what are the research questions you are dealing with?

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Permalink Reply by Ellie Miles on April 27, 2009 at 7:44pm

My research question is still rather broad, but hopefully I'll be able to narrow it down over the new few weeks. I'm looking at a major project at the Museum of London, the redisplay of the modern London galleries (1666-present). Hopefully I'll be able to set it in the context of other city museums - this Spring I went to the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, and the Museum of the City of New York and had some fascinating discussions with some great people over there.

I've been working on establishing a timeline of the project, though now I am picking up on other themes. At the moment I'm very interested in the idea of city museums and boundaries - in cities like New York and London, where does the city wall stand? How can museums draw the line in cities that seem so permeable? The funding structure of my PhD means that I have a great deal of access within the museum, and I am able to carry out participant observation as well as interviews with staff.

I am currently writing a short paper about my research, so I will put that in the group forum when it is finished over the next couple of weeks - it should be more articulate than this!

I'm looking forward to hearing about everyone else's research - it will be good to get some discussion going. One question for Mariana was to ask about community participation. I wanted about what you thought of community engagement and the production of exhibitions: do you think that community engagement is equally valuable as input before the exhibition opens, or as user-generated content collected from visitors?

Permalink Reply by Amy Barnes on April 27, 2009 at 10:13pm

Well, I'm in the final writing-up stages of my thesis which looks at the collection, interpretation and display of the material culture of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in contemporary British museums (phew!). I'm in Leicester - do you all know about our PhD symposium happening this year? Check out my profile for more details. *shameless plug* :D

Permalink Reply by Dorus Hoebink on May 6, 2009 at 8:28pm

Hi Mariana,

Nice research question, but it may also be a tricky one, as it is just hard to predict the future. On the other hand, this question could offer you a nice entry to analyze thoroughly what community participation is like at this very moment (in order to know the future, you have to know what is going on in the present).

And to which theories and author do you refer when dealing with museum community engagement? I just wondered, because my own research is on community museums, and it seems that there are a lot of similarities between community museums and museum communities. Though there are also a lot of subtle (though substantial) differences.

Permalink Reply by Mariana Salgado on June 1, 2009 at 9:11pm

Yes, Dorus you are right. It is a hard question, but I only observed issues that could have implications for designers, as my questions connect to the design for participation in museums. Though is not the core of the investigation to point out future paths, still I see the point in predicting opportunities. It allows me to understand the design proposals into a bigger picture.

I present the museum community as the ones that were involved in the interactive pieces I designed: visitors, workshop participants, museum staff and external collaborators, such as designers and artists. I need still to make the distinction between museum community and museums and their communities. I thought for that to use Ivan Karp (Museums and Communities) and it might be that also Etienne Wenger (Communities of practices). But it is work in process, so if you have any other suggestion, welcome.

Do you have already any publication that deals with this distinction between community museums and museums communities?
Thanks a lot for your comment.

Permalink Reply by Mia Thornton on June 21, 2009 at 2:26pm

My PhD research revolves around slightly different questions to those already mentioned in this forum. My research is concerned with the nature of culture and politics in national museums, particularly how exhibitions and collections are governed by public policies. Is there anyone else with similar interests?

I am in the second year of my PhD and my research asks how are national museums fostering more inclusive experiences of citizenship in multicultural societies. I am focusing on how citizenship in constructed and managed in museums, with a particular emphasis on the impact of digital media. My research is based on a multi-site case study of the National Museum of Australia, National Museum of Singapore, and the Museum of London.

Permalink Reply by michela clari on June 30, 2009 at 7:20pm

Hi Mia

I look forward to hearing how your work progresses, especially with regard to the digital media element. As I am investigating issues and opportunities around artefacts falling into 'the hands of users' through new, interactive environments, questions of identity, ownership and power seem of course paramount. Themes such as boundary crossing as well as the potental strengthening of cultural and personal identities inevitably overlap and should combine in interesting ways.

This is the first year of my PhD (see my early post): so far I have formulated an (ever increasing) number of questions around users, content and organizations engaged in digital innovation. I have conducted a first review of one of the institutions I'll be studying (RCAHMS), drafted a fist project proposal and I have discussed with my supervisors in Edinburgh a draft methodology paper. I am interested in studying the experience of organizations which invite their users 'in' through innovative initiatives but also, very much, in experiences of organizations releasing content into social networking environments not traditonally (as yet) associated to museums, as I suspect it is here that particularly interesing instances of innovation might be taking place. It's early days, however I am sure our topics (and those of other members of this group) will overlap.
Look forward to comparing notes!

Permalink Reply by Elina Salminen on January 13, 2010 at 11:49pm

Hi everybody!

Do You all have a position as a museum professional, as well, or would You like to continue as researchers in Your university after Your PhD?

I'm A Finnish ethnologist from Jyväskylä and finishing at the moment my doctoral thesis, in which I try to identify the borders between private and public in the field of museums. There are at least one thousand museums in Finland, but only 100-200 of them are professionally taken care of (don't remember the exact number right now, sorry). What are the others, then? And besides these one thousand there are thousands of private, small museum collections everywhere in the country, which their owners call museums. What is the meaning of all this?

In my thesis I look for a "folksy" or folk definition for the concept of museum. It excists, that's for sure, but what is the meaning of it? Whose property is cultural heritage? I've done a lot of interviews here, and have archive data as well from the National Board of Antiquities. It seems my subject differs from Your subjects a lot, but it is interesting to read about Your themes.