Museums in Finland and Karelia are actively developing mobile applications for visitors

Museums participating in the InterActive History project continue to develop mobile applications.

At the end of 2019, the Ilomantsi Museum Foundation prepared and posted on the Internet a trilingual mobile guide to the Parppeinvaara Rune Singer’s Village in Ilomantsi. Using the application you can learn about the objects of the Rune Singer’s Village, the oral traditions of the Ilomantsi, hear and see the unique recordings of traditional Karelian rune singing and laments.

North Karelian museum’s InterActive History team has continued working on Utra district’s mobile guides. One of the upcoming mobile guides is called “Utra on hävityksen kaupunti” (“Utra is the town of destruction”), which will introduce the dark and mysterious side of Utra district’s history via old stories and news. Jussi Sinkkonen has created atmospheric illustration and videos for the mobile guide. The museum is looking forward to the publication of mobile guides and will inform about the schedule later. Then will be revealed for example, how a handbag is related to the stories of Utra disctrict’s history.

Outokumpu Mining Museum, in cooperation with the Riveria-schools 3D-production students, continues to develop of the Concentration plant mobile guide. Old blueprints of the different concentrating machines and of the concentration plant have been digitized for a mobile application in Joensuu. Negotiations have been had with Hurja Solutions Oy and 3D Talo Finland about the integration of the Concentration plant mobile guide into the City of Outokumpu’s mobile app.

Russian museums are also actively developing mobile applications. Since last year, a binocular with historical panoramas of the Round Square of Petrozavodsk has been working in the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia – one of the museum’s application modules. The preparation of an advanced beta version of the mobile application for the National Museum with a map of the Round Square, information sections for the key points of the square and panoramas is nearing completion. Information is also being collected and adapted on the historical objects of the Olonets Fortress for the mobile application of the Olonets National Museum and the key points of the Lopotti Fortress hill for the application of the Kurkijoki Local History Center.

The InterActive History project is a joint effort of six museums in Russia and Finland to create and introduce new interactive museum services based on research and interpretation of local cultural heritage, interactive principles and historical reconstruction in order to develop local identity and unique culture of the Euregio Karelia region. The project is implemented through the Karelia cross-border cooperation program in the partnership with the Ministry of culture of the Republic of Karelia.

Karelia CBC Program is financed by the European Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland.