Crafting Critical Heritage Discourses into Interactive Exhibition Design

This paper argues how a more reflective design practice that embraces critical discourses can transform interactive exhibition design and therefore the museum visiting experience. Four framing arguments underpin our exhibition design making: the value of materiality, visiting as an aesthetic experience, challenging the authorized voice, and heritage as a process. These arguments were embodied through design, art and craft practice into one interactive exhibition at a house museum. We draw from our design process discussing the implications that adopting an approach informed by critical heritage debates has on exhibition design and suggest three sensitizing concepts (polyvocal narratives, dialogical interaction, interweaving time and space) bridging the practice of interactive exhibition design and critical heritage theory

Social Media and the Democratization of American Museums

The democratization of American museums has been accelerated by societal changes caused by the development of new, multiway channels of communication created by the Internet and social media. Social media is prompting public participa- tion which has led to a paradigm shift in museology towards public engagement. The rise of vernacular creativity, especially among the younger, digitally native generations who are “curating” their identities by replicating, manipulating and sharing culture on- line, challenges the authority of the museum and curator as arbiters of culture. This paradigm shift also broadens the definition of authenticity from the object to the au- thentic experience. This paper argues that museums have a responsibility to remain relevant and to model the use of new technologies in the service of public good and in the pursuit of democratic ideals. They can only do so through nimble experimentation with social media. An examination of the evolution of the museum’s role in American society is followed by an analysis of the impact of technology on museum practice and philosophy. The description of a number of case studies involving social media initia- tives by museums suggests that engaging the public in the curatorial process throughcrowd-sourced and crowd-curated exhibitions may be the key to museum sustain- ability. Finally, an outline of a social media campaign designed for an exhibition at the University of San Francisco’s Thacher Gallery, co-curated by the M.A. in Museum Studies Curatorial Practicum serves as a lesson in the use of the new media platform,Instagram

Sites Contested, Ideas Connected: Networked Media in Exhibitions of Contemporary Significance

The purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of networked media strategies in museum exhibitions about important contemporary issues. An extensive 2006 research project found that museums have a responsibility to present contemporary issues, providing visitors are given a meaningful opportunity to contribute to that discussion. This thesis builds upon that finding to evaluate the effectiveness of networked media – digital communication technology – in fostering discussion between visitors about issues such as climate change, refugees and terrorism. To test the capability of this strategy, visitors to an exhibition about Australian immigration policies were asked to use an iPad application to provide their own views on the exhibition’s content and interact with other visitor contributions. The results demonstrate widespread support from visitors for the use of this type of technology. Museum staff also reacted favourably to findings that show visitors using networked media engage more deeply with exhibition content. However, the research also reveals a set of problems relating to the use of networked media in exhibitions about contemporary issues. These problems are categorised into two analytical chapters in this thesis. The first considers the extent to which museum staff must curate or moderate the contributions of the visiting public. The second considers the ethical and logistical issues relating to the digital dissemination of museum content. The conclusions stemming from this analysis show that networked media strategies can be highly valuable communicative tools in difficult exhibitions, provided that they are carefully designed and implemented by museum staff. Strategies shown to be effective include the integration of physical and online museum spaces, through mobile devices and standalone applications. The opportunity for meaningful visitor contribution is afforded by facilitating continuing debate outside the museum, and the active involvement of museum staff and other experts in discussions. Museums also benefit from the creation of digital partnerships, with other museums, institutions and the interested public to meaningfully engage with the contemporary issues that are critically important to visitors

‘The Phenomenalisation of Heritage: Digital interactions through mobile devices with tangible and intangible heritage’

Within the ever developing field of digital heritage, mobile technology has enabled museums, and other cultural heritage institutions, to create platforms and activities that not only extend the reach and depth of their collections, but also their nature. Through the digital mapping of both tangible and intangible heritage, items become phenomena through a process of engagement and interpretation that not only re-models the role of the artefact in question, but also the perception of its meaning and the reframing of the contexts from which they, and we as users, come from. The result of this process is defined by this work as the phenomenalisation of heritage, and this thesis charts how this philosophical theory has emerged within the contemporary landscape of museology, as well as how it may be employed by heritage practitioners in creating a coherent structure for the development of mobile-driven activities that align with the participatory paradigm of museum practices. As a result, the chapters that follow here look at the evolution of the museum, the expansion of museum territory through the use of mobile technology, and the nature and impact of this process on users experiences, learning, and curation. Drawing from studies in museology, human computer interaction (HCI), and phenomenology, this thesis provides a philosophical analysis of the development and use of mobile technology in the wild outside of the traditional walls of the museum. Furthermore, through an empirical and embedded approach to research, the thesis also presents auto-ethnographic and ethnomethodological case studies in order to show evidence that this model of digital heritage produces both personal and shared interpretations of heritage phenomena through metaphorical excavation and co-curation

Interactive Experience Design: Integrated and Tangible Storytelling with Maritime Museum Artefacts

Museums play the role of intermediary between cultural heritage and visitors, and are often described as places and environments for education and enjoyment. The European Union also encourages innovative uses of museums to support education through the cultural heritage resources. However, the importance of visitors’ active role in museums as places for education and entertainment, on the one hand, and the growing and indispensable presence of technology in the cultural heritage domain, on the other hand, provided the initial ideas to develop the research. This thesis, presents the study and design for an interactive storytelling installation for a maritime museum. The installation is designed to integrate different museum artefacts into the storytelling system to enrich the visitors experience through tangible storytelling. The project was conducted in collaboration with another PhD student, Luca Ciotoli. His contribution was mainly focused on the narrative and storytelling features of the research, while my contribution was focused on the interaction- and technology-related features, including the design and implementation of the prototype. The research is deployed using a four-phase iterative approach. The first phase of the research, Study, deals with literature review and different studies to identify the requirements. The second phase, Design, determines the broad outlines of the project i.e., an interactive storytelling installation. The design phase includes interaction and museum experience design. We investigated different design approaches, e.g., interaction and museum experience design, to develop a conceptual design. The third phase, prototype, allows us to determine how to fulfill the tasks and meet the requirements that are established for the research. Prototyping involves content creation, storyboarding, integrating augmented artefacts into the storytelling system. Th final phase, test, refers to the evaluations that are conducted during the aforementioned phases e.g., formative and the final usability testing with users. The outcome of the research confirms previous results in the literature about how digital narratives can be enriched with the tangible dimension, moreover it shows how this dimension can enable to communicate stories and knowledge of the past that are complex, such as the art of navigating in the past, by integrating tangible objects that play different roles in the storytelling process

Digital for Heritage and Museums: Design-Driven Changes and Challenges

In the recent decade, cultural institutions have increasingly embraced digital technologies as key resources for accomplishing their mission and innovating their cultural activities. In the present work, we attempt to disentangle through a design-driven and multidisciplinary approach the challenges brought by digital transformation in the cultural heritage sector. A diversified research team has thus been involved to include scholars with different backgrounds around the common phenomenon of investigation of Digital (Cultural) Heritage, under the Design Think Thank project. The Introduction is followed by a Methodological section, which outlines the approach to select and review case studies from the exploratory literature for producing a state-of-the-art report and delineates the methodology to map the main user behaviours and needs in the digital experience of CH throughout the value chain. The research team identified three relevant and major themes for the investigation which are addressed in the Literature Review Section through the lenses of design research and practices; simultaneously, design knowledge emerges to have an agency in the transformation. The following section tries to triangulate the results from the literature review, and the mapping of users and stakeholders throughout the cultural institutions value chain, to track and highlight their role and interest in changing heritage panorama. The contribution of the present work wishes to consolidate the results gathered in the first phases of the TT, providing the design community of academics and practitioners with a theoretical contribution about digital changes and challenges of heritage and museums based on a design perspective

Romanian Museums under Scrutiny

The museum sector has changed in the past decades, becoming for dynamic, diverse, interactive, participative and innovative. All this shifts make museums more and more appealing and increase the level of satisfaction of museum visits. Understanding to what degree the public perceives and appreciate these trends, could give museum management hints to better fit their development strategies to the audience. Generally, perceptions are very important for appealing organizations. This is valid also for museums. Museum’s image influences the audience’s satisfaction. Perceptions are important for successful museum visits in many ways. Having this is mind, the present study investigates how participative and innovative are considered Romanian museums