Exhibition materialities : Effects of digitization for meaning-making

• Digitization has had a transformative impact on museum practices in recent years, including the work with exhibitions (cf. Arvantis & Zuanni, 2021). Digital media make it possible for more people to take part in cultural heritage, by making available objects and remains of a sensitive nature that could not otherwise be shown publicly. It opens up new forms of communication that can make it possible for groups of visitors with different needs to learn about the past (cf. Galani & Kidd, 2020). New questions can potentially be asked, when cultural heritage is made digital.  In this presentation we introduce an on-going research project on digital materialities in museum exhibitions. The aim of the project is to produce knowledge about the effects of digitization in relation to the exhibition medium and to visitors’ meaning-making. It does so by investigating how digital technologies are employed and how specific applications may contribute to learning in a selection of museums, such as Vrak – The Museum of Wrecks and The Vasa Museum. Focusing on materiality, the project seeks to understand the affordances for meaning-making of digital media in relation to the epistemological commitments of modes, media and the material expression (cf. Bezemer & Kress, 2016; Lindstrand, 2022). The presentation will include examples from a series of case studies from different museums that are part of Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums. We will share some preliminary findings. The project is funded by The Swedish National Heritage Board and will run for three years, 2023-2025. The project aims to contribute to research by bringing the fields of digital humanities and education together, by investigating how analogue and digital technologies intersect when representing cultural-historical objects, and how specific applications create conditions (and perhaps even limitations) for learning and meaning making.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Lärande (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Learning (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

materiality

digitization

affordance

meaning-makling

museum exhibitions

Visuella kulturer och lärande

Visuella kulturer och lärande

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)