Cueing the Visitor: The Museum Theater and the Visitor Performance

There are an estimated 17,500 museums in the United States. If people think these institutions are pretty much the same once you get inside or that the differences between them are unimportant, it might be hard to persuade them that all 17,500 are needed. Exhibitions can have great transformational power; why don’t they exercise that power more often? Have museums not fully understood exhibitions as a medium? Have we not devoted enough attention to the full repertoire of visitor feelings? Have visitors been telling us this and we have failed to listen? For many people, museums play many roles in their lives; for most others few or none. How can this be? “Museum‐adept” visitors seem to prize museums as theaters in which their own emotional and spiritual journeys can be staged, but what about the non‐museum‐adept? Can the museum‐adept teach us how to realize our medium’s full potential?     

IPOP: A Theory of Experience Preference

The theory and practice of IPOP emerged from structured observations and interviews with visitors to the Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, D.C. from the 1990s to the present—a dataset useful in constructing a long view. This research has had one overarching intention: to serve museum visitors better, that is, to provide visitors with experiences that are above average, special, significant, and memorable. In numerous studies and interviews during the last 16 years, visitors have repeatedly spoken about their reactions to Smithsonian museum exhibitions in four typologies distilling their primary interests: I = ideas, P = people, O = objects, and—as we were obliged to add at a later stage—a second P for “physical.” The evidence suggests that exhibitions that strongly appeal to all four visitor typologies will be highly successful with visitors.     

Writing the History of Humanity: The Role of Museums in Defining Origins and Ancestors in a Transnational World

This article explores the question of how transnational audiences experience anthropology exhibitions in particular, and the natural history museum overall. Of interest are the ways in which natural history museums reconcile anthropological notions of humanity's shared evolutionary history—in particular, African origins accounts—with visitors' complex cultural identities. Through case studies of British, American, and Kenyan museum audiences, this research probed the cultural preconceptions that museum visitors bring to the museum and use to interpret their evolutionary heritage. The research took special notice of audiences of African descent, and their experiences in origins exhibitions and the natural history museums that house them. The article aims to draw connections between natural history museums and the dynamic ways in which museum visitors make meaning. As museums play an increasing role in the transnational homogenization of cultures, human origins exhibitions are increasingly challenged to communicate an evolutionary prehistory that we collectively share, while validating the cultural histories that make us unique.     

共同创造理念下观众参与博物馆展览教育初探

基于共同创造的视角,对博物馆在观众参与的过程中,如何实现展览教育的创新发展进行探究。在共同创造的视角下,打开观众参与谱系的后三个阶段和参与创造性控制框架三个层次之间的“黑箱”,从而探索利用共同创造实现博物馆展览教育创新发展的过程模型。研究发现在观众参与谱系与参与创造性控制框架的各阶段特点和各层次特点会相互影响,最终形成一个动态的观众参与过程。这些分析细化后的共同创造的过程路径有利于博物馆展览教育的创新发展,也对我国博物馆展览中的观众参与的创新发展具有启发和指导意义。     

为公众服务的博物馆分众研究:意义、思路与建议

在日趋激烈的竞争环境下如何更有效地为多元观众服务,是当今中国多数博物馆正在思考并期待解决的问题。本文以西方博物馆普遍使用的分众策略为对象,讨论博物馆分众的意义,并从四个角度梳理、分析现有的博物馆分众研究及相关实践,即基于来源地角度、基于社会人口学角度、基于心理因素与基于行为因素的分众。基于心理因素和行为因素的分众研究相较之下比基于来源地和社会人口学角度的分众研究对分众服务更具指导意义;依赖单一的分众角度的研究不能有效地帮助分众服务。博物馆可以充分利用不同类型的展览兼顾“分众”和“大众”服务,以“项目运作”作为一种分众服务策略,有规划地履行为公众服务的使命。     

The Frightening Invitation of a Guestbook

Abstract This article examines the writing left in “comments” books at thought‐provoking museum exhibitions. What moves a visitor to share criticism, praise, political invective, or spiritual reflections in a public place where the writing is guaranteed to be seen by others? In a world transformed by text messaging and online communication, museum guestbooks are one of the few remaining opportunities to share hand‐written insights. Do visitors have a learning curve? Some leave inappropriate, even hateful remarks. By comparing the different moods of comments books at a variety of installations, this essay pays tribute to the legacies of public dialogue in museums, a medium of free speech made possible by a simple blank book.     

From Knowing to Not Knowing: Moving Beyond “Outcomes”

The ways that museums measure the success of their exhibitions reveal their attitudes and values. Are they striving to control visitors so that people will experience what the museum wants? Or are they working to support visitors, who seek to find their own path? The type of approach known as “outcome‐based evaluation” weighs in on the side of control. These outcomes are sometimes codified and limited to some half‐dozen or so “learning objectives” or “impact categories.” In essence, those who follow this approach are committed to creating exhibitions that will tell visitors what they must experience. Yet people come to museums to construct something new and personally meaningful (and perhaps unexpected or unpredictable) for themselves. They come for their own reasons, see the world through their own frameworks, and may resist (and even resent) attempts to shape their experience. How can museums design and evaluate exhibitions that seek to support visitors rather than control them? How can museum professionals cultivate “not knowing” as a motivation for improving what they do?     

Overview of preventive conservation and the museum environment in China

Based on a nationwide investigation of the current state of preservation of museum objects in China, around 51% of the 35 million museum objects show different degrees of deterioration. Although treatment of objects is necessary, treatment alone is not sufficient. In China's present situation, preventing damage to museum objects is much more cost-effective than allowing damage to happen and then treating it. The number of museums in China is increasing very fast: 23?000 exhibitions are held, 600 million visits are made, and 35?000 archaeological objects are excavated nationwide, each year. At the same time, these museums are widely distributed and have different levels of resources. We need both technical knowledge and preventive conservation to safeguard our precious museum objects. This paper introduces research achievements in preventive conservation, and traces the development of this discipline in China. Starting from the classification of museums in China, legislation is detailed on preventive measures such as selecting appropriate light sources, controlling temperature, relative humidity, light damage, and pollutants. This paper describes achievements in monitoring, analysis, evaluation, and control of museum environments in China. It also proposes future directions for museum environment studies during China's twelfth Five-Year Plan.     

Visitor Meaning-Making in Museums for a New Age

The concept of meaning-making is generating excitement within the museum community, with good reason. Providing an approach to understanding visitor experiences, the paradigm illuminates the visitor's active role in creating meaning of a museum experience through the context he/she brings, influenced by the factors of self-identity, companions, and leisure motivations. As a result, visitors find personal significance within museums in a range of patterned ways that reflect basic human needs, such as the need for individualism and the need for community. The dynamics of visitor meaning-making indicate the importance of fashioning a better “fit” between people and museums in two critical areas: (1) between human meaning-making and museum methods and (2) between human needs and the purpose of museums in society. Each of these areas illuminates a promising direction for a new age of museums in which we actively support, facilitate, and enhance the many kinds of meaning possible in museums and explicitly incorporate human needs into exhibit goals and institutional missions. Examples of successful strategies are discussed.     

Media in the Museum: A Personal History

Abstract In the past 50 years, museums have adapted various media for use in museum exhibitions. In the past 15 years, both the formats and the applications have changed dramatically, altering the relationships between museums and visitors, and between visitors and collections. Taking on the challenge of the newest media allows museums to experiment and to reinvigorate their interpretive programs.     

Portal to the Public: Museum Educators Collaborating with Scientists to Engage Museum Visitors with Current Science

Science museums play a role in creating visitor experiences that relate to contemporary issues in science, and in linking audiences to the scientific enterprise and the community of scientists. In the Portal to the Public approach, science researchers are trained by museum educators with experience in inquiry‐based learning, and are then given opportunities to translate their current research for museum audiences. Portal to the Public offers one solution to museums seeking to sustain a commitment to delivering experiences that reflect the dynamic pace of research, and the need to connect local communities to scientific research occurring in their midst.     

The Exhibit as Planned Versus the Exhibit as Experienced

Is it even possible to design museum exhibits that have an above average chance of engaging visitors in meaningful experiences? Museum‐based researchers and designers, working over the past several decades, have endeavored to address this and other questions. Recently, a promising Ideas‐People‐Objects (IPO) model of the visitor experience, subsequently elaborated on to include Physical (IPOP) has been used in the design and subsequent study of visitors' museum experiences. Here I briefly describe the model and introduce three papers featured in this issue of Curator: The Museum Journal that offer new insights and perspectives for understanding the theory behind the model, as well as features of the IPOP model that have been used in the design and interpretation of exhibitions, and a comparison of analytic techniques that produce results that can be used in IPOP‐related research.     

Digital Storytelling in Museums: Observations and Best Practices

Abstract The museum landscape has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Technology has made possible new kinds of interactions, visitor expectations have broadened, competition for time and resources has become increasingly intense, and the buildings serve ever‐more‐complex roles. As a result, interactive designers, including those of us at Second Story, have evolved our skills and approaches to keep pace. This article summarizes many of our observations while sharing some of the best practices that we have evolved to create engaging interactive installations, websites, and experiences. Despite changes in technology and user behavior, a core focus on great storytelling should drive interactive design and serve as the critical element for museums communication and connecting with their visitors.     

从不同角度讲述宇宙探索的故事 ——美国三个博物馆展示内容和叙事结构对比

在博物馆展览中讲故事的重要性已经得到普遍认可,通过讲故事的形式可以让科学入脑、更入心,可以得到更好的展示效果。然而,选择什么样的故事、怎样讲述故事、如何将故事与展览相结合,则成为重要的探讨话题。笔者在美国博物馆中看到了三个关于宇宙探索的不同展览,希望通过对展览内容和叙事结构的剖析,能够对国内科技馆展览策划有所启发。     

基于观众对话的博物馆学习研究新视角——来自苏·艾伦研究成果的启发

观众在博物馆中如何学习、学习效果如何评量等问题长期受到研究者的关注。观众对话作为参观学习的体现,是探究博物馆学习过程的重要材料。基于此,苏·艾伦采用社会文化视角,透过参观过程中的观众对话寻找学习的证据。本文主要目的是介绍该研究的研究问题、研究发现、方法论框架、数据收集与分析等方面的内容,以期为国内博物馆观众研究领域提供一种新的视角。     

Making Meaning on the Mall: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a Constructivist Museum

George Hein, museum education theorist, asserts that there are five qualities a “constructivist exhibition” must have (1998, 35). The authors, assembling observations of visitor engagement and qualitative data from the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, compare the event to Hein's constructivist exhibition criteria, to assess whether the Festival allowed visitors to “make meaning,” and to see whether visitor meaning‐making meshed with the goals of the curators. The answers have the potential to help improve visitor experiences and learning outcomes at museums and other curated cultural events.     

Why Do They Come? Listening to Visitors at a Decorative Arts Museum

This article presents the background, methodology, and results of a yearlong study of visitor motivation conducted by the Visitor Research Team (VRT) of Winterthur, a Delaware decorative arts museum. The article details the VRT's use of focus groups to determine what really motivates visitors to attend museums. Study results are consistent with recent work in the field showing that learning and recreation are the primary motivations behind museum visitation. Visitors valued museums as places for active, personal learning through the observation of objects and as outlets for physical and mental relaxation and escapism. Results also show that Winterthur visitors ascribe meanings to the words learning and recreation that are different from education and entertainment. The author calls on museums to discover the needs of their audiences and to design marketing and programming using visitors' vocabularies to promote and provide meaningful museum experiences.     

Strategies for the Curiosity‐Driven Museum Visitor

Tracking studies show that museum visitors typically view only 20 to 40 percent of an exhibition. Current literature states that this partial use sub‐optimizes the educational benefit gained by the visitor, and that skilled visitors view an exhibition comprehensively and systematically. Contrary to that viewpoint, this paper argues that partial use of exhibitions is an intelligent and effective strategy for the visitor whose goal is to have curiosity piqued and satisfied. By using analytical approaches derived from “optimal foraging theory” in ecology, this paper demonstrates that the curiosity‐driven visitor seeks to maximize the Total Interest Value of his or her museum visit. Such visitors use a set of simple heuristics to find and focus attention only on exhibit elements with high interest value and low search costs. Their selective use of exhibit elements results in greater achievement of their own goals than would be gained by using the exhibition comprehensively.     

Spectacular Design in Museum Exhibitions

Abstract Intrigued by the crowd‐pleasing effects of “the spectacle,” some museums and exhibition designers have begun to enlist the principles used by theaters, theme parks, and public attractions in order to turn museum venues into awe‐inspiring experiences — thereby elevating this inclination into a principle we call Spectacular Design. This article summarizes the results of a year‐long study that compared and contrasted two categories of spectacle: museum and non‐museum. The concept of spectacle is here examined, and a formula is identified, so we can see the commonalities present in Spectacular Design both in public attractions and in museum exhibitions. The hope is to redefine the model for the museum field.     

Interactives and Visitor Learning

Abstract Interactives—computers and other multimedia components, physical manipulatives (including whole‐body and tabletop activities), and simulations—occur in all types of museums. There is considerable interest in the nature of the learning that happens when visitors use interactives. Museum professionals have enlisted constructivist theory to support the notion that interactive elements are invaluable components of any exhibition experience, and are effective learning tools that enable active visitor engagement. Interactives are also seen as vital to sustaining institutional image and expanding institutional popularity. Despite the increasing use of interactives in exhibitions and the substantial investments being made in their design and maintenance, there is a paucity of research as to whether these constructivist assumptions are supported. There is little work exploring visitors' perceptions of specific types of interactives, or the role of interactivity in the visitor experience generally. Museum staff thus have a limited ability to make informed decisions about the level and type of interactivity that might enhance exhibition experiences. This paper describes a collaborative effort in 2001 by researchers at the Powerhouse Museum (PHM), Sydney; the Institute for Learning Innovation (the Institute), Annapolis, Maryland; and Curtin University of Technology (Curtin) and Scitech Discovery Centre (Scitech), both in Perth, Western Australia. This study investigated two aspects of interactivity: 1) visitor perceptions of interactivity in two different contexts, a museum and a science center; and 2) the types of short‐ and long‐term learning that resulted from use of interactives in these two institutions.