Jiayu Gao

Serious Play or Serious Power? investigates how digital museology can be reimagined through the lenses of gamification, algorithmic storytelling, and cultural heritage politics. The project responds to the authority of traditional museums and the rise of livestream appraisal culture, where figures like Quan perform authenticity and value for vast online audiences. By examining the frictions between institutional authority, private circulation, and participatory publics, the project asks: Who gets to speak for heritage when history is streamed, gamified, and auctioned in real time?

The work unfolds across three interlinked outputs. The strategic report critically analyses museum authority, digital platforms, and game mechanics, proposing new models for cultural engagement that embrace ambiguity, participation, and dissent. The Vaulture prototype envisions a speculative AI livestream museum and auction platform, where an algorithmic auctioneer guides audiences through artefacts both real and fictional, transforming auctions into performances and archives into sites of negotiation. Finally, the 3’30’’ digital film offers a visual and narrative manifestation of the platform, including 3D modelling, AI aesthetics, and cinematic storytelling to immerse audiences in the speculative world of Vaulture.

Together, these components form a critical experiment in what might be called algorithmic museology: a mode of heritage practice where authenticity is uncertain, authority is contested, and play becomes a serious tool for questioning cultural power. Serious Play or Serious Power?