Art museums use apps in bid to attract younger crowds

The museum of the future - one that uses technology to track down exactly where you are and maybe even which Jackson Pollock you'd like to look at - may not have quite arrived yet, but institutions around the world are quietly updating and innovating this kind of technology to engage with their audiences.

However, as Newton's third law states: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, for every app-loving, gadget-embracing museum curator or visitor there is a solitude-craving, analogue enthusiast who feels that pixelated screens and interactive devices interfere with the very soul of the museum-going experience. Their goal is to stand quietly in front of art and ponder its significance and place in history - without technological intrusion.

Regardless of the tension between the two philosophies, everyone agrees: museums are changing, perhaps at the fastest clip since the introduction of rudimentary audio guides in the 1950s. The institutions are updating themselves in hopes of staying relevant in a world where video killed the radio star - and where Snapchat killed the Facebook meme.

"Museums are not easy institutions. They have a reputation for being very closed, very formal, with too many rules," says Susana Smith Bautista, director of public engagement at the USC Pacific Asia Museum and author of Museums in the Digital Age: Changing Meanings of Place, Community, and Culture.

"Technology is a bit more accessible and familiar. It's a fun way to get to your end goal, which is to help people appreciate and learn about the work."

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recently launched a mobile app with audio tours, a searchable database of art on view, online collection information and push notifications alerting visitors when the bulbs on Chris Burden's landmark Urban Light sculpture turn on and how many solar panels sit above your head when you walk from one building to the next.