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Bulletin /

v. 37:1-2 (1966

The accessible museum: towards an understanding of international museum audio description practices

Introduction: Audio description (AD) in museums is crucial for making them accessible for people with visual impairments. Nevertheless, there are limited museum-specific AD guidelines currently available. This research examines current varied international practitioner perspectives on museum AD, focusing on imagery, meaning, emotion and degrees of objectivity, and the regional differences (Europe, US) in AD traditions, in order to better understand how museum AD can be used to enhance access. Methods: Forty-two museum describers from 12 countries responded to a questionnaire requiring fixed-choice and free-text responses about the purpose and construction of museum AD. Results: Inference tests showed that European describers agreed more strongly than US describers that AD should ‘explore meaning’ (U = 91.00, N1 = 24, N2 = 14, p = 0.03), and ‘create an emotional experience’ (U = 89.50, N1 = 24, N2 = 14, p = 0.03), rating the use of cognitive prompts as more important (U = 85.50, N1 = 21, N2 = 14, p = 0.04). Qualitative data enriched this understanding by exploring participant responses on the themes of mental imagery, objectivity and interpretation and cognitive prompts. This highlighted broader agreement between regions on mental imagery, but more acceptance of interpretation in AD from the European respondents. Discussion: US and European describers’ opinions differ regarding the purpose of AD: whether it is about conveying visual information or whether broader interpretations should be incorporated into descriptions for audiences with visual impairments. Implications for Practitioners: These findings indicate that further discussion is needed regarding the purpose of museum AD, and in particular the way in which objectivity is contextualised. They raise questions about AD providing visual information, and/or seeking to address a wider museum experience, including the stimulation of curiosity or emotion

Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History).

v.18:no.4 (1988:Oct.

The Museum of Copying, Venice Architecture Biennale

The Museum of Copying was an exhibition conceived and executed by FAT Architecture for the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. It explored ideas of the copy as a way of establishing common ground between diverse publics over time. This represented a significant moment into themes that have been present in FAT’s work for the past 15 years. Its primary research questions were: Can copying be a creative technique in architecture? What potential does the figural section hold for architecture? How have photocopying, digital media and computer aided manufacture extended the repertoire of creative replication in architecture? Research methods included collaborative and curatorial work in conversation with the other contributors to the Museum: San Rocco and Ines Weizman. The museum challenged the idea of the copy as inauthentic pastiche and proposed ways of understanding and using it in more productive ways. FATs contribution, ‘Villa Rotunda Redux’ is a prefabricated replica of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda. This was designed by extraction and translation of essential information from the original Villa Rotunda into three dimensional material form using new fabrication techniques. It comprises two abstracted quarters of the Villa Rotunda, one a polystyrene mould, the other a foam cast. These were arranged diagonally across from one another, displaying not only the properties of the original, but also the process of their fabrication. This produced an iteration of the Villa Rotunda that was at once recognizable, yet utterly transformed and original. The project was seen by the 178,000 visitors who attended the biennale. It has also been widely reviewed in the popular and architectural press, including Phaidon, dezeen, Architects Journal, designboom, ArchDaily, Architectural Review, Los Angeles Times and Financial Times. On the basis of this project, FAT Architecture have been selected, to curate the British Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale with Crimson Architectural Historians and Owen Hatherley

GUIDE TOUR MUSEUM SYSTEM BASED ON RFID (RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION) TECHNOLOGY

In general, museum visitors can not fully appreciate against a collection or artifacts from the museum. Although in every museum collection has a description of the items displayed, such as signs, but the history or details behind the museum collection can not be recounted as a whole. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is an automatic identification system for the object or person using a radio frequency signal that is non-line-of-sight, high inventory speeds, variety of form factors, rewritable tags. The purpose of this research is how to design guide tour museum system using RFID technology (Radio Frequency Identification) to help visitors obtain complete information from museum collection. The system was designed using object-oriented approach using UML (Unified Modeling Language) as a modeling language and Java as development language. From the test results found that museum visitors took 0.442 seconds to run a narrative of the collection since the system reads RFID tags that brought visitors. Museum managers also eased in the management of collection data, visitor data, and visitation data of the museum. The system also generates reports as a basis for future museum development

Community Engagement through Academic Museums: A Case Study of the Linfield Anthropology Museum

This study investigates how small academic museums, like the Linfield Anthropology Museum, interact and engage with their community. A chronological approach was used, where the way that the museums interacted with the community over time was analyzed, as well as interviews with people involved in the museum, and their perspective on the changes in the museum. This study focused on four exhibits and the shifts in the location of the museum. The museum’s move to a more open, decentralized space created new opportunities for both the museum and its community. The shift to a more decentralized, open exhibit space has created new opportunities for both the museum and its community. The outside community feels more connected to the museum now in a way that it did not when the museum was isolated in its own room, and the exhibits show the specific ways in which the community and the museum have interacted over the years. This shared identity, which the museum can remind the community of through exhibits, has the potential to make the outside community more united, especially if the museum continues to follow the shift and focus on the community

Defining Museum Intervention: An Analysis of James Putnam\u27s Time Machine

In his 2001 publication Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium, independent curator James Putnam coins the term ‘museum intervention’ to describe a type of artwork created by some artists as a means to critique organizing principles of the museum. Putnam’s book analyzes examples of museum interventions, including his own 1994 exhibition, Time Machine: Ancient Egypt and Contemporary Art, but fails to offer a definition for the term. This thesis analyzes the trajectory of exhibition practices leading to the publication of the new term through an examination of historical changes in museum display. The paper then analyzes examples of museum intervention included in Putnam’s book in order to develop a definition for the term. The paper examines Time Machine in relation to the new definition and, contrary to Putnam’s assertions, concludes that the exhibition is not a museum intervention

A Postcard from Korea: Worldʼs First Organic Agriculture Museum

Korea has trumped the world in creating the world’s first organic farming museum. The Namyangju Organic Museum is a surprise - and for several reasons. Firstly, it is surprisingly good. And secondly, it is surely surprising that the world’s first organic agriculture museum appears in Korea? It is a specialist museum of which Namyangju can be justly proud. The museum caters for a variety of ages, from youngsters to oldsters, and for a variety of interests, from casual, to practical, to scholarly. Screen-based techno-interactive exhibits are an obvious hit with children. The Namyangju Organic Museum was launched to coincide with the 17th IFOAM Organic World Congress (September - October 2011), the first such event to be held in Asia.This museum can serve as a focus for the continuing uptake and proliferation of organic food and agriculture in Korea and beyond