Pocket Museum

The Expanding Reach of Contemporary Museums

Since the emergence of the Wunderkammer amongst the social elite of 16^th century Germany, there has been little variation in a museum’s foundation roles of research, curation, collection and conservation, but the reach of contemporary museums has transformed significantly. This extended reach has seen a concomitant effect on exhibition programs and visitor experiences while simultaneously reinforcing the role that museums play within civil society. As private collections morphed into public institutions, the roles of research and conservation took on aspects of education and the museum became a way in which to “properly socialize the working-class masses of the Industrial Age into a new urban society”.  Conversely, the contemporary museum has expanded its reach such that visitor experiences may no longer be bound by the material limits of a collection; rather as access to global collections becomes increasingly affected by emergent technology, so too are the inclusive natures of exhibition programs intensified.

Child’s Play

In less than two decades – a relatively short space of time in the history of museums – the interaction of the average museum visitor has amplified from localised, personal visits of passive observance to global, virtual tours of active participation. Twenty years ago a small-town Victorian child might have had occasional outings to the town’s historical society or gem club where she could listen to a local enthusiast tell stories of regional importance. Annual excursions to metropolitan museums and galleries might provide exposure to global concepts of history and geology and give the child a sense of time and place within her environment; concepts that may be carried with her and contribute to development of identity. Today however, a child can experience a museum on an unimaginable level.

Populations around the world with Internet connection can now access collections not even on display in host museums. Teachers can research interactive activities available from child-specific museums, without leaving the classroom. Students can ask questions of world-renowned art galleries and historical museums directly, as I did. And thanks to the brevity of Twitter, they too might elicit the heartbreaking 140 character response from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC., that the biggest change they face in the immediate future is the loss of their best teachers.

This year, internet giant Google continues to grow its already gargantuan search engines by adding the “digitally preserved” collections of 14 Australian museums and art organisations. The Google Cultural Institute gives unprecedented entrée to anyone with an internet connection to visit “exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world”. Such admittance could be passed off as another form of passive observance but from the comfort of the home, workplace or classroom. However, by simply allowing the visitor the opportunity to create personal galleries of artworks from every corner of the world, participation takes the form of both curation and criticism and thus the foundation roles of museums are reinforced. The visitor organises their collection according to their self-identity and shares with the world that expression of self.

Bells and whistles

It would be easy to describe the old Melbourne Museum circa 1980, as a mausoleum filled with static displays of stuffed animals and paintings of dead people. But silent corridors filled with bright butterflies impaled within glass cabinets and imposing portraits of women in flowing white dresses likely formed the basis of many a childish game of play-acting. Likewise it would not be difficult to complain that the Melbourne Museum of 2014 is more about bells and whistles and glitzy displays designed to entice and amuse rather than engender serious contemplation of worthy thoughts. Yet semi-regular themed after-hours “Smart Bar” events have opened up a fascinating collection accompanied by informed experts, for thousands of adults who have retained or regained their wonder for simply knowing.

The concept of participation for the visitor is one that has become increasingly vital for contemporary museums to remain relevant to an audience with ever increasing demands on their attention. Done successfully it can also strengthen ties within communities locally and globally. As Rosenberg notes “organisations that work hard to connect people and build trust among them contribute positively to social cohesion.” The offer of on-site interactive participation can enhance the visitor’s experience not only educationally but also in a manner which encourages dialogue between participants. Nina Simon notes that thanks to the mid-2000s growth of “social Web technologies’, participation in museums shifted from “something limited and infrequent to something possible anytime, for anyone, anywhere.” She explains that the combination of quality technology design with physical in-house participation can offer “every visitor a legitimate way to contribute... share...  connect...  and feel... engaged and respected...”

The recent Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids “interactive exhibition-slash-play land” presented at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia combined elements of all four foundation roles of the museum while also utilising myriad new technologies. The result was an immersive experience based almost entirely on the assumption that the visitor must participate for it to work. Artworks from every corner of the gallery’s collection were displayed in a kaleidoscopic circus of fashion glitz and glamour, interspersed with light projections triggered by foot play, craft in a Hollywood dressing room and electronic tablets directly linked to social media. Bautista says that “...museums must navigate a larger, more diverse, and demanding public in the digital age.” The NGV is an established institution in Victoria. Ostensibly pitched at very young children, Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids provided space for adults to also engage in their own play within a safe environment while encouraging the same in their children and each other.

Virtual existence

Since 2013 and until 2016 the physical site of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is being reconstructed. However, as its director Neal Benezra states on the website “SFMOMA is more than just a building. We’re a set of intersecting cultural communities.” As the museum creates a new solid identity, it continues to exist in a virtual world of off-site programming networked with “little games” hidden throughout the city and mobile galleries about the Bay area for members of those cultural communities to find and involve one another in. It has “temporarily moved…everywhere”, essentially democratising itself by devolving from a fixed site. Likewise, the Victoria and Albert Museum of Design in Dundee is yet to be built but throughout its creation an online and mobile presence is being steadily built, exposing future visitors to participatory exhibitions by bringing the activity to the participant.

I learned of both these developments by following the Twitter accounts of a wide variety of museums and galleries, many of whom engage in an inter-disciplinary dialogue that welcomes Twitter users such as myself: half a world away with only a smart phone in my hand. While not everyone has access to a smart phone, increasing connectivity for wider audiences is growing and intensifying the influence that the contemporary museum has. The rapidly expanding reach of museums has had the effect of producing exhibition programs of a more democratic and inclusive nature. Regardless of the manner in which a visit may be achieved – physically or virtually – such an opening of collections to those segments of the world’s population able to connect has enhanced the visitor experience such that the original and ongoing roles of the museum are reinforced.

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