Building upon my own research and experience, as well as the feedback from the exhibition, there are some changes that I would make to ‘Digital Seance’ if I would be to host the event again.
The first point is the location. Although the space used had enough space and available resources to host the event, it was not the most ideal venue. The setting of the location could have been further adapted to the theme, but starting in a location that better matches the theme would assist in creating the atmosphere for the audience, and feel more ‘real’ for the event. The space needed to be darker as well. Although the windows were covered up as much as they could have been, it still was not dark enough for all the projections to be crystal clear. A darker location would have much improve the quality of the event.
The amount of interactivity would be increased. Whilst there were limited elements that fully immersed the audience, more of these elements would have benefitted the event. Instead of just looking at the artefacts, the audience could have been further engaged with them. Adding new exhibits, as well as making the previous ones, like the map, more audience interactive would further engage them in the piece; making it a more enjoyable and memorable experience as a whole.
Tweaking of the audio will be a key part of hosting another exhibition. Although clear in a contained space, the audio was less understandable when played into a noise room with other things going on. Additional testing of the audio could have allowed for this to have been change ahead of the first exhibition, but will be tweaked for any subsequent ones. More varied audio, or making the audio less repetitive, would improve this element of the exhibition, as it was rated low amongst the guests that attended.
The number of exhibits would be increased for a second exhibition. As positive feedback was given about some of the elements, most notably the Haunted Photo, increasing the number of exhibits like this would add more for the audience to take in. Hosting a bigger event of more artefacts would solve some of the previously mentioned issues, as well as allowing me to try out new content. Using the established features as a basis, different elements could be integrated to expand on what already exists in Digital Seance. As 100% of guests said they would return if there was new content, there is already an established audience for a second, bigger event. Word of mouth would also allow this event to be more popular. By combining the well-received elements of the current iteration of Digital Seance in with new ones, the event could expand and attract a larger audience. These new features, and tweaked old ones, would improve the exhibition for a second event.