UnlockArt: Cultural Mediation at the Museum Through an Augmented Reality Escape Room

UnlockArt is a case study describing the design and deployment of an augmented reality educational escape room created as a cultural mediation tool for the Museo delle Culture (MUSEC) in Lugano, Switzerland. Its central argument is that the escape room format, typically used in classrooms, can be adapted to a museum setting when constrained by the needs of visitors who do not play, the fragility of artworks, and the absence of staff to reset physical locks. The project was built around the "JAPAN. Arts and Life. The Montgomery Collection" exhibition of Japanese objects spanning the 12th to 20th centuries, and was developed with the design framework known as the Star Model, from May 2021 to June 2022.

The resulting game is played on tablets lent to visitors, who scan QR codes placed near artworks to solve puzzles such as spotting differences in images, counting motifs, matching objects to modern equivalents, and reconstructing a kimono. Puzzles were tied directly to real exhibits and the brochure, and the augmented reality format removed the need for physical resets, timers, or sound. The application was built on an existing platform and extended with a Japanese-themed interface, hints, save states, and English translation.

The authors report that the experience was deployed from September 2022 to January 2023 and was played by more than 2,000 visitors, with informal feedback indicating that players observed artworks more closely and that museum staff wished to repeat the model for families and young adults. These outcomes rest on informal observation rather than structured data collection, a limitation the authors acknowledge. The work is scoped to a single museum and a single exhibition, and it offers practical design insights for museum-based escape rooms while leaving questions about learning impact for future formal study.