Designing Interactives in Art Museums: Situating Learning Technologies and Interactions in Gallery Space

• In Event: Space and Technologies for Learning in Schools, Museums, and Workplaces: Recent Approaches in Design-Based Research

Abstract

Objective

This paper considers relations between physical gallery spaces and the design and use of technologies for learning in art museums. We present data and findings from a three-month study conducted in an interactive project room at a national museum of art. The objective of the paper is to identify effective approaches to designing and incorporating learning technologies in art museum spaces.

Perspective

Sociocultural perspectives in museum learning research and approaches in design-based research inform this study in two important respects. First, museum visits are valued as both social activity and an opportunity to learn, often through conversations with family members, friends, and other visitors (Jafari, Taheri, & vom Lehn, 2013; Leinhardt & Knutson, 2004). Second, although there are problems of disruption, technical problems, and social isolation when devices are introduced into gallery settings (vom Lehn & Heath, 2005), studies have shown that adjacency to artworks is most effective when learning is mediated by digital media and devices ("Focus on the Detroit Institute of Arts," 2009; Nelson, 2011). As Marty (2008) points out, there is a history of ‘failed’ interactive devices and design experiments in museums, and the physical integration of interactives in gallery spaces is not trivial. Therefore, the design of learning environments in art museums needs to account for visitors’ needs and expectations regarding technologies in the quite specific types of spaces that constitute art galleries.

Methods and Data

Based on a co-design process with our museum partner, four thematic ‘interactives’ were implemented in a project room in the national art museum: a multi-touch tabletop game activity, an interactive posing activity using Flickr, a collaborative writing activity using Twitter, and a scanning-visualization activity. The data corpus comprises approximately thirty hours video recordings, interviews, and observations of visitors’ interactions in the museum and in the project room, conducted over a three-month period. The data were used to analyze visitors’ interactions and learning processes, and to study how visitors’ project room activities related to their experiences with artworks in the gallery spaces.

Results

Based on our analysis of visitors’ interactions and movements over a three-moth period, we propose three concepts that may be useful in the design of gallery interactives: boundaries, orientations, and multiple representations. The development and application of these concepts in the empirical studies will be the focus of this presentation.

Implications for future research

As new installations increasingly integrate iPad applications, games, multi-touch tables and walls, interactive drawing and posing activities into gallery settings (Alexander, Barton, & Goeser, 2013; Pierroux & Ludvigsen, 2013), this study contributes to future design-based research on how boundaries and visitors’ orientations to space and multiple representations are made relevant in collaborative learning interactions.

Authors

• Rolf Steier, University of Oslo

• Palmyre Pierroux, University of Oslo