Palmyre Pierroux is Associate Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, where she leads the InterMedia research group. Pierroux received her PhD in educational psychology and has a background in art history, design, and architecture. Pierroux’s research focuses on meaning making in museums and other semi-formal learning contexts, and on the role of new media and technologies in different aspects of knowledge production. Pierroux leads the nationally funded CONTACT project (2009-2013), which explores the design and use social media and digital technologies for meaning making in museum settings.
TALK ABSTRACT
Posing with Art: Researching and Designing for Performative Acts of Interpretation
The practice of documenting visits to museums by taking personal and group photographs is far from new (see Jaworski & Thurbon, 2009). However, the global popularity of such visitor activity became strikingly apparent when Flickr was created as one of the first social media sites a decade ago. Since then, visitors’ social media-enhanced mobile phones have become an integrated part of browsing and social practices in gallery spaces, with friends and families taking pictures of each other ‘posing’ with artworks and then sharing and tagging them on social media sites (e.g., ‘Posing at the Louvre’ blog and InstaGram). Although some museums have prohibited posing with sculptures in the galleries in response to this trend, a quick image search online illustrates the challenge of enforcing such restrictive policies in exhibitions. Other museums have taken a different tack, embracing both posing and posting activities, as seen in the gallery interactives recently implemented in the Cleveland Museum of Art. These innovative interactives are examples of two distinct approaches to integrating performative acts of art interpretation with more traditional perceptual and dialogue-based practices (Alexander, Barton et al. 2013).
In this presentation, I first review recent developments in technology-enhanced posing activities in art museums. I present a sociocultural perspective on the intertwined cognitive and social aspects of gesture and posing in meaning making, and I discuss how these relate to visitors’ creative and interpretive processes in encounters with art (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985; Steier, submitted). I then discuss two cases in which interpretive technologies have been designed with posing activities. The cases are taken from a nationally funded design-based research project that entailed close collaboration over several years between the University of Oslo and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Specifically, I trace how findings from the experimental co-design and testing of a gallery ‘posing’ interactive were adapted and further developed in the implementation of tablet-based museum-school activities, which involved more explicit creative and educational aims. The use of photography by Edvard Munch in his portraits and self-portraits was the theme for the interpretive activities, which had young people between 15-18 years old as the main focus group.
From a learning research perspective, posing was identified as a particular type of creative gesture that mediates meaning making through cycles of talk, movement, comparison, focus, and adjustment. From a museum practice perspective, perspectives and findings from the research collaboration were used to develop a set of design principles for incorporating ‘posing’ in a creative classroom activity led by the museum. I reflect on the way academia and the museum collaborated, and on the interaction between different scientific approaches. The museum found that the collaboration provided a solid, research-based foundation regarding decisions on design of exhibition spaces, education spaces, education materials and outreach programs and communication using digital media and technologies.
References
Alexander, J., J. Barton, et al. (2013). Transforming the Art Museum Experience: Gallery One. MW2013: Museums and the Web 2013, Portland, OR, USA, Archives & Museum Informatics.
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (2009). Gesture and movement in tourist spaces.
Handbook of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, 253-262.
Steier, R. (submitted) Posing the Question: Cognitive and Social Aspects of Posing Gestures in Art Museums. Mind, Culture and Activity.
Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Harvard UniversityPress.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. London, England: Harvard University Press.
TALK ABSTRACT
Posing with Art: Researching and Designing for Performative Acts of Interpretation
The practice of documenting visits to museums by taking personal and group photographs is far from new (see Jaworski & Thurbon, 2009). However, the global popularity of such visitor activity became strikingly apparent when Flickr was created as one of the first social media sites a decade ago. Since then, visitors’ social media-enhanced mobile phones have become an integrated part of browsing and social practices in gallery spaces, with friends and families taking pictures of each other ‘posing’ with artworks and then sharing and tagging them on social media sites (e.g., ‘Posing at the Louvre’ blog and InstaGram). Although some museums have prohibited posing with sculptures in the galleries in response to this trend, a quick image search online illustrates the challenge of enforcing such restrictive policies in exhibitions. Other museums have taken a different tack, embracing both posing and posting activities, as seen in the gallery interactives recently implemented in the Cleveland Museum of Art. These innovative interactives are examples of two distinct approaches to integrating performative acts of art interpretation with more traditional perceptual and dialogue-based practices (Alexander, Barton et al. 2013).
In this presentation, I first review recent developments in technology-enhanced posing activities in art museums. I present a sociocultural perspective on the intertwined cognitive and social aspects of gesture and posing in meaning making, and I discuss how these relate to visitors’ creative and interpretive processes in encounters with art (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985; Steier, submitted). I then discuss two cases in which interpretive technologies have been designed with posing activities. The cases are taken from a nationally funded design-based research project that entailed close collaboration over several years between the University of Oslo and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Specifically, I trace how findings from the experimental co-design and testing of a gallery ‘posing’ interactive were adapted and further developed in the implementation of tablet-based museum-school activities, which involved more explicit creative and educational aims. The use of photography by Edvard Munch in his portraits and self-portraits was the theme for the interpretive activities, which had young people between 15-18 years old as the main focus group.
From a learning research perspective, posing was identified as a particular type of creative gesture that mediates meaning making through cycles of talk, movement, comparison, focus, and adjustment. From a museum practice perspective, perspectives and findings from the research collaboration were used to develop a set of design principles for incorporating ‘posing’ in a creative classroom activity led by the museum. I reflect on the way academia and the museum collaborated, and on the interaction between different scientific approaches. The museum found that the collaboration provided a solid, research-based foundation regarding decisions on design of exhibition spaces, education spaces, education materials and outreach programs and communication using digital media and technologies.
References
Alexander, J., J. Barton, et al. (2013). Transforming the Art Museum Experience: Gallery One. MW2013: Museums and the Web 2013, Portland, OR, USA, Archives & Museum Informatics.
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (2009). Gesture and movement in tourist spaces.
Handbook of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, 253-262.
Steier, R. (submitted) Posing the Question: Cognitive and Social Aspects of Posing Gestures in Art Museums. Mind, Culture and Activity.
Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Harvard UniversityPress.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. London, England: Harvard University Press.