In Search of Museum Professional Knowledge Base: Mapping the professional knowledge debate onto museum work

Museum professionalism remains an unexplored area in museum studies, particularly with regard to what is arguably the core generic question of a sui generis professional knowledge base, and its necessary and sufficient conditions. The need to examine this question becomes all the more important with the increasing expansion of the museum’s roles and functions. This paper starts by mapping out the policy and organizational context within which the roles of museums have expanded in the UK. It then situates the discussion of museum professional knowledge within a cross-disciplinary matrix bearing on the question of what is professional about occupations classified—or classifiable—as professions. Against the backdrop of the current organizational context of the museum as well as theories of professional knowledge, it highlights the ways in which museum work, more specifically museography, poses a distinctive set of questions compared to other ‘professional’ fields; the paper thus homes in on the question of what it is that constitutes the uniqueness of museum professional knowledge in relation to museographic practice and the type of professional knowledge and expertise that can sustain it and enact its creative and educational potentials and affordances.     

大数据背景下重庆市内博物馆翻译语言服务发展路径探索

在十九大背景下,推进国际传播能力建设、讲好中国故事成为文化对外发展的方向。博物馆作为五千年中华文明智慧结晶的集合,是向世界表达中国的重要途径,而翻译是其表达的媒介。随着ICT行业的迅猛发展,大数据已经与多个行业深度融合,翻译逐渐变为依靠网络、根据数据分析提供个性化译本的服务。本文通过对重庆87所博物馆进行实地或网页调查,运用文献资料法、归类法、对比分析法、因果分析法对其博物馆翻译语言服务现状进行分析,对问题根源进行探索,最终提出其合理的发展路径。     

The Project ‘Art for Learning Art’ in Contemporary Art Museums

Projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality are used in a visual arts‐based educational project in contemporary art museums from an a/r/tographic perspective. The project ‘Art for Learning Art’ (in Spanish, Arte para aprender arte), at the Museo CajaGRANADA in Granada (Spain) has been developed in collaboration with the University of Granada since 2013. We have employed creative, educational and research methodologies inspired by exhibited works in art museums to encourage visual feedback of visitors participating in collaborative installations. Two such experiences also were produced at the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum in March 2018; utilising the methodology of mediation through projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality, which introduces facets of visual and physical experience that alter the whole experience for the museum's public. By putting on virtual reality headsets, and playing with physical movements, we generate images and change the projections in the museum using projection‐based augmented reality to disrupt the way the public typically moves in the museum. The purpose of the developed interrelations with artworks in the Museo CajaGRANADA and the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum was to create collaborative digital images by playing with select artworks exhibited in the museums’ collections. We use this kind of mediation in art museums to develop a visual understanding to provoke learning about art through art creation in a contemporary way. The results are extraordinary as images; they are collaborative artworks, which connect visually with the artworks in the exhibition.     

The Web and the Unassailable Voice

In most existing art museum Web pages, the values of the museum dominate the values of the Web. Therefore, museum Web pages often electronically duplicate familiar museum products – floor plans, collection catalogues, event calendars – rather than transforming the idea of the museum by adapting the values of the Web.This paper will seek to show how art museums and technologists can come to understand each other and use their differences productively by:1. Orienting museum Web sites towards projects that can only be done on the Web and not on paper.2. Using the Web to overcome the many limitations to understanding imposed by the physical art museum.3. Using the interactive potentials of the Web to change the one-way flow of information from art museum to visitor to a two-way flow which also moves from visitor to museum.4. Infusing the orientation towards constant change into the art museum so that the Web helps the art museum to reinvent itself.     

“一带一路”背景下自然科学博物馆对《2030年可持续发展议程》的潜在贡献

“一带一路”倡议和联合国《2030年可持续发展议程》的性质和范围各不相同,但均以可持续发展为总体目标。因此,“一带一路”倡议对《2030年可持续发展议程》的实施具有巨大的推动作用,具有巨大潜力。自然科学博物馆如何为实现《2030年可持续发展议程》,特别是在“一带一路”的政策沟通、设施联通、贸易畅通、资金融通、民心相通五大优先领域中做出贡献？为此讨论四个问题:自然科学博物馆在推动“一带一路”国家之间科技创新合作方面的潜在作用; “一带一路”国家的自然科学博物馆之间实现互联互通;“一带一路”背景下自然科学博物馆的海外发展援助潜力;自然科学博物馆在强文化理解的作用。     

The Economics of Museums: A Research Perspective

This paper examines the contribution economic analysis can make to the study of museums as productive organisations, and considers some related policy issues. The paper also suggests areas where research by economists might prove most fruitful.     

观众究竟在博物馆里参观到了什么？

在当今社会,博物馆为提升全民素质起到越来越重要的作用。为了更好地发挥博物馆的社会教育功能,博物馆馆员在教育活动设计或者展览设计的过程中有必要了解观众的参观需求以及参观偏好。因此,为了体现“以观众为中心”的工作理念,作者从“观众”的视角,对一次博物馆的参观体验进行观察和反思。本次探索发现,由于观众自身所处的社会文化背景的差异,他们面对同一件展品有着不同的关注点和兴趣点。这种差异性提醒博物馆馆员在与观众进行互动的过程中,需要了解观众的不同需求和不同偏好。并且,这种参观视角的多样性也为博物馆的教育工作提供了创意的源泉。     

On the need for expanded guidance in navigating ethical learning research at science museums

Science learning occurs throughout people's lives, inside and outside of school, in formal, informal, and nonformal settings. While museums have long played a role in science education, learning in this and other informal settings has not been studied nor understood as deeply as in formal settings (i.e., schools and classrooms). This position paper, written by learning researchers in a science museum engaged in equity and access work, notes that while the researchers consider the ethics of their work regularly and deeply, little formal guidance exists for the ethical challenges they routinely face in studying science learning. To explore this, the paper first shares contexts of studying informal science education at the Science Museum of Minnesota, including epistemological understandings of both science and research, a commitment to justice-based equity, and existing ethical guidance and processes. Drawing on three research projects, it explores ethical issues pertaining to (a) museum visitors and (b) museum staff and community members engaging in participatory research. First, as visitors do not generally come to a museum to be part of a research study, learning researchers must consider sampling, representation, and data collection methods, balancing these with a museum-goer's desires for their visit. Second, when using participatory methodologies with staff, community members, and young people as co-researchers, ethical considerations involve building relationships, redefining (unanticipated) risks, and data collection and dissemination practices that do not extend existing social inequities or work hierarchies. Ultimately, this position paper argues for expanded or revised ethical guidance that meets the needs of this work, surpasses current guidelines or institutional review board practices, draws on epistemologies outside of a supposedly neutral, individualistic Western framework, and places participants at the center of the work. Such a discussion could enhance the ethical study of science learning across settings.