Contemporary Influences
“Break Out Those AirPods”: Digital Music Playlists as Exhibition Engagement Tools in Museums and Galleries
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Morghen Jael
Museums are increasingly attempting to use digital and multisensory tools to engage visitors. The curation of a digital music playlist to accompany an exhibition, often meant for consumption on visitors’ own devices and headphones, is one such practice. This paper charts the current state of implementation of digital music playlists, specifically playlists on the streaming service Spotify, for museum and gallery exhibitions. I take a case study approach: I first collected a variety of examples of exhibition music playlists, then I closely profiled and analyzed a handful of the most interesting ones using an original “profiling framework.” Stemming from this analysis and from a literature review, I identify important dimensions of the current state of the application of digital playlists in museums. I also discuss the status of these playlists as exhibition “add-ons” with reference to the concept of the “post-museum” with an “edutainment” mandate. I conclude by offering concrete suggestions for museums considering implementing digital music playlists for their exhibitions. Ultimately, I argue that digital exhibition playlists on Spotify, though novel, are in fact fairly conventional interpretative and engagement tools; the constraints of Spotify prevent active responses from listeners, and the playlists are not often presented with curator self-reflexivity. Exhibition playlists are a relatively new engagement tool and are being implemented in a variety of ways and to a variety of effects, so they are worth compiling and studying. This project is just one part of my larger, ongoing research work, focusing on sonic add-ons in museum exhibitions.
Museums in the Age of Retail: How Museum Shop Design and Layout Are a Leading Force in Constructing Visitor Experience
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Abdulrahman Albannaa
There is no museum visit without visiting the museum shop. Museums are institutes which harness the power of inclusive understandings about the world around. Hitherto, museums have shown great facilitation in their designed curricular via various facets. Now, museums disseminate knowledge not only via their teaching curriculum, their meta narrative; but also, providing a rather enticing one through their gift shops. Gift shops are museums narrators and tour guides. It is essential how the institute’s mission is presented in the form of commodities and memorabilia, which tie to visitors’ experience. This autoethnographic study investigates the acquired experience through museum shop, and what we gain or learn from our visit and how it serves the greater mission and designed curriculum, and the level of inclusivity between the institute and its offered commodities for purchase. In South Dakota, it is striking how the individual experience in both Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse national parks’ gift shops are, by name, serving the same form of outdoor museum. However, both gift shops’ displays and experiences are far from alike. Through investigation, it can be shown that museum shops are a leading spectrum in our experience in that museum and no matter how inclusive or exclusive it is to the greater mission, our body of knowledge gets rather concrete post visiting the shop. The study focuses on the individual experience under various facets of the museum’s storytelling, by which understanding the role and impact of museum shop design and merchandise.
