1. Rethinking Museums from
a Visitor’s Perspective
Tuesday 3 September 2013
ing. Ruben Smit MA
The Interactive Museum Experience
(Falk & Dierking)

2. Unlocking the
visitor’s mind
An introduction

3. Rethinking Museums
Some statements…

4. Some statements…
“People come to museums
carrying with them the rest
of their lives, their own
reasons for visiting
and their specific prior
experience.”
(Eilean Hooper-Greenhill)

5. Some statements…
"(…) the multiformity of
exhibitions ensures that
museum visitors will
interact in an almost
endless variety of ways
with the exhibits and with
each other."
(Kathleen McLean)

6. Some statements…
“Fun must be part of the
exhibition experience ---
or visitors simply will
ignore the exhibits!”
(Chandler Screven)

7. Some statements…
“If you want to educate a mind
you first need to entertain it.”
(Walt Disney)

8. Some statements…
“A museum can sparkle, kindle excitement, and be an
uplifting experience, or it can be tawdry and depressing in
spite of the glory of its collections. A museum environment
is not neutral; its quality and atmospheredirectly affect
those who visit it, (…)” (Design Team Royal Ontario
Museum 1975)

9. Some statements…
“(Museums) can be shelters
from the rain, mortuaries for
dead objects, shrines to the
memory of wealthy donors
(…), forums for debate,
repositories for community
archives, centres of scholar-
ship and understanding,
instruments of social control,
locations for recreation and
reflection, sacred places
where the spirits of the
ancestors rest, anchor
tenants in urban renewal
programmes, lovers’ meets
or places to lose children.”
(Gaynor Kavanagh)

11. Museum Experience Model
The Museum Experience by John Falk and Lynn
Dierking
Three contexts:
1. Personal Context
2. Social Context
3. Physical Context
Lynn Dierking & John Falk

12. "Traditionally, museum
professionals have failed
to recognize that visitors
create their own museum
experience, (…)" (Falk and
Dierking)

13. 1. Personal Context
personal
context

14. 1. Motivation and
expectations
2. Prior knowledge and
experience
3. Prior interests and
believes
4. Choice and control
personal
context

15. ♦ In it’s core learning
leads to the
reconfirmation of
yourself…
♦ Your identity is partly
determined by what you
make and understand
of your surroundings.
Learning is self-confirming…
1. Personal Context motivation

16. ♦ Motivation to learn is
intrinsic.
♦ People are curious by
nature.
♦ Wanting to learn is what
makes us human.
The need to learn, curiousity, it is all very
human…
1. Personal Context motivation

17. ♦ Learning is not just
about facts and
concepts, especially
intrinsic learning often
is a very emotional
experience.
True learning is both cognitive and
emotional
1. Personal Context affection

18. ♦ A deeply felt interest
enhances the learning
process.
Interest is key to true learning…
1. Personal Context affection

19. ♦ Our brains are the
evolutionary result that
took millions of years
♦ The oldest part (on top
of the brain stem) is the
so called limbic system.
1. Personal Context affection

20. ♦ Within that part of the
brain our emotional and
geographical memory is
stored.
1. Personal Context affection

21. ♦ We now understand
that the limbic system is
central in our capacity
to remember important
things.
♦ The limbic system is the
central unit that
regulates our memory.
‘Memory’ Daniel Chester French (1917-
1. Personal Context affection

22. ♦ Most people are in a higher
state of alertness or even
anxiety when they encounter
a new situation or a new
environment.
♦ On these moments all our
impressions are being
filtered by our limbic system.
♦ In the speed of light we
emotionally tag and label our
experiences.
1. Personal Context affection

23. ♦ We can assume that all
things we want to remember
are emotionally ear-marked
by our limbic system.
♦ In other words: memorable
experiences have an
emotional label.
What is emotionally experienced,
will be remembered…
1. Personal Context affection

24. ♦ New facts always land
on top of existing
knowledge.
♦ Pre-knowledge by and
large determines how
this new knowledge
finds it’s place.
Knowledge always builds on existing
knowledge…
1. Personal Context construction

25. ♦ The Swiss psychologist
Jean Piaget assumed
that knowledge was
assimilated.
♦ New knowledge partly
covers existing
knowledge that as such
is reconfirmed.
1. Personal Context construction

26. ♦ As such pre-knowledge
is very likely a strong
base for further
learning.
1. Personal Context construction

28. “Numerous nonprofit
organizations have
discovered to their
dismay that consumer
expectations are
higher than
management had
anticipated, and that
users demand quality
service from public
and nonprofit
organizations just as
they do from private
firms.” (Lovelock and
Wineberg)

29. 2. Social Context
social
context
personal
context

30. 5. Within-group
sociocultural
mediation
6. Facilitated
mediation by
others
social
context

31. ♦ People are intrinsically
social.
♦ Learning often is a
social process and is
not isolated.
2. Social Context learning together
You share and build knowledge with
other people…

32. ♦ The learning process is strongly
mediated by:
– spoken language,
– body language,
– observation,
– use of socio-cultural means,
– symbols,
– and all of this in a historically
and culturally layered context of
societal -, religious -, and shared
value systems.
2. Social Context learning together

33. ♦ The concept of ‘culture’ is
complex. In this context it is
wise to see culture in
relationship to learning.
♦ Culture is not genetically
transferred. You grow up in a
society where the existing
culture ‘moulds’ you.
♦ The educational
anthropologist John Ogbu
claims that culture consists
out of 5 components:
2. Social Context socialization

34. 1. Habits and ways of life.
♦ Think about: work, food,
expressing affection, how
to raise kids, marrying, etc…
2. Social Context socialization

35. 2. Codes or assumptions,
expectations and
emotions that are at the
base of that behaviour.
2. Social Context socialization

36. 3. Meaningful artefacts
and things the
community produces.
♦ Think about: harbours,
houses, cars, chairs, etc…
2. Social Context socialization

37. 4. Institutions of a
economical, political,
religious or social order.
♦ All these form a
recognisable meshwork of:
knowledge, believes,
qualities, behaviour that
makes a society more or
less predictable.
2. Social Context socialization

38. 5. Patrons and social ties.
♦ Think about: family, school,
friends, university,
colleagues, etc…
2. Social Context socialization

39. It does make a
difference how the
social context of a
museum manifests it
selves…
With mind-like fellow
students?
2. Social Context at the museum

40. …or tourists in large
quantities?
2. Social Context at the museum

41. …with elderly people?
2. Social Context at the museum

42. …school kids?
2. Social Context at the museum

43. …families?
2. Social Context at the museum

44. …to many young
toddlers?
2. Social Context at the museum

45. …or with no-one
present and the
museum seems to be
all yours?
2. Social Context at the museum

46. …what about front of
house staff?
Policing?
2. Social Context at the museum
The security staff on the
museum steps, ca 1902

47. Or helping and
participating?
2. Social Context at the museum

48. …as role players or
actors?
2. Social Context at the museum
What would you like to ask
Gene Cernan, the last man to
step on the Moon in 1972?
Science Museum

49. Passive and slightly sad
in a corner?
2. Social Context at the museum
Museum Guard by Duane Hanson

50. or…as a guide just a
little too eager and as
such intrusive?
Social interaction with museum staff can
strongly influence the experience.
2. Social Context at the museum

51. All tangible reality
contributes to this
part of the experience.
From easy access to
clean toilets; from
exciting exhibitions to
freshly brewed coffee
in the museum’s cafe;
from a well-stocked
museum shop to clear
signposting.

52. 3. Physical Context
social
context
physical
context
personal
context

53. 7. Advance organizers
8. Orientation to the physical space
9. Architecture and large scale environment
10. Design of exhibits and interpretation / content
delivery
11. Reinforcing events and experiences outside the
museum
physical
context

54. Advance organizers
How do you get there?
3. Physical Context
The fysical context starts at home with
leaflets or websites of the museums.

55. 3. Physical Context
Advance organizers
Website easy to navigate? With ample but not
overwhelming information?

56. Advance organizers
How do you get there?
3. Physical Context

57. Advance organizers
Are there clear
signposts leading to the
museum?
3. Physical Context

58. Orientation to the
physical space
…is there a clear
entrance?
3. Physical Context

59. Orientation to the
physical space
Where do you buy your
ticket?
3. Physical Context

60. Orientation to the physical space
Once in the building is there a clear routing?
3. Physical Context

61. Orientation to the physical space
Is there easy orientation within the exhibition?
What about routing and pacing?
3. Physical Context

62. Orientation to the physical space
How do (large) objects fit in the existing architectural
space?
3. Physical Context

63. Orientation to the physical space
… and if they are truly small, how are they being
displayed?
3. Physical Context

64. Design of exhibits and interpretation / content delivery
Is there a multitude of interpretation devices?
3. Physical Context

65. Design of exhibits and interpretation / content
delivery
Is interpretation provided in different ways?
3. Physical Context

66. …is the interpretation
passive or activating?
3. Physical Context

67. …are there any other
means of interpretation
like interactive audio-
visuals?
3. Physical Context

68. …or hands-on?
3. Physical Context

69. Architecture and large
scale environment
Can the visitor also sit
down and rest for some
contemplation?
3. Physical Context

70. Architecture and large scale environment
…is there a café or museum restaurant?
3. Physical Context

71. Architecture and large scale
environment
…quality of the restrooms?
3. Physical Context

72. Architecture and large scale environment
…and finally is there a well assorted museum shop?
3. Physical Context

73. Reinforcing events & experiences outside the
museum
…e.g. Post-Visit on-line feedback of recent visit
3. Physical Context

74. Reinforcing events & experiences outside the
museum
3. Physical Context

75. Museum Experience Model
The museum visitor’s experience is the result of
the overlapping of the physical context, the social
context, and the personal context.

76. Museum Experience Model
social
context
physical
context
personal
context
Museum
Experience

77. Museum Experience Model

78. Museum Experience Model
“Each visitor’s experience is different, because
each brings his own personal and social
contexts, because each is differently affected by
the physical context, and because each makes
different choices as to which aspect of that
context to focus on.” (Falk and Dierking)

80. Dream Space and its
implication for
museums
Discussion on Museum Experience
ing. Ruben Smit MA
(Sheldon Annis)

81. Sheldon Annis: “The Museum as
staging Ground for Symbolic Action”
The idea of a multi-layered museum experience
connects well with Sheldon Annis’ vision of the
museum as an expressive medium, with visitors
moving through three similarly overlapping and
influential spaces:
1. cognitive space
2. pragmatic space
3. dream space

82. Sheldon Annis
cognitive space
Cognitive space is the
museum’s striving to
facilitate (life long)
learning. Here the
museum provides the
accumulated
knowledge on a topic
related to the
collections. The
museum expertly
presents this
knowledge in the light
of the museums
subject and the needs
of the audiences.

83. Sheldon Annis
cognitive space
cognitive
space

84. Sheldon Annis
pragmatgic space
Visitors are playing roles:
are they there primarily as
teacher, parent, partner or
friend? The motivation for
visiting is very often socially
determined. If visiting an
exhibition with a friend
results in a stronger bond
with that friend, the memory
of the visit will be pleasant,
because of that result. The
content of the exhibition can
have become pleasantly
vague, or even completely
forgotten.

85. Sheldon Annis
pragmatic space
pragmatic
space
cognitive
space

86. Sheldon Annis
dream space
“In museum dream
space there is a flow
of images and
meanings - highly
personal, sometimes
lulling, sometimes
surprising, more or
less conscious: ‘I like
this’, ‘I don’t like this’,
‘I don’t care about
that’, ‘I know this’,
etc.” (Annis)

87. Sheldon Annis
dream space
“In dream space many
things might tumble
through our minds: bits
of songs, half-written
shopping lists, things
left unsaid. The shape
or shadow of
something, its texture or
colour, the operation of
space and the people
moving through it can
be triggers to an
endless range of
personal association.”
(Kavanagh)

88. Sheldon Annis
dream space
pragmatic
space
dream
space
cognitive
space

89. Sheldon Annis
pragmatic
space
dream
space
cognitive
space

90. Sheldon Annis
“The artefacts are
clearly tangible; it is
the emotions that they
evoke which are
intangible.
Experience, therefore
is the intangible
characteristic of the
museum, (…).” (Fiona
McLean)