Making meaning in museum exhibitions: design, agency and (re-)representation

Diamantopoulou, Sophia; Insulander, Eva; Lindstrand, Fredrik

doi:10.2478/dfl-2014-0002

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Supporting human agency leaves the responsibility for creating meaning with users, inviting them to do so, and gives space to explore and wonder. This aligns with visitor research that stresses that exhibition design should support discovery, sense/meaning-making and imagination [Bedford 2014;Ciolfi and Bannon 2002;Diamantopoulou 2013;Humphrey et al 2005;Perry 2012] and with contemporary understandings of museum learning as dialogic, constructivist, and contextual [Falk and Dierking 2000].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

“…Museum educators further emphasize the need to go beyond "button pushing" [Allen 2004], and instead to support discovery, sense/meaning-making and imagination (cf. [Bedford 2014;Ciolfi and Bannon 2002;Diamantopoulou et al 2013;Humphrey et al 2005;Perry 2012]). Hands-on interaction should result in "minds-on" engagement, and active engagement does not necessarily require manual interaction.…”

Section: Museum and Visitor Studies: Hands-on Or Minds-on Interactionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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The To-and-Fro of Sense Making

Hornecker

2016

ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.

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Based on case studies from a heritage/museum context, I present and illustrate the notion of "spatiocontextual embedding," which conceptualizes installation designs that augment real objects and environments while keeping these primary focuses of attention. Key for this "embeddedness" is that interaction is contextualized within a meaningful setting, creating relationships between system and environment. While retaining a focus on original objects or environments, it supports user's active engagement and sense making by inviting, enticing, or forcing them to draw connections. At the heart of this is "indexing": mindful acts of referencing back-and-forth between here and there, connecting objects or representations. Analysis of case studies provides a repertoire of examples of "indexing," and examples for high-and low-tech installation designs that foster drawing of connections.Two core values for design underpin the argument: (1) primacy of real objects and environments and (2) supporting human agency. The case examples highlight how technological arrangements may support or hinder indexing activity. This is condensed into potential design strategies. This article contributes to design knowledge on design for human agency, sense making, and mindful engagement with our environment. "Indexing" is relevant beyond the heritage setting domain, as part of HCI design in support of human agency. CCS Concepts: r Human-centered computing → HCI theory, concepts and models; Empirical studies in interaction design; Ubiquitous computingAdditional Key Words and Phrases: Embedded interactions, embodiment, situated interaction, indexing, museum installations, interaction design strategy, augmented environments, engaging user experience ACM Reference Format: Eva Hornecker. 2016. The To-and-Fro of sense making: Supporting users' active indexing in museums. ACM

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Section: Museum and Visitor Studies: Hands-on Or Minds-on Interactionmentioning

confidence: 94%

The To-and-Fro of Sense Making

Hornecker

2016

ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.

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“…I have examined visitors meaning making elsewhere (eg. Diamantopoulou, Insulander and Lindstrand 2012;Insulander 2010), however it is beyond the scope of this particular study.…”

Section: Analyzing Exhibitions: a Multimodal Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representations of migration, borders and memories in exhibitions: a multimodal text analysis

Insulander

2019

MAS

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Many museums and galleries today address migration stories in their exhibitions. In this article, a methodological framework based on a multimodal social semiotic approach is used for the analysis of the meaning potentials of exhibitions. A particular focus is directed towards how the conceptions of migration, borders and memory represent themselves multimodally, in terms of general structure, orchestration of semiotic resources, the use of figurative language and explicit/implicit values. This methodological framework helped uncover hidden messages of interests and ideologies in different exhibitions. The study contributes to research on multimodal texts and exhibitions, as well as educational research.

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“…Agency entails the ability to assign relevance and significance to things and events (Duranti 2004). Visitors perform agency through their ongoing decisions and selections while in the galleries, which involve mediational means such as language and action (Diamantopoulou et al 2012). This article argues that visitors demonstrate agency through their orchestration of all modes that are employed in their engagement with the exhibit and the social space of the exhibition (gazing, pointing gestures, body movement, speech and so forth).…”

Section: Visitors' Dance Of Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing and Being Seen: The Multimodality of Museum Spectatorship

Christidou¹,

Diamantopoulou²

2017

Mus. Soc.

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This article argues that museum visiting and the act of 'spectatorship', both of which are often assumed to be ocularcentric, are multimodal events. Anchored in Goffman's dramaturgy and frame analysis theory, as well as Kress's multimodal and social semiotic theory of representation and communication, this article presents an apposite interpretative and methodological framework to account for what has not been widely addressed by museum studies; that is, the multimodality of the museum experience. By drawing upon audio-visual excerpts of museum encounters, this analysis brings to the fore the embodied visiting and viewing practices of visitors in museum galleries. Specifically, this article highlights the range of modes of communication and representation, beyond gazing and looking, which are employed, negotiated and regulated within the social context of the visit. The article suggests that visitors' experiences are embodied and performative interactions with the exhibits and other visitors.The analysis draws upon methodological developments within sociology and in particular Erving Goffman's dramaturgy and frame analysis theory (1963; 1971), as well as Gunther Kress's (2010) multimodal and social semiotic theory of representation and communication. By drawing upon multimodality, we show how talk, gesture, gaze and elements of the material context blend together and contribute to the production of meaning. We expand on existing sociocultural research into museums, stressing that museum encounters are embodied and multimodal events, during which physical movement, gesture, and gaze may reveal aspects of meaning making not apparent through analysis of the verbal mode alone. By treating nonverbal modes of expression as resources of meaning-making activity, we suggest that action, experience and communication may be brought into fruitful dialogue, if not integrated, to foreground the multiplicity of ways through which people communicate (Bezemer and Mavers 2011).It is through bringing together these two theories, ethnomethodology and multimodal social semiotics that we engage in a much needed interdisciplinary conversation (Dicks 2014). The virtue of these perspectives is that, by contrast to structural and deterministic sociological approaches, they permit us to theorize the agency of visitors as co-producers of meaning. The article proposes an appropriate interpretative and methodological framework which illuminates the social worlds of museums. Both the theoretical framework and the methodological tools employed allow the traditional mind-body dualism to be overcome in order to explore the modes and performances of visitors' encounters, as they arise in and through interaction with people and exhibits. The approach adopted in this article allows us to better understand this mediation through the exhibits, as well as through other fellow and co-present visitors. By raising social interaction to prominence, this article (i) foregrounds the social worlds of museums; and (ii) challenges notions of the 'static' visito...

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Making meaning in museum exhibitions: design, agency and (re-)representation

Cited by 10 publications

References 1 publication

The To-and-Fro of Sense Making

The To-and-Fro of Sense Making

Representations of migration, borders and memories in exhibitions: a multimodal text analysis

Seeing and Being Seen: The Multimodality of Museum Spectatorship

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