Abstract
This study investigates novel approaches to enhance the interaction between museum collections and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered systems and, in this context, evaluates an interactive platform developed for the Ankara Painting and Sculpture Museum (RHM). The “Namık İsmail’s Living Gallery” digital platform was developed for this research, focusing on a collection of works by Namık İsmail, a prominent artist of the Çallı Generation. This platform enriches the visitor discovery experience by offering features such as advanced filtering options, a natural language processing (NLP) infrastructure, and a similar artwork recommender system. One of the platform’s most innovative features is the integration of a chatbot that enables visitors to directly engage with the artworks “from the artwork’s perspective”. This chatbot assigns a unique digital persona to each artwork, facilitating consistent and contextual dialogues that align with the artwork’s character. The resulting platform offers an innovative approach that aims to deepen the museum experience through digital tools and foster more meaningful connections between visitors and artworks. As a pioneering application in the field of digital museology in Türkiye, this platform brings a new perspective to the literature with the interactive model it introduces for the presentation of cultural heritage.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI), cultural heritage, digital museology, chatbots, digital persona, interactive platforms, museum experience
References
- Akça, S. (2020). Teknoloji ve bilgi çağında müzeler: Genel bakış. Türk Kütüphaneciliği, 34(2), 263-274. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tk/issue/55516/677817
- American Alliance of Museums. (2018, Haziran 19). IRIS+ Part Two: How to embed a museum’s personality and values in AI. American Alliance of Museums. https://www.aam-us.org/2018/06/19/iris-part-two-how-to-embed-a-museums-personality-and-values-in-ai/
- Ashri, R. (2017, Nisan 3). How museums are using chatbots. Medium. https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-museums-are-using-chatbots-5-real-world-examples-34e9d4858dd9
- Bauer, K. (2019, Mayıs 8). Want to text a dinosaur? The Field Museum will now let you send messages to Máximo the Titanosaur. Block Club Chicago. https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/05/08/want-to-text-a-dinosaur-the-field-museum-will-now-let-you-send-messages-to-maximo-the-titanosaur/
- Candello, H., Barth, F., Carvalho, E. ve Cotia, R. A. G. (2020). Understanding how visitors interact with voice-based conversational systems. A. Marcus ve E. Rosenzweig (Yay. Haz.), Design, User Experience, and Usability. Design for contemporary interactive environments (s. 40-55). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49760-6_3
- Carignani, F., Clemente, L., Iodice, G. ve Bifulco, F. (2023). How management uses AI in the museum field: From chatbots towards ChatGTP. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374191991_How_management_uses_AI_in_the_museum_field_from_chatbots_towards_chat_GTP
- Chat with Natalie. (2025). https://chatnataliepotter.metmuseum.org/visit
- Çakmak, T. (2017). Müzelere yönelik bilgi yönetimi eğitimi: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Bilgi ve Belge Yönetimi Bölümü öğrencilerinin analizi. Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 57(2), 796-821. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/dtcfdergisi/issue/66796/1044508
- Davis-Marks, I. (2021). Lost edges of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” are restored using artificial intelligence | Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lost-edges-rembrandts-night-watch-are-restored-using-artificial-intelligence-180978056/
- Dem Museums. (2025). Ufukta “AI” var! Müzeler yapay zekayla bir araya geldiğinde nelerle karşılaşacağız? https://www.demmuseums.com/tr/ufukta-ai-var-muzeler-yapay-zekayla-bir-araya-geldiginde-nelerle-karsilasacagiz/
- Derda, I. ve Predescu, D. (2025). Towards human-centric AI in museums: Practitioners’ perspectives and technology acceptance of visitor-centered AI for value (co-)creation. Museum Management and Curatorship, 0(0), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2025.2467703
- Erbay, C. O. (2016). Bilişim çağının müzecilik çalışmalarına etkileri. İstanbul Üniversitesi.
- Essen, Y. E. V. (2024). Integrating AI in Museums: A new phase in museum transformation. Mimesis Journal, 13(2), 229–242. https://doi.org/10.13135/2389-6086/10030
- Gerber, K. (2018). Tour Akron Art Museum with Dot the Chatbot. https://www.theformgroup.com/articles/2018/10/17/tour-akron-art-museum-with-dot-the-chatbot
- Gong, Y., Cosma, G. ve Finke, A. (2023). Neural-based cross-modal search and retrieval of artwork (arXiv:2307.14244). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2307.14244
- Gümüş, F. (2019). Müzelerde yapay zeka uygulamaları, etkileri ve geleceği [Yüksek Lisans Tezi]. İstanbul Üniversitesi. https://nek.istanbul.edu.tr/ekos/TEZ/ET001014.pdf
- Karadeniz, C. (2020). Müzede dijital teknolojilerin kullanımı ve salgın sürecinde dijital katılım. İdil Sanat ve Dil Dergisi, 9(70), 975-984. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=964929
- Munro, C. (2016, Şubat 29). Meet Berenson, the robot art critic. Artnet News. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/robot-art-critic-berenson-436739
- Özel, N. (2016). Müzelerde bilginin düzenlenmesi ve erişime sunulması: Ankara’daki müzelere yönelik bir araştırma. Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 56(1), 177-209. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/dtcfdergisi/issue/66793/1044448
- Pasikowska-Schnass, M. ve Lim, Y. S. (2023). Artificial intelligence in the context of cultural heritage and museums. European Parliamentary Research Service. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2023/747120/EPRS_BRI(2023)747120_EN.pdf
- Richardson, J. (2019a, Şubat 14). Art meets artificial intelligence as museum resurrects Salvador Dalí. MuseumNext. https://www.museumnext.com/article/dali-lives-art-meets-artificial-intelligence/
- Richardson, J. (2019b, Eylül 14). How are museums using chatbots? MuseumNext. https://www.museumnext.com/article/how-are-museums-are-using-chatbots/
- Schuettpelz, E., Frandsen, P., Dikow, R., Brown, A., Orli, S., Peters, M., Metallo, A., Funk, V. ve Dorr, L. (2017). Applications of deep convolutional neural networks to digitized natural history collections. Biodiversity Data Journal, 5, e21139. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e21139
- Smithsonian Institution. (2018). Smithsonian launches pilot program of “Pepper” robots. Smithsonian Institution. https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-launches-pilot-program-pepper-robots
- Styx, L. (2024, Mayıs 12). How are museums using artificial intelligence? MuseumNext. https://www.museumnext.com/article/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-museums/
- The British Museum. (2025). The living museum. The Living Museum. https://livingmuseum.app
- Varitimiadis, S., Kotis, K., Pittou, D. ve Konstantakis, G. (2021). Graph-based conversational AI: Towards a distributed and collaborative multi-chatbot approach for museums. Applied Sciences, 11(19), 9160. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11199160
- Varitimiadis, S., Kotis, K., Skamagis, A., Tzortzakakis, A., Tsekouras, G. ve Spiliotopoulos, D. (2020). Towards implementing an AI chatbot platform for museums. International Conference on Cultural Informatics, Communication & Media Studies, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.12681/cicms.2732
- Vidu, C.-M., Zbuchea, A. ve Pinzaru, F. (2021). Old meets new: Integrating artificial intelligence in museums’ management practices. C. Bratianu ve diğerleri (Yay. Haz.), Strategica. Shaping the future of business and economy (s. 830–844). Tritonik. https://strategica-conference.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/63-1.pdf
License
Copyright (c) 2025 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.



