Promoting Participation
Simplified Language in Museums: Could It Lighten Cognitive Load in Audio Description for the Blind and Partially Sighted?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Celia Barnés Castaño
Monomodal access to visual information through the auditory channel can impose a greater cognitive load (CL) on blind or partially sighted museum visitors, given the lesser storage capacity of auditory memory and the sequential way in which mental images are created when the input is exclusively auditory. Museum audio description, conveying both visual information and specialized or semi-specialized knowledge, can lead to an even greater CL. We formulated the hypothesis that blind or partially sighted visitors create a more detailed mental image of museum objects and better access museum information when it is translated into an accessible language grounded on easy-read guidelines. However, such an AD might not meet receivers’ expectations. In order to test these hypotheses, we conducted a mixed-method study, in which eight blind and partially sighted participants listened to a simplified AD based on easy-read guidelines and four to a non-simplified version. Recall and degree of adequacy and satisfaction were measured. We concluded that a simplified AD does not improve their mental image and understanding of the museum object and that it negatively influences participants’ opinion on the AD. However, some participants’ proposals along with data concerning the recall variable prove that AD can impose an excessive CL.
NaFilM Film Museum Project: Taking Part in Exploring the History of the Film Medium
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jakub Jiřiště
The interactive film museum project NaFilM offers a unique space to test the interface through which a visitor actively learns from an exhibition approached as a structure of cognitive stimuli. The method of constructive communication enables visitors to learn through their experiences, encouraging them to actively make associations in order to critically reflect on the film medium and its history. The concept of such a film museum is being continuously tested through a series of short-term film exhibitions, which are being developed with the active participation of audience members, educators, and school groups. The project creates an active space where visitors can directly experience how the film medium is changing its form and functions and the ways it addresses its audience. This way of presenting film history, provoking insight and reflection in its visitors, is vastly different to the traditional collection displays and spectacular form of postmodern film museums, whose effect is limited to visual perception without true engagement or educative stimulation. The designer Tina Roppola writes about "transactional exchange" between an engaged visitor and the knowledge that a museum exposition orchestrates. The physical space of the museum is then a specific medium for dynamic experience through which the visitor enters the cognitive process. NaFilM project applies this concept of transaction in order to guide the visitor to individual reflections of history which will be demonstrated on a communication scheme of a installation focused on Czechoslovak cinema in the era of Stalinism.
Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint by The Museum Foundation - Fashion Museum, Photo Museum and DIVA in Antwerp
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ama Koranteng-Kumi
The Fashion Museum , the Photo Museum, and DIVA are three museums in Antwerp that today are at the top of the Flemish museum landscape. As cultural heritage institutions our museums are collectors, keepers, and promoters of cultural heritage and faced with the challenge of sustainable development. This entails recognizing and promoting the diversity and cultural dynamics of cultural heritage. Also unlocking cultural heritage so it continues to have meaning and value today to diverse communities and that this can also be passed on to the next generations. How to become inclusive museums – connecting and engaging more diverse audiences in all levels of our museums is a mission that evidently responds to the challenges of an urban and diversified society. Today, the question of audience development for our museums in Antwerp is more than relevant – it is in fact a necessity. The new patterns of super-diversity beg for a different understanding and new ways of audience development for cultural heritage institutions. Our vision is to give our museums a meaningful role in society that makes social, aesthetic and personal change possible. This means more critical reflective and active ways of dealing with (super) diversity in all parts of the organization and a stronger embedding of our museum activities in the ´urban fabric´ of the city Antwerp. Our outlook on audience development is not solely about increasing the numbers of visitors, but it is about transforming our museums into spaces where people from all backgrounds have agency and representation.
