Complex Views (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Representational Issues: Disability Imagery, Art, and Museums View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Berube Patricia
What impact does the cultural model of disability have on the way we acknowledge and address representational issues in museums? Also, how do these representational issues materialize in disability imagery and art? For some, the binary between disabled and non-disabled seems to be transposed to the museum in the form of a dominant culture (or ‘disabling culture) vs. a disability culture. As such, one of the observations that can be made is that the portraiture of disability is often either ignored, or stereotyped. While museums have always played a role in the social triage of its visitors, the role of the representational critique, along with the amazing work carried by curatorial activists (such as Amanda Cachia), are representative of a need for change.
Divinity and Decay: Curating Ephemeral Religious Objects in Museums View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emma Cieslik
Although religious culture often focuses on the divine and otherworldly, material religion recognizes that this divinity is often grounded in physical objects. Vernacular religious scholars have documented increased attachment to bodily experiences in religion, with experience-based and emotionally focused forms of worship gaining popularity in many different religious traditions. With increased focus on the physical objects, museums are left to grapple with how to display objects that are actively touched, worn, and held during religious services or practices and to curate objects that are ephemeral or short-lived, including candles, incense, temporary altars, and offerings. How do museums curate objects whose religious importance is tied to senses other than sight, such as touch and feeling? How are ephemeral religious objects displayed in museum settings and what religious traditions are often excluded from museum collections and curation because of focus on long-lasting religious objects? What is lost from exhibitions about contemporary material religion when ephemeral objects are excluded? This paper focuses on how museums can complicate religious representation by expanding the material religion that they highlight and seeks to explore the inclusion of ephemeral objects in museum curation as a way to broaden visitors’ understandings of religious material culture in the United States today. This paper is also a call to action to complicate the traditional display of religious objects, to engage visitors of all sensory needs with these objects, to incorporate more visitors’ senses into the exhibition, and to highlight more religious traditions and experiences.
(Re)framing Inclusivity and Engagement with Critical Race Theory View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rhianon Kohl, Jared Halter
In this paper, we critically examine museum community engagement through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). We explore how museum engagement has historically evolved, is occurring today, and what needs to be improved for museums to become a place of racial liberation and justice. Museums are part of socialization processes that advance racial oppression, white privilege, and Whiteness. CRT can be used in the ways museums involve community to more accurately reframe U.S. history and culture by encouraging the dismantling of harmful social practices. The integration of CRT into participation with community would assist the evolution of the institution into an advocate of social justice, and more fully represent and include marginalized communities. We call for the framework of CRT to be utilized in community engagement as a tool to transform museums into more inclusive and socially just institutions.
The Use of Digital Media in Museums in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Online Reality and Augmented Reality View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria João Gomes Da Costa, Sara Eloy
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the temporary shutdown of multiple cultural institutions, highlighting the limits of physical exhibition spaces and encouraging multiple museums throughout the world to adopt digital media in order to engage with the public remotely. The current crisis has also re-ignited a pre-existing dialogue on the shift towards visitor-centered experiences and the need for more accessibility, openness, and participation in the production and transmission of cultural knowledge. In this context, I present a series of guidelines to help museums share works of art remotely through Online Reality and Augmented Reality, as these technologies are particularly useful for exhibiting art outside of the physical space, enabling new forms of artistic production and innovative exhibition models that are capable of reaching new audiences - accustomed to an increasingly digital world - through interactive, personalized cultural experiences. This work was partially supported by FCT Project.
Insights on Teaching about Museums during the Covid-19 Pandemic : A Preliminary Report of a “Museum Learning” Module at the University of Crete View Digital Media
Poster Session Sofia Trouli
This study illustrates the potentialities and the limitations of teaching “museum learning” in distance to future kindergarten teachers in the Department of Preschool Education at the University of Crete, during the academic year of 2020-2021. It is about preliminary research which focuses on listening to the students’ voices, their previous experiences about museums but also their real needs and interests in museum learning, taking to the consideration the conditions of the Covid-10 pandemic in Greece and the long lockdown with closed museums and Universities. The main tools of the research were a questionnaire designed in google forms and the diary I kept during the course. The first results of the analysis of the data show that new technologies not only provide the museums and the universities with the possibility of digital "access" to the learning procedure and to the knowledge but also offer the sense of sharing, selection, connections, active involvement and democratization, giving everyone access during this difficult period. However, many students note that they would love to visit the museums after the end of this crisis.
