record

Thesis Info

LABS ID

00833

Thesis Title

Extending the Museum. The Exhibition Visitor as a Cultural Producer

Author

Giulia Cordin

E-mail

giulicordi AT hotmail.it

2nd Author

3rd Author

Degree

PhD

Year

Number of Pages

University

UFG Linz

Thesis Supervisor

Christa Sommerer

Supervisor e-mail

Christa.Sommerer AT ufg.at

Other Supervisor(s)

Stephan Schmidt-Wullfen

Language(s) of Thesis

English

Department / Discipline

Interface Culture

Copyright Ownership

Languages Familiar to Author

Italian, English, German

URL where full thesis can be found

Keywords

display, visitor, museum, exhibition, digitalization

Abstract: 200-500 words

Tony Bennett (1988) describes the 19th century world exhibition as “exhibitionary complex”, defined by the organization of space, the exhibited objects and the gaze of the visitors. He also observes the way in which it involved both the lower and middle classes in new relations of power and knowledge, and offered them tools for self-regulation and the possibility of becoming a ‘subject of knowledge’. Drawing on Bennett’s diagnosis, a closer examination of the interactive visitors’ engagement in the exhibition space appears crucial, especially with regards to the recent transformation in the tools of knowledge production provided by digitization. Studies on museum visitor behaviour suggest, that it has rapidly changed over the past three decades. Instead of following the explanations offered by the curator, the narration of the exhibition is negotiated: Emotional and atmospheric components dominate cognitive ones. Taking cultural production as a specific domain of identity construction, it suggests that the traditional linear path through the exhibition has dissolved into a network which allows every visitor to follow his/her own interests. The recipient turned into a producer of meaning.