more accessible – now you can be anywhere in the world to virtually visit a place in Paris. Interaction with the objects may be easier to achieve in a Metaverse environment, which may enhance appreciation of the jellyfish (and other cultural or scientific artifacts). Personalization may also be easier to tap into in the Metaverse, which may also enhance customer engagement.
However, while you are able to make virtual connections in the Metaverse, I am doubtful about whether it may fully replace the real human-to-human interaction and connection which may result from together visiting cultural instances such as the museum – which form a very important benefit of visiting. Other than that I am not sure if a digital version of a jellyfish may truly capture its essence, and therefore I am doubting the authenticity of the virtual experience.
Very interesting post! It is fascinating to see that these relatively new technologies are being used by well established historical institutions. Additionally, since this technology is mostly representative of digital art and collectibles, Aquarium de Paris adopting this is not something that would have been obvious. Though, the NFT’s portraying scientifically accurate replicas of the jellyfish promotes the educational aspect of what aquariums’ initially try to do. This also demonstrates how these emerging technologies are not only intended for artistic purposes but could be leveraged anywhere. So to answer your question, yes, I do think that the use of emerging technologies stimulate the interaction between people and culture, especial since you can experience this while staying home.
Hey Lisa, thanks for sharing this is story. NFT’s are a hot topic in the last few years and the technology has already been adopted in many different. I personally like the way NFT’s and the Metaverse is used and the potential has really caught my attention. The metaverse eliminates the fact users have to be physical presence to enjoy a museum, making it more accessible for people. Have you thought about buying a Jellyfish NFT to support the project?
To answer your question: In my opinion the use of NFT’s and the metaverse will play a big role in enhancing the interaction between people and culture. The use of VR and AR to visualize NFT’s and the metaverse will have a lot of potential. For instance, in education there are a lot of use cases for this technology. Teachers can use the technology during their classes. A biology teacher is giving a lecture about Jellyfish. How cool would it be if the students all put on a VR glasses in class and all of a sudden the whole class is inside ocean looking at digital Jellyfish. The lectures would be so much more engaging and interesting, because the teacher can literally show a Jellyfish moving in the digital environment and teach the students about it. Personally, I would be much more interested if lectures were visualized like this. Another example is a history teacher that is talking about a big battle during the roman empire age. It would be so cool if the students are standing digitally on the battlefield and experience what it is like to be a soldier during a war. I think that the interaction between people and culture will improve significantly by using this emerging technology, especially for the youth. I am looking forward to the second blog post!