Biotopia Opens at the Natural History Museum of Funchal
Biotopia is now open to the public at the Museu de História Natural do Funchal, where it will remain on view over the coming months. The exhibition was developed within the European research project LoGaCulture – Locative Games for Cultural Heritage, coordinated at the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI).
LoGaCulture brings together leading researchers in digital locative games and cultural heritage to develop new design guidance, ethical frameworks, and reusable technologies for cultural institutions. Through multiple international case studies, the project investigates how interactive narratives, augmented reality, soundscapes, and transmedia formats can reshape visitors’ experiences of heritage sites. The aim is to enable cultural institutions to integrate locative and game-based experiences into their core heritage practices.
Biotopia constitutes one of these applied research case studies. The exhibition proposes an immersive, transmedia experience through which visitors encounter Madeira’s natural heritage using interactive technologies.
As explained by Valentina Nisi, researcher at ITI and member of the LoGaCulture project, Biotopia unfolds as a story distributed across multiple media formats. One component presents an interactive digital narrative inside a scenographic environment inspired by the island’s landscapes. Another introduces a wearable haptic sleeve, developed by PhD researcher Mathilde Gouin, that can be tested in the museum garden. The device vibrates when approaching certain endemic species, adding a tactile dimension to ecological awareness.
The exhibition also integrates AI-supported dialogue systems that allow visitors to converse with species such as the monk seal and the Zino’s petrel. Through these interactions, audiences can ask questions and receive responses generated with the support of artificial intelligence, exploring new forms of engagement with biodiversity.
A further element is a board game, also playable online, based on a map of Madeira. By visiting locations and drawing prompts associated with specific sites, participants collaboratively construct narrative fragments that relate to the island’s ecological and cultural contexts.
Ricardo Araújo, Director of the Natural History Museum of Funchal, emphasized that the technological prototypes developed within the project offer accessible ways for younger generations to engage with scientific knowledge about Madeira’s characteristic species and natural heritage.
An RTP Madeira news segment covering the opening of Biotopia is available below.
