Understanding Engagement
Embodied Experience in Museums from the Metaverse Perspective: The Case Study of Dunhuang Special Exhibition in Hong Kong Heritage Museum View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shengwei Chen, Jeffrey Shaw, Runqi Zou
In recent years, Metaverse has become one of the hottest topics, and characteristics such as hyperreality, interaction, and participation in Metaverse also meet the development requirements of museums. Therefore, many museums have attempted to create personalized Metaverse exhibitions to improve the visitors' visiting experience. In the research, two questions are mainly explored. First, what different kinds of embodied experiences might museum exhibitions bring to the visitors from the Metaverse perspective? In addition, do these different kinds of embodied experiences positively or negatively affect the visitors? Consequently, this research has taken the Dunhuang Special Exhibition in Hong Kong Heritage Museum (HKHM) as a case study, and through semi-structured interviews to collect 12 audiences' visiting data. This research found that learning experience and entertainment experience are the most obvious results of embodied experience from the Metaverse perspective. Different interaction and participation modes arouse the visitors' curiosity, provide much fun, and help alleviate stress. In addition, the embodied narrative experience and the embodied introspective experience are the two kinds of experiences that visitors give more feedback on in this exhibition. Visitors and exhibits can complete the narrative story together through participation in person, thus constructing their unique understanding of the story. Similarly, the visitors' digital media experience has aroused their independent reflection, thus forming a new understanding of culture or history. Finally, this research believes that with the progress of technology and ideas, museums from the Metaverse perspective could provide richer experiences for visitors.
Community Pathways for Promoting Social Inclusion of Children and their Families in an Art Museum in a Rural Community-based Setting View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marisa Macy, Dana Vaux
Individuals with disabilities or special health care needs may find it difficult to participate in their public spaces. Community spaces frequently lack access. Young children with special needs and their families face barriers to engaging with their community. Parents of young children with disabilities are often isolated and do not participate in social activities. The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities says people with disabilities have a right to participate in cultural life and recreation. Being excluded from cultural life is not only a tragedy for the child and his/her family, but also a loss for society who would benefit from diversity and social inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Many families of a child with a disability or special healthcare needs often become isolated from their community. Specifically, families of children with disabilities may not feel comfortable participating in community-based experiences for a variety of reasons. Accessibility is one possible reason. Many places are not accessible for children with disabilities. For example, a child with a physical disability may have difficulty accessing a park. Parents may worry about their child’s safety. Universal design principles are often limited for young children with disabilities and their families. This session will share a case study of a project that was conducted at the Robert Henri Art Museum within a rural community in Cozad, Nebraska.
Featured Understanding Museum Audience through Non-participant Observation: The Case of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (Italy) View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Selene Frascella
The new museum definition (ICOM 2022) has officially recognized accessibility, inclusion, and community participation as intrinsic elements of this institution. These characteristics are at the basis of such a close relationship with the audience that necessarily requires an in-depth knowledge of the same, which goes beyond the quantitative data of admissions. However, this type of research is not widespread, both because of the limited resources available and a bias on the part of professionals. In this context, this research aims to contribute to filling this gap by presenting the results of non-participant public observations at the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto (Italy). This method makes it possible to assess, through specific indicators, the use of the museum space, the relationship with the exhibition and the effectiveness of the communication between the audience and the artworks realized through the museum set-up. Furthermore, these data are presented in comparison with the results of a previous research conducted with the same methodology and in the same museum in 2018. This comparison will make it possible to verify what changes have taken place in audience profile and behaviour, and to measure the effectiveness of the interventions made by the museum in recent years to improve the quality of the museum experience. In conclusion, this work will deepen the knowledge of the public and identify its needs and the exhibition solutions that can respond to them, thus constituting elements that can promote and catalyse successive inclusive and participatory processes.
Queering a Fine Arts Museum: Our Experiences with Launching Belgium's First LGBTQ+ Fine Art Tour View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bart Ooghe
In the spring of 2022, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent launched the first LGBTQ+ themed fine art tour in Belgium to great success. Through works of art dating from the 15th to the mid-20th century, all of which are on permanent display in the galleries, the tour tells stories from LGTBQ+ history and mythology and discusses gender, attraction, and expression. It was entirely created by members of the LGBTQ+ community over the course of a year. The tour remains until now solely guided by members of the community, but was always intended to speak to a broader audience as well. This paper discusses the methodology used in its creation, its intended goals, and important lessons learned through focus groups and visitor feedback. It looks into its success after launch and the audiences it is reaching, but also examine its limitations as a way of bringing ‘untold stories’ to the foreground. Finally, the study shows how the tour turned out to be an important way of garnering internal support for new queer oriented programming, even coming so far as to putting a queer fine art exhibition on the museum agenda.
Routes as Spaces : Walking In and Out of the Institute View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Clementine Butler Gallie
There are many ways to walk; to stroll, to ramble, to trespass, to head somewhere specific or without direction, to meander, to get lost, to find one's way again. Whatever way one walks, the action of moving from one place to another can form a temporary space: a space that holds the capacity to exist within and move between both the public and private realms. Lucius Burckhardt’s theory of Strollology emerged in the 1980s in response to the privatisation of public spaces and the growth of global mobility. In Strollology, space is seen as a construct of perception, landscape is learnt and therefore, can be seen as a collective educational asset. If it is experienced too fast, details can be easily lost. Contemporary cultural landscapes are historically built upon various codes of access and exclusion. More and more often, selected artistic projects are offered as fast-paced experiences with a pseudo-public perception of open doors. If we take Burckhardt’s Strollology theory and understand that constructing a space is a simple perception, is it possible to therefore perceive new, alternative spaces by mapping a fresh route to walk? Could these alternative spaces focus on re-connecting the private to the public and as Burckhardt hoped for through Strollology, prioritise the process of slowing down?
