Technical Transformation
Categories: Structures of Participation
This case looks at the presentation of curatorial information through the traditional format of text mounted on the wall; the relatively recent genre of audio tours that have been introduced into the museum context over the last 15 years; and a located sound system Natalie Jeremijenko developed and implemented in a New York museum space, Art-in-General.
People read at their own speed, and the social convention dictates we provide silence for other readers. This inhibits the possibility of exchanges between spatially proximal viewers reading and interpreting the same information and subdues interaction between people. The museum maintains a hushed and quiet atmosphere without anywhere specifying or instructing viewers of this as the required or appropriate behavior.
In the animation you will note that people will move around the exhibition as if there are no others there. There is little shared and coordinated attention or information exchange. The absence of initiating comments means that conversations are rare.
The technological interface of the audio tour scripts the passive reception of the information museum staff have agreed is generally relevant, which overlooks the specific interests, and different approaches, interests and references people bring to the space. Although “more†information is delivered to persons in an audio tour, if this were measured on word count, the viewer is not actively directing what information is relevant for them, nor eliding what they may already know. Interaction with audiotour information is a seemingly passive and private experience. This technology forfeits an opportunity to facilitate human-to-human interaction around the exhibitions, which some people maintain is desirable in this context.
