Interpreting social issues: Museum theatre’s potential for critical engagement

Museum theatre and its potential within museum education is explored at the Museum Education and Research Laboratory at the University of Thessaly, Greece. There, the leading research project Museums and Education: methods of approaching and interpreting museum objects’aims to address how, over the last few decades, museum theatre has been in ever-increasing use to vocalize the sensitive issues of a multicultural society and marginalized social communities. Recent studies highlight museum theatre evoking empathy and critical engagement in the audience with the subject-matter of the performance. One such performance was organized by the School of Drama at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and studied in depth. Titled Voices of the City: Historical Routes through Theatre, the performance embodied controversial social issues, and its implementation was evaluated using qualitative methodology to examine the responses of visitors

Facilitated Dialogue: An Emerging Field of Museum Practice

The notion of dialogue is considered essential in contemporary museology. Since the 1970’s, when Cameron (1971) put forward the idea of museums as forums rather than temples, dialogue is linked to the process of democratization of museum functions and narratives and the inclusion of local communities (Sandell, 2002). Nowadays, “the idea of museum as a forum is widespread” (Kirschenblatt-Giblett, 2020). However, the term is usually vague as there is no specific content or practice related to the actual use of dialogue in museums. Recently, science and history museums are initiating facilitated dialogue-based programming to address a variety of present-day issues that affect society at large and/or local communities. As the field of facilitated dialogue-based programmes develops, questions around the aims, techniques, and challenges of such initiatives in museums emerge. This paper explores the theory and practice of facilitated dialogue in science, and history museums as well as its implications for the museum field

Museum theatre: historical and contemporary approaches

The thesis focuses on exploring museum theater. In particular it explores the variety of approaches it has adopted since its birth as well as its multiple functions and perspectives in contemporary museum environments. Primary and secondary research was implemented. Specifically, extensive literature research was conducted in the fields of museology, theater studies and museum education as well as in theoretical approaches concerning the interpretation of cultural heritage, complemented by field research involving observation and analysis of museum theater applications and collection of data from museum professionals. Primary research included case studies that icluded the systematic and thorough examination regarding the production and reception of museum-theater. The research results proved that museum theatre can contribute to a dialogue between different cultures, when designed in order to engage the audience, taking into account the factors that influence its behaviour and perception of thetre techniques.Theater' 'flexibility', the wealth of its expressive tools and its potential to 'exhibit' complex issues in a simple way can serve different learning needs and involve different social and age groups. Thereby it can facilitate visitors' access to the museums'narrative and create a dialogical space in the museum. In addition, the museum theater can be just as effective in supporting the learning process that takes place in the museum environment. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the understanding of museum narratives, critical engagement and other parameters examined in this thesis, are not universal and inevitable results of a museum theater program. By contrast, they require a focused approach and a considerable amount of work from the part of the museum, the designer and the actors.In summary, the thesis confirmed previous research results, brought to light new findings concerning the nature of museum theater, the decisive role of the audience experience, the design and implementation requirements, and laid the foundation for further exploration of the field. According to the thesi's findings museum theater can be a field that will broaden, diversify and will definitely affect the relationship of the museum with the visitors and thus with the community. The possibilities that have emerged are diverse and can contribute significantly to the enrichment of the visitors' experience through the development of alternative museum narratives.Η διατριβή εστιάζει στη διερεύνηση του μουσειακού θεάτρου και συγκεκριμένα στην εξέταση της ιστορικής του πορείας, των λειτουργιών και των δυνατοτήτων του στο σύγχρονο μουσειακό περιβάλλον.Για τη διερεύνηση του πεδίου πραγματοποιήθηκε πρωτογενής και δευτερογενής έρευνα. Συγκεκριμένα, πραγματοποιήθηκε εκτενής βιβλιογραφική έρευνα στα πεδία της μουσειολογίας, θεατρολογίας και μουσειοπαιδαγωγικής καθώς και των θεωρητικών προσεγγίσεων που άπτονται της ερμηνείας της πολιτισμικής κληρονομιάς, η οποία συμπληρώθηκε από επιτόπιες ερευνητικές δραστηριότητες που περιελάμβαναν παρατήρηση και ανάλυση εφαρμογών μουσειακού θεάτρου και συγκέντρωση δεδομένων σχετικά με τις αντιλήψεις των υπευθύνων. Στη συνέχεια πραγματοποιήθηκε πρωτογενής έρευνα με τη μορφή των μελετών περίπτωσης και τη συστηματική και σε βάθος εξέτασή τους αναφορικά με την παραγωγή έργων μουσειακού θεάτρου και την πρόσληψή τους από το κοινό. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας έδειξαν ότι το θέατρο ως μέσο μουσειακής ερμηνείας μπορεί να συμβάλει σε ένα διάλογο μεταξύ διαφορετικών πολιτισμικών στοιχείων και ερεθισμάτων, εφόσον έχει προηγηθεί ένας ανάλογος σχεδιασμός που ενσωματώνει τις προβληματικές των σχετικών επιστημονικών συζητήσεων και λαμβάνει υπόψη τους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη συμπεριφορά του κοινού. Η ευπλαστότητα του θεάτρου, ο πλούτος των εκφραστικών του μέσων και η δυνατότητα ανάδειξης σύνθετων ζητημάτων με απλό τρόπο προσφέρουν την δυνατότητα διαμόρφωσης προγραμμάτων που ανταποκρίνονται σε διαφορετικές μαθησιακές ανάγκες και εμπλέκουν διαφορετικές κοινωνικές και ηλικιακές ομάδες. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο διευκολύνεται η πρόσβαση των επισκεπτών/τριών και δημιουργείται ένας πόλος σκέψης και προβληματισμού για το κοινό του μουσείου. Επιπλέον, το μουσειακό θέατρο μπορεί να είναι εξίσου αποτελεσματικό στην υποστήριξη της μαθησιακής διαδικασίας που συντελείται στο μουσειακό περιβάλλον. Παρολ’αυτά, είναι σημαντικό να σημειωθεί ότι η κατανόηση των μουσειακών αφηγημάτων, η κριτική εμπλοκή, όπως και άλλες παράμετροι που εξετάστηκαν στο πλαίσιο της παρούσας διατριβής, δεν αποτελούν καθολικά και αναπόφευκτα αποτελέσματα ενός προγράμματος μουσειακού θεάτρου. Αντίθετα, προϋποθέτουν μια εστιασμένη προσέγγιση και ένα σημαντικό όγκο δουλειάς από την πλευρά του μουσείου, των σχεδιαστών/ριών και των ηθοποιών.Συνοψίζοντας, η διατριβή επιβεβαίωσε αποτελέσματα προηγούμενων ερευνών, έφερε νέα ευρήματα στο φως που αφορούν το χαρακτήρα του μουσειακού θεάτρου, τον καταλυτικό του ρόλο για την εμπειρία του κοινού, τις προϋποθέσεις σχεδιασμού και υλοποίησης, και έθεσε τις βάσεις για περαιτέρω διερεύνηση του πεδίου. Με βάση τα ευρήματα της διατριβής το μουσειακό θέατρο μπορεί να αποτελέσει ένα δυναμικό πεδίο που θα διευρύνει, θα διαφοροποιήσει και θα επηρεάσει καθοριστικά τη σχέση των μουσείων με τους/τις επισκέπτες/ριές του και κατ’ επέκταση με το κοινωνικό σύνολο. Οι δυνατότητες που αναδείχθηκαν είναι ποικίλες και μπορούν να συμβάλλουν σημαντικά στον εμπλουτισμό των εμπειριών του κοινού μέσα από την ανάπτυξη εναλλακτικών μουσειακών αφηγημάτων. Το πεδίο εφαρμογών είναι ευρύ και ανοιχτό για καινοτομίες και μπορεί να προσφέρει νέους δρόμους βιωματικής και κριτικής προσέγγισης του μουσειακού υλικού

Evolving the Story : Reviewing the IMTAL Global Conference 2013

Foteini Venieri and Ingo R. Glückler give a European perspective on the Global conference in Washington DC.Glückler, Ingo R. ; Venieri, Fotein

Museum Theatre in Greece: Perspectives in Site Interpretation

The paper summarizes preliminary findings of a research project on the use of museum theatre in Greek open-air sites, as a part of a PhD thesis. The research focuses on the exploration of the development, use and function of museum theatre in Greek open-air sites based on available secondary resources and primary research, which included site visits, interviews and data analysis. The research summarized here was carried out in 2012 and presented in September 2012, in the OpenArch Conference "Museum interpretation and public engagement: Challenges and opportunities", in Höllviken, Sweden

Creating immersive experiences based on intangible cultural heritage

<p>Cultural heritage is a lot more than monuments and collections of objects. In addition, it includes traditions and living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as songs, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature, or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. These elements constitute the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Safeguarding of ICH is an important factor in maintaining social coherence along with cultural diversity, but it also is a challenge in modern societies. The digitization of ICH, with the transcription of its artifacts, is already becoming a springboard for its preservation and re-use, but intangible heritage has more to offer than a library of content. Lately, the advancements in extended reality interactive technologies and in artificial intelligence break new ground in understanding and sensing intangible heritage. In this paper, we present the CHROMATA platform which aims at facilitating the creation of novel immersive experiences to sustain ICH. To achieve this, we are developing a web platform that provides the content retrieval from online sources and cultural institutions; the AI services for multimedia analysis, e.g., 3D pose estimation, folklore dance recognition, and textual analysis; the authoring interface where the non-developers designers can create their virtual experience. The various data (images, video, text, audio, and 3D models) are analysed using state-of-the-art methods for dance recognition and visualization, Laban Movement Analysis and Labanotation generation, textual sentiment analysis and text generation. Moreover, 3D reconstruction techniques are employed to accurately capture places of interest, as well as human activities to create the related virtual spaces. The CHROMATA platform aims to boost the revival of intangible cultural heritage via easing the creation of more complete and enlightening immersive experiences. The platform development is driven and validated by real use case scenarios in which designers, creators and historians are building virtual experiences of customs and dances of Greek culture.</p&gt

Dissolved organic nitrogen as an indicator of livestock impacts on soil biochemical quality

Summarization: Soil degradation in the Mediterranean and other arid and semi-arid regions of the world is caused mainly by cultivation and grazing (Li et al., 2007). Livestock grazing alone is responsible for 23 % of soil degradation in Europe (RCEP, 1996) and is particularly intense in the Mediterranean region. Free grazing of uncontrolled length and frequency and high stocking densities are responsible for the de-vegetation of many areas within this region. The Greek island of Crete represents a characteristic case of land degradation resulting from intensive grazing (Hill et al., 1998). Since Greece joined the European Communities in 1981, grazing in mountainous regions has expanded due to subsidies that became available through the Common Agricultural Policy (Hill et al., 1998). A consequence of de-vegetation due to overgrazing has been a decrease in organic matter (litter) input to soil and a decrease of aggregate size and stability making soils more susceptible to erosion and to organic matter losses (Bastida et al., 2006). DON has been found to be decoupled from the production of DOC in such soils and has proportionally more labile soluble organic matter (Ghani et al., 2007). However, detailed information on the nature, bioavailability, and fate of the mobilized dissolved OM following a change in land use such as de-vegetation is still lacking (Akagi and Zsolnay, 2008). Mediterranean watersheds appear to export a larger fraction of nitrogen in organic form compared to watersheds of continental Europe and North America. However, no systematic analysis of existing data has been made to date. The objective of this work was to test the hypothesis that livestock grazing (and the resulting de-vegetation) degrades soil quality and enriches surface and ground waters with DON by examining data from 3 different scales.Presented on: Applied Geochemistr