Diverse Experiences
Investigation of Learning Resources on Museum Websites
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sandy Tang
The purpose of the study is to gain a comprehensive picture of developing learning resources on museum websites for students and school teaching. The research argues that the production of online learning resources is an intricate and dynamic process. For example, it is expected that curators with expertise in collections and subject matters should be team members with those who specialise in digital production. To negotiate different needs, this collaborative working process is complex rather than linear. This study employs Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to unveil the agency of these actors and their evolving interactions, highlighting the role they play in shaping the nature, quality, and effectiveness of online learning resources. Developed primarily by sociologists Bruno Latour and Michel Callon, ANT is a theoretical framework and approach to understanding the dynamics of complex systems and networks. Under the theoretical lens, the research is able to trace the diverse elements that include animate factors (educators, content creators, museum staff, etc.,) and inanimate factors (websites, digital tools, content management systems, etc.,). The two cases which are Kettle Yard of the University of Cambridge, and the Leeds Museum and Gallery in the United Kingdom are chosen to reveal the secrets behind the development of the learning resources.
Pro-pedagogy in the Urban Art Museum View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zartasha Shah
Urban art education is an important part of the visual representation at the museums. This field of education supports visual literacy, object-based learning, and critical thinking. The importance of the reductive representations of new ideas, new artistic approaches, and the representations of creativity can be seen in the outcomes of the aesthetics, creativity, and the process of making the artworks in a nontraditional way in education. The implementation, interpretation, and incorporation of personal ideas can be reflected through them. Art education can be related to the history, traditional ways to make the artworks, and the educational environment of the museums that are both repositories of culture and themselves for a comparison with the pro pedagogical ways of teaching and learning about art education. According to O’Donoghue (2011), “In challenging common-sense notions of what learning is, where it occurs and for whom, these pedagogical events anticipate and take us beyond our present sense of the possible in art education”(p. 1). Urban art education expands the knowledge of learners. The exhibited and displayed artworks do have a positive impact on others, and the use of the techniques, methods, materials, and the process of making the artworks inform the museums. According to Lasky (2009), “Learning from objects in museums helps learners access their imaginations to engage with a set of concepts, the history of a people, the history of an aesthetic movement, or the cultural norms of society (p. 73). This research investigates the importance of representation in urban museums.
Centering Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Experiences in Sound Art Exhibitions
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lloyd May
This project details the process of generating recommendations for the implementation of specific haptic and captioning technologies in a sound and video art exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to improve the museum experience for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing patrons. Various haptic technologies were evaluated by D/deaf and Hard-of-Hearing participants through a combination of structured user experience surveying and focus group sessions. Insights gained from this mixed-methods approach were then used to generate recommendations for specific vibro-tactile technologies for each artwork in the exhibition. Additionally, general design insights into designing more accessible sound-art experiences, such as the need for tailored haptic signal design instead of using native audio signals and considerations for caption design and placement, are also provided.
