Dimitra Christidou PhD in Museum Studies

Image: Alécio de Andrade, 2009. The Louvre and its Visitors http://www.aleciodeandrade.com/photographies-le-louvre-et-ses-visiteurs.html

- The art museum as

a temple

- The museum

experience

The interplay of the three

contexts

- Performing in the

museum

-The case of the

Courtauld Gallery

The art museum as …

A Ceremonial monument

(Duncan 1991; 1995) emulating

the great architecture of

temples

& palaces

Place of secular knowledge

Nor neutral neither

transparent (Duncan 1991; 1995)

Ritual character of museum

experience specific type of

attention (liminality) &

specific context-related

performances

Somerset House (Courtauld Gallery) built in

1776, being originally the site of a Tudor palace.

Museum etiquette, as all forms of etiquette, requires "acting out of consideration for

others.” Museum manners, however, have to take into account one fairly unique

circumstance: that of dealing with priceless objects.

(Chicago Tribune, 12 May 2011, Pat Dunnigan)

The museum experience The Interactive Experience Model (Falk and Dierking 1992, p. 5)

Personal itinerary

Juxtaposition

of the exhibits

Shape and

size of the

gallery room

Interpretive text – one

mode of the museum‟s

discourse

Designed by the

museum

Reflecting the

interests & purposes

of the institution in

which they are used +

of those involved in

their making

(curators; designers;

educators)

redesigned by the

visitors through their

active meaning making

processes

What visitors perform is a sign of their

engagement with what was supposed to be

„learned‟

“The authority of the curator, the

sanctity of objects, and even the

prestige of the institution itself”

(Roberts 1997, 132)

The visitor, the reader of the label, is assumed to

have nothing to contribute. She is a passive

receiver of a truth generated somewhere external

to her [and her] role […] is endorsement, that of

the museum, instruction.

(Bradburne, 2002, p. 34-35)

Accepting the authority of the writer as warrant of

the label‟s truth

The bulk of the art museum experience is not

about looking at pictures, but about talking about looking at

pictures, where the label is the means of constructing the

visitor's dialogue about art.

Baxandall, M. 1986. Patterns of Intention

Social interaction influences what is communicated and how

Social context

images are from: https://medium.com/who-needs-art/b4720707d https://medium.com/who-needs-art/947b54a23655

Let’s go that way. They have a guided tour over there

Three museums, London, UK

Qualitative Research | Ethnomethodology & Conversation Analysis Audio & Visual Data | 300 hours (March 2010 - August 2011)

7 exhibits across these museums Focus of analysis: Visitors’ performances

Attracting an audience Arriving Second

Telling and Tagging

Seeing through

another person’s

eyes

Animating through displaying doing

“Dancing an attitude” (Burke 1957, p. 9) or “a choreography, a mutual conspiracy”

(Rounds 2006, p. 142)

“Body gloss” (Goffman 1971, p. 29): „Shushing‟ others, offering brief grins or

apologising for stepping on each other.

Queuing : Visitors‟ position and posture either distract or attract their co-visitors they

form a type of “involvement shield” (Goffman 1963, p. 38)

“Interpretive art talk” (Knutson & Crowley 2010).

Attracting an audience

Medicine Man Gallery, Wellcome Collection (painting section)

Focus on the

subject/theme of

paintings

Art viewing etiquette

No interpretive art talk

Attracting an audience (Horniman Museum)