Tracing exploratory modes in digital collections of museum Web sites using reverse information architecture

Museums are broadening their program beyond the physical institutions by providing digital collections online. In digital collections, objects are prepared and presented particularly for the Web and the ambition is to provide the entirety of a physical collection. To make these rich and comprehensive data sets accessible, an explore mode is increasingly offered. The present study considers this mode, first by making sense of the term “exploration” and suggesting four functional principles in support of exploration in digital collections — view, movement, contextualization, and participation. On this basis, we compare eight well-known museums with regard to the explore modes for their digital collections. We have devised a three-part methodology, reverse information architecture, to address the question: How is the function of exploration manifested in the structure and interface elements of digital collections? With this unique method we use the given content to investigate how far the four principles are implemented in explore modes of digital collections and, broadly said, how explorable they are. The introduced approach to studying digital collections could be opened up to other fields to analyze a variety of Web interfaces in general

Experimental Museology

Experimental Museology scrutinizes innovative endeavours to transform museum interactions with the world. Analysing cutting-edge cases from around the globe, the volume demonstrates how museums can design, apply and assess new modes of audience engagement and participation. Written by an interdisciplinary group of researchers and research-led professionals, the book argues that museum transformations must be focused on conceptualizing and documenting the everyday challenges and choices facing museums, especially in relation to wider social, political and economic ramifications. In order to illuminate the complexity of these challenges, the volume is structured into three related key dimensions of museum practice - namely institutions, representations and users. Each chapter is based on a curatorial design proposed and performed in collaboration between university-based academics and a museum. Taken together, the chapters provide insights into a diversity of geographical contexts, fields and museums, thus building a comprehensive and reflexive repository of design practices and formative experiments that can help strengthen future museum research and design. Experimental Museology will be of great value to academics and students in the fields of museum, gallery and heritage studies, as well as architecture, design, communication and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to museum professionals and anyone else who is interested in learning more about experimentation and design as resources in museums

Forschung zur Digitalisierung in der Kulturellen Bildung

Um die Konsequenzen und Potenziale, die die digitale Transformation für die Kulturelle Bildung mit sich bringt tiefergehend zu erforschen, hat das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung im Jahr 2017 den Förderschwerpunt „Forschung zur Digitalisierung in der Kulturellen Bildung“ ins Leben gerufen. In diesem forschen 13 Verbund- und Einzelprojekte in ganz Deutschland zu digitalen Phänomenen in der Kulturellen Bildung, unter anderem in den Bereichen Musik, Literatur, Tanz, Performance und bildende Kunst. Dabei zeichnen sich die Forschungsvorhaben durch eine große Perspektivenvielfalt aus: Neben Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung sind Sozialpädagogik, Erwachsenenbildung, Musikpädagogik, Kunst-, Tanz-, Musik-, Literatur-, Medien- und Sportwissenschaft, Humangeographie, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Medienpädagogik, Informatik und Computerlinguistik vertreten. Dieser Band verschafft einen Überblick über die Forschungsvorhaben der Förderlinie. Ziel ist es, sowohl Forschenden als auch Akteurinnen und Akteuren aus der Praxis der Kulturellen Bildung einen Einblick in die laufende Forschung zu geben und erste Ergebnisse sichtbar zu machen. Gerahmt werden die Einblicke in die aktuellen Forschungsvorhaben von zwei Texten aus dem Metaforschungsvorhaben der Förderlinie. In ihnen wird zum einen ein Versuch zur Orientierung im komplexen Feld der Digitalität und Kulturellen Bildung unternommen und zum anderen ein Einblick und Ausblick auf das Thema der Forschungssynthese in diesem Feld gegeben

A look at digital humanities: about phenomenon and process of visualization of cultural data

Doktorski rad bavi se mogućnostima vizualizacije kulturnih podataka, a s ciljem stvaranja ekspresivnih i prilagođenih formi proizvodnji znanja u kontekstu recentne ideje digitalne humanistike. Presner i Schnapp (2009) tvrde kako tiskani mediji više nisu jedini, izvorni ili normativni mediji u kojima nastaje znanje; tekst je stopljen u nove multimedijalne konfiguracije. Nove forme organiziranja znanja prepoznaju se u nazivima interaktivnih internetskih stranica, infografika, platformi proširenih stvarnosti, te za ovaj rad bitno – u digitalnim kolekcijama kulturnih zbirki. Ono što je zajedničko ovakvim načinima organizacije znanja jest pristup utemeljen na ideji da ako želimo iskoristiti veliku ekspresivnu moć digitalnih platformi - informacije moramo dizajnirati, odnosno vizualizirati. Pokušat ćemo teorijski i praktično argumentirati tezu, kako vizualizacija informacija generalno, a potreba razvijanja grafičkog kvalitativnog prikazivanja informacija u humanistici specifično, predstavljaju ključan diskurzivni element digitalne humanistike.This Phd study explores possibilities of information visualization of cultural collections, all in order to create more expressive and adjusted forms of knowledge production in the context of recent ideas related to the digital humanity. According to Presner i Schnapp (2009) print is no longer primarily, exclusive or normative media where the knowledge is produced; instead, the text is fused into new multimedia configurations. New forms of knowledge organization can be recognized in the titles of interactive web pages, infographics, augmented reality platforms and, for the purpose of this study extremely important, contemporary digital cultural and art collections. Common for such ways of knowledge an approach based on the idea that if we want to use the great expressive power of digital platforms - we have to design and visualize information. I will try to argue, theoretically and practically, that visualization of information in general, and, specifically, the need for developing graphically qualitative presentation of information in humanities, represent the key discursive element of digital humanity

Co-creative events for engagement with digital cultural heritage collections

More and more cultural heritage institutions digitise their collections aiming to unlock potentials of accessibility, usefulness, and meaning to a new variety of users. However, there is a lack of robust knowledge about what exactly enables successful engagement with digital collections. This thesis aims to narrow this gap by investigating the relationships of three stakeholder groups participating in co-creative use of collections: museum practitioners, active users, and Open GLAM community members. It focuses on three main research questions: • What are the challenges and benefits of co-creative events for these stakeholders? • How do these stakeholders collaborate and what are the factors impacting their collaboration? • What is the role of digital reuse and creative practice in engaging users with cultural heritage collections? These questions are examined in three co-creative events: a hackathon about discomforting objects on display at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Scotland; a Coding da Vinci hackathon with openly licensed digital cultural collections in Dortmund, Germany; and a workshop for remixing museum objects with digital tools at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, Germany. The methodology focuses on participants’ collaborative and creative processes and combines ethnographic methods with practice research, using participant observation, creative workshops, interviews, and surveys. The research provides multi-faceted insights into reusing digital collections and highlights the crucial role of social motivations, media practices, and institutional contexts for engagement. The findings suggest that, in order to unfold the social potential of collections, digitisation needs to be complemented with socio-affective spaces in which diverse participants can develop relationships, negotiate meanings, and explore uses of cultural heritage. The thesis thus outlines practice-oriented approaches for effectively supporting these processes. It forms part of the POEM European Training Network on participatory memory practices funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme