Late Additions
High Art Down Net : Art Museums on Social Media View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yu Chen
The growing use of social media indicates a potentially effective new platform for art museums to communicate and share with social network users. By conducting interviews with fans and followers of museums, and executing a quantitative survey of museum pages users, we analyze their expectations and perceptions of both social media and the museums presented in social media platforms and its impact on consumer engagement and participation. The findings illustrate that when consumers have negative (positive) perception of social media (SM), it will negatively (positively) impact their perception of museums on SM. Expectations for information and benefits have a significant impact on consumer perception of museums on SM. When consumers have higher expectations for information and benefits, they perceive museums on SM more positively. When consumers have higher expectation for entertainment, though, they perceive museums on SM more negatively. Interestingly, when consumers have positive perception of museums on SM, they have higher intention level for participation and community commitment. However, even though when consumers have negative perception of museums on SM, such negative perception does not necessarily hinder their intention to participate and commit. The findings provide valuable insights and recommendations for the museum professionals regarding their selections and future management of social media platforms.
A Difficult Balancing Act: Docent Coordinators' Perceptions of Working with Art Museum Docents View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Schero
Many encyclopedic art museums in the United States of America utilize volunteers, often titled docents, to facilitate tours. Yet, a lack of research focuses on the docent coordinators who prepare and support docents. Findings from a study conducted in 2021 suggested a complex lifeworld with multiple stakeholder expectations impacting coordinators’ understandings of their professional identity, relationships, and stressors. This session offers insights into these perceptions, providing space for session participants to consider their experiences in relation to the experiences of those documented within the study.
Multisensory Experiences in Museums: Engaging and Empowering People with Disabilities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leandro S. Guedes, Monica Landoni
Digital accessibility and assistive technology are beneficial to people with disabilities and must be broadly available. Our project investigates how to design technology to support different textual and multimedia sense-making activities before, during, and after a museum visit. We actively explored ways to include individuals with disabilities in all design steps, including planning, developing, and assessing prototypes to fully understand users' requirements, expectations, and preferences by following a collaborative design paradigm. Our project examines the potential of three main types of interventions that have naturally emerged from the literature and are effective with this population: Augmented Reality, Accessible Applications, and Multisensory Experiences. Multisensory Experiences allow users to interact with the Museum content via multiple senses. We explore the potential of an electronic diorama in the context of a museum visit to improve participants' engagement and empowerment, while the "This is me!" project aims to assist people in representing themselves, communicating, and crafting their preferences. By concentrating on accessibility and engagement through multimodal stimuli and creating a functional and tangible prototype with a matching game, we wanted to enhance the participants' experience. The design team includes educators, psychologists, and cultural mediators. We discuss their involvement, contribution, and role in understanding the visitors better. We also present the focus of the research, the methodology we employed, our work thus far, and the lessons we have gained from it.
Asbestos as Difficult Heritage. the Need for a Participatory and Inclusive Value Typology of Asbestos-containing Objects in Museal Collections View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Blancquaert Doris, Hélène Verreyke
Asbestos in heritage objects not only poses challenges in terms of identification and safety measures but also in conservation ethics since the removal of asbestos is not a self-evident matter. Worldwide, policies are implemented to remove asbestos. However, what happens with the past, knowledge and memory connected to asbestos and the history of the objects themselves? This ties in with the heritage values of an object and asbestos applications. The question remains whether the asbestos component is an integral part of an object, and if – in that case – the removal of asbestos affects the heritage values of this object. Valuing asbestos objects requires careful consideration. Given the history behind the production and consumption of asbestos and the high lethality of these dangerous minerals, asbestos objects can be considered as difficult heritage. This is heritage that is associated with a troubling or unwanted past, evoking deep emotions, particularly for former labourers and individuals affected by asbestos-related diseases. It implies that the valuation of asbestos heritage is not a self-evident matter and should take place in a multi-voiced and participatory process, giving a voice to all people involved. In this study, I use asbestos heritage objects as a case to explore how difficult heritage can be valuated inclusively. The focus lies on the methodology I have developed and which exists of a combination of interviews, value-based heritage assessments with stakeholders, focus groups, controversy mapping, and actor-network theory. In addition, I further discuss asbestos heritage as difficult heritage.
