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
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).
Medicine Man Gallery, Wellcome Collection (painting section)
Focus on the
subject/theme of
paintings
Art viewing etiquette
No interpretive art talk