Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Making Meaning in Art Museums is one of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The first was published as Making Meaning 1:Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (RCMG 2001). Making Meaning in Art Museums 2 is the second of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The Long Gallery at the Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery was selected as the research site for this second study. Both studies have explored the ways in which visitors talked about their experience of a visit to the art museum-both what they said about the paintings and the whole of the visit.The research questions on which this project is based are: What interpretive strategies and repertories are deployed by art museum visitors? Can distinct interpretive communities be identified? What are the implications for the communication policies within art museums? This research is an ethnographic study, using qualitative methods.This research project was funded through a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Boar

Case design and climate control : a typological analysis

To establish a common ground for future discussion, this paper proposes typologies for display-case designs and various active and passive systems of climate control. These typologies can be combined to classify different methods used to modify the climate within display cases. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are given.peer-reviewe

The Space of Reception: Framing Autonomy and Collaboration

In this paper we analyse the ideas implicit in the style of exhibition favoured by contemporary galleries and museums, and argue that unless the audience is empowered to ascribe meaning and significance to artwork through critical dialogue, the power not only of the audience is undermined but also of art. We argue that galleries and museums preside over an experience economy devoid of art, unless (i) indeterminacy is understood, (ii) the critical rather than coercive nature of art is facilitated, and (iii) the conditions for inter-subjectivity are met

A Tutorial on Bayesian Optimization of Expensive Cost Functions, with Application to Active User Modeling and Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning

We present a tutorial on Bayesian optimization, a method of finding the maximum of expensive cost functions. Bayesian optimization employs the Bayesian technique of setting a prior over the objective function and combining it with evidence to get a posterior function. This permits a utility-based selection of the next observation to make on the objective function, which must take into account both exploration (sampling from areas of high uncertainty) and exploitation (sampling areas likely to offer improvement over the current best observation). We also present two detailed extensions of Bayesian optimization, with experiments---active user modelling with preferences, and hierarchical reinforcement learning---and a discussion of the pros and cons of Bayesian optimization based on our experiences

Between a White Cube, Black Box, and Warehouse: Constructing Spaces for Contemporary Art throughout the Recent Museum Building Boom

Since the 1990s, museum buildings and the art housed inside them have undergone dramatic changes. Once canonical structures, they have evolved to more suitably contain new art forms and reflect the expanding and dynamic purposes of the museum. Museum architecture constructs the meanings and values of institutions as its primary and most tangible symbol. It commands a specific approach for display rhetoric and dictates the ways users and curators make use of space. What is the relationship between the latest museum building boom and contemporary art? What specific architectural strategies are employed by museums and architects to suit contemporary art? This paper examines the recent trends in museum construction in order to explore the ways in which new museums have reshaped the museum experience and dialogue between users and contemporary art.Desde la década de 1990 los edificios de los museos y el arte alojado en ellos han sufrido cambios dramáticos. Las estructuras canónicas han evolucionado para contener de manera más adecuada nuevas formas de arte y reflejar los propósitos dinámicos y en expansión del museo. La arquitectura del museo manifiesta los significados y valores de la propia institución como su símbolo principal y más tangible, presenta un enfoque específico para mostrar la retórica y dicta las formas en que los usuarios y los curadores hacen uso del espacio. ¿Cuál es la relación entre el último auge de la construcción de museos y el arte contemporáneo? ¿Qué estrategias arquitectónicas específicas emplean los museos y arquitectos para adaptarse al arte contemporáneo? Este artículo examina las tendencias recientes en la construcción de museos para explorar las formas en que los nuevos espacios han reformulado la experiencia y el diálogo entre los usuarios y el arte contemporáneo

Evaluation Strategy for the Re-Development of the Displays and Visitor Facilities at the Museum and Art Gallery, Kelvingrove

No abstract available

Notes on the Biology of \u3ci\u3eSaperda Imitans\u3c/i\u3e Infesting Wind-Damaged Black Cherry in Allegheny Hardwood Stands

This paper reports observations made on the life history and biology of Saperda imitans Felt & Joutel in black cherry, Prunus serotina Ehrh. S. imitans was the principle longhorned beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) reared from bolts collected from 68 wind-thrown black cherry at the Kane Experimental Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. It was also the only species that overwintered in the sapwood/outer heartwood, and thus impacted the commercial value of these trees. Gaurotes cyanipennis (Say) was the only other cerambycid reared from caged bolts taken from wind-thrown black cherry. The cerambycids Stenocorus vittiger (Randall), Arthophylax attenuatus (Haldman), G. cyanipennis, Neoclytus acuminatus acuminatus (F.), Clytus ruricola (Olivier), Cyrtophorus verrucosus (Olivier), and Astylopsis macula (Say) were captured in ethanol-baited Lindgren® funnel traps placed in wind-thrown stands, but were not reared from cherry logs. S. imitans was not caught in these traps and apparently it is not attracted to ethanol baits. Neither S. imitans nor G. cyanipennis were reared from completely uprooted trees (dead) or trees with a major portion of the root system still embedded in soil (live). Preferred hosts were black cherry with moist phloem and epicormic branches with \u3c25% live foliage (dying). The density of S. imitans galleries was similar for dying trees in each of three diameter classes; 20-30 cm, \u3e30-40 cm, \u3e40cm. Samples taken from the upper half of the first 5 m of black cherry boles had a higher density of galleries than did those from the lower half. The beetle was recovered in low numbers from branches \u3c10 cm in basal diameter. S. imitans is univoltine and in 2007 peak emergence of adults occurred from late May to early June. Results identified the condition of wind-damaged black cherry most susceptible to an infestation of S. imitans. This information can be used to establish salvage priorities following a weather event such as this

The evolution of networks and interaction in the co-creation of value : a case study of the development of a city museum

Vargo and Lusch (2004) proposed that marketing is moving to a new dominant logic where service is exchanged for service. Central to their proposal were eight foundational premises (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), subsequently extended to ten (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a). Key amongst them are: service is deemed to be the fundamental basis of exchange (FP1); operant resources are the fundamental source of competitive advantage (FP4); the customer is always a co-creator of value (FP6); the enterprise can only offer value propositions, it cannot deliver value (FP7); value creation occurs in networks through actors who are resource integrators (FP9); and value itself is ‘idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual and meaning-laden’ (FP10) (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a, p.375). Much discussion on S-D logic has focused on developing this theoretical context (see for example: Lusch and Vargo, 2006, 2009; Vargo and Lusch, 2008b, 2008c; Gummesson, Lusch, Vargo, 2010; Brodie et al., 2011). Alongside this, the debate has developed through studies which explore how the tenets of S-D logic operate in practical contexts such as financial services (Auh et al., 2007), art experiences (White, Hede and Rentschler, 2009), opera (Lund, 2010), the travel industry (Fyrberg and Juriado, 2009), electronic services (Blazevic and Lievens, 2008) and the Harry Potter phenomenon (Brown and Patterson, 2009) amongst others. Central to much of this work is the effort to understand how value is cocreated within varying contexts. Of particular interest to the current research is the work of Fryberg and Juriado (2009) who highlight the importance of networks in the co-creation of value, paying particular attention to the importance of interaction between network actors. Further, defining value and value propositions has received increasing attention (Gronroos, 2008; Kowalkowski, 2011). Through a case study of the Cardiff Story, a new museum for the people of Cardiff, this paper builds on previous work on S-D logic by exploring how networks and interaction evolve over time and the role they play in the evolving nature of value co-creation. The unique site of the work, the development from inception of a city museum, allows us to explore S-D logic in the public sector while taking into consideration the specific nature of arts and heritage in that context. The paper begins by reviewing pertinent S-D logic constructs to provide context for the current work. The methods section details the research position adopted before providing a justification for the single case study nature of this work. Context for the Cardiff Story is provided before the data collection methods are outlined. Findings are subsequently discussed before a conclusion is offered and areas for future research outlined

Museums and New Media Art

Investigates the relationship between new media art and museums