Digital Dimensions
Do Visitors React Differently In a Traditional Versus an Immersive Exhibition? : Multisensory Cues Effects in Exhibitions
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dan Luo
Sensory cues are critical in triggering visitors’ memorable and immersive experiences, and more and more museums are using them as strategic tools in the exhibition design process. Despite some discussions about the effect of sensory inputs in the museum context, academic research on different exhibition types with different levels of sensory inputs remains rare. Building on Mehrabian and Russell's SOR model and Pine and Gilmore's four experience dimensions, this study compares visitor responses to two exhibition types varying in sensory inputs and investigates the effect of perceived intensity of sensory attributes on satisfaction. A field study in a traditional and an immersive exhibition demonstrates that, compared with the traditional exhibition, the immersive one leads to a higher level of sensory intensity, attention, aesthetic, education, entertainment, and satisfaction, but not escapism. Our mediation findings also show that the effect of perceived sensory intensity on visitor satisfaction is fully mediated by visitors’ attention control system and their aesthetic, entertainment, and escapism experiences. This research extends previous findings on the impact of sensory cues and the further understanding of the sensory process in museum experiences. It also gives managerial implications on museum exhibition design by introducing more intense sensory attributes in museums.
Featured Digital Delineations: Advocating for Reparative Descriptive Work in Ethnographic Collections Online
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sofia Karliner
In this paper, I advocate engaging in reparative descriptive work within ethnographic museums' online collections databases. Word searches have created near-infinite ways for internet users to group and categorize museum artifacts, including colonially collected objects with language dating back to the time of acquisition. I present a case study taken from my Master's research, where I conducted a word search for "magic" in the collections online databases of two British museums (the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum). I first reference the complex biography of magic as a category and its relationship to ethnographic collecting, before delving into the nuanced ritual practice of the artifacts in question. I ultimately conclude that the uncritical deployment of Western terms to categorize a geographic diversity of artifacts may inadvertently pathologize non-Western rituals and objects, perpetuating colonial biases and epistemic violence within museum narratives. By shedding light on these issues, I hope to contribute to ongoing discussions on museum reform and underscore the urgency for reparative action within archival description, particularly as museums are rapidly digitizing their archives and making their collections available to the public. I emphasize the importance of critically reassessing terminologies beyond exhibition labels to ensure that online collections avoid hegemonic bias/reductionism and reflect diverse cultural knowledge systems.
