Information Communication Technology for Aesthetic Education in Art Muséums and Galleries
Tomoko Kanoshima
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of M.Phil.
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
July 2001
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ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people who helped me, through advice and support, with the completion of this thesis. In particular I would like to thank my supervisors. Dr. Nick Merriman and Dr. Paulette McManus; Dr. Suzanne Keene;
Dr. Jeremy Tanner all of whom are members of the Institute of Archaeology. Also
I would like to thank museum educators who helped me for my survey, Vicky
Mitchell, Clair Ackroyd, and Suzanne Rennie at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery;
Claire Gittings at the National Portrait Gallery; John Humphreys at the Tate
Gallery of British Art; Toby Jackson at the Tate Modem; David Judd and Martin
Barnes at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Rowena Loverance at the British
Museum; Jo Digger at the Walsall Museum and Art Gallery; and both my parents who have helped me in so many ways throughout my studies. Preface
This thesis examines aesthetic education in museum environments and the possibility of using computer display in supporting aesthetic education. While computer applications in museums have greatly expanded since the 1990s, the use of computers especially in art galleries is still at a relatively experimental phase.
In particular, the use of computer-mediated-leaming systems for supporting art museum education that is the core theme of this research has barely been examined before and consequently, this research has become exploratory in its nature. This research reveals the importance of the recognition of the true value and benefit of computer applications in exhibition spaces.
This M.Phil thesis was originally planned as one element of a larger Ph.D research programme, and the investigation presented here was prepared as a preliminary study in anticipation of further development through other case studies. However, unfortunately my research had to be curtailed because it proved impossible to locate other appropriate case studies of multimedia programs presented in galleries alongside the artworks, and because my family matters called me back to
Japan. For these reasons, I now present my research paper as an M.Phil thesis, as a self contained but preliminary study.
Despite its preliminary nature, it is hoped that the research provides some initial pointes towards the potential of computer technologies to support learning in art galleries, which might be developed by further research in the future. Abstract
Recently, computer technologies have been recognised as effective means for developing the educational mission of museums. Much research on ICT for museum activities has been published in recent decades, but few studies examine how art museums can use new technologies to stir the casual visitor's interest, to deepen a personal and aesthetic experience and to promote the desire for further learning about the visual arts. The aim of this M.Phil research is to explore the use of ICT for the development of aesthetic education in the museum context.
Aesthetic education is an approach which aims to develop the audience's active engagement with visual phenomena through perception, cognition, and emotion in the individual’s reactions towards art objects. This approach emphasizes that art museums should be seen as places that not only convey information about art but also places which stimulate the audience's involvement and participation in the personal appreciation of museum collections. I argue in this thesis that ICT has the potential to be a powerful supporting tool for aesthetic education because of its ability to convey a learning environment that enhances: 1 . audience participation in the interpretation process;2 . the engagement of the full range of human intelligence in the learning process; 3. the facilitation of different learning styles that cater for a personally and socially driven construction of understanding of art objects.
This thesis begins by discussing the general use of ICT in museums. Then examines approaches to aesthetic education in art museums and the potentials of computer-mediated learning for supporting aesthetic education v^ll follow. It then discusses the results of a visitor survey of the CD-ROM project at Cartwright Hall
Art Gallery, Bradford, U.K, as an illustrative practical investigation of the potential of ICT to promote the aesthetic approach in art museum education. This thesis also contains interviews with both educators and information technology developers in the museum field to understand the current situation of ICT use and its future in the museum field. Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... 2
PREFACE...... 3
ABSTRACT...... 4
CONTENTS...... 6
LIST OF FIGURES...... 10
INTRODUCTION...... 13
1. BACKGROUND...... 13 2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES...... 14 3. LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH...... 16 4. SUMMARY OF THESIS CONTENTS...... 17
CHAPTER 1 THE GENERAL USE OF ICT IN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES...... 19
1. INTRODUCTION...... 19 2. WHAT IS INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY? - DEFINITIONS...... 21 Information Communication Technology (ICT)...... 21 Interactive Multimedia...... 21 Hypertext and Hypermedia...... 22 The Internet...... 23 3. INFLUENTIAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES 24 ICT as a Key Tool to Democratise Museum Collections...... 24 Government and Public Initiatives on the Use o f ICT in Museum Education...... 26 Museums in the Information Age...... 29 4. APPLICATION OF ICT IN MUSEUM INFORMATION SYSTEMS... 32 Collections Management...... 32 Conservation...... 34 Development of Research and Publication...... 36 5. APPLICATION OF ICT FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATION FOR MUSEUM PRACTICE...... 39 Outreach - Museum Services for New Audiences...... 39 Increased Visibility of Lesser Known Institutions ...... 41 Orientation to the Actual Museum Visit...... 42 Increased Number of Visitors ...... 43 Contribution to Increased Revenue...... 44 6 . ICT APPLICATION FOR MUSEUM EDUCATION...... 45 The use of the Internet for the Development of Museum Education...... 45 Live Events via the Internet ...... 46 Educational materials on World Wide Web ...... 47 Virtual exhibitions on the Web...... 49 Limitations in the Use of the Internet...... 50 Connection and technology infrastructure ...... 51 Design problems ...... 52 ICT in the Exhibition Space...... 53 General overview ...... 52 Science, history, and childrens ’ museums...... 57 Art museums...... 58 Five Museum Educators’ Views on the Use of ICT for the Pedagogical Purposes of the Museum...... 60 1. SUMMARY...... 67
CHAPTER 2 ICT FOR AESTHTETIC ART EDUCATION IN TFIE MUSEUM...... 70
1. INTRODUCTION...... 70 2. THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE OF ART MUSEUMS...... 71 The Concept Shift In Museum Education - from Objects to Audience...... 71 General Characteristics of Learning in Museums...... 75 Museums as informal settings for learning ...... 75 The importance o f intrinsic motivation for museum learning...... 76 Cognitive and affective aspects o f learning in museums ...... 77 The need to facilitate the diversity o f learning styles in museums...... 79 Communication Problems in Art Museums...... 81 Low priority in understanding visitors ...... 82 Linear presentation o f works o f art ...... 83 Lack o f support for personal investigation about the work o f art...... 85 Visitors’ “Experience” in the Art Museum...... 86 3. THE AESTHETIC APPROACH TO ART MUSEUM EDUCATION.... 89 Brief History of, and Trends in. Educational Philosophy in Art Museums .. 89 What is Aesthetic Experience? - Educationalists’ Views...... 92 Characteristics of Aesthetic Experience - Theoretical Review...... 94 The focusing o f attention...... 96 Disinterested attention andfelt freedom ...... 97 Transcendence and loss o f ego ...... 98 Active Discovery...... 99 The Aesthetic Approach in the Art Museum Context...... 100 Constructivist Learning Theory...... 105 Strategies for the Aesthetic Approach - Enhancement of The Skills of the Viewer...... 108 1. Perceptual skill...... 108 2. Intellectual skill - cognitive understanding about the art object 112 3. The skill o f sensitive awareness ...... 114 Summary of Strategies for Aesthetic Education...... 116 4. THE EFFECTIVE FEATURES OF COMPUTER - MEDIATED - LEARNING (CML) FOR AESTHETIC EDUCATION...... 118 Hypothesis...... 118 CML for the enhancement o f active looking ...... 120 CML for the enhancement o f active looking ...... 121 CML for a personal involvement in the discovery process about a work o f art...... 122 CML for stimulating further learning about the art work...... 122 CML for the enhancement o f emotional involvement during an art experience ...... 123 CML for the enhancement o f perceptual skill, intellectual skill, and the skill o f aesthetic sensitivity...... 124 Past Research on the Use of ICT for Art Museum Education...... 126 5. SUMMARY ...... 129
CHAPTER 3 A CASE STUDY ON THE USE OF ICT FOR AESTHETIC EDUCATION IN THE ART MUSEUM...... 131
1. INTRODUCTION...... 131 2. ABOUT THE PROGRAM...... 133 Description of the Program...... 135 3. AIM OF THE SURVEY...... 138 4. SURVEY METHODOLOGY...... 140 Evaluation Techniques...... 140 Quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection...... 141 Questionnaires...... 142 Interviews ...... 143 Observations ...... 144 Focus group discussions...... 144 Data Collection Method for This Survey ...... 145 Questionnaire design ...... 147 Selection of Six Images Used for The Survey ...... 152 Discussion of Method...... 158 Survey Procedure...... 159
CHAPTER 4 SURVEY ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 162
1. THE SAMPLE...... 162 2. QUESTIONNAIRE DATA...... 163 3. MAIN FINDINGS FROM THE SURVEY...... 192 General Summary...... 192 Support of Personal Involvement in the Discovery Process (Aim 1)...... 193 Stimulation of Attentive Looking (Aim 2) ...... 193 Stimulation of Further Learning (Aim 3)...... 193 Support of Emotional Involvement (Aim 4 )...... 194 Development of Perceptual skills (Aim 5)...... 194 Development of Intellectual Skills (Aim 6 ) ...... 195 Development of the Skills of Sensitive Awareness (Aim 7)...... 196 4. SUMMARY...... 197
CONCLUSION...... 199
FUTURE STUDIES...... 201
BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 203
APPENDIX I ...... 263
APPENDIX n ...... 283
APPENDIX m ...... 290
APPENDIX IV...... 291 List of Figures
Chapter 2: ICT for Aesthetic Art Education in the Museum Page No.
Figure 2.1 Flow of the aesthetic experience in the art iQl museum context
Figure 2.2 Hypothesis: the effectiveness of J20 computer-mediated-leaming for aesthetic education
Chapter 3: A case study on the use of ICT for Aesthetic Education in the Art Museum
Figure 3.1 Image of the computer kiosk positioned in ...... 7 5 3 the permanent galleiy
Figure 3.2 The front screen of the ART...... 7 5 5 CONNECTIONS Cultural Links CD-ROM program
Figure 3.3 Hypothesis: the effectiveness of iS8 computer-mediated-leaming for aesthetic education
Figure 3.4 Aims of the survey ...139-140
Figure 3.5 Aims of the survey and related questions ...... 7 52
Figure 3.6 - Images of six paintings and its details used in Appendix I Figure 3.25 ....263-282
Figure 3.26 . User investigating art object on the screen ...... 7 5 7
Figure 3.27 Visitor looking at the original art objects after ...... 7 5 7 viewing the CD-ROM program
Chapter 4: Survey Analysis and Interpretation
Table 4.1 Sex and Age of the Sample ...... 7 52
Table 4.2 Choice of painting 7 5 ^
10 Table 4.3 Support for varied approaches to ...... 7 5 5 understanding the v^ork of art
Table 4 .4 Support for individual learning 7 5 7
Table 4.5 Ease of information search/access 7 ^p
Table 4.6 Choice of language medium ...... 7 77
Table 4.7 Generating‘individual meaning’ 7 7 7
Table 4.8 Summary of section A 7 7^
Table 4.9 Desire to see original object after the use of ...... 7 7^ CD-ROM program
Table 4.10 Stimulation of perceptual involvement with 7 7 7 the image of the original object after the use of the CD-ROM program
Table 4 . 1 1 Summary of section B 7 7^
Table 4. 12 Insight into aesthetic creativity 7 7P
Table 4.13 Outcome of the use of zoom function 7 5 7
Table 4.14 Enhancement of curiosity about the painting 7 ^ 2
Table 4.15 Summary of section C 7 ^ 3
Table 4.16 Support for emotional responses jg ^
Table 4.17 Pleasure in knowledge of own ig ^ understandning
Table 4.18 Summaiy of section D jgg
Table 4.19 Focusing on a work of art jgg
Table 4.20 Outcome of the use of zoom function 7 P^
Table 4.21 Close observation via Game 7 P7
Table 4.22 Summaiy of section E 203
Table 4.23 Feature of painting discovered from the use 205 of CD-ROM program
Table 4.24 Increased familiarity 207
11 Table 4.25 Evocation of memories 209
Table 4.26 Encouragement of feeling of sympathy with ...... 210 the artist
Table 4.27 Summaiy of section G 272
Table 4.28 Increase in appreciation of a painting 275
Table 4.29 Appreciation of CD-ROM activities 275
Table 4.30 The possibility of the future use of the 277 CD-ROM program
Table 4.31 Summary of the findings from the survey 225
12 Introduction
1. BACKGROUND
As Information Communication Technology (ICT) has developed as the new communication medium in the information age, it is important for museum professionals to consider the potential of effective communication via ICT in the museum context. Since the 1960s, computers have been used in areas of museum activities such as organisation management, collection management, preservation, and public access to museum resources. Also, since 1980s, ICT has become recognised as a useful tool for developing the public communication and educational strategies of museums.
Advances in technologies since the late half of the 1990s have lead to new relationships among people, objects, and museums: they are revolutionising how we communicate with museums; they are transforming our idea of how museum information should be disseminated and used (Morrissey and Worts, 1998, p. 147).
This evolution of ICT technology and social infrastructure in Europe and North
America has raised the political and social profile of the museum educational mission and of the role museums might play in the lifelong learning society (Swift,
1999, p. 47). In recent times, museums have been considered both as community centres that work with public libraries to provide access points to cultural and educational resources and as public spaces aiming to heighten the opportunity to make collections more accessible by using the Internet or by digitally presenting and interpreting collections.
13 With regard to museum display, ICT has, also, offered museums new ways of organising information in order to establish effective communication between objects and audiences. New media strategies have become popular among museums due to their new need to serve a wider public whose ages, interests and learning styles differ with each individual. ICT allows new ways of organising and accessing information according to the information needs of audiences and encourages learning in an exploratory, user-centred educational environment.
These characteristics of the ICT learning environment are considered to have significant potentials in developing enjoyable and enriching learning opportunities and in enhancing visitors’ understandings about contents, messages and objects carried in exhibitions. For this reason, ICT has begun to be applyed in designing educational exhibits in science, history and children’s museums. However, the powerful pedagogic potentials of ICT displays is barely researched in the art museum setting where the idea of ‘let the work of art speak itself is still paramount and persistent in exhibition spaces.
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The aim of this research is to explore the use of computer-mediated-leaming technologies in supporting aesthetic education in art museums. Recently, a new direction in art gallery education has emerged with the aim of helping art museums not to be ‘schools where lessons are given’ but to be a ‘laboratory for an imaginative encounter with works of art’ (Boijimans Van Beunigen Museum,
1997). Conventional art galleries tend to present works of art within the frame of
14 an academic discipline of art history. This approach leads to the situation where the value and meaning of a work of art is given by the institutional ideas of the curators of these art museums and the audience tends to be treated as passive recipients of these ideas. In the late nineteenth century, the concept of ‘aesthetic experience’ started to be used in the context of elitist ideas about art which considered the art experience as an individual matter and that only someone who held high educated tastes could understand the innate quality of art (Zolberg,
1992; Duncan, 1995). However, recently, the idea of ‘aesthetic education’ in the museum context has emerged as a modem educational concept that considers that the art experience in museums should be an enjoyable one, where the pleasure of looking at the image itself and forming a subjective reaction towards the art work are emphasised, rather than the rigid learning of art historical facts (Kenyon,
1997; Walsh-Piper, 1994). For the purpose of this study, I use ‘aesthetic experience’ in the current usage of an art museum experience that stress that visitors are cmcial partners in the development of their own visual experiences. In such a view, art museums are seen as places which not only convey information about art but, also, places which stimulate the audience’s involvement and participation in the personal appreciation of their collections.
With the utilisation of various media such as video, acoustic guides, and computers, some art museums have tried to foster the development of a more personal communication between their collections and viewers. From the 1980s, some art museums have developed Internet projects and multimedia information kiosks have been positioned in the gallery space. They, also, started to make
CD-ROMs which can be used to support art and design education in schools and
15 in the home entertainment environment. However, most multimedia projects in art museums are developed mainly in order to increase the availability of information
(so called digital databases), thereby opening and distributing more collected wisdom and contextual information about museum collections. So far, few studies about computer programs that support an aesthetic educational approach have been conducted in order to examine how art museums can use new technologies to stir the casual visitor’s interest, to deepen a personal and aesthetic experience and to promote the desire for further learning about the visual arts. This is my research theme.
This thesis is an exploratory survey on the use of computer-mediated-leaming programs for the enhancement of an aesthetic educational strategy in art museum settings. The concept of utilising computer-mediated-leaming (CML) programs as learning aids involves interactivity, simulation capabilities, and user-driven image and information manipulation. This style of learning program can support the cognitive component of the visual experience where the process involves not only an accumulation of perceived ideas into a memory system in the brain, but also a personally driven constmction of understanding made as individuals interact with the world of visual expression. Therefore, I believe, CML programs may be a very effective medium in supporting aesthetic education in art museums.
3. LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH
For reasons described in the preface, this research has been limited to an M.Phil project and it has thus become an exploratory survey, especially, in terms of
16 sample size and survey methodology. Despite extensive searching, through contacts v\dth museums and galleries, and literature review^, it was not possible to find other case studies of in-gallery multimedia with which the Cartwright Hall data could be compared. Consequently the current study can do little more than indicate possibilities as to the extent to which CML would be useful to support aesthetic education. It does however provide a baseline against which future work can be judged, especially when comparable case studies become available.
4. SUMMARY OF THESIS CONTENTS
Chapter One will provides a background study of this research in discussing ICT applications in various areas of museums activities including information collection, preservation, and education. Chapter Two will examine the educational purpose of art museums, the history of communication approach that art museums have taken and contemporary ideas of what is a satisfying experience for art museum audiences. Then I will discuss the theory of aesthetic experience and the aesthetic educational strategy in art museum settings. Here I indicate how art museums can heighten the possibility of the enhancement of the museum visitor’s aesthetic approach and how the computer-mediated-leaming system can be used for this approach. Chapter Three will describe a survey of the CD-ROM project in the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, U.K., which is used as an illustrative exploratory and practical investigation of the potentials of computer-mediated-leaming programs for the support of the visitors’ aesthetic approach to their the visual experience with collection items from the museum.
17 Survey methodology and procedure will be explained in this section. Then, in
Chapter Four, I will examine the survey findings and interpretation from the survey on the effectiveness of the CD-ROM project at Cartwright Hall. This is followed by a concluding section which summarises the findings of the research project as a whole and makes recommendations for future work.
18 Chapter 1
The General Use of ICT in Museums and Galleries
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, computer technology has become a powerful tool for museums and galleries not only for achieving effective management but also for the development of their educational strategies. Especially in recent decades, the term
“information communication technology” (ICT) has appeared in many museological articles as museums and galleries have started to recognize ICT as a useful means of providing their pedagogical service to the public. In 1996, the
International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of
Museums (ICOM-CIDOC) noted the two main areas where museums can benefit from new technologies:
1. Multimedia as a documentation tool, building integrated museum databases that record information about museum collections. 2. Multimedia as a communication tool, interpreting museum artifacts and collections. (ICOM-CIDOC, 1996, Introduction to Multimedia in Museums)
In this document, ICOM-CIDOC used the term “multimedia”, but not “ICT” as used in this thesis, for indicating multimedia platforms. This is because it was published in 1996 and this was about the time that many museum professionals had started to see computers as information processing machines that could be used for creating an interactive communication between computers and users or
19 between users themselves. In this situation, I consider these two terms are synonymous for general computer platforms and applications that create digital information archives and process this information.
As stated above, ICT has been recognized as useful for the enhancement of two important activities of museums: the development of digital museum archives in order to enhance public access to cultural information; and the development of interpretative strategies via new media for the enhancement of public understanding and appreciation of museum collections. The main theme of this thesis is to investigate the latter use of ICT in the field of art museum education: how ICT is useful as interpretative media for enhancing audiences’ understanding and their exploration of art objects.
As a background study, in this chapter, I will discuss the general overview of the use of ICT in the two fields of museum activities mentioned above. Before these discussions, I shall begin by defining some computer terms that will be used in this thesis and, also, provide some background information on why ICT has been recognized as so important in the museum field. I shall then move to an overall examination of the ICT applications in three areas of museum activities - the development of information management system about museum collection; the development of public communication; and the development of educational mission.
20 2. WHAT IS INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY? - DEFINITIONS
Information Communication Technology (ICT)
ICT stands for Information Communication Technology (hereafter ICT) and is a revision of the old 'IT’ acronym with the intention of encouraging its use in more collaborative ways (Bazley, 1998, p.43). Government reports often use the term
ICT to refer to digital technology applications specifically aimed at to the development of education and communication strategies in educational institutions including museums. ICT in this thesis refers to general computer applications used for information provision and dissemination. At present, Keene
(1997c, p.2) describes that, in the museum field, ICT has been applied to three multimedia delivery platforms in common use: the computer network, especially the Internet; the CD-ROMs (as take away electronic publications), and local computer systems or stand-alone kiosks that are used for multimedia presentations in the museum gallery spaces.
In ter a c tiv e M ultim edia
Multimedia represents a use of technology that melds computers, videodisks and compact disc storage into an integrated computer controlled system that enables the “integration of data, text, sound and images of all kinds within a single, digital information environment” (Feldman, 1997, p.24). Multimedia itself does not refer to a specific product but, rather, a communication organisation system that can deliver forms of digital information from diverse sources such as text, image.
21 sound, video, animation, and graphics in the order the user requires (Collins,
Hammond and Wellington, 1997, p.4)
H y per tex t a n d H y per m ed ia
Hypertext refers to software programs in which textual documents are joined together with automated conceptual links. It allows users to explore thematically linked information (words and ideas, etc) through the use of keywords, symbols, and visual metaphors such as icons and objects. The practical features of hypertext are that it allows readers: to have non-liner text that can be read or taken in any sequence with a choice of which pathway to take; to be able to take
‘regular’ excursions to other linked pages or favourite pages; to offer ‘hot words’ or link words that offer them related information with key words associated with what they are reading at the moment (Ibid. p7).
When textual databases are used within multimedia programs they are often adapted to ‘hypermedia’ (Feldman, 1997, p. 15). Hypermedia extends the principle of hypertext into the same platform and the same system which then allows users to control, combine, manipulate and navigate through elements of hypertext. It allows for the provision of a unique communication system: a mechanism for delivering and receiving information in intuitive, multi-sensory ways through the integration of disparate media and pieces of information (Huston, 1990, p.336). It does not impose a pre-designed path through the data, but rather tries - to a different extent among various systems - to allow the user to decide upon the manner of traversing the available web of information (Economou, 1996, p.2).
22 T he In t er n et
The Internet is a global, distributed, packet-switching computer network connecting machines utilising the Internet Protocol (Jordan, 1999, p.230). The
Internet started in 1969 with ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network) which consisted of several computers connected together in the US
Military Office (Oma & Pettitt, 1998, p.95). Then the networks were built up to mainly link in with scientific and academic communities to allow exchange of information (Ryan, Scott, Freeman, Patel, 2000, p9). The invention of the Mosaic
World-Wide-Web browser in 1993, released by the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in the United States, enhanced dynamically the way the Internet is used for the world’s educational institutions.
The World-Wide-Web is a part of the wider Internet networking system and it can provide an integrated and easy means of obtaining all the resources of the Internet.
Mosaic consisted of the first simple graphical user interface (GUI) for the Web, that means, it could change the Internet from being a text-only presentation to a more dynamic one that combines text and pictures using hypertext (M.Anderson,
1999, p.25). Many museums have created web sites since the birth of the Mosaic browser. Keene (1998, p. 104) indicated the number of museum sites on the World
Wide Web listed in the Virtual Library of Museums was 630 in December 1996 and 1200 in June 1997. This number has increased to more than 5,000 in 2001.
Among museum professionals, the Internet is now considered to be a very effective means of information distribution for museums because regardless of the physical distance, museums can provide their resources to broad and international publics via the Internet (Bowen, Bemnett & Johnston, 1998; Sarraf, 1999). The
23 Internet also contributes to income generation (Berman & Trant, 1999, p.20) and these features of the Internet use will be discussed in section four of this chapter.
3. INFLUENTIAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES
There are several influential factors impinging on the development of ICT in museums and galleries and these are as follows.
ICT as a Key Tool to Democratise Museum Collections
Firstly, as Alsford (1991, p.7) indicates, there is a growing appreciation that museums are not just about object, they are for people. The UK Museums
Association definition in 1995 said that the museum was “an institution that collects, documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit” (Museums Association, 1995). This old definition indicated stewardship as the most crucial part of the museum’s institutional mission. But in 1999 the MA modified its definition of the museum to:
Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard, and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. (Museums Association, 1999)
Similarly, recent reports from the UK government have pledged that although stewardship, care and access will continue to be priorities for museums, museums
24 also need to explore their role as user-friendly resource centres by using their collections of objects for inspection, study and enjoyment (DCMS, 2000a, p.7-8).
In such circumstances, the importance of the effective interpretation of the objects is stressed in order to make the cultural heritage attractive and meaningful to the wider public (Prentice and Cunnell, 1997, p. 234). Also, combining learning and enjoyment helps to define the museum as an alternative form of public entertainment (Koester, 1993; Hooper-Greenhill, 1988). The “Infotainment”
(information combined with entertainment) and “edutainment” (education combined Avith entertainment) approach to museum exhibitions has become a popular strategy of museum communication today and this perceived combination of leisure and learning has become a valuable asset of contemporary museums
(Koester, 1993, p.23). Computer technology is seen as offering an attractive and accessible way for making learning opportunities more dynamic and more enjoyable thus it can enhance understanding and appreciation of museum collections (D.Anderson, 1997; MacDonald and Alsford, 1991).
In this sense, ICT has been considered to be a key tool to facilitate improvement of the democratic access mechanisms of quality cultural services and products
(Pardo, 1998, p. 17). A report ‘The Current and Projected Use of New Media in
UK Museums’ by Visual Arena found that around 34 % of 200 museums surveyed in the UK were planning to spend up to 40 % of their budget on new multimedia materials (Visual Arena, 1998, p.26).
25 Government and Public Initiatives on the Use of ICT in Museum Education
Since the mid 1990% in North America, Europe and some countries in Asia, there has been a tendency for governmental support to encourage the development of an information superhighway infrastructure in the academic sector which also includes museums. Keene (1997b, p.l) mentions that in dozens of reports on the
Information Society from governments all over the world, especially from G7 countries, museums are significant players in the new forms of education provision that are themselves developing to take advantage of the new technology.
In the UK, there are numerous reports published in the late 1990s that encourage the use of ICT in museum sectors. Puttnam states in the report from the National
Museum Director’s conference held in 1999 that the rationale of museums playing a crucial role in the national development of the information age is as follows.
Three dimensions of national development will have a particularly important role in our future. One is the digital media sector, in which this country is a leading player. A second is the cultural industries, possibly the fastest growing sector of our economy. The third is the world of further and higher education, in which the United Kingdom’s expertise is universally respected. These three crucial elements come together in our museums and galleries, whose resources have vast potential for development in the emerging digital cultural universe. (Puttnam, 1999, forward)
One of the most important governmental ICT initiatives is “The National Grid for
Learning” (DfEE, 1997, Introduction). This scheme involves the development of networks and hardware infrastructure in schools and programmes of stuff development for teachers. The aim of the National Grid for Learning is to provide teachers and students with a way to find and access appropriate materials from
26 within a networked environment far richer and more extensive than the kind of resources traditionally available to schools (Ryan, Scott, Freeman & Patel, 2000, p. 10). The National Grid for Learning aims to develop the combination of infrastructure, content development and organisational arrangement in order to support the provision of museums and libraries as a national online resource for both school-based and life long learning (National Museum Director’s Conference
Report, 1999). Another important Internet initiative is a Culture Online
(http://www.cultureonline.gov.uk) which is established in 2000 by Department for
Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), UK. DCMS is now endeavouring for making
Culture Online sites to be the access point to the digital resources of arts and cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, libraries, and heritage sites and to be “highly participatory, enabling individuals and communities to use the technologies to pursue their own interests, create their own cultural resources and interact with others” (Introduction, Culture Online website).
There are many other countries in the world where governmental organisations support the use of ICT for developing new relationships between the public and museums. For example, Australian Museums On Line (AMOL)
(http://amol.org.au) is an initiative of the Cultural Ministers Council and its
Heritage Collections Council which focuses on the task of increasing access to
Australia’s heritage collections and sharing information. AMOL offers a national directory of Australian museums and galleries (http://amol.org.au/about_amol/ about amol.asp) so it helps Australian museums and galleries to make their collections available to world wide audiences. Also, it works as a forum for practical working partnerships in Australian cultural sectors (Keene, 1997b, p.4).
27 A similar example in Canada is the Canadian Heritage Information Network
(CHIN) (http://www.chin.gc.ca). CHIN aims to develop effective access to
Canadian and international cultural information for public education and enjoyment. It offers a gateway site for the museum community in Canada and beyond, an online educational resource centre and virtual exhibitions. Additionally, this site offers varied information and links regarding online training and intellectual property management, thus it supports museums in creating an effective information networking environment. These initiatives are helpful for enhancing museums’ awareness of how such information networks can be used in the development of their educational strategy.
The background of this movement is that there is a tendency for museums to be increasingly recognised as institutions suitable for life-long learning. Museums are places which can support learning at every stage of life through informal education (D.Anderson, 1999; DCMS, 2000c; Reeve, 1995). Unlike the traditional school in which educational programmes are tied to certain age-groups or to particular ways of teaching, museums can offer effective sources of informal education for diverse audiences whose ages, interests and learning styles differ with each individual. The motivation for the casual visitor's visit varies according to the set of experiences they bring with them (Bloom and Powell, 1984, p.70).
The nature of their learning relates to the natural curiosity people have about experiences in their lives and environments (D.Anderson, 1999; Hooper-Greenhill,
1994b), so what they leam can be highly individual. This concept of life-long learning in museums is likely to be encouraged by the use of ICT for two reasons.
Firstly, interactive educational media is relevant for the distribution of educational
28 programmes designed for informai learning (Borysewicz, 1998, p. 105) due to its capability of generating an interactive information communication system. ICT can structure diverse information into one computer system and also allows the user to explore this information pool in a way that caters to his or her intellectual curiosity. The character of museum audiences has been shifting from mainly small, interested, knowledgeable audiences to large audiences with a wide variety of knowledge and interests (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999a, p.xi). The museum audience consists of heterogeneous members whose age, education, interest and learning styles vary. Therefore, the power of ICT to create an individualised learning style can help museums to meet the demands of our increasingly diverse, pluralistic society.
Secondly, the accessibility of information on the Internet enables people to easily obtain the resources to fulfil their curiosity and satisfy their learning needs
(Gerrard, 1998, p.3). Therefore, it is crucial for museums to harness the capacity of ICT for the development of life-long learning opportunities.
Museums in the Information Age
The arrival of the information age has directly encouraged the introduction of ICT in museum activities. Bloom and Powell (1984, p.62) mention that the advent of the information age has encouraged a society dependent upon multiple media for information dissemination and communication. We can, therefore, expect to have a modem audience in museums which is accustomed to the flood of visual, aural and written information which bombards them daily through television, radio, video, and print media (Koester, 1993, p. 12). At the CECA ICOM (Committee for
29 Education and Cultural Action) conference in 1991, Shalev mentioned that computers would become a crucial medium for museum communication in the upcoming century.
“I think that we are emerging into the era when the individual will have his own personal newspaper in the morning. He will have his own individual needs that he will satisfy from all the huge data banks that will be connected directly with his own personal or family TV set, and he will be in a parallel situation in the sense that he will want to satisfy his own individual needs from any given exhibition.” (Shalev, 1991, p. 62-3.)
In a time when multimedia is becoming prevalent in many areas of work, education and leisure, we can expect to have museum audiences, especially people in the younger generation, who may be no longer satisfied to accept an established order of knowledge that curators and other museum professionals try to convey through exhibitions. Rather, visitors may prefer to draw their own conclusions from a museum experience gained through interacting with the vast amounts of information that a museum can offer. ICT can offer this potential, and many museums have responded by introducing multimedia programs in the museum and on websites.
These museum professionals’ predictions in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s seem to have become true sooner than they had thought due to the speed of technological growth in the IT industries. In recent decades, stand-alone computers have become relatively common tools in homes, offices, and schools.
Digital technology can now be used to convey very large amounts of information and this information can be retrieved in ever more sophisticated ways, with
30 various media including video, still images and sound, through a variety of links
(DfEE, 2000; Keene, 1998). Increasingly, all of these data are not dealt with just on stand-alone computers but can be exchangeable over networks and in particular, the Internet (Ryan, Scott, Freeman, Patel, 2000, p.9). According to a survey by a commercial Internet marketing company, the number of Internet users in the world has increased enormously in the last four years. According to the Computer
Industry Almanac (http://www.c-i-a.com), there were about 61 million Internet users in the world in 1996, 150 million in 1998, and 260 million in 1999. Another survey predicted that, by the end of 2000, total user numbers will increase to 370 million (Nua Internet Surveys, 2000). Among these users, about 43% are in North
America, 28% are in Europe, 23% are in Asia and Pacific, 4% are in Latin
America and rest of them are in the Africa and Middle East (ibid). This figure shows that the growth is mainly in the ‘developed’ world, so access is likely to extended to those who are already relatively privileged. However, it is definite that the number of the Internet users will continue to growth in future.
The extraordinary expansion of Internet users in the world indicates that the growth of the infrastructure, and of multimedia information system usage in everyday life, will continue in the coming future. In addition, another survey shows that, in the UK, education is the biggest ICT growth area (Gray, 1999, p.7) and museums and galleries are expected to play a crucial part as educational digital content providers. Therefore, effective use of ICT will be a critical challenge for museums in order to meet future public demand for digital educational content for general and life-long education.
31 4. APPLICATION OF ICT IN MUSEUM INFORMATION SYSTEMS
C o l lec tio n s M a n a g em en t
In museums, computer technologies started to be used, first of all, in the area of collection management and documentation in the early 1960s (Jones-Garmil, 1997, p.35). Museums in Europe and North America began to organise digital databases from early 1970s. Many institutions have developed collection computerisation and established museum networks for information exchange. MCN (Museum
Computer Network) was the first of such consortia in the USA. The mda
(formerly the Museum Documentation Association) in the UK was established in
1977 to develop museum documentation standards and now it is a leader, along with the Getty Information Institute in the USA, in supporting digital documentation world-wide.
The use of ICT for collection management has the following advantages. First of all, the application of ICT enables museums to improve the quality of the content of the collection databases. As previously mentioned, ICT enables data to be stored in various digital formats (i.e. still and moving images, text, sound, video and animations). Therefore, more data concerned with the objects can be added to a database. For example, the physical dimensions of the object can be stored alongside two or three-dimensional images. Contextual information such as people, places, discoveries, and events relating to the object can be stored using texts, sounds, and even videos. Keene describes one such example of digital archive usage:
32 For example, a printing press could be shown operating through video; the sound it makes could be reproduced at the same time; its ex-operator could recount what it was like to run it; catalogue descriptions and images of parts could be summoned up from his speech. A virtual reality recreation could explain how it works. (Keene, 1997a, p.301)
For this reason, the digital database can offer a richer object context than one achieved using the traditional printed media (Herman, 1997, p.69).
Secondly, ICT enhances good information management inside the museum. ICT allows the effective management of diverse information via an integrated information database linked to the different departments in a museum such as curatorial, conservation, registration, photographic services, accounting, and development. Information about items in a collection such as their visual image, provenance, cataloguing descriptions, physical locations within the museum, and their state of preservation can all be stored in one automated collections management system (Johnston, 1997, p. 101). In addition, a digitised database allows effective searching for specific information due to its interactivity and hyperlink capability. Users can browse the web of information freely and retrieve and choose easily the specific information they require from the database (Oma &
Pettitt, 1998, p.94).
For example, Spurlock Museum, Illinois, USA developed a relational database which attempts to break the information barriers between different areas of the museum and to promote collaboration across different section within the museum.
Marty (1999, p. 38) mentioned that all museum departments (collections, curatorship, registration, exhibition design) can benefit from having access to
33 common data records, even though this data may be used in a different fashions in different departments when shared across the museum’s internal boundaries.
Thirdly, the multimedia components of the content can be stored and reused in other productions (Keene, 1998, p. 15) and this makes collection management more cost effective. Once the information relating to a museum collection is digitised then each component of collected information in the main database can be separated and linked together in order to build new databases tailored to differing purposes. This means that all the digital database elements can be re-used in various museum products and services such as interpretation material in exhibitions, catalogue and CD-ROM publishing products and, also, they can be used for the Internet.
Lastly, a museum collections database can be linked to other related databases outside the museum (Ibid. p. 17). This can be done either through the World Wide
Web or through particular networking that aims for internal exchange of information in a particular infrastructure. This allows researchers and curators to experience other institutions’ assembled expert knowledge. Also, it allows information about objects outside a home museum to be easily and seamlessly included in its reference database, so helping to develop a database with an ever richer and wider context. These integrated databases have begun to be used in public education sectors and I will describe examples later in this section.
C onservation
Multimedia information systems are also useful in the area of collections care and
34 conservation. A few museums, university departments of cultural conservation, and several international organisations are making significant use of the Internet for conservation purposes (Rhyne, 1998, p.2). As mentioned before, recent ICT developments allow physical features of the object to be digitally imaged as two and three-dimensional information and such information can be incorporated into the database along with other related information about the object. In addition, since digitised information is relatively easy to modify, reports on the condition of the collection can be easily and regularly updated. In the case of loans for exhibition or acquisitions of works of art, curators, researchers and art dealers can search such databases to look at the image of the object, assess information on its condition and any conservation history through the digital archive. This helps to ensure the safety of artifacts on loan.
Also, such a database helps to prevent the physical deterioration of objects. The digital archive with two or three-dimensional images of the collection supports conservation because it allows the examination of the physical object on the screen instead of in reality. For example, the Natural History Museum, London, is currently developing its museum collections database using a 3D scanner. In using this database for public access to the museum collection, the museum will no longer worry about people touching precious collections. Thus we have a practical solution for better preservation for future generations (Visual Arena, 1998, p. 2).
Another notable example of the use of ICT for supporting the conservation of a collection is the “Turning the Pages” project in the British Library, London.
“Turning the Pages” is an interactive multimedia room situated in the John Ritblat
Gallery. This room is equipped with several computer kiosks and each computer
35 station allows visitors to see high quality digitised images of manuscripts and rare books and to simulate actual turning of pages (British Library, 2000). One can turn the pages of digitised books by simply touching the screen. This interactive program also contains sound and text information for each page of the digitalised books. Thus, users can have in-depth information on the pages they look at.
Dev el o pm e n t o f R e se a r c h and P u blic a tio n
The digitisation of object information helps museum resources to be widely used inside and outside the museum. Not only does it benefit internal collections management, as we have seen, but it also benefits the wide academic and professional community. Computerised information databases can be made available in many kinds of computer platforms such as the World Wide Web, computer kiosks in museums and libraries, and eventually via digital TV. The use of ICT enables museum multimedia databases to become vast storehouses of digital information about the world’s cultures, thus enabling museums to play a significant public educational role in the new information age (ICOM-CIDOC,
1996).
Through use of the Internet, museums, universities and other research organizations can build partnerships with academic communities via online networks. These can make virtual collections that consist of parts of many museums’ and universities’ databases linked together (Johnston, 1997;
Jones-Garmil, 1997b). This enables museum professionals to exchange information and to take a multidisciplinary approach to object interpretation.
36 Also, scholars and students alike are currently looking to the Internet as the place to find the resources for their research and scholarship (Johnston, 1997, p.93). The provision of online museum information has been supported by a directory service that precedes a search and display of the list of museum web sites. The first such web site was the Virtual Library Museum Pages (VLMP) developed by Jonathan
Bowen at the University of Reading (www.icom.org/vlmp or www.comlab.ox.ac. uk/archive/other/museums.html) (Avenier, 1999; Bowen, 2000). This site has mirror sites in Austria, Canada, Sweden, Japan, Russia, Spain and the United
States and it continuously updates the information on the site (Karp, 1999, p. 12).
Visitor numbers have dramatically increased every year. According to Bowen, this site was visited by 37,064 people in 1994, 584,138 in 1996, and 1,032,148 in 1998
(Bowen, 1999, p. 164) and, at the time of writing (June, 2001), the number of the total visitors was 5,365,170. Also, the Getty Museum’s site (http://www. artsednet.getty.edu/) is an online resource for teachers that offers a variety of teaching and learning materials for art education including many art images. A similar example in the UK is the “24 Hour Museum” which is a gateway site for museums in the UK. This site contains a ‘Resource Search’ section and it offers both on- and off- line resources for general education including teachers’ packs, fact sheets and gallery tours (DfEE, 2000a, p.24).
Some museum web sites have acted as entry points for specific research. For example, the PORT program developed by the National Maritime Museum is a curated gateway to maritime Internet resources (http://www.port.nmm.ac.uk). The museum’s Centre for Maritime Research employs subject experts in order to select and classify Internet resources thus helping the online visitors’ subject
37 research to be easy and comprehensive. The above examples show that museums can use the Internet as a powerful tool to forge a larger role as purveyors of cultural heritage information to society (Zorich, 1997, p. 195).
Computer networks can also function as meeting grounds for museum professionals. With the use of the Internet, many museum professionals can exchange information such as curriculum ideas and educational software via electronic mail discussion lists. Examples include the Group for Education in
Museums in the UK (http://www.gem.org.uk/list.html), and the MUSEUMS-ED, an American-based e-mail discussion list for museum education
(http ://www. sirius.com/~robinson/muse-ed.html).
Digital information regarding museum collections can be also made available to the public in the form of optical media (e.g. CD-ROM). Many art museums have developed partnerships with commercial media publishers to develop digital catalogues in the form of educational CD-ROMs which can be used to support art and design education and art-historical research in schools and in the home edutainment environment. For example, the Reunion des Musées Nationaux
(RMN) in France, a joint museums commercial publisher and one of the largest and most successful multimedia publishers in Europe, has developed several research-focussed multimedia publications in collaboration with art museums.
Titles include ''The Louvre, The Palace and the Paintings'^ (in collaboration with
Musée du Louvre), and "Brancusi on Brancusf (in collaboration with Centre
Georges Pompidou). The Micro Gallery, created by the staff of the National
Gallery, London, together with the Brighton multimedia production company
Cognitive Applications, was published by Microsoft as a CD-ROM "Art Gallery"
38 (Keene, 1998, p.30). Such publications make large amounts of quality information easily available both to the general public and to the scholarly community
(ICOM-CIDOC, Multimedia in Research, http://konbib.nl/rkd/engpubl/mmmwg/).
5. APPLICATION OF ICT FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATION FOR MUSEUM PRACTICE
The development of Internet services, especially that of the World Wide Web, has provided new possibilities and opportunities in the realm of museum communication. Since 1993, museums and galleries across the world have started to provide web sites that present wide ranging overviews of their activities (Avnier,
1999, p.31). They include such information as hours of operation, membership opportunities, activities such as special exhibitions, educational programs and other related events, and information on collections. For this reason, the Internet offers museums an effective means of raising public awareness of the museum and its activities (Johnston, 1997, p. 102) and, therefore, it has become a key tool for developing the museum’s communication strategy. In the following section, I will describe the features of the Internet that museums can harness for their communication strategies.
O u t r e a c h - M u se u m S er v ic es f o r Ne w A u d ien c es
Outreach has been recognised as a critical part of museum communication strategies for some time. The purpose of outreach is to help museums to make themselves relevant and accessible to new and potential visitors who do not, or
39 cannot, visit the museum building and the Internet has been considered as a useful element of museums outreach (Davies, 1999; Hawkey, 1998). As we have seen earlier, the Internet allows museum information to be disseminated via the global digital network thus, it allows the remote use of museum resources without the constraint of geography or time. For example, Oma and Pettitt (1998, p.97) show that when the Manchester Museum put its database on the World Wide Web, within one month the database had been visited by several hundred people from over two dozen countries. In the UK, a governmental report from DCMS
(Department for Culture, Media and Sport) notes that the Internet can be one of the ways of taking out the museum’s collection and expertise to diverse audiences
(2000b, p.7). In particular. Reeve optimistically mentions the power of the
Internet for supporting a museum outreach strategy:
Now, with the www, and increasingly sophisticated multimedia, ‘outreach’ has even wider connotations (for museums). Reluctant museum users may use the museum by remote access via the www - it may then inspire a visit. The housebound, the disabled or infirm, the remote rural user in the highlands of Scotland - they can also potentially access the formerly inaccessible. (Reeve, 1998a)
Museums increasingly utilise the Internet as a key tool to improve public access to their resources and in doing so, museums can expect to have a wider range of
‘virtual’ visitors who may now use the electronic version of museum information in homes, workplaces, and schools (Bowen, 2000, p.4).
40 In c r ea sed V isibil it y o f L e sse r K n o w n Institutions
Another advantage of the usage of the Internet is that it helps to raise public awareness of the lesser known museum and its activities. This use of the Internet has become apparent from many examples of museum gateway sites that present integrated information about national heritage resources. In many countries, these are often organised and initiated by the cultural sectors of the government.
For example, in the UK, the ‘24 Hour Museum’ (www.24hourmuseum.org.uk) was launched in 1999 with ftmds from DCMS and from the partnership between two charitable organisations - The Campaign for Museums and mda. One of the aims of the 24 hour museum is to bring the lesser known museum and its resources to the public, and this gateway site offers links to many museums in the
UK. The site covers practical information on each museum including opening hours, collection details, disability access and facilities, shops, etc., and this information can allow users to research more easily about the museums and their collections. In Finland, the Finnish Museums Association (http://www.museoIiitto
.ft) has established a web site that includes information of a directory of on-line museums in Finland, sorted alphabetically, by region or by type of museum. In the
USA, the Florida Association of Museums site (http://www.flamuseums.org) establishes a comprehensive on-line information resource on Florida’s museums.
People can search for museums in this state through a point and click map of the state and its regions, type of museum or by keyword search of a name or location.
Also, the Egyptian government supports the country’s ‘Tourism Net’
(http://www.tourism.egnet.net) which contains a lists of Egyptian museums and galleries as well as international museums with Egyptian collections.
41 O rientatio n to th e A c tua l M u seu m V isit
The Internet is also useful to help visitors prepare for their visit. For example, the
COMPASS project in the British Museum in UK is an electronic database of around 1,500 objects in the museum’s collections which is available on-line
(http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/). The kiosk version of COMPASS situated in the information centre in the museum contains a larger number of objects (5,000). The online version of the COMPASS project enables virtual visitors to make their own search, look at the museum’s objects of the month, or take a virtual tour (e.g. Mummies and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt or A Toys and
Games family tour). The information in this site has been written with non-specialist visitors in mind and the location of each object in the museums galleries is mentioned on the web page.
Some museum websites provide the public with digitally visualized architectural modelling of the building, floor maps, and visual images of collections in order to allow potential visitors to browse through the highlights of museum collections in a virtual setting. For example, the web site of the National Portrait Gallery,
London contains a floor plan section (http://www.npg.org.uk). This section allows virtual visitors to see a two-dimensional model of each floor plan and to obtain varied information about what they can see in each room. The information includes an explanation of the exhibition room and some thumbnail images from the collection positioned in the room. Another example is the website of the
Musée du Louvre in France (http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm), where it is possible to take an on-line tour. Such sites offer the virtual visitor with a preview of entire galleries, giving an impression of being guided through specific rooms in
42 a museum (Zorich, 1997, p. 174). Similarly, the Uffizi Gallery (http://musa.uff izi.firenze.it) in Florence, Italy, provides QuickTime'^^R (Virtual Reality) images of the galleries. M. Anderson (1997b, p. 18) mentions "It will be beneficial to prepare for a visit to a permanent collection or a special exhibition by downloading a virtual preview of that display, replete with three-dimensional navigation in the galleries and instant access to comparable works in other collections globally".
In c r ea sed Nu m b e r o f V isito r s
When the Internet became a popular tool for the presentation of museum resources, there was anecdotal evidence of anxieties among many museum professionals that this online exposure of the museum resource might diminish the potential audience’s actual visit to the museum. However, several surveys show that the Internet has actually contributed to increasing the number of visitors. For example, the Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence found its visitor figures rose by 40% the summer following its arrival on the web, and many of its visitors cited the Web pages as prompting their visit (Keene, 1997a, p.309).
Bowen, Bennett and Johnson (1998, p .ll) mention that there is evidence of virtual visitors being stimulated to visit the museum in person after investigating the materials on the Web. The digital resources of museums do attract potential visitors to see and to be in the presence of the original work (M. Anderson, 1997b;
Bazley, 1998; Sharraf, 1999) because people become initially better acquainted with the works of art on the screen.
43 C ontribution to In c r ea sed R ev en u e
The Museum can also develop electronic commerce on its web site. Digital commerce can radically reshape the sale of goods and services by museums
(M.Anderson, 1999, p.29). Many museums have added an ‘online shop’ feature on their web site, where virtual visitors can buy publications, goods, and the full version of their digital images from the web site. A museum web site can be accessed from all over the world and thus, the Internet enormously increases museums’ commercial opportunities in general. For example, the Tate Gallery in the UK provides, an online shopping feature on its web site (see http://www.tate.org.uk/shop/browse.htm). This online shopping resource offers virtual visitors the opportunity to buy various products such as books, cards, prints, posters, and gifts from the actual museum shop. This online shopping contains links to various sections of the Tate Gallery web site that allow a virtual visitor to see related information on the products that they are interested in buying. For example, if a virtual visitor wants to buy a poster of a Salvador Dali work on the web, he/she can view an image of the actual work on the collection site with associated information about it, and also, view related products relating to this artist (e.g. other posters of the same artist’s work). Given the increasing number of
Internet users in the world, online shopping may become one of the crucial commercial opportunities for museums in the future.
44 6. ICT APPLICATION FOR MUSEUM EDUCATION
T h e use o f th e In t er n et fo r t h e De v e l o pm e n t o f M u se u m E d u c a tio n
Since the mid 1990s, the Internet has created a new learning dimension for museums in cyberspace. As I mentioned in previous sections, the advantage of the
Internet is its ability to make information available to potential audiences worldwide. At the beginning, museums’ forays into a networked environment concentrated on the provision of general information such as opening times, and introductions to exhibitions and collections. Recent technical development and wider bandwidths of the Internet have improved the speed at which information can be displayed on the user’s computer screens. Thus full-motion video, sound, video as well as text may become a practical reality (Bowen & Bennett, Johnson,
1998; Gray, 1998). This leads more museums to envisage the Internet as a unique avenue to convey their digital resources for public education. Whereas the other media that have been used in the museum, such as printing, videodiscs, and acoustic media, only enable un-directed communication (Berman & Trant, 1999, p. 120), the Internet offers the opportunity to create more interactive and stimulating educational activities available through connected digital networks
(Oppermann & Specht, 1999, p. 105). In the following section, I will describe various approaches in which museums and galleries can take advantage of the
Internet for developing educational activities in cyberspace.
45 Live Events via the Internet
The Internet can facilitate meaningful interchange of information between virtual visitors and museum professionals. Some virtual exhibitions offer “chat rooms” where virtual visitors can enter into a dialogue with curators about particular objects and the museum. An example of an online chat room application in museum educational practice is the “Webcast” project organised by the Science
Museum in London. It was a trial interactive Internet live event that was held in
May 1999. This project was aimed at Key Stage 2 pupils learning about Victorian objects in the museum. The schools that participated in this session were required to register for the session and on the day of the event, pupils accessed the site from their classrooms to participate in the chat room. During the one hour session, pupils in the classrooms could see a Victorian object which appeared on the screen in three-dimensional view and they were asked questions by the museum curators such as what they thought about the object itself, its potential users and the materials. Three schools took part in the Webcast and initial feedback from teachers commented that this interactive event was very successful (Museum
Practice, 1999b, p.64).
A similar example of the use of interactive networking for live educational events was the Jason project begun in 1989 by Dr. Robert Ballard, an oceanographer, in the United States. This project aimed to use an annual research expedition to provide material for two weeks of live transmissions from the research site to audiences of students in an international network of host sites called PINS
(Primary Interactive Network Sites) (Museum Practice, 1998a, p.55). These sites were equipped as control centres which received live signals via satellite links and
46 displayed the information on large video screens. The audience could then interact with the expedition site, operating remotely controlled cameras and equipment, and ask questions of the research scientists (Abbot, Greenwood, Hope, Phillips &
Reed, 1997, p.111). This project was continued over several years to cover various underwater expedition sites such as Lake Ontario (1990), Belize (1994), Hawaii
(1995), and Florida (1996). These sites were visited by students at PINS situated in the North America and the United Kingdom. The National Museums and
Galleries on Merseyside (NMGM) became the UK’s first PINS in 1993.
According to their survey in 1996, a total of 55,000 people saw a live transmission via NMGM or school parties (Ibid, p. 126). The survey also mentioned “this live event offers pupils a feeling of being part of a live expedition” and “this liveness not only enhanced the pupil’s enjoyment but also helped towards achieving the feeling of being present as scientific discoveries took place” (Ibid, p. 125).
The Jason project was notable for conducting experiment sessions using the
Internet. However, in 1996, it was restricted in its audience due to the limited
Internet availability in schools across the UK. But as we saw in the “Webcast program” in the Science Museum in London, a similar application will soon be more realistic as the digital infrastructure is widely spread to the extent that all educational institutions are digitally connected. Live events via the Internet have the potential to create truly interactive digital communication and this is one of the key elements that museums can exploit in their activity in cyberspace.
Educational materials on World Wide Web
In addition, as we have seen, networked databases enable museum resources to be
47 made available to anyone, anytime, and anyv^here. They have thus been considered to be one of the crucial tools to support the pedagogical mission of the museum. Increasingly large number of museums and galleries have considered ways in which their digital resources can be used as educational materials for students and teachers accessible via the Internet. One of such examples is STEM
(Students’ and Teachers’ Educational Materials) developed by the Science
Museum in London (http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/education/stem). This web site not only offers access to educational material concerned with the museum’s collections, but also, provides teachers and students with the opportunity to publish their own ideas for making effective educational use of the collections on the web site.
In the last decade, several consortia have been established across Europe and
North America for generating online partnerships among numerous museums and galleries. Their purpose is to facilitate the easy online exchange of partner museums’ databases and, also, to organise the consolidated database available in school and public libraries. For example, the AMICO (Art Museum Image
Consortium) (http://www.amico.org) is a non-profit organisation that has been set up by the Association of Art Museum Directors in the USA. According to Keene
(1997b, p.4), this site aims to create an avenue web site for the non-exclusive licensing of intellectual property rights for its member museums and galleries and to distribute museum digital archives to the educational sector. The AMICO library consists of a member institution’s digital archive which includes image details and curatorial records. At the time of the writing, the consortium consists of thirty-one art-collecting institutions in North America including the J. Paul
48 Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the
National Gallery of Canada in Ontario. This site enhances the educational use of member institution’s digital multimedia documentation (AMICO, 2000, p.3) because it is useful for art historical research and education in public educational organisations.
Virtual exhibitions on the Web
Some museums use the Internet to create an online version of their exhibitions.
The benefit of a virtual exhibition is that it makes the content of the exhibition available to wider audiences who are not able to visit the actual exhibition itself.
The Internet also provides museums with a new way of presenting museum resources because the virtual presentation of the exhibition can offer interactive learning opportunities, with both textual and visual information, relating to the objects and contents of the exhibition. Some virtual exhibitions are even able to provide audio segments such as music and sounds. For this reason, virtual exhibitions may contain much more information than can be presented through the traditional resources of an exhibition such as labels and graphics (Bowen,
Bennett, & Johnson, 1998, p. 10). In addition, museums can make their resources from past exhibitions available over the Internet.
For example, at the time of writing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y provides ten themed virtual exhibitions available on the “Explore and Leam” section of its web site (http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/themes.asp). One of these is an exhibition about African art called “Master Hand - Individuality and
Creativity among Yomba Sculptors”. This virtual exhibition allows virtual visitors
49 to leam interactively about various aspects of Yoruba sculpture and includes various features such as pages for children, glossary, and map. It also offers two-dimensional digital pictures of six Yoruba sculptures from the collections of the museum. A click on the picture can zoom up a thumbnail photo of the sculpture thus, visitors can have a full view of an object of interest.
Another interesting development of Internet usage for the virtual exhibition is the
‘Revealing Things’ project developed by the Smithsonian Institution in the USA
(http://www.si.edu/revealingthings/). This site does not represent a particular exhibition in the museum but it provides learning opportunities about the collection in the Smithsonian Institution as a whole. This program employs a unique presentation of the complex object databases of the institution. The contextual information about the objects, such as the cultures and the people associated with them, is displayed with dynamic visual web navigation that allows the visitors to pursue their individual interests and curiosity. Such rich presentation of virtual exhibitions can benefit both formal education and life-long learning (Bazley, 1998, p.41), because they allow virtual visitors to browse through a vast amount of museum digital resources according to their interest thus enabling them to develop “personalised” routes for learning.
L im itatio ns in th e U se o f th e In ter n e t
As mentioned earlier, the Internet has become a useful tool for museums in order to extend their educational services to a wider public. However, there are some constraints concerned with the application of the Internet for the museum and I will discuss these in this section. There are often pitfalls particular to other ICT
50 platforms such as in-house kiosks used as interpretation tool on the exhibition floor and this is a point which I shall consider in a later chapter.
Connection and technology infrastructure
The Internet is an exciting opportunity for museums in terms of the development of their communication and pedagogical strategy. However, museums, especially small ones have difficulties in harnessing this opportunity due to the costs associated with training personnel and networking. The more the web site contains images and sound, the more museums need both bandwidth connection
(Chadwick, 1997, p.35) and the professionals who can deal with a complicated web database. Continued introduction of hardware and software innovation also requires the museum staff to keep learning new network technology skills (Bazley,
1998, p.41). However, the number of UK museums that have overcome these problems has increased because more opportunities for training and funding have been offered by museum and library development bodies such as Re:source (The
Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries), and mda. For example, in the UK, museums can obtain technical and consultation support regarding the development of their digital archive and its dissemination from the Cultural
Heritage National Training Organisation (CHNTO) and the Information Services
National Training Organisation (ISNTO). These two bodies represent the museum, archive and library sectors of national training organisations (NTO’s).
In order to exchange information over the network, both providers and receivers need to be connected. Bazley (1998, p.41) mentioned that only about 50% of the
5,000 secondary schools and 10% of the 25,000 primaries were online early in
51 1998. The situation for further and higher education institutions is much better because of earlier experiments in academic networking such as JANET and Super
JANET (the Joint Academic Network). The general network infrastructure is now improving rapidly because of initiatives such as National Grid for Learning and the People’s Network project and thus, connectivity will be less of a problem in the future. For example, the National Grid for Learning pledged in their report in
1997 that “all schools, colleges, universities and libraries should be connected to the Grid by 2002”. In order to connect with users, museums have to ensure that they have connections to public and to learning networks such as JANET, the
People’s Network project, and the National Grid for Learning (National
Museum’s Directors Conference, 1999).
Design problems
The Internet is considered to be one of the most effective ways for the delivery of museum collection databases for public use. But a flood of increasingly diversified information could raise its own problems. Concerns are that virtual visitors might be lost during their browsing through the labyrinthine corridors of the museum web site. Museums accordingly need to consider how best to present museum information for effective use and for fulfilling an educational purpose
(Avnier, 1999; Johnson, 2000). The advent of graphical user interfaces has made it possible to operate many computer applications with little or no training (Besser,
1997b, p. 158). However, museums must keep endeavouring to design their web sites with user-fnendly and easy-to-access information architecture to make them navigable for general users.
52 Web sites can be made more interesting by enlivening the presentation with video clips, audio fragments or rotating objects (Devine and Welland, 2000, p.34).
These multimedia features of the Internet enable museums to create a new dimension in distance learning but these dynamic presentations require extra
‘plug-ins’ in order to view them and these are potential barriers to the individual wishing to make use of them (Bazley, 1998, p.41). The National Gallery of Art in the U.S.A made a survey of the NGA’s web site and found that virtual visitors tended to ‘walk away’ from web tours as they realized that their browsers were unprepared for the demands of Virtual Reality technologies (Johnson, 2000, p.66).
This was because if the user’s computer did not have the correct plug-in installed, they were forced to download and install a new one. Museums that are keen to apply these VR technologies on their web sites have tried to overcome these problems by offering users the choice of nonplug-in based versions and text only versions.
ICT IN THE E xhibition Space
General overview
ICT has become increasingly popular to be used as one of the interpretative devices in the exhibitions of all sorts of museums since 1980s (Serrell, 1996, p. 182). For the last two decades, many museum professionals have started to recognise the immense potential of computers for improving the quality and effectiveness of museum experiences (M.Anderson, 1997a; Berman, 1993 &
1995; Borun, 1983; Economou, 1998; Fahy, 1995; Hoffs, 1992; Johnson, 1997;
53 Noschka-Roos, 1996; Screven, 1986 & 1990; Searles, 1987; Thomas & Mintz,
1998; Vanausdall, 1986; Van Rennes, 1981; Worts, 1990 & 1991). However, most literature on multimedia programs in museum exhibitions have been concerned with product development, design principles, and practices of such new media, and in consequence, little research on the evaluation of existing computer programs has been made public (Berman, 1993; Economou, 1998; Light, 1995;
Prentice & Cunnell, 1997).
Computers are not only the electronic media that supports effective interpretation along with low-tech media (e.g. label texts). Other electronic interpretive devices such as audio labels and video programmes have been actively used in museum exhibitions for making visitor learning more intimate and exciting (Serrell, 1996, p. 178). However, computers are considered to have a powerful potential over other electronic devices in some circumstances. The advantages of computers as communication media are indicated in many of the articles mentioned above and these are as follows.
Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, computers are good at delivering and managing various kinds of information. Thus they can enhance public accessibility to museum resources. Secondly, computers have capabilities for managing various kinds of information and in any number of ways (Prochnak, 1990; Serrell, 1996;
Whitney, 1990). Thus, they enable ‘complex data representation’ (Bearman, 1993, p. 183). For example, computers can be used to present many messages in order to provide additional information about the exhibit content or to provide such messages in an interactive way by employing hypertext and hypermedia technology (Prentice & Gunnel, 1997, p.234). The hypermedia technology can
54 facilitate a user-controlled learning environment. This is very likely the reason that museums adopt this new media in order to support learning effectiveness in the exhibition space (Caulton, 1998; Dierking & Falk, 1998; Popp, 1997; Mintz,
1991 & 1992; Berlin, 1998; Schlesinger, 1997; Screven, 1986; Semper, 1998;
Serrell, 1996; Worts & Morrissey, 1998). This advantage of the computer over other media is described well in Screvens’ comment.
Computers can be programmed to link visitors with exhibit content by allowing them to control the amount and kind of information they receive, to ask leading questions that encourage attention to important things in a display, and to provide things to do at and with exhibits (Screven, 1986, p. 132)
For these reasons, computers enable personalized experiences for museum visitors
(Mintz, 1998, p.22). And by using such an interactive program it is believed that visitors will be active participants in the learning process when they are provoked by the information contained in the computer program (M. Anderson, 1994, p. 38).
In doing so, computers have the possibility of demonstrating good holding power because they can attract the attention of visitors to the “real object” and, also, increase visitors’ understandings about the object and exhibit contents (Dierking
& Falk, 1998; Moffat & Woollard, 1999; Screven, 1990; Whitney, 1990). For example, the Silver Gallery in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London locates an interactive Crafts Council database program that contains details and photographs of 30,000 examples of contemporary British crafts in all media, including 600 works in silver and jewellery (Museum Practice, 1997, p.6). Such an interactive multimedia encyclopaedia can support and enhance learning by increasing the amount of information that can cater for the information needs of
55 the visitor.
However, computer program effectiveness depends on its software and contents
(Prentice & Cunnell, 1997, p. 234). McLean warns about the adoption of the
common notion of the goodness of computers as an effective information presentation platform. He mentions “we must be careful not to assume that
computers are quick fix for any complex exhibit” (McLean, 1992, p.247). The delivery of lots of information sometimes confuses audiences if the programming does not deal with visitors needs (Prentice & Cunnell, 1997; Serrell, 1996;
Whitney, 1990). Thus, in order to allow computers to improve visitors’ learning or enhance their museum experience, there needs to be careful consideration of how the information content should be organised, how this information is received by audiences, and whether the nature of the interaction that takes place between the visitors and surrounding exhibits suits to the purpose of the exhibition itself
(Bitgood, 1991; McLean, 1992; Screven, 1990; Serrell & Raphling, 1992). In order to establish good practice in using computers for effective communication, not only general guidelines for design of multimedia systems and software
(Bitgood, 1991; Bordoni, 1999; Museum News, 1996; Serrell, 1996; Serrell &
Raphling, 1992) are needed but, also, research for specific needs may be of importance. This was done by Milekic (1997, p.272) when working on the development of a user-friendly interface or the architecture of a database for the specific target audiences such as children.
Generally, the use of computers for educational purposes in museums has been influenced by varied objectives and philosophies that are rooted in the type of particular museums. I shall now move on the use of computers in different types
56 of museums.
Science, history, and childrens* museums
With the extraordinary fast changes in computer-based technology it is now quite
common to find that the computer has often been employed to establish
“hands-on” and “interactive learning” opportunities in museums (Pearle, 1998;
Ramsay, 1999). Especially, in science, history, and childrens’ museums are
proactive in using computers in their exhibition and the reason may be, as Koester mentions, that “science museums, discovery centres, childrens’ museums tend to
share pedagogical theory that doing or hands-on experience is more educational than reading or hearing” (Koester, 1993, p.9).
The Science Museum in London uses several touch-screen interactive computer stations in its “Challenge of Materials” gallery along with other audio-visual interpretative materials. The computer programs include an activity and quiz; a database through which users can access more information (e.g. facts about the history and uses of materials and objects in the museum’s materials collection); animated diagrams and information about manufacturing processes and career options in materials science (Keating, 1999, p.26). These programs were developed with the intention of increasing the visitors’ understanding of materials through experiment and the inference of scientific principles from first hand based experiences delivered by touch screen technologies.
Computers are sometimes used as the main interpretative materials in the gallery.
For example, in the “Lifetimes gallery” in the Croydon Clocktower Museum,
57 Croydon, UK, computer terminals are positioned in front of the display cases of
objects in the museum (MacDonald, 1998, p.58-79). There is just a single
introductory graphic panel at the comer of each themed display. These
touch-screen terminals enable visitors to withdraw information on an object using
three options (e.g. textual information; short documents; quiz about history of
Croydon). Besides terminals in front of each themed display, twelve computer
touch screen terminals are provided on a mezzanine floor of the exhibition space
where visitors can further explore the museum collections. A survey in 1995
found that a large majority of visitors found the exhibition informative,
stimulating and enjoyable (Museum Practice, 1996, p. 17).
Computers on the exhibit floor in museums are also used to provide audiences with up-to-date information relating to their collections. For example. National
Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Liverpool, UK provides the public with access to Internet sites on current topics relating to natural history such as earthquakes or environmental pollution. Manchester United Football Club
Museum and Tour Centre, Old Trafford, UK, adds data to an in-house server after each match in order to provide audiences with up-to-date information about the football club via 18 touch screen kiosks in the exhibition. Video clips and photographs in the program are also renewed on a season-by-season basis.
Art museums
In many cases, art museums use computers as an in-depth encyclopaedia or library, not another time-limited exhibit element. According to Koester (1993, p. 10), art museums have historically focused on collecting and preservation for the purpose
58 of allowing visitors to experience beauty in art, however, they have started to
realise that by providing various information from which audiences can choose
according to their interest art museums can produce ideal conditions for viewing
and contemplating art.
The Micro Gallery of the National Gallery, London, briefly mentioned already, is
equipped with several computer kiosks that aim to offer visitors the opportunity to
access diverse information with regards to the museum collections. Each work on
the program database can be investigated through sections on: artist biography;
historical background; geographical atlas; general reference; and picture types.
Users are free to choose their own way to understand the works of art by manipulating a navigation bar with touch-screen commands. The great advantage of the Micro Gallery over traditional labelling is that it can let the user focus attention on specific details of, and about, the works of art and pursue their interests more easily than they could with the basic format of the traditional print label besides a painting.
The IT Gallery in the National Portrait Gallery, London is similar to the Micro
Gallery. The computers contain a program called the “Woodward portrait explorer” which enables users to explore the portrait collection of the museum from different viewpoints. The user can search information from type of portrait, names, category, and groups. The program also provides special features such as interviews with artists (artists talking about their work), historical timeline and a glossary.
The Walsall Museum and Gallery used computers in its interactive art exhibition
59 “Start” in 1995. This exhibition was specially designed for three-to five-year-olds
(Cox & Cox, 1995, p.4). The computers were used to provide audiences with
activities such as drawing colours, lines, and shapes on the computer screen which
was situated next to a painting. The purpose of this computer program was to
enhance the user’s perceptual engagement with the work of art by offering them
the chance to experiment with their own artistic ideas which were inspired by the
actual painting. ‘The New Art Gallery’ which opened in 2000 uses computers as a
part of their hands-on interactive gallery (The New Art Gallery Walsall, 2000, p.6-7). ICT has been designed to enable three year olds and upwards to enjoy
looking and learning about original art works. Two computers are used for
supporting learning about specific art objects created by two British artists,
Damien Hirst and Laura Ford.
Five Museum Educators’ Views on the Use of ICT f o r t h e Pedagogical Purposes of the Museum
Interviews with five educators in museums in London give some indication of the museum educators’ perceptions about using ICT for their educational strategies. A series of unstructured interviews (see Appendix IH& IV, p.263-267) was conducted with the purpose of following points:
1. To understand individual museum’s educational goal and how each museum
apply ICT for fulfilling their educational purpose.
2. To understand museum professionals’ perceptions, understandings, and
expectations about the use of ICT in the museum context.
3. To understand museum educator’s perception towards aesthetic education.
60 In this section, findings from the first two points will be mentioned. The findings
from the last point will be discussed in Chapter Two.
The interviewees were selected because he/she is a museum professional in charge
of education or educational IT program. The methodology taken in these
interviews was unstructured interviews with pre-set questionnaire (see Appendix
IV, p. 292-297). Museum professionals were asked to freely describe their ideas when interviewer asked the pre-set questions. Each interview session was tape-recorded and interviewer took notes of the interviewee’s answers at the same time. The findings were made by listening to the tapes recorded during interviews and by referring the interview notes.
The following is a summary of the interview findings from the first two points.
The National Portrait Gallery. London. (Interview with Claire Gittings, Education Officer)
Computer application used in the museum: IT Gallery and the museum web site.
• Both the IT Gallery and the museum web site are useful in providing public
access to the collection of the museum and consequently it helps to raise
public awareness of museum activity and its collection.
• The museum web site is useful in providing an outreach service to a wider
public.
• The IT Gallery is used as a complementary tool to the direct teaching in the
61 gallery. The IT Gallery supports audiences in making their own exploration
about the collection.
• A CD-ROM (to be published) will be a supplement to extend the use of the
collection outside the museum, especially in schools.
• Web casting will be an interesting option for creating direct teaching
environments using digital networking.
Tate Britain. London, (former Tate Gallery)
(Interview with John Humphreys, Head of Education)
Computer applications used in the museum: The museum web site.
• The Museum web site is useful for opening the museum collection to a wider
public.
• The Internet has a potential to allow the museum to create a live connections
between audiences and the museum.
• The Internet can be used to create a virtual gallery space where the museum
can allow contemporary artists to introduce their art objects. This would be an
interesting project for the Tate Gallery.
62 Tate Modern, London.
(Interview with Toby Jackson, Head of Education Department)
Computer applications used in the museum: Museum web site and Audio Points
(computer kiosks where audiences can sit and listen to a digital audio program
about the architecture of the museum and the museum collection.)
• The Internet or web casting can be used to create a forum which the public
can access to make discussions with museum professionals about creating
meaningful interpretations about art objects. The Internet can enhance the
involvement of its general public outside the museum about the meanings of
art. And by doing this, Tate Modem can try to use new technologies to
provide audiences with the opportunity to make a more informal or subjective
view of contemporary art objects.
• All discussion on the Internet can be used as a future digital resource of the
museum.
• The Internet can be helpful in developing distant learning programs about the museum collection.
63 The British Museum, London.
(Interview with Rowena Loverance, Head of the educational IT Unit.)
Computer applications in the museum: Compass project and the museum website.
• The knowledge contained in the collections of the British Museum is
enormous in terms of the number of countries, languages and cultures where
objects originally belonged. ICT is useful in providing complex and large
amount of information concerned with these objects to a worldwide audience.
• ICT can provide a wide range of interpretation materials to allow visitors to
access the rich content of the museum resources.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
(Interview with David Judd, an education officer in the British Gallery Project team.)
Computer applications used in the museum: The museum web site. In future, several computer programs will be located in the new British Gallery. These programs vrill provide the audience with hands-on and interactive learning opportunities.
David Judd talked mainly about his ideas on the impact of the British Galleries computer learning program.
64 A computer interactive program can be useful for encouraging audiences to
be active players in the learning process. For example, the “Design a
Bookplate program” provides users with the opportunity to understand about
the ‘designing’ aspects of the art collection. This program allows the user to
manipulate the digital resources of the bookplate collections in order to create
his/her own version of a bookplate on the screen.
The interactivity of the computer program can cater to the audience’s learning
needs. For example, the “Design a Bookplate program” is effective in helping
people to understand about “designing” according to their own interests.
The computer program kiosks will be placed near objects. Thus, audiences
can take a look at the real object before or after they explore the collection on
the screen. This learning process can enhance people’s close attention to an
original object.
The different layers of information about the entire collection in the British
Galleries can be disseminated from the “Style Guide program”. This program
allows the audience to choose what to leam according to their information
needs. Thus, this program can cater for personal learning about an object.
Generally, all the educators interviewed expressed positive opinions about using
ICT for the educational purposes of the museum. However, the way they want to use new technologies for the development of museums’ pedagogical missions is different in each museum. The interviews with educators revealed that the
65 philosophy or the educational policy of a museum reflects the way the museum
uses educational ICT, which are as follows.
The National Portrait Gallery set the core activity of their education as working
directly to a wider audience of different ages (direct teaching). Although the IT
Gallery and the museum web site are considered as important tools for the
enhancement of the public access to the collection, “these programs are only complementary to the direct teaching” (Interview: Gittings, 2001). Gittings considered museum educators as “facilitators - I think it is important that the way people can get most out of a picture is to have somebody with them to help them understand the visual message from the painting, and to have a dialogue with them and ask them questions” (Ibid). Thus, Gittings is rather interested in the use of webcast technology because it allows “direct communication between the users and museum educators” in the networked environment.
The Tate Britain and Tate Modem are keen on the use of the Internet because it is useful in democratising museum activities. Toby Jackson mentioned the Internet as the useful means for creating a ‘forum’ environment where the public can participate in discussion about the interpretation of cultural materials with museum professionals (e.g. curators and educators) (Interview: Jackson, 2001).
The collection in the British Museum contains complex layers of knowledge in terms of history, culture, and languages. And, also, audiences in the British
Museums are varied in their age, origin, and interests. Thus, The British Museum emphasised that the effectiveness of ICT lies in its ability to store and disseminate the vast amount of information regarding to the collection and to cater to the
66 information needs of diverse visitors.
The Victoria and Albert Museum considered the effectiveness of the new technology was that it can provide visitors with the “interactive learning”
environment and, in the past, the museum has created many interactive computer programs used as an information kiosk in different themed galleries (e.g. Silver
Galley, China Gallery, Glass Gallery, Canon Photography Gallery). David Judd mentioned “our past visitor surveys revealed that people are learning things in different ways” (Interview: Jog, 2001). The museum recognised that interactive and hands-on learning is useful in allowing visitors in-depth understanding about the museum collection because it can enhance personal involvement in the visitor’s learning process.
7. SUMMARY
In this chapter, I have presented an overall discussion of the growing use of digital technologies in museum activities.
The usage of ICT in museums and galleries started with the automation of collection management with the aim of establishing effective data management.
The development of digital archives in the museum has accelerated in the last half decade due to the increase of support and services available from ICT initiatives both from governmental and non-governmental organizations. Museums and galleries have been exploring the way they can use their digitised information not only for internal use but also for public, especially, via the Internet. Berman and
67 Trant (1999, p.20) mentioned that new economic opportunities created by
advertising and selling on the Web are giving rise to offers of free access which in
turn are increasing the size of the audiences for whom the world of the Web is an
extension of the everyday world. Consequently, public access to museum
resources via the Internet has been extended all over the world (Besser, 1997b;
Bowen, Bennett & Johnson, 1998).
The spread of digital networking in the world has prompted museums to consider the Internet as a crucial tool for developing their communication and educational
strategies. Many museums have started to exploit the effective use of the Internet for developing their outreach services, for increasing the number of visitors, and, also, for exploring commercial opportunities through online shopping facilities that can be embedded in their web sites. In addition, the Internet can be an effective way to deliver a museums’ educational resources more openly to the public. Many countries in the world, especially, in North America and Europe, have recognised the effectiveness of the Internet for disseminating their cultural heritage information for the sake of both formal and life-long education. A number of web sites can now provide visitors with the experience of a virtual visit to the museum exhibition (Bedono, 1999, p.43).
The application of ICT for museum educational activities is not limited to the
Internet. Much earlier than the use of the Internet, museums have started to use multimedia or interactive screen-based productions for complementing the object-based displays (Keene, 1997c, p.5). The use of computer technology can generate an interactive and hands-on learning environment thus it is potentially useful for supporting effective and affective learning. However, most of the use of
68 ICT in exhibitions has been in science, history, and children’s museums and has
rarely impinged on the field of art exhibitions.
The next and subsequent chapters will begin to investigate the potential of the use
of ICT in the art museum exhibition environment. Although museums recognise
the effectiveness of interactive multimedia for learning, very little research on the value of this new medium as a supportive tool for enriching the visitor’s experience in the art museum context has been conducted (CECA, 1999).
However, many museum professionals now advocate the development of the quality of visitors’ experiences in art museums and interactive multimedia may have a powerful potential to be an effective tool for deepening the visitors’ encounter with the original object. In the next chapter, I will examine the educational purpose of the art museums and how art museums can provide the public with a meaningful art experience based on the discussion of how people come to terms with art objects. Then I will further discuss aesthetic education which is the specific art educational strategy emphasising the enhancement of the quality of the visitor’s individual experience of art and then will move on to the examination of how museums can apply multimedia technology for developing aesthetic education in the museum context.
69 Chapter 2
ICT for Aesthtetic Art Education in the Museum
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss and develop my hypothesis about the effectiveness of ICT for aesthetic education in art museums and galleries. In section two of this chapter, I will discuss the recent debates on the educational purpose of the museum in general, and on the museum’s unique informal education environment. Education has been considered to be one of the functions of museums for a century, but until recently, preserving, researching and displaying museum collections has remained the priority. However, in the last few decades, many museum professionals have realized that the audience, rather than the object itself, is the most important element to be considered when creating an effective educational environment. Although collecting and preservation remain critical to the museum’s mission, there is a clear shift for many museums from being object-oriented institutions to visitor-oriented ones. This shift in the pedagogical concept in museums has stemmed from the application of learning theories and visitor studies into museum practice. In section three, I will discuss aesthetic education in art museum settings. Although museums in general have started to focus on the audience when planning their exhibitions, audience development is likely to be less valued in many traditional art museum exhibitions.
I will discuss the reasons for the art museum’s traditional attitudes and examine
70 the nature of audiences’ experiences of art in the museum setting. Then I move on
to discuss aesthetic education as a strategy to develop audience involvement in the
learning process and include a comparative study of aesthetic and constructivist
approaches. In the last section, I will examine the potential of ICT for the
development of aesthetic education in art museums. In this last section, I will
discuss the features of computer-mediated-leaming in order to show the
advantages of ICT as a tool for the development of aesthetic education in the art museum. Although ICT has been considered in many museums to be an effective tool for audience development, it has rarely been used in art museum exhibitions.
This chapter concludes by examining previous research on the use of computers in the art museum context.
2. THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE OF ART MUSEUMS
T h e C o n c ept Sh ift In M u seu m E d u c a tio n - fr o m O b jec t s to A udien c e
Art museums and galleries contain collections of paintings, sculptures, and other noteworthy artistic creations. The mission of art museums today includes the collection, preservation of, and research on works of art, production of exhibitions, and organization of special events and teaching programmes and all these contribute to the pedagogical mission of museums and galleries. The notion of the museum as an educational establishment has been understood from the nineteenth century (Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a & 1995b). According to Hooper-Greenhill
(1994a, p. 13 7), during the nineteenth century, museums were established as social
71 educational institutions and they worked relatively well together with schools.
Schools, at that time, often conducted “object-lessons” in museums and galleries that encouraged the child’s sense-perceptions in order to accumulate as much data
as possible about the objects for their interpretation. However, this educational
style declined and went out of fashion (Ibid.). At the beginning of the twentieth century, museums became more object-centred institutions as curators struggled to establish them as places whose primary concern was the acquisition and maintenance of collections. (Bedono, 1999; Hooper-Greenhill, 1994b). With this situation, the museum’s educational concern was limited to providing public access to the museum’s resources (physical objects and the information associated to them). This object-oriented educational approach was based on the belief that the act of placing objects on view to the public was adequate to fulfil the museum’s educational mission.
However, the concept of museum education greatly expanded in the later twentieth century (Falk & Dierking, 1995a; Grinder & McCoy, 1985;
Hooper-Greenhill, 1994a & 1994b; Phillips, 1988; Reeve, 1995; Swift, 1999).
Especially, in the last few decades, museums and galleries have been exploring the way they can communicate more closely with their audiences. In the UK, this new attention towards visitors has been required as the funding ft"om government has been reduced and the need for effective and well-managed communication is increased (Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a, p.65). Developing the educational role of museums has become an essential requirement of new funding sources such as the
Lottery, local authorities and corporate sponsors (Engage, 1998, p.l). Museums have also been facing increased competition from other leisure activities and in
72 response have undertaken market research to better understand audience behaviour and expectations in order to provide services that successfully compete with other attractions. These movements have all led museums to become more concerned with audience development than ever before (Cole, 1995;
Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a; Berlin, 1998) in order to attract larger numbers, and a more diverse range of audiences. Audience development refers to the endeavour to understand audiences and to shape museum programs and services to cater for a diverse audience’s needs and wants (Kotler & Kotler, 1998, p. 100).
Audience development has emphasised that museum work should focus on not only preservation, research and exhibition, but it should explore the ways in which the audience can more effectively understand museum collections so that they can have more enjoyable museum learning experiences. Many museums and galleries have started to be not only scholarly institutions but, increasingly, places which offer entertainment, leisure-type learning experiences to a general public
(Hooper-Greenhill, 1995b, p.62).
For these reasons, in the UK, new structures to forge more effective educational strategies in museums and galleries have emerged since 1980s. Museum and gallery educators across the country have become more rigorous and better organized in order to be more influential within their institutions (Reeve, 1995, p.82). For example, in the mid 1970s, GEM (the Group for Education in Museum) developed to enhance the importance of the museum educator’s work in the museum professional environment (Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a, p.56). GEM has been encouraging museum educators’ active engagement in museum educational practice by providing them opportunities to meet colleagues, and to discuss
73 research on case studies of educational activities. The establishment of the
National Curriculum in 1989 developed new imperatives for the active use of museum resources for general education. As Hein states, it enhanced the close collaboration between museum education staff and local educational authorities
(Hein, 1998, p.9). In the USA, the American Association of Museums published the report. Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension o f
Museums (American Association of Museums, 1992). This report developed from a collaboration between a group of professional museum educators and directors and it mentioned that museums must recognise that the public dimension of museums leads them inevitably to perform the public service of education (Ibid.
Introduction).
In addition, the public perception of the museum as a life-long learning institution is another impetus for audience development. In the life-long learning context, learning is stimulated by the needs of the learner, therefore, museums should make efforts to cater to individual needs in order to fulfil their educational purpose. Talboys (2000, p. 5) argues that there can be no museums without people because it is the audience who construct the learning experiences in the exhibition.
In the last two decades, visitor surveys and the adoption of learning theories into museum education practice has been valued (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999a; Moffat &
Woollard, 2000; Woollard, 1998) because they can reveal more about learning particular to the museum environment such as how learning in the museum is different from learning in schools; how learning occurs in a museum; what people do who visit museums to leam; and how the museum can expand public learning opportunities. In the last half-decade, such inquiries have been researched and
74 discussed with a more scientific and pedagogical approach in order to understand
the very nature of the visitor’s experience in the museum (Roberts, 1997;
Hooper-Greenhill, 1999a). The following section discusses the general
characteristics of learning in museums that have been revealed from contemporary
visitor surveys and learning theories. Learning in the museum is a very complex phenomenon and a thorough discussion is beyond the scope of this thesis, but here,
I will highlight some of the main reported characteristics.
G e n er a l C haracteristics o f L e a r n in g in M u seu m s
Museums as informal settings for learning
Museums are informal settings for learning which differ from the formal educational environment in schools where education is largely teacher-paced with great importance placed on achievement. In contrast, the museum environment is non-linear, voluntary, and exploratory (Hein, 1998; Henesley, 1989). Most museum visitors are members of leisure audiences who, in their free time, interact with exhibitions on a voluntary basis and on their own terms (Screven, 1986; Falk
& Dierking, 1992). Thus, the visitor’s learning experience is “likely to be informal, based on the public provision available at the time when they visit (exhibitions, events, handling tables, films)” (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999b, p.20). For this reason, learning in the museum tends to occur only when visitors find an interesting subject and when they want to learn about it. Whether they leam about something or not is determined by the visitor/leamer and any learning achieved is personal and self-motivated.
75 The importance of intrinsic motivation for museum learning
As mentioned above, museums are free-choice learning environments for most visitors, therefore, supporting intrinsic motivation and its influences on learning in museums should be of paramount importance (Maton-Howarth, 1990; Falk and
Dierking, 1992 & 2000).
Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson (1995 & 1999) have studied the role intrinsic motivation plays in learning and have come to the conclusion that if the learning process involves intrinsic reward, the person will be motivated to further pursue the cultivation of knowledge. Motivation can originate from external sources or from within the learner. Intrinsic motivation is the latter case and action is intrinsically motivated when the performance itself is seen as worth doing for its own sake (Ibid). For example, when we play chess for pleasure and enjoyment, we indulge ourselves in playing the game because we are willing to do so, even though the activity gives no reward other than the act itself. Museum learning occurs from the audience's personal and self-motivated actions to pursue individual interests, their intrinsic motivations and their agendas for the visit and all these elements are likely to influence the nature of the meaning of that particular visit (Silverman, 1995, p. 163). Therefore, in order to build an effective relationship between museum and audience, it is important that exhibitions should be planned to stimulate the audience’s interest and curiosity in the subject or contents of exhibitions.
The audience’s intrinsic motivation towards learning is likely to be encouraged by providing the opportunities for active involvement in the learning process via fun
76 and casual activities (Koester, 1993, p.20). A fixed presentation of material that presents information as true without alternative perspectives is likely to thwart the
visitors’ motivation to explore and leam more (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson,
1999, p. 155), because intrinsic motivation occurs according to the visitors’ past experiences that they bring to the present. The audiences’ curiosity is encouraged when they can choose something from various possibilities that match with a broad range of their interests (Silverman, 1995; Roberts; 1993). Thus, it is said that the provision of various interpretive devices is effective in providing more opportunities for visitors to engage, feel rewarded or be motivated because it can cater to the visitors’ attention that will differ between individuals (Hein, 1998, p.
137).
Cognitive and affective aspects of learning in museums
Learning in museum settings accommodates affective and cognitive aspects. The balance between these two aspects differs from learning in school where cognitive, information-based learning is more highly valued. The cognitive aspect of learning is concerned with the acquisition of facts and concepts, and its educational purpose is likely to relate to the improvement of a student’s retention of information and of his/her skills of combining and synthesizing the information.
On the other hand, affective learning has to do with emotional, sensory types of learning response that relate to the audience’s feelings, emotions, attitudes and values (Henesley, 1989; Roberts, 1991 & 1993). Affective learning is based on the generation of, and reflection on, spontaneous emotional reactions to ambience, materials, and experiences of environments.
77 Learning in the museum occurs through seeing real objects, and responding to
exhibit settings and their various supporting media so that the experience is, in a
basic sense, experiential and multi-sensory. During a museum visit, audiences
leam not only with the intellectual (learning from reading narratives and invoking previous cognitive understanding) but also via the sensory and emotional faculties.
Many museum visitors come to the museum with their friends and families and commonly observed behaviour and learning patterns in this case are highly interactive in nature as they develop from information-exchange (e.g. the conversation) between members in the group (McManus, 1994, p.90). And quite often, this information-exchange during conversations is based on the members’ personal interests, the background experiences he/she brings with them and his/her personal reaction towards to topics and objects (Falk and Dierking, 1992;
Hein, 1998). Thus, this social interaction with other people during museum visiting often afreets individual’s attitudes and values being developed on the museum objects or subjects of the exhibition.
Museum researchers have become increasingly aware that it is not enough to attract the fleeting attention and interest of visitors, but that to be effective, museums must provide opportunities for involving emotions and feelings in the learning process (Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson, 1995, p.59). Recently, many museums have employed various forms of interpretation tools that enhance the visitor’s sensory engagement (visual, tactile, and auditory senses) with both collections and exhibition contents (Hooper-Greenhill, 2000, p.5).
78 The need to facilitate the diversity of learning styles in museums
Museums can expect to have diverse audiences which vary in age, gender, interests, experiences, and educational and social background. According to Falk and Dierking, learning in museums is strongly influenced by personal, social, and physical contexts and these three contexts combine to make a total learning context unique to the individual (Falk and Dierking, 1992 & 2000). Personal contexts are seen as consisting of elements such as age, education, interests, experiences, previous knowledge, feelings, attitudes, and the motivation to visit museums. Visiting museums is also a social activity for many audiences, and thus their learning may be mediated by interaction with other people such as friends, parents, school mates, and teachers. This social context affects what is interesting to them and how they go about learning about it. Museum environments, including exhibition spaces, the architecture and the atmosphere of the museum space are also thought to be major factors of influence on individual learning.
What information is perceived and how it is stored, and when and how it is recalled depend on the given situation where the learning experience occurs. Due to the involvement of these contexts during the audience's learning, no two people perceive, store, and recall information in exactly the same way in the museum.
Thus, to maximise the learning effect, museums should make available as many avenues of communication as possible (Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a, p.2) so that potential learner is free to choose their preferred learning styles.
Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence (1983 & 1990) also indicates that the learning approaches of visitors to museums can be expected to be diverse.
His theory of multiple intelligences explains that all individuals have seven
79 different types of intelligence. People use this variety of intelligences to understand the world. The seven intelligences he outlines are as follows:
1) linguistic: seen in the highly verbal person who likes to write and read and
who has a good memory for detail.
2) logical-mathematical: seen, for example, in those who can conceptualise
maths problems quickly in their heads.
3) spatial: seen often in pilots and architects etc. who have a good visual memory
and can easily read maps and visual displays.
4) musical: seen in those who play musical instruments, remember melodies, and
have good a sense of rhythm.
5) bodily kinesthetic: seen in those who perform well in sports and crafts.
6) interpersonal: seen in those who are good at understanding other people and
who like to socialise.
7) intrapersonal: seen in those who understand themselves, are independent, like
to work alone, and have initiative.
He suggests that educators consider that learners may use this variety of intelligences and everyone may have strength or weakness in one or more area.
Hein (1998, p. 165) noted that Gardner’s theory provides the important assumption for museum education practice that museum educators should consider multiple ways to involve their audiences by exploiting all the human senses that can be used in their learning process.
The importance of the provision for diverse learning styles in order to develop the visitor’s learning effectiveness is stressed by Moma Hinton’s recent survey in the
80 Silver Gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Hinton applied
David Kolb’s four learning styles, based on personality profiling theory, to her study on the relationships between learning styles and visitors’ interpretation preferences. David Kolb’s theory of experiential learning considers that learning is a knowledge gain process created through the individual’s reflecting or acting on the experience and that there are four types of learner: diverger (concrete experience and reflective observation); assimilator (abstract conceptualisation and reflective observation); converger (abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation) and accommodator (concrete experience and active experimentation) (Hinton, 1998, p.260). Although Hinton could not find coherent associations between learning styles and her audience’s preferences in the Silver
Gallery, her survey remains important because it generated the evidence of museum visitors’ learning styles were diverse (Ibid, p.282).
Museums could enhance their uniqueness as centres of learning by offering diverse communication and learning avenues so that they can provide opportunities for audiences to use their preferred intelligences and learning styles.
Thus, it is important to accommodate different approaches to communication and presentation in exhibitions so that visitors are free to adopt the approach to learning which is most relevant to them at the time.
C ommunication Pr o b le m s in A r t M u se u m s
The above examination of the characteristics of learning in museum settings indicates that museum learning cannot be effectively achieved through simple provision of information. Learning is a more complex process - the learning
81 process needs to contain ‘encouragements’ from exhibition contents and ‘active involvements” from the visitor’s side and this is, especially, because learning is
self-motivated. All learning approaches require active involvement on the part of the visitor. Knowles (1993, p.7) noted for example that the educator has an important role in helping visitors formulate and articulate their own interest and questions, thus enabling them to explore an issue or subject that interests them in the museum exhibition.
While science, history and children’s museums have been increasingly concerned with making their exhibitions more appealing and of interest to the general public
(Cole, 1995, p.225), the quality of the visitors’ experience has generally not been the primary concern of traditional art museums, where the acquisition, conservation, and presentation of their collections has been emphasised as their core activity (Kotler, 1999, p.31). Support for enhancing the audience’s learning about art objects has tended to be under valued, with several exceptions such as
The National Gallery in London. As a consequence, art museums are facing problems in developing efkctive learning environments, to which I now turn.
Low priority in understanding visitors
The quality of the visitors’ experiences appears to be considered as a low priority in many art museums with the result that many people see them as repositories of
‘treasures’ or ‘masterpieces’. Hooper-Greenhill (1995a, p. 154) indicates that
"most art museum staff do not spend much time thinking about how the exhibitions can be made of relevance to people who know nothing about art ”.
The low numbers of education staff in many art museums and the curatorial
82 control of museums (and particularly galleries) are major obstacles to developing the educational potential of art museums (Reeve, 1995; Talboys, 2000). We can observe this from the fact that while many visitor surveys have been carried out over the last thirty years most have looked at non-art rather than art museums. The complexities of an art experience which differs from individual to individual, and the diversity of the visitors that constitute the art museum audience, are other reasons that make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of the art education programmes.
Wright (1989, p. 121) mentions that one of the reasons for the art museum’s passive attitude to catering for a general audience (seen as non-art specialists, who do not work full-time in art) is the issue of the quality of the experience of a visual art object is a difficult theme to examine because understanding, or coming to terms with art, deals with impressions, feelings, and personal perceptions far more than with material and objective facts. Another reason given is that, traditionally, the quality of the visitors’ individual experiences with visual arts is not of major concern or interest to museum professionals, especially curators, because they have neither been trained to value the individual visitor’s experience, nor are they committed to act on any knowledge about it (Zolberg, 1994, p.54).
Linear presentation of works of art
Conventional art galleries tend to present works of art as part of a sequence of progressive stylistic developments which make up the art history of (Western) art or, sometimes, in categories of 'national schools' or of subjects, themes, or genres
(Duncan, 1995; Wright, 1989). In most traditional art exhibitions, what the
83 visiting public is offered in this linear presentation is the opportunity to look upon
socially well-known objects as masterpieces and, also, insights into the conventional/current view on the sequence of the history of art or an institutional view about the artwork. In many traditional art museums, those responsible for organising and structuring the collections tend to be a curatorial elite, thus the structure of the collections is likely to accord with theories of art history or an academic approach to art and art history (Cameron, 1971, p. 16) These are reasons why art museums are still conceived by most visitors as authoritative places and as places for elite audiences or art specialists (Koester, 1993, p. 10). In this situation, audiences tend to be put in the position of passive recipients of packaged information about what makes a painting artistically excellent. Duncan
(1995, p. 12) describes the traditional art museums’ space as a ritual site where visitors enact the ritual by following a structured route, most often in the form of art-historical narratives. Armstrong sets out an example of the audience whose exhibition experience in art museums tends to be superficial because of being treated as merely passive recipients of curatorial wisdom.
“The tourists in the Louvre, joining the crowd in front of the Mona Lisa, quite rightly believe that they are standing before a work of the highest artistic value. But what is that to them if they caimot recover in their own experience why it is valuable, if they cannot find it valuable themselves? To speak metaphorically, it is the difference between being inside, with the value, and just seeing it fi*om the outside. One of the greatest aims of life is to experience value from the inside, as one’s own.” (Armstrong, 1996, p.22)
84 Lack of supportfor personal investigation about the work of art
In conventional art exhibitions, the meaningfulness of the art experience in the
exhibition is usually left to the audience to find out for themselves. The idea that the work ‘must be allowed to speak for itself has dominated in most conventional exhibition spaces. For most people, understanding art objects is highly dependent on contextual information (dates, artists' names, what the subject means, what the social value of the object is) provided by the museum curator. Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p. 158) say that “the contemporary viewer is not interested and attentive enough to face the challenges presented by the art object”. However, in such cases, the development of the communication between art objects and viewers should be more carefully considered because there is no place for viewers to explore actively their own visual experience. Unlike science, history and children’s’ museums, where many offer their visitors the chance to experiment actively with the contents of the exhibition, art museums have few equivalent displays permitting informal exploration of visual experiences (Phillips, 1988, p.243)
Audience research has shown that many visitors spend an average of only seven seconds with the art works in front of which they choose to physically stop and look (Worts, 1991b, p. 157) and this may suggest that most audience experience is likely to be unfocussed. One of the reason is that art museum visitors without fine arts degrees often have difficulty in taking more than a superficial interest in exhibits unless they are given some assistance (Hancocks, 1988, p.263). For many visitors, the potential for meaningful experiences in art museums is largely unrealised. In these circumstances, art museums are failing to offer audiences.
85 whose interests and learning objectives are different from individual to individual,
with the opportunities for making meaningful interpretation about objects. If the
opportunity for this does not happen in the exhibition, the gallery is irresponsible
in that it has not been providing support that would have enhanced and deepened the audience’s understanding and appreciation of its works of art.
V isit o r s ’ “E x pe r ie n c e ” in th e A rt M u se u m
Traditional art museums tend to underestimate the importance of audience development in their exhibitions. In order to consider audience development in the art museum context, it is important to understand what satisfying experiences are for a general audiences which comes to a museum to enjoy an experience of learning and perhaps to have an outing with friends and families.
Art galleries and other museums, such as science and history museums, have in common the use of their collections as documentation of the culture and historical period to which their artifacts belong. However, art museums need an educational strategy not only to convey information about artifacts but also to help the general public to respond to the aesthetic appeal of the art objects. Learning about the aesthetic value of art objects is the unique element in the art experience in museum settings, where the audience has an opportunity to encounter the original art object.
In this study, works of art are considered as original visual products such as paintings, sculptures, and other forms of visually perceived objects that are skilfully created by artists and conventionally collected by art museums. Such
86 works of art depict or present not only the subject matter, but also the artists' inner experience of the world such as feeling, thoughts, imagination, and emotion and attitudes (Worts, 1991b, p.40). These aesthetic qualities are expressed and communicated by the artist in his or her own "visual language" (Lee and Henning,
1975, p.29)
One of the profound powers of art lies in its ability to evoke responses such as memory, reflection, sudden awareness and understanding in the viewer. People understand and enjoy objects of fine art not only by knowing about them but also by feeling, sensing and making judgments on them. This deep involvement and interaction with the artifacts generates a particular combination of sentient, emotional and cognitive responses in the viewer. These aspects make up a complex stream of consciousness that constitutes what I would call the complete
“aesthetic experience”.
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p. 178) define the aesthetic experience as
“an intense involvement of attention in response to a visual stimulus, for no other reason than to sustain the interaction” and the experiential consequences of such deep involvement with a work of art leads to “an intense enjoyment characterised by feelings of personal wholeness, a sense of discovery, and a sense of human connectedness” (Ibid.). By looking, reflecting, and thinking, we increase the sensitivity of our minds and this enlivens and enriches our intense enjoyment of experiencing art works.
The visual experience of original objects in the museum setting encourages perceptual learning through the engagement of both emotions and cognition. Thus,
87 art museums need to give the viewer support and the opportunity of dealing both with knowing and feeling about art in the process of developing his or her understanding about visual arts “on the spot”. Berleant (1990) notes that,
“ If we think of museums of fine art primarily as special environments for experiencing art rather than for its preservation or study, the museum environment would become an integrated setting of perceiver and place. The principle of engagement or participation involves both viewer and object in an active, reciprocal relationship. Instead of imposing distance and inducing contemplation, we can encourage connection and closeness; instead of isolating works of art, we can lead them into contact with the perceiver; instead of promoting disinterestedness, we can stimulate involvement and participation.” (Berleant, 1990, p.34)
Therefore, it is essential that art museums take varied educational and communication approaches in order not only to convey ideas and information about works of art but also to help diverse audiences to experience their visual components. This is more important than having visitors leaving knowing more things cognitively and remembering specific factual information. In order to develop the aesthetic approach in art museums, educators have to recognise both the cognitive and affective aspects of art appreciation. In the following section, I investigate further this aesthetic approach to art education in the museum context.
88 3. THE AESTHETIC APPROACH TO ART MUSEUM EDUCATION
B r ie f H isto r y of, a n d T r end s ev , E d u c a tio n a l P h il o so ph y in A r t M u seu m s
The philosophical development of art and aesthetic education in the museum setting began in the beginning of the nineteenth century both in Europe and
America and it was advocated by Benjamin Ives Gilman, Secretary of the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts (1893-1925). Gilman thought that “an institution devoted to the preservation and exhibition of works of fine art is not an educational institution” (quoted in McCoy, 1989, p. 138). Gilman established a lecture room, published a handbook and, also, appointed the first docent programme and started to supervise other educational activities to fulfil his ideas (Alexander, 1979, p.35)
Gilman’s teaching method focused on the object itself rather than lecturing on historical information alone (Dimaggio, 1982; McCoy, 1989). Gilman insisted that art museums differ from science and history museums in that their collections exist to allow their viewers to experience beauty rather than to convey information
(Alexander, 1979, p.36). He argued that the primary obligation of the museum is to present works of art for aesthetic contemplation (Duncan, 1995, p. 16). He stressed that museums should be places that offer audiences an aesthetic approach to their art experiences and he tried to accomplish this goal by providing audiences with interpretative supports such as docents and educational handbooks
(Hein, 1998, p.43).
On the other hand, John Cotton Dana, founder and director of the Newark
89 Museum (1909-1929) felt that “the primary importance of a work of art was as a
carrier of ideas and information; the work was to be valued as much as a social
document as an aesthetic object” (Grinder and McCoy, 1985 p. 13). The role of the
museum was to bring information and ideas to the people and it would not only preserve objects but also communicate their meaning to society. He believed that museum objects are vehicles for people’s learning about art, science, and material cultures in the world (Kotler, 1999, p.31) He developed the exhibition of contemporary American artists, particularly the Ash Can School and works by
Black Americans, believing that art carried information about contemporary life and that to expose this art with relevant information was useful in enhancing the public understanding of art. Both Gilman and Dana agreed that the exposure of art alone does not fulfil a museum's educational role and that the museum should provide the public with some assistance towards further understanding of the art object.
However, a systematic strategy for art education did not emerge until the 1960s and 1970s by which time that idea that art must be left to speak for itself had become entrenched in most art museums and galleries. The real change toward more sophisticated and planned educational activities occurred after the 1960s, particularly in America, as art museums became more sensitive and active towards the fulfilment of their communicative and educational roles in society.
Over the last two decades, art museum professionals and commentators (Berleant,
1990; Hancocks, 1988; Hooper-Greenhill, 1995a & 1995b; Phillips, 1986 & 1988;
Roberts, 1991 & 1997; Worts, 1990,1991a & 1996; Wright, 1989) have advocated the necessity for art museums to enhance their educational mission by developing
90 a variety of interpretive methods. This idea has been developed in many museums through active educational work, including the systematic organization of collections reflected in exhibit design, acoustic guides, video, extensive labels, workshops, lectures, and public tours in the exhibition spaces.
More recently, the trend in the philosophy of art education in museums is that educators should look towards learning theory for help in designing educational programmes in order to enrich the visitor's experience with museum collections
(Tisherman, 1997, p. 8). Museum art educators have started to feel that learning in art museums consists not only of learning facts about the art object but also of having experiences which we call aesthetic (Weltzl-Fairchild, 1995, p.213).
Csikzentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p. 143) claim that hy facilitating the aesthetic experience, art museums can transform their environment from being merely an agency distributing information about art objects to a passive audience to being a laboratory which can foster an individual and intelligent enjoyment of the encounter with art objects. Professionals have increasingly turned their attention to the problem of augmenting visitor involvement in exhibitions, i.e. how to structure an exhibition so that the visitor plays a more active and focused role in looking at it (Gottesdiener and Boyer, 1992, p. 165). Williams (1992, p. 118) mentions that to help visitors to have personally significant experiences with museum objects is a critical part of the art museum’s educational function.
Aesthetic education emphasizes the development of the audience's active involvement in the process of making their own meaning through their individual experience of art objects. It encourages an educational environment that assists the
91 audience to discover and articulate their own responses to art works in order to construct a richer inner experience. Thus, the facilitation of an aesthetic experience leads to the enhancement of the quality of visitors' experience in art museums. The aesthetic approach within art museum education also reflects the growing recognition of the active use of collections in the field of museum education (Hooper-Greenhill, 1991a, p.2) because it supports the process of the audience's involvement, thus offering museum collections to be experienced rather than merely looked at. Aesthetic education seems to be one of the key concepts with which to explore the issue of the enhancement of the visitor experience in the museum and I will now explore this issue further.
W hat is A esth etic E x pe r ie n c e ? - E ducationalists ’ V iew s
One of the most important roles of art museums is to have collections “set aside for aesthetic contemplation”, in order to allow their audiences to have the opportunity for “the cultivation of aesthetic experience” (Walsh-Piper, 1994, p. 104) in the encounter with the works of art. The idea of ‘aesthetic experience’ has developed fi*om various discourses such as philosophy and psychology and it involves many conceptual frameworks. In the art museum education field, facilitating the ‘aesthetic experience’ has been considered to be an important goal because of the nature of this experience. An implicit idea about aesthetic experience shared by many aesthetic education theorists (Anderson, 1998; Brown,
1989; Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990; Feagin and Subler, 1993; Housen,
1992; Walsh-Piper, 1994; Xanthoudaki, 1997) is that ‘aesthetic experience’ refers to an active engagement with visual phenomena through both emotions and
92 cognition and, also, the involvement of individual reactions towards the art object.
As I discussed earlier, since art museums are places of opportunity for the public to confront an original work of art, the nature of the visual experience should not be limited to the learning of facts. Viewers may also have emotional reactions to the expressiveness of paintings, derived from the surface texture or the tone of the original colour. Museums of fine art should be places that try to produce a certain unification between the viewer and the object. The capacity of “the aesthetic experience to evoke learning interest and to generate an appetite for, and deeper involvement with, art” (Xanthoudaki, 1997, p.29) is considered to be one of the models for the development of the educational programmes in art museums.
To offer some affirmation that the aesthetic experience of museum visitors can be cultivated, as progressive museum educators wish, and that we can offer such programmes in a reasonably systematic and, to a large extent, testable way, the most important task will be to clarify the nature of aesthetic experience of art. In order to grasp a more definite understanding of its characteristics, we can try to see if there are elements that are common to all of these experiences. Such an examination can attempt to differentiate aesthetic experience from other modes of experience. If art museum educators could understand what the distinguishing aspects of the aesthetic experience are, this would be helpful information for the construction of ways of supporting such an experience in the museum environment.
93 C haracteristics o f A e sth etic E x pe r ie n c e - T h e o r e tic a l R e v iew
Monroe C. Beardsley (1915-1985), an American philosopher of art and literary criticism, contributed importantly to the area of aesthetic theory in the twentieth century. This area of theories is concerned with aesthetic experience of general art forms including art, music, literature, dance, and theatre. Beardsley’s aesthetic theory was very influential in formulating the discourse about aesthetic experience and aesthetic value (see Beardsley, 1966 & 1982). His work was followed by that of, for example, Harry S. Broudy in Enlightened Cherishing (1972), David Fenner,
The Aesthetic Attitude (1996), and Harold Osborne in Aesthetics and Art Theory
(1968) and The Art o f Appreciation (1970). Aesthetic education in the art museum context has been investigated in Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson’s book The Art o f
Seeing: An Interpretation o f the Aesthetic Encounter (1990) which suggests aesthetic education as an effective approach to visitors in museum practice.
Aesthetic theory related to music, literature, the performing arts and visual art as discussed in the above literature generally agrees that aesthetic experience is composed of the interaction of three components: theaesthetic object, the viewer, and the aesthetic circumstances. For the purpose of this study which focuses on art, I define aesthetic objects as artistic products containing formal, structural and expressional qualities that are generated by the artist’s creative use of properties such as materials, colours, shapes, and rhythm. Aesthetic objects in the museum context can also contain a contextual and relational nature: the value that emerges or is created within the social, historical and institutional context. The aesthetic object offers the viewer the opportunity for cognitive and emotional
94 understanding from a communication between them. I define the viewer in this context as the museum audience. The circumstances are the places or situations in which the aesthetic objects are experienced by the viewer. Here I limit the definition of the circumstances to the museum, its interior, and the exhibition where the art object is placed with the central purpose being the audiences’ contemplation, learning and enjoyment.
In this section, I will discuss the characteristics of the aesthetic experience. It is a condition that defines the experience as of an aesthetic character and it is the experience of the viewer. I shall show that a review of the above aesthetic theorists and educationalists indicates that the phenomenological investigation of the aesthetic mind has provided information on this issue and that aesthetic experience is composed of four characteristics: the focusing of attention, disinterested attention and felt freedom, transcendence and loss of ego, and active discovery. However, I have to note that although aesthetic theorists commonly mention these characteristics, these are not limited to the situation of art experience alone. Aesthetic theorists describe these characteristics of experience with the ultimate purpose of differentiating aesthetic experience from non-aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience, as we shall see, can occur not only in front of works of art, but in observation of nature, people or in a whole variety of situations. However, these characteristics can certainly be applied to the experience of the art objects in the museum. These viewpoints are confirmed by the experimental survey on aesthetic experience in the museum context which was conducted by Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson (1990). I now turn on the individual examination of the four characteristics of aesthetic experience.
95 The focusing of attention
Csikszentmihalyi states that the main phenomenological characteristic of the aesthetic experience is the focusing of attention (Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson,
1990, p. 118). On the occasion of an aesthetic experience, or whenever our practical concerns are in abeyance, there is a tendency for attention to be deflected from other things and to focus upon the object which moves towards the centre of our awareness (Osborne, 1970, p.21). Beardsley (1982, p.82) states that the aesthetic experience is an experience of some intensity in which attention is firmly fixed upon certain components of the properties of objects such as their form and
(aesthetic) qualities. Our interest in the object which holds our attention, and our concern with it, goes no further than ‘looking’, bringing it more completely into perceptual awareness. An extract from Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson's report of interviews with museum professionals mentions this moment of heightened perception.
“There’s nothing like it. I got just totally wrapped up in it... I can get so wrapped up with an object, looking at the vase painting, or studying the object, whatever it might be, that you’re unaware of the phone ringing or people coming in the door, you just get so wrapped up. It’s a total escape.” (Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson, 1990, p.l 19)
When we see some works of art, our awareness is firmly fixed upon certain components of the aesthetic object that provoke a “gut reaction” in our mind which involves sensory and cognitive characteristics. In everyday life our awareness is in the service of our practical interests but in the case of employing the aesthetic cast of mind, we become directly acquainted with a work of art
96 through our senses. Hence, Osborne (1970) calls this special way of apprehension
‘percipience’. This total concentration of our awareness, a focusing of attention, is therefore one of the characteristics of the aesthetic experience.
Disinterested attention andfelt freedom
When we perceive anything aesthetically, we tend to look at it impersonally and to have no other intention. Disinterested attention is an attitude expressing the perception of an object for its own sake without pragmatic or instrumental motivation and requiring the separation of the object from its surroundings in order that it may be contemplated freely and with no distracting considerations
(Berleant, 1991, p. 12). It is what Beardsley (1982, p.288) calls “felt freedom” and
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p.20) call “limitation of the stimulus field”.
This aspect of aesthetic experience makes a sharp distinction between people’s practical perception, which demands a commitment to utility, and artistic perception which involves focusing attention and the cultivation of awareness for its own sake and gives the perceiver a sense of satisfaction, free from frustration.
Osborne (1970, p. 18) says that frustration may occur either because the object is not suitable for sustained aesthetic interest or because we are not adequately equipped to apprehend that particular object aesthetically.
The aesthetic object invokes an attitude of pure attention in the viewer. Implicit in this is impersonal concentration undertaken with no intention to reason or to justify it. During the aesthetic experience, there are no concerns other than the object in front of us and, there is no concern about the reason for the cause of this attention. Osborne (1970, p.28) explains that this is the feature which
97 distinguishes the attitude of appreciation from that of the art historian. The art historian tends to place the object of art in a systematic and taxonomic context, to try to find its origins from its sociological and stylistic implications and to analyse it by comparison with other works or with works of influential artists or cultures.
The intellectual dimension of the apprehension of the work may be helpful for knowing aesthetically about works of art, but it is not identical with aesthetic contemplation. Such aspects of interest from the intellectual domain may predispose the viewer to notice things relevant to appreciation, but they are not a fundamental source of the aesthetic experience. The activity of unfolding an aesthetic experience is attainable through the use of the special attitude of disinterestedness that considers the aesthetic object for its own sake without regard to further purposes.
Transcendence and loss of ego
When a viewer is in a state of complete absorption in a work of art, so that the focusing of attention enmeshes him or her in interactions with the work, then the viewer achieves the most celebrated form of experience - the giving up of self-consciousness and the achievement of the state of loss of ego. Beardsley
(1982) and Osborne (1970) mention that in this situation, people have a sense of release from concerns about matters outside (Beardsley, 1982; Osborne, 1970).
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p. 119) mention that in their interviews with museum professionals, more than a quarter of them indicated that their most significant encounters with art entailed some form of loss of ego (p. 119). Yet, although a fairly large number of the museum professionals interviewed by
98 Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson encountered this type of experience, it does not mean that it is a central feature of the aesthetic experience since nearly all of those who spoke about loss of ego stated that this happened infrequently. It would appear to be a rare occurrence. Aesthetic contemplation is an activity that especially tends to invite absorption. We do not become absorbed only in aesthetic experiences. We may be absorbed in a puzzle, games, watching TV, or reading books. Whenever anything interests us for a length of time we tend to become absorbed in it and during that time we momentarily have a loss of sense of time, a loss of sense of place or a loss of bodily consciousness. Similarly, our ego consciousness disappears when we have a deep interaction with aesthetic objects and this state will continue as long as our attention is gripped and held by those objects. Thus, loss of ego is one of the features of aesthetic experience, but not a distinguishing characteristic.
Active Discovery
Beardsley (1982, p.288) mentioned that a deep involvement with an art object leads viewers to ‘active discovery’ as “a sense of actively exercising constructive powers of the mind, of being challenged by a variety of potentially conflicting stimuli to try to make them cohere”. From the examination of studies of the work of Ernst Gombrich, Nelson Goodman, and Rudolf Amheim, Beardsley found that one central component of the aesthetic experience of art objects is the experience of discovery about the meaning of art for oneself as an individual (Ibid. p.292).
The same character is expressed by Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson (1999, p. 152) as a 'flow experience’, which refers to being in a spontaneous state of mind
99 which holds one’s interest in an artifact and leads the viewer to the situation where he or she is willing to discover the things which attract his or her interest and in doing so, the viewer gains enjoyment and satisfaction from the experience.
Aesthetic experience involves situations in which people are willing to invest their energy and concentration in tasks of coming to terms with art objects and discovering the meaning in the art for themselves.
For these reasons, I consider the provision of conditions which help audiences to spontaneously make investigations about the meaning of art to be important for art galleries and museums because they support audiences in undertaking a deeper involvement with art objects.
T h e A est h e tic A ppr o a c h in th e A rt M u se u m C o ntext
I shall now discuss the aesthetic approach in the art museum context based on the above examination of the characteristics of the aesthetic experience (summarised in Figure 2.1) and, later, a discussion of the conditions for supporting aesthetic education in the museum setting will follow.
100 Figure 2.1
Flow of the Aesthetic Experience in the Art Museum Context
Characteristics of Aesthetic Aesthetic Experience in Art Museum Experience Settings
The focusing of The audience develops the act o f perceptual attention to the attention art object.
I Disinterested When having the aesthetic Attention experience, the viewer’s interest is evoked in a deeper involvement with art objects i through involving his/her intellectual curiosity and Transcendence and sensuous awareness. loss of ego I
The audience’s experience becomes not merely a process Active Discovery o f receiving the information from the exhibition organiser but, rather, a process o f the audience’s vigorous involve ment in their own meaning-making activities.
101 The characteristics of the aesthetic experience outlined above consist of a quasi-spiritual process that is evoked by the viewer’s deep visual engagement with art objects. During aesthetic experiences, audiences attend to aesthetic objects because they wish to. A common indicator of the aesthetic experience is this self-motivated action lead by the intrinsic curiosity of the individual. This state of mind leads the viewer to focus on an object, bringing their skills to bear on active discovery. The active discovery occurs because the individual expects to have some form of pleasure from their effort. Fenner (1996) mentions two aspects of the pleasure experienced when people are in an aesthetic state of mind - emotional pleasure and cognitive pleasure. Much aesthetic experience is principally a matter of sentiments such as satisfaction, fulfilment, gratification, agreeableness, delight, and joy, but aesthetic experience can be said to be a matter of more than sentiment.
If sentiment were all that were needed to characterise aesthetic appreciation, then the most aesthetic experiences would perhaps not be those in the presence of a great painting but those had in the eating of hot fudge sundaes and pizza pies (Ibid, p. 117). In appreciating works of art aesthetically, one is, to a certain extent, engaged cognitively. Cognitive pleasure comes from consideration of the object, seeing and making connections to other experiences, associating, and appreciating in the object its elegance, balance, and beauty.
As mentioned earlier, the aesthetic experience is the outcome of one’s full involvement of perceptual, cognitive and emotional intelligences for aesthetic contemplation. All aesthetic theorists and educationalists referred to in this study mention that the cultivation of skills or intelligences is helpful for the achievement of the aesthetic experience of art and I will examine these skills in more detail in a
102 later section.
I acknowledge that aesthetic education aims to enhance the casual visitor's aesthetic approach in his/her visual experience with the museum collection. A literature review on aesthetic education and art museums indicates a remarkable degree of agreement on the conditions needed to support aesthetic experience in the museum context (Ahemed, 1993; Csikzentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990;
Feagin and Subler, 1993; Walsh-Piper, 1994; Weltzl-Fairchild, 1995; Williams,
1992) and these aim to encourage the audience to:
1. take a personal and active involvement in the discovery process about the
work of art (Csikzentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990; Feagin and Subler, 1993)
2. look actively (taking the time to look at the work of art carefully) (Ahemed,
1993; Csikzentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990; Walsh-Piper, 1994)
3. have an enhanced emotional involvement during his/her visual experience
(Csikzentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990; Walsh-Piper, 1994; Williams, 1992),
and,
4. be stimulated towards further learning about the work of art. (Csikzentmihalyi
and Robinson, 1990; Walsh-Piper, 1994)
Interviews with several educators in museums in London indicate that the above four conditions are considered important in order to enhance the quality of the visitors’ individual experience of art. Claire Gittings at the National Portrait
Gallery, John Humphreys at the Tate Britain and Toby Jackson at the Tate Modem all agreed with the importance of the encouragement of “personal and active involvement”, “active looking”, and “stimulation for further learning about the
103 work of art”. Humphreys and Jackson mentioned they would not however regard emotional involvement as a particularly important element to be approached when developing their educational programme because "(emotional reaction) spontaneously happens when people are experience art” (Interview: Humphreys,
2001). In contrast, Gittings commented in the interview that emotional involvement was a very important element of the visitors’ visual experience because “emotional involvement leads audiences to make a judgement of their own about what they think about the painting. Emotional involvement can develop childrens’ choices towards the paintings and this skill of judgement becomes the foundation for more mature skills for coming to terms with the painting” (Interview: Gittings, 2001). All three art museum educators generally agreed with the importance of empowering visitors to construct their own understanding of art. These museum professionals’ perceptions towards
“empowerment of the audience” accord with aesthetic education approach that aims of encouraging visitors to interpret their encounters with museum collections according to their own interests and to undertake active exploration of art objects through their perceptual, sensory, and intellectual faculties.
When thinking about the above approaches of aesthetic education, we can readily make a connection between this approach and the constructivist approach, because constructivist learning theory also advocates the development of the autonomous learner who plays an active role in order to construct his/her own meaningful experience as they leam (Caulton, 1998, p.37). Recently, the constructivist approach has become regarded as one of the important approaches that should be considered when developing effective interpretation and exhibition presentation in
104 the museum (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999, p.xi). I shall now discuss constructivist
learning theory and the learning principles that are partly shared by these two
educational approaches as I believe this discussion can provide a theoretical basis
for supporting the aesthetic approach as an acceptable and practical learning
method in the art museum education context.
C onstructivist L e a r n in g Th eo r y
Constructivist learning theory encompasses two theoretical frameworks that held
are in common with the aesthetic approach: 1. learning is an active process of
constructing meanings; 2. the learner constructs meaning from his/her experience
and knowledge. The difference between the two theories lie in that fact that the
constructivist theory of cognitive development is developed from psychological
investigation as indicated by Jean Piaget and is designed to elucidate the
development of concepts about the natural world. In contrast, aesthetic theory as
we have seen is concerned with a focus on the internal world of individuals.
George Hein, who is a leading proponent of constructivist theory in the museum
field, states that learning is a process of ‘sense-making’ activity rather than an
information gathering process (1998, p.31). This ‘sense-making’ is seen as a
process in which a visitor will assimilate new information into his or her personal
context to reconstruct new meanings and understandings in their individual
context. The constructivist approach sees learning as not simply the discovery of
new information but also the process of meaning making. In other words, learning
is not the understanding of the ‘true’ nature of things, nor the accumulation of perceived ideas into a memory system in the brain but it is a personally and
105 socially driven construction of understanding produced as the individual interacts with the world.
Constructivism sees the learner’s previous experience as a critical element in achieving his/her own learning route, because how one constructs knowledge is a function of the prior experiences and beliefs that one uses to interpret objects and events (Jonassen, 1991, p. 10). This concept originates in John Dewey’s
(1859-1952) theory of experience. Dewey was a philosopher and educational theorist whose work has contributed to the development of museum education theory and practice. Dewey (1938b) considered that the nature of one’s experience is informed by the past - an experience occurs in the present but the nature of that experience is informed by the past and learning is based on the perceptions that a person brings to the present.
Constructivists view a museum as a place in which people choose what they want to leam and constmct their own understanding through active exploration and experience with both real objects and various interpretative media. Both the constmctivist and aesthetic approaches argue that the constmction of meaning derives from the interpretation of information through mental frameworks or structures of individual mind. Therefore, the constmction of meaning is best accomplished through active involvement on the part of learners using their various senses (Simpson, 1996, p.54). Hein (1995, p.22) describes a constmctivist exhibition as one that encourages visitors to use their minds to interact with and make their own connections with the material. In this sense, constmctivism emphasizes the importance of the personal context in the learning process. In order to forge personal contexts to be utilised in the audience’s learning, the
106 constructivist perspective says that museums should offer a range of “learning modalities” that reflect the learning styles and individual needs of visitors
(Doering, 1999; Hein, 1998) so it can “encourage visitors to be active in constructing their own particular interpretation of their experiences according to their existing knowledge, skills, background and personal motivation
(Hooper-Greenhill, 1999, p.vi).
Similarly, in order to facilitate the aesthetic approach, it is important to encourage and develop visitors’ individual skills in interpreting museum art objects. This will enhance the audience’s own meaning-making activity both during their initial learning process and on the occasion of subsequent visits. I discussed in the previous section the encouragement of the audience’s active looking, of their usage of various facilities (perceptual, intellectual, and emotional), and of their stimulation for further learning are necessary ways to promote the aesthetic approach in the art museum.
These deep involvements do not always happen and are sometimes quite limited because of the audience’s interests and their capacity to use their abilities in exploration of art works. Since it is important to encourage the visitor to become deeply involved with the art object, I consider that the task of aesthetic education should be to cultivate the audience’s skills in formulating and articulating their own interests and in exploring their subjective reactions towards the art objects.
Next, I shall discuss further the skills that are helpful for facilitating the aesthetic approach in the museum.
107 S tr ateg ies fo r the A esth etic A p pr o a c h - E n h a n c em e n t o f THE S k ills o f th e V iew e r
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990) indicate that the skill of the viewer is a
skill in experiencing works, something that many people employ for sustaining
their interest in an object. This skill serves the capacity of individuals to pursue
their appreciation of art objects and it is important for making the most of their
informal learning opportunities in the museum (Sinclair, 1998; Talboys, 2000).
Although there are no set agreements as to what skills are needed to forge an
aesthetic encounter, art education professionals (Armstrong, 1996;
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson, 1990; Hancocks, 1988; Hurwitz & Madeja, 1977;
Parsons, 1987; Walsh-Piper, 1994; Worts; 1990) mention three faculties of human
nature employed in communicating and coming to terms with art objects: 1.
perceptual skill; 2.intellectual skill; 3. the skill of sensitive awareness. The
integration of these faculties shapes our competence to engage with art objects
and to establish the values we see in art and, also, shapes our experience with the
art object of immediate concern. These three faculties are examined individually
below.
L Perceptual skill
As aesthetic contact with art objects starts from the experience of seeing, aesthetic
experience is closely linked to the degree of the ability of the individual to perceive an object. Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990, p. 127) mention that
“the theoretical model suggests that a person with only rudimentary perceptual
skills, a person who has never exercised visual discrimination to compare.
108 contrast, and evaluate visual stimuli, will be unable to derive an aesthetic experience from any but the most simple forms”. Perceptual skill is the ability of an individual to initiate learning about works of art by responding to the visual stimuli that are represented in the art object. Walsh-Piper (1994, p. 110) mentions that educational programmes should encourage audiences to increase and refine their perception, both visually and conceptually, and by doing so, support the audience’s ability to have an aesthetic experience in the art museum. Hurwitz and
Madeja (1977) speculate that people can be taught to observe, just as they can be taught to read. Many art museum educators have recognised the importance of the development of observational skills in museum audiences, both adults and children. However, the content of the observational skills vary between educationalists as I shall explore below.
Alfred Lichtwark, one of the great pioneers of museum art education in Germany had as his objective to educate people in the awareness of visual details. He demonstrates this conviction in his book Ühungen in der Betrachtung von
Kunstwerken (first published in 1897) which promotes the use of the Socratic method of asking questions in order to make the audience focus on visual details they otherwise would have left unattended (in Punch, 1994, p.83). Pictorial representation or iconography is the crucial focal point of Lichtwark’s teaching because he believed that minute examination of a picture’s subject (e.g. dress code, postures, facial expressions, the gestures of people in paintings) leads to one’s understanding of the cultural, historical and social background of the art object and its maker.
Rudolf Amheim, an art expression theorist, mentioned in his book Art and Visual
109 Perception (1974, p. 6), that “looking at the world proved to require an interplay between properties supplied by the object and the nature of the observing subject”.
He acknowledged that experiencing works of art needed to be assisted by perceptual analysis of the art object by the viewer. The art experience starts from the analysis of the formal properties of the art object such as balance, shape, form, space, light, colour, and movement. He also mentioned that the art experience consists of receiving the uniqueness of the artist’s expression through our sense and feelings. And for this reason, the art experience becomes unique to individuals as they articulate their own point of view and their own sensitiveness when looking at art, and in the end, individuals find different meanings in the expression of each art object. He believes that the visual elements of the art object are an artist’s instruments for conceiving the world. Thus, he acknowledges that the minute analysis of visual components supports the viewers’ understanding of the art object and, also, it supports viewers in articulating their emotions in order to forge their own understanding and meaning about the object. A similar approach to the aesthetic experience can be recognised in Csikszentmihaly and
Robinson’s work (1990).
Thomas Sello, a German art museum educator, and Muller, an artist and museum educator, developed a new series of programmes at the same institution as
Lichtwark’s. The programme focused on artistic techniques as the entry points for aesthetic education. They published a book Nicht nur mit Pinsel und ÔI (1991) and they introduced a programme called sprezztura, (an Italian word for “studied carelessness”) (Punch, 1994, p. 84) designed to help audiences to examine techniques such as the artist’s use of materials, traces of the tools used, and the
110 characteristics of painting technique, in order to help them to understand the art
works and to experience the emotional enjoyment of discovery. Sello and Muller
believed that the examination of formal features, and their characteristics, derived
from the artist’s visual language might be one way of coming terms with a work
of art (Ibid, p.85).
Phillip Yanawine mentions in his book How to look at Modern Art (1991), that art
consists of “visual devices that attempt to give form to ideas, beliefs, and values”
and if the audience knows how these devices usually are used within visual art
they will also be able to gain insight into the artist’s intentions and understand his
visual account (1991, p. 138). Yenawine believes that visual elements in paintings
are messages about the artist’s ideas and beliefs and that these elements can act as
devices which viewers can decode and use for gaining insight into the artist’s
intentions and, so, attempt to understand his or her visual account. Yenawine
suggests five different categories to observe: physical properties, primarily
referring to size and medium; subject matter, illusionary properties such as
devices for creating a three-dimensional form on canvas; formal properties, such
as line, colour, and shapes or forms that are elements to create visual composition
of the art work; and the viewer’s perspective, concerned with the physical position
of the viewer in relation to the picture (Ibid, p.31).
Although Lichtwark, Amheim, Sello and Muller, and Yenawine use different concepts and methods in their approach to the perceptual engagement of viewers with pictorial representations in works of art, they have in common the recognition of disciplined perception as an important source of aesthetic contact with art objects. The art educators’ ideas described above indicate that in order to
111 enhance an audience’s perceptual skill it is necessary to encourage people to look analytically at an art object. This analysis of visual components can open many windows onto ways of understanding what one is looking at (Acton, 1997, p.xxvii). Works of art can support many interpretations and contain many meanings so that there is no guarantee of finding one definite answer to the matter we are searching for. However, by offering a voyage of discovery with a series of suggestions which the spectator can explore in any way he or she chooses, we can bring paintings alive for the audience and make the process of learning about art more inspirational and illuminating (Ibid. p.xxx).
2. Intellectual skill - cognitive understanding about the art object
General knowledge about a work of art is also an important element contributing to our engagement with art objects. Knowing about art is only one part of the total process of art appreciation and it should be viewed not as an end but rather as a means of appreciation (Hurwitz and Madeja, 1977, p.6). Information about an artist, and art itself, such as the social and cultural environment in which the art work is embedded, and the style of the period in which it was executed, is important in allowing the viewer to build and maintain interest in an art object.
Parsons (1987), who researched into the cognitive developmental accounts of aesthetic experience, mentions that knowing about the art object’s inherent cultural values and ideas is an important part of 'communication' with the art object because it helps the viewer to connect with the world in which the art object was created (Ibid. p.87). General audiences are normally unaware of, and unfamiliar with, such worlds and if they are offered knowledge of the period, of
112 the culture, and of the artist then it helps them to widen their horizons of appreciation of visual expression. In this sense, knowledge helps to build more complex levels of understanding and feeling about art objects. A work of art needs to be understood in a historical and cultural context in order that its meaning may become clearer. For example, a picture might be a part of an altarpiece in a church or it might have been designed to hang in a specific position as part of a scheme of decoration in a room (Acton, 1997, p.xxviii). The provision of such contextual knowledge about the work of art helps spectators to interpret the painting not only in a subjective sense but also in the wider social, historical and cultural context in which the art object is involved. Therefore, knowledge about an artwork may expand the spectators’ potential of making closer contact with it.
Scholars of visual perception and art education (Acton, 1997; Armstrong, 1996;
Parsons, 1987; Taylor, 1981) indicate the following areas of general knowledge that are worth examining with regard to the development of the viewer's cognitive understanding:
1. The Concept of style - the style of artistic expression described in art
historical terms.
2. The artist’s biography and life experience with regard to his or her work.
3. The historical, political and cultural aspects of an art object - this is important
information when looking at evidence of social movements at the time the
work of art was made.
4. Information about religion, iconography, and symbolism - this is essential
information for understanding the narrative embodied in the depiction of the
subject matter of many art works, particularly those not of the period in which
113 we live.
Knowledge about an art object allows us to look at it from the standpoint of its role, its function and its value in the society in which it was made. Such information helps viewers to explain and justify their appreciation for a work of art, enabling them to make interpretations and to place values on features of art objects so that the individual increases his/her personal potential for aesthetic experiences.
S. The skill of sensitive awareness
Looking at and thinking about a particular work of art evokes feelings in the mind of the viewer. This emotional aspect of our visual experience is an element involved when we have an aesthetic experience (Feagin and Subler, 1993, p.66).
In talking about paintings and sculptures and other forms of art objects, we normally talk about our feelings, thoughts, and emotions, as our responses to them.
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1990) say that according to their survey of museum professionals, over ninety percent of interviewees in art museums report emotional involvement when they confront works of art. Emotional responses are various and include positive emotions such as joy, delight, inspiration, awe, love, and negative emotions such as anger, fear, hate, and frustration.
The work of art arouses a feeling in the spectator’s mind and this is because they are normally not only about concrete objects, but also about what can be thought or felt about them. For example, when a painter depicts a still life (e.g. some lemons and apples) on the canvas, his or her use of colours, light, and composition
114 all imply his or her imagination, originality and inspiration from the subject.
Sherry Goodman, an educator at the University Art Museum at the University of
California, devised an aesthetic education programme in the autumn of 1990, which emphasised the viewer’s personal engagement with works of art (Punch,
1994, p.91). Goodman’s approach was based on the fact that an experience of an artwork encompasses more than its visual aspect. Her process was to ask viewers what they looked at, how they felt about it, and what came to their mind when looking at particular works of art. By allowing viewers to focus on their own spontaneous response from encounters with works of art, she encouraged them to make use of their sensuous response in their search of meaning.
In order to develop the spectators’ skill of sensitive awareness, it is helpful to provide them with information about the expressive features of the art object and to give people the opportunity to contemplate these aspects. Parsons (1987, p.67) suggests several features of expression which have possibilities for arousing emotional response in the viewer’s mind. They are as follows:
1. Visual effects in the art object which may express the artist’s emotion and
symbolical or social meaning which may matter to the individual as a member
of a community.
2. Expression that portrays feelings that a viewer can share - e.g. the content of a
work that typically deals with things that matter to the spectator as an
individual.
3. Expression that reveals the artist’s state of mind.
How visitors make meaning from their learning process is greatly influenced by
115 their previous knowledge, attitudes and interests (Hein, 1998, p.45). Therefore, stimulating the viewer's emotional response, provoking their imagination and evoking past memories is effective in encouraging the connection between personal life experiences and this leads to the development of the viewer’s sensitive awareness towards the art object. By doing so, viewers need to be helped to make individual judgments and criticisms according to their personal experience.
Su m m a r y o f Strateg ies fo r A esth etic E d ucatio n
Aesthetic art education could encourage the enhancement of the novice's aesthetic approach to his or her visual experience with a museum collection. From the literature review on aesthetic experience along with the analysis of aesthetic theory (e.g. Ahemed, 1993; Beardsley, 1982; Brown, 1989; Csikszentmihalyi and
Robinson, 1990; Feagin and Subler, 1993; Fenner, 1996; Housen, 1992; Osborne,
1970; Walsh-Piper, 1994; Weltzel-Fairchild, 1995;), I have argued that aesthetic education requires, firstly, support for the following four factors influencing the process of deep involvement in coming to terms with the art object and, secondly, the development of three particular supporting skills for forging the contemplation of the art object. Hence, the four supporting factors are:
• Enhancement of a personal involvement in the discovery process about
the work of art: As aesthetic experience is a total personal engagement
with an art object it is important to support visitors in achieving
self-directed exploratory learning.
• Active looking: One of the phenomenological characteristics of the
116 aesthetic experience is the focusing of attention. Visitor studies noted the
short time that visitors' attention is focused on the selected art object,
which is likely to make visitors' visual experience superficial. For a
deeper involvement with the work of art, visitors need to be provided
with a situation where they spontaneously take a longer look at aspects of
an object than they would under present gallery provision.
• Being stimulated towards further learning about the art work:
Aesthetic experience involves situations in which people are willing to
make active discoveries about art objects. Therefore it helps to provide
conditions that stimulate their motivation to know about the work of art
in order to promote their deeper involvement with it.
• Enhanced emotional involvement during the experience: Aesthetic
experience is derived from a deep communication that demands one’s full
sensitive responsiveness. Stimulating emotional response is crucial for
facilitating the aesthetic approach to the art experience.
And the three required skills are:
• Perceptual skill - the ability to respond to various types of visual stimuli
in order to refine the audience's visual acuity.
• Intellectual skill - the ability to understand the relevance of general
knowledge about works of art. Intellectual skills can be developed
through the provision of diverse information about the work of art.
• The Skill of sensitive awareness- aesthetic sensitivity arouses emotional
responses in the mind of the viewer during his or her visual experience.
117 Aesthetic education can be developed through the enhancement of these seven elements during the audience’s art experience in the museum. I will use these elements as the evaluation points in an examination of the use of ICT for the development of the aesthetic approach in the museum context which I shall discuss in Chapter Three and Four. Before doing this, I will now turn to an examination of ways in which the interactive computer program might be able to support these seven elements of aesthetic education.
4. THE EFFECTIVE FEATURES OF COMPUTER - MEDIATED - LEARNING (CML) FOR AESTHETIC EDUCATION
H y po t h e sis
As I described in chapter one, ICT has been recognised as a powerful mediator in the learning process due to its multimedia and interactive features. Science and technology centres, history museums and children’s museums have been pioneers in the development of the experimental use of ICT as a way to extend their provision of hands-on and interactive types of learning experiences. Art museums have also started to investigate computers as an interpretative tool used on their exhibition floors (Perlin, 1998, p.74). Nevertheless, most of the ICT usages in art museums have been to provide additional reference material relating to the collection. ICT itself has been little used as a means for developing the effectiveness of learning in the art museum. From now on, I shall use the term
‘computer-mediated-leaming (CML)’ to denote a learning methodology that uses
118 interactive multimedia technology as a vehicle to mediate the human learning process.
In the previous section, I discussed strategies for the support of aesthetic education. I hypothesise that computer-mediated-leaming has the potential to be an effective method of fulfilling the seven approaches for supporting aesthetic education in museums. Now in this section, I shall discuss my hypothesis about how computer-mediated-leaming is effective for the achievement of the aesthetic approach. The summary of this hypothesis is shown in figure 2.2.
119 Figure 2. 2
Hypothesis:
The Effectiveness o f Computer-Mediated-Learning for Aesthetic Education
Characteristics of Effects for Aesthetic Education Computer-Mediated learning
Supports active looking at the painting on the screen. Zooming-up function to analyse pictorial elements of the visual image Supports personal construction of understanding about an art object by allowing the user to choose his/her own entry points for learning about the object. Provision of diverse information for cross-reference search Stimulates intrinsic motivation for further learning because by allowing the user to explore the learning process according to his/lier interests. Interactive learning that allows users to explore A parallel retrieval of visual and according to one’s interest. sensual information provides the user a sensory-exciting experience.
Provides hands-on activities that enhance perceptual skill. The seamless provision of information in various media (text, still & moving Provides multiple cross-reference searches that can enhance images, animation, sound) intellectual skill. for learning.
Provides various media presentation that can heighten emotional involvement in the learning process. Also provision of the diverse information where audience can find personally relevant information can heighten the skill of sensitive awareness.
120 CML for the enhancement of active looking
The aesthetic element in visual experience is derived from an active perceptual engagement with an art object. Computer-mediated-leaming can enhance the visual awareness of the user because it can provide various ways that foster the response of the viewer to various elements of a digital image of the art object. The digital image can be easily manipulated by creative use of computer technology.
For this reason, the interactive computer graphic tool has often been used in art and design classes in general education (Freedman, 1997, p.6). For example, the computer can be used as a part of the drawing and designing process because of its ability to allow students to manipulate visual information on the computer screen easily. Pupils can change images, try new colour combinations, repeat patterns and rotate images and these activities help them to explore and investigate their own artistic ideas (Crompton & Mann, 1996, p.40). This application of computer-mediated-leaming is likely to enhance the user’s active looking at the visual image. Another example of the use of computer-mediated-leaming for the enhancement of active looking is the zooming function. This is often used in visual arts computer programs, including databases of art museum collections on the Web. The zooming function allows the viewer to enlarge the visual image itself, or the particular section of the image that the viewer wishes to look at, in more detail. This device can support the engagement of the viewer’s perception of the work of art and, as a result, it is likely to prolong the time the viewer looks at an object.
121 CML for a personal involvement in the discovery process about a work of art
For aesthetic education to take place, it is important to encourage the audience to
have a personal involvement in the learning process. Computer-mediated-leaming
uses hypermedia technology that allows a presentation of the information in such
a way that users can navigate their own routes through the web of information.
Users can either choose to follow pre-defined paths through the information or to
create their own unique trails according to their individual needs and interests.
Such systems allow users to decide what they want to work on and if it proves
uninteresting, too difficult, or too easy, they can change to something else (Thier
and Linn, 1976, p.238). Thus, as Crook (1994, p. 16) mentions, CML has the
capability to help learners “constmct new understandings through their
exploratory activity” because CML allows the learner to customise his/her
learning process according to his/her interests, approaches, and knowledge level.
CML for stimulating further learning about the art work
The audience’s intrinsic motivation plays an important role in the aesthetic
approach to art experience because it fosters an individual’s active discovery
about an object. Thus, for the development of the aesthetic approach, it is
desirable that the audiences’ motivation is stimulated for further learning about the phenomena that the work of art depicts or presents. When considering the enhancement of motivation, it is important to make the learning environment cater to the learner’s existing interests. One of the advantages of computer technology over traditional media in art galleries (i.e. labels and panels), which are usually limited to sending the same general message to all users (Whitney, 1990, p.70), is
122 that it can compress diverse information into one installation, thus, it is likely to
cater for a diverse introductions to learning. CML is also likely to stimulate the
audience’s curiosity and interest in the subject because of its capability of
generating an experiential, thought-provoking and problem-solving type of
learning process. In sum, CML has the capability to allow users to follow
information related to their own interests, and to facilitate their exploration of
their own meaning-making experience.
CML for the enhancement of emotional involvement during an art experience
Computer-mediated-leaming is also useful for the support of the emotional
engagement of the learner. Virtual Reality is one of the advantages of
computer-mediated education over the traditional printed media in that it enhances
the sensory aspect of the learning experience through its ability to stmcture
information of diverse kinds such as text, still image, moving images, animation,
and sound in a seamless, multifaceted presentation (Dunn, 1996, p.7).
One of the extreme examples of CML application is Virtual Reality (VR), a
computer-generated presentation that works on the user’s perceptual system to
approximate to a two- or three- dimensional presentation. VR provides an
environment that is an outcome of co-operation between the program and the
user’s imagination and this is, in Wooley’s words (1992), “a responsive
environment”. The user takes this artificial world as a metaphor for reality, and uses it as a way of exploring the information in the virtual world as he/she interacts with the equipment (Robinson, 1998, p.3 8) and makes sense of the things they are involved with in the virtual world. This computer capability can be
123 particularly powerful with objects from cultures other than one’s own (Sayer,
1998, p. 131) because it allows users to apply abstract concepts to a situation that approximates to reality (Helsel, 1990, p.2).
The use of VR applications is popular in history museums. For example, San
Francisco’s M.H. de Young Memorial Museum set up the “Virtual Pompeii” program to help visitors to understand more about the museum’s ancient art collections. In this program, visitors could experience a virtual encounter with a place and time that produced objects similar to those in the museum. By using a track ball to choose where to go in the city of Pompeii on the computer screen visitors could wander through the Triangular Forum, the Temple of Isis, and
Grand Theatre - famous sites most people have been able to visit only in art history or archaeology text books (O’Donnell, 1995, p.53). On the virtual street, program users saw sculptures and the vividly coloured murals that decorated the buildings. This helped them to imagine the original setting of the works of art from Pompeii. Since this virtual experience of Pompeii seemed so real it helped audiences to visualise the real world itself and so enriched their understanding of the cultural background of the works of art on display in the Young Memorial
Museum. This example illustrates that VR applications can be more effective in stimulating emotional responses in audiences than traditional print media because they can bring vitality and motion to user exploration (Whitney, 1990, p.73).
CML for the enhancement ofperceptual skilly intellectual skill, and the skill of aesthetic sensitivity
As mentioned previously, viewing art is not only a receptive process, it is a
124 creative process of looking which evokes emotions, stimulates the imagination,
and provokes viewers’ ovm perception and understanding of the object. For
encouragement of the aesthetic approach, it is desirable that learners have some
support in developing skills that can enhance their contemplation of art works.
Developing the skills for the contemplation of art can empower the museum
audience to develop its understanding of the art object because they enable the
audience to learn how to look at the objects and how to “read” their meanings
(Roberts, 1992, p. 156-7). One of the advantages of the use of the computer as a
learning aid is that it can contain enormous amounts of information that can cater
for diverse approaches for helping learning to occur. Also, CML supports an
interactive, hands-on, and discovery-based style of learning, thus it allows the
learner to have the opportunity to use his/her cognitive, aesthetic, sensual, and
emotional faculties during the learning process. In the following, I discuss
practical ways in which CML can be used to develop the user’s skills of aesthetic
contemplation.
a) Perceptual skill can be described as the ability to respond to various types of
visual stimuli and to focus one’s attention to the art object. Perceptual skill
can be developed through: firstly, the provision of a tool for art observation
that enables free focusing; secondly, retrieval of detailed information of
parts or the whole of a visual image for closer observation using a zooming
function; and thirdly, provision of analytical ways for the examination of the
formal qualities of works such as composition, space, and colour. b) Intellectual skill can be described as the ability to understand the relevance
of general knowledge about works of art. Intellectual skill can be developed
125 through provision of diverse information about the work of art such as
concept of style, the artist’s biography, information about religion,
iconography, symbolism, and art history in general,
c) The skill of sensitive awareness can be described as aesthetic sensitivity
which arouses emotional responses in the mind of the viewer during his or
her visual experience. Emotional impact can be enhanced through the
provision of various media (moving, still images, sound, animation, etc.) for
learning. Personally relevant information may also be likely to arouse the
viewer’s emotional engagement with the work of art. For example, the
provision of an interpretation of the object that is relevant to the community
of the audience might be one way to enhance the emotional engagement of
the viewer.
Past Research on the Use of ICT f o r A r t M u seu m E d u c a tio n
The past evaluation studies of the use of ICT as an integral part of the exhibit
media has been conducted mainly in science centres, history museums, and
children’s museums. However, there are a few similar evaluations in the area of
computer usage in art museum education.
The first published research on the capabilities of computer programs for the development of user experience and learning in art museums was conducted by
Gottesdiener and Boyer (1992, p. 168). Their work is about the impact of a computer game designed to motivate visitors to attend carefully to information in the exhibition “Raphael and French Art” held at the Grand Palais in Paris,
November 1983. The computer game, called “Look and Compare”, consisted of
126 four sets of tasks, each of which involved a number of questions (e.g. ‘Which of these four paintings by Raphaël inspired the artist?’). Gottesdiener and Boyer’s survey examined the extent of computer usage over four days, the socio-demographic profile of the players and non-players, and the behavioural differences between players and non-players in the gallery. There are two points worth mentioning from their examination of visitor behaviour. One is that playing the computer game did increase the level of attention paid by visitors to target paintings (Ibid. p. 176). Another is that the computer game provided visitors with the opportunity to work together in finding answers, thus, it enhanced the chance of social exchanges among visitors (Ibid. p. 174)
Douglas Worts (1990 & 1991b) conducted research on computer usage in the
“Viewpoints: Approaches to Contemporary Art” (1987) and “Group of Seven”
(1989) exhibitions in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada. Both the “Viewpoints” and the “Group of Seven” exhibitions were designed as two-phase projects. In phase one, the exhibitions were built up with several works of art with conventional labels. In phase two, the same artworks were supported with several interpretive devices including computers. Worts (1991b, p.42-3) made comparative studies of phase one and phase two, and found that the added interpretative devices had a positive effect on almost all visitors as reflected by overall time spent and usage of other interpretive devices such as flippers, digital audio systems, photographs, and wall panels. However, he did not mention specifically why or whether computers were useful in holding visitors’ attention but merely mentioned that the computers were very popular in the exhibitions.
The National Gallery, London and the multimedia production company Cognitive
127 Applications conducted a visitor survey of the Micro Gallery in 1992. The survey
used a self-administered questionnaire and observations in order to find out how
visitors used the Micro Gallery, what if anything they gained from it, and how
their use of it stood in relation to their visit to the museum. The survey findings
briefly mention that the audience treated the Micro Gallery as an alternative to
looking at the paintings and that it enriched visits to the museum (Cognitive
Applications, 1992). However, the Micro Gallery is positioned in a separate room,
well away from any actual paintings, and it is difficult to argue that it significantly
effects experience of the original works of art.
The Walsall Museum of Art and Gallery also conducted the evaluation of their use
of computers in its interactive art exhibition “Start” in 1995 (Walsall Museum and
Art Gallery, 1995, p.8). The computers were part of the interpretative tools and
they were positioned next to some of the paintings. The evaluation report of this
exhibition noted that computers tended to draw children’s attention away from the
painting, but that computer programs were very popular among children. However,
this report does not clearly mention to what extent the computer was effective in
encouraging children’s understanding about a painting.
Many museum professionals indicate the need for an in-depth understanding of how learning may be enhanced by computer-mediated-leaming and of approaches to the use of computer programs that prove most satisfying to various audiences
(Bazley, 1998; Gray, 1998; Sherwood, 1997). However, all of the surveys mentioned above show little evidence of the enhancement of the qualitative features of how effective such computer-mediated-leaming is for facilitating visitors’ learning about art. Thus, understanding how computer-mediated-leaming
128 has an intellectual and emotional impact on the visitor/user’s art experience
remains worthy of investigation. In the following two chapters, I shall discuss a
preliminary study on the impact of computer-mediated-leaming on aesthetic
education in a particular art museum.
5. SUMMARY
This chapter has discussed recent trends in educational philosophy in museums in
general, and aesthetic education in particular as one of the approaches for
audience development in the art museum. I have also described the advantages of
the use of computer-mediated-leaming and why it may be effective for the
development of an aesthetic approach to art education. Aesthetic education
emphasises the importance of the audience’s involvement in the learning process
and the cultivation of skills to achieve active exploration of the art object. I have
argued that computer-mediated-leaming might be a powerful tool to support aesthetic education because of its ability to encourage an interactive, exploratory and user-centred teaming experience. Although some research has been undertaken on the theme of computer-mediated-leaming in the art museum, no survey has explored deeply how computers can stimulate visitors’ art experiences and how they may support the audience’s aesthetic experience in the art museum setting.
In order to remedy this lack of information, in the following two chapters, I shall discuss an exploratory study of a CD-ROM project in the Cartwright Hall Art
Gallery, which I conducted as an illustrative practical investigation of the potential
129 of multimedia applications for the support of the visitor’s aesthetic approach to the art collections in museums.
130 Chapter 3
A Case Study on the Use of ICT for Aesthetic Education
in the Art Museum
1. INTRODUCTION
The last part of the previous chapter described the theoretical review of the
possibility of ICT being used as one of the interpretation tools for the
development of an aesthetic approach in art museum education. ICT has often
been adopted as an interpretation tool in the museum exhibition space. However,
no research on the effectiveness of computer-mediated-leaming programs for the
enhancement of the aesthetic approach in the art museum has been published. In the following chapters, a practical survey investigating the effectiveness of
computer-mediated-leaming program in the art museum context will be discussed.
It was important for the purpose of this study that a CML program available within a gallery was chosen because only when the program is positioned very close to the actual works shown can one legitimately claim that CML affects the experience of viewing art works themselves.
As a case study investigating the effectiveness of computer applications in supporting aesthetic experiences in art museums, a visitor survey regarding the use of a CD-ROM program ‘ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links’ in the
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, U.K was conducted. The program
131 employed a computer-mediated-leaming system for fulfilling the aim of art
museum education. Museum educators who developed this CD-ROM program
mentioned that it aims to “provide a visually and sensually exciting and accessible
form of visual arts education using interactive computer technology in the
museum context” (Ackroyd, Mitchell, and Rennie, 1998, pp.31).
Although the specific approach towards aesthetic education summarised in
chapter two (see section on 'Summary of strategies for aesthetic education’^
p. 116) was not particularly considered in the content development process of this
CD-ROM, I hypothesized that this CD-ROM program was a good example of a
computer-mediated-leaming system used in the exhibition space and that it would be effective in supporting visitors' aesthetic approach to their experience with the
art collections in Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. This was because the CD-ROM
applies various computer-mediated-leaming approaches in supporting the audience’s understanding, such as enabling users to make a close examination of a visual image, allowing users to have many viewpoints for understanding features of the visual image and artists, and offering a multi-sensual experience in the teaming process. The details of these approaches contained in the program are mentioned later in this chapter (see section on 'the selection o f images’, p. 152).
In 1999 when the research was conducted, this case study was the only available computer kiosk positioned inside an art gallery space that aimed to support the audience’s teaming and to enrich their art experience. As explained at the beginning of this thesis, it still remains the only permanent in-gallery multimedia program in the UK, and therefore it has become the sole case study to investigate the theme of this M.Phil research. Therefore, there is a certain limitation on the
132 results of the survey, in that this may not be fully representative of the impact of
computer-mediated-leaming on aesthetic education in art museum settings.
Nevertheless, it is hoped that the findings from this study may provide some
general insights into the use of ICT as an interpretational media for aesthetic
education in the art museum setting and that it will be followed up with further
work as more case studies become available.
2. ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Figure 3.1 Computer kiosk positioned in the permanent gallery
ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links is a CD-ROM program aiming to support the interpretation of Cartwright Hall Art Gallery’s historic and contemporary
133 permanent collections. It was developed by the education staff at Cartwright Hall along with the Leeds company Pilot during the years 1995-1997. The project was funded by Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Yorkshire & Humberside Arts, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Bradford solicitors Gordons, Wright and Wright,
British Gas and the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts.
ART CONNECTIONS features 70 works from the transcultural collections of
Bradford Art Galleries & Museums and uses interactive technology to convey a wide variety of information and to demonstrate links between the works. The
CD-ROM is believed to be the first of its kind in the country to highlight the links between works of art from different cultures (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, 1998).
The program can be accessed in two touch-screen kiosks positioned in the
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. One of them is positioned in the entrance hall. The other is positioned in the permanent gallery space on the first floor where it functions as a dynamic information resource to support the development of interpretation and this was the program kiosk used for the survey (Figure 3.1).
The program is also available as a CD-ROM package and has been widely used by schools, colleges in Bradford (about 300 copies were sold to Bradford schools in 1998), art advisors and curriculum development agencies, and libraries as an educational package offering a creative introduction to art and also a learning opportunity both Western and Non-Western art, which is a requirement of the schools’ National Curriculum for Art (Ibid).
134 D e s c r ip t io n o f t h e P r o g r a m
Figure 3.2 The front screen of the ART CONNECTIONS CULTURAL LINKS CD-ROM program Each work of art can be explored with the use of several icons on the screen
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links contains digital images of works from
Cartwright Hall’s collections and these works are themed in six categories: 1)
People and Living Things; 2) Places; 3) Stories; 4) Colour & Pattern; 5)
Abstraction; and 6) Craft. Each of these categories has further subdivisions, for
example the category of Abstraction is broken down into Modem, Contemporary
and Conceptual. The subdivisions of the categories highlight between one and three works of art. A main menu icon (image of a chest of six drawers in figure
3.2) allows the user to select from these categories.
There are eight additional icons on the screen and each work of art can be
135 explored with the use of these icons (Figure 3.2). These icons are: 1) Information pages; 2) Sound information; 3) Zooming up function; 4) Scale of works; 5) Photo album (two images of camera and photo album); 6) Games and puzzles; 7) Ideas for learning; and 8) Links. The description of these icon functions is as follows.
• Information page - Each information page contains approximately 100
words giving basic information about a work of art. Appropriate art,
craft and design vocabulary suitable for teachers, top primary students
and upwards is used.
• Sound information - The sound is in English and Urdu. Urdu speakers
form a significant ethnic minority in Bradford.
• Zooming up function - This offers very high resolution images of art
objects. Certain works have hot spots highlighting particular details
(Figure 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4)
• Scale of works - the scale of works can be understood in relation to a
model of the human figure.
• Photo Album - up to 6 works can be selected and stored in the photo
album until ready to print (there is no print function in the kiosk located
in the gallery). This facility enables images to be collected by theme or
by personal choice. It is an ideal way for students to demonstrate
individual choice.
• Games and puzzles - The games and puzzles are suitable for students of
all levels and are not always as easy as they seem. Some provide starting
136 points for imaginative teaching.
Ideas for learning - These offer the opportunity to see other people’s ideas, already tried and tested, for practical education projects, from early years to further education levels. Some examples are devised by the artists of the works included.
Links - The links section enables users to relate to both Western and non-Western works of art, so developing a broader appreciation of the art in the collections of Bradford Art Galleries & Museums.
137 3. AIM OF THE SURVEY
The aim of the survey was to test the hypothesis on the impact of the
computer-mediated learning system on the development of visitors’ aesthetic
approaches to art objects in the art museum. These hypothesis were summarised
in chapter two (see 'Summary of strategies for aesthetic education \ p. 116) and
listed in Figure 3.3 below.
Figure 3,3 Hypothesis Computer-mediated learning is effective for:
1. enhancing the user’s active looking at the art object.
2. supporting a personal involvement in the discovery process about the art object.
3. stimulating further learning about the art object.
4. enhancing user’s emotional involvement during their learning process about the art object.
5. enhancing the user’s perceptual skill.
6. enhancing the user’s intellectual skill.
7. enhancing the user’s skill of aesthetic sensitivity.
138 In order to research these hypothesis, the seven specific points are determined as
the aim of the survey for the investigation of the effect of the CD-ROM ‘Art
CONNECTIONS Cultural Links’ on the audience’s aesthetic approach towards
the art collection. The aims are to examine the extent to which the four processes
and three skills relating to aesthetic education summarised in Figure 2.2 in
Chapter Two (p. 120) and listed in Figure 3.3 were supported.
Figure 3.4 Aims of the survey
Aim 1: To see whether visitors were encouraged to make a personal
involvement in their discovery of the work of art during their use of
the CD-ROM program.
Aim 2: To investigate whether the CD-ROM program stimulated visitors to
look at the original work of art actively and attentively.
Aim 3: To understand whether visitors were provided with a situation in
which they were stimulated for further learning about the art work of
their concern.
Aim 4: To examine whether the CD-ROM stimulated visitors' emotional
involvement with the work of art during their investigation of the
object.
139 Figure 3,4 Aims of the survey
The survey also examined whether the CD-ROM contributed to the enhancement
of the following skills in understanding art.
Aim 5: Perceptual skills which encourage an analytical vievdng of the art
object.
Aim 6: Intellectual skills which contribute to the audience’s cognitive
understanding about the art object.
Aim 7: The skill of sensitive awareness which supports emotional responses
in the mind of the viewer during his/her art experience.
4. SURVEY METHODOLOGY
E valuation T ec h n iq u es
In order to reveal the impact of computer-mediated-leaming systems for developing the quality of audiences’ experiences in the art museum environment, it is crucial to listen to actual visitors’ responses to their experiences of using such a system in a real exhibition. Evaluation is a process for learning about an audience’s understanding of, and responses to exhibitions and programs, and also.
140 for determining what interactions actually occur between museum programs and
visitors (Munley, 1987, p. 119).
Quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection
In data collection and analysis, there are two approaches in social science research: quantitative and qualitative. To understand fully the complex nature of visitors' art experiences and the learning process in the museum context and also, the impact of multimedia learning programs on these experiences, both quantitative and qualitative approaches need to be employed. This is necessary because this study focuses not only on the quantitative outcome of visitor learning
(e.g. how much factual knowledge of art was learned from the computer program), but also, on the visitors’ qualitative experiences (e.g. reports of the visitors’ states of mind such as increased appreciation of art and the visitors’ feelings experienced when looking at the original work of art) as a result of using the new medium. The ranges of methods employed in both quantitative and qualitative approaches are questionnaires, observation, interviews and focus group discussions.
Quantitative approaches to research require the use of standardized measures so that the varying perspectives and experiences of people can be fitted into a limited number of predetermined response categories to which numbers are assigned
(Patton, 1990, p. 14). This approach relies on numerical evidence to draw conclusions and data can be derived from questionnaire surveys, observation involving counts, and secondary resources (Veal, 1997, p.34). The advantage of the quantitative method is that it provides relatively complex information in an
141 easily understood form (Ibid, p.46).
On the other hand, qualitative approaches to research methods and techniques in
general tend to collect a great deal of detailed information about a relatively small
number of people (Ibid, p. 129) so that issues can be studied in depth and detail
(Patton, 1990, p. 14). Methods employed for the qualitative approach include long
unstructured and in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observation.
These methods were initially developed by anthropologists, but have been adapted
by sociologists for use in their research. Unlike the quantitative methods, in which
the researcher's view on a situation is imposed (the researcher decides which
questions are asked and determines the whole framework within which the
discourse of the research will be conducted) (Veal, 1997, p. 129), the qualitative
approach attempts to avoid a commitment to preset concepts or any theoretical
model. Much qualitative research is based on the belief that people personally
involved in a particular situation are best placed to analyse and describe their
experiences or feelings in their own words (Ibid, p. 129). Therefore, qualitative
methods are suitable for exploring attitudes, feelings, perceptions, motivations of
small number of individuals in a particular situation (Preece, 1996, p.43).
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a set of written questions used to elicit visitors’ reactions to a
program by having them answer questions about it or rate aspects of it
(S.Anderson, 1968, p. 119). Two types of questions may be employed: closed or multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. Closed questions or multiple-choice questions provide respondents with a set of predetermined
142 responses from which they choose the most appropriate answer(s). Closed
questions are easier and quicker to answer compared to open-ended questions
(Oppenheim, 1992, p. 114). Open-ended questions allow respondents to answer in
their own words, and to express themselves freely. Once they have understood the
intent of the question, they can let their thoughts more freely, unencumbered by a
prepared set of replies (Ibid, p. 112-3). However, open-ended questions tell us
what respondents feel to be important, to the extent that they are truthful, but they
do not indicate the degree or strength of feeling in any consistent way (Preece,
1996, p. 117).
Interviews
The data from interviews consists of direct quotations from people about their
experiences, opinions, feelings, and knowledge about events or their insights into
certain occurrences or a situation (Patton, 1990; Yin, 1994). Interviews are
essentially of two kinds: structured and unstructured (Preece, 1996, p. 120). A
structured interview is based on the selection of carefully prepared questions or
topics in order to make sure that the interviewer obtains the responses required for
the research topic. The unstructured interview asks respondents to express their
own ideas spontaneously in their own words (Oppenheim, 1992, p.74). The unstructured interviews can provide useful and meaningful data on what the audience thinks about the computer program (Economou, 1998, p.39).
McDermott-Lewis (1990) mentions that the in-depth interview is very effective in understanding visitors' experiences with art (in Hein, 1998, p. 125-6)
143 Observations
The data from observations consist of detailed descriptions of people's activities, behaviours, actions, and the full range of interpersonal interactions and organizational processes that are part of observable human experience (Patton,
1990, p. 10). Observation is effective for studying the visitor's natural behaviour in the museum (Korn, 1989, p.226).
In the case of studying the impact of a computer program used in an exhibition context on the visitor's visual experience, observation can provide a rich understanding of what actually takes place in the gallery space. Data from the observation is useful to understand the visitor's response to the program (visitor's response to the physical setting of the computer kiosk and the process of user's interaction with the program). Also, observation could be useful for providing the information in relation to the design and layout of museum spaces and to consider the best location for the interpretation tool. Observation can also offer information about the visitor's behaviour when they are looking at the original object after the use of the computer program.
Focus group discussions
Focus group discussions refer to a form of qualitative research that can gain ideas on a well-defined subject from a group of people. It consists of gathering a selected or targeted group, usually up to a dozen, who discuss a topic with an interviewer (Korn, 1989; Hein, 1998). In focus group interviews, respondents have the opportunity to comment on ideas freely, while the interviewer has a less
144 dominating role (Krueger, 1988, p. 19). The interviewer becomes the facilitator of
a discussion (Veal, 1997, p. 138). The focus group discussion is useful in gaining
qualitative data about the views, attitudes, perceptions and behaviour of a specific
group of people. Focus group discussion could be useful in providing ideas of
how particular groups such as children, young people and families consider the
use of a computer program during their visit to the museum.
Data C o l l ec t io n M eth o d fo r T h is Su r v ey
As this was originally planned as a preliminary survey for a wider study, the
method chosen was questionnaire survey, supplemented by some open-ended
prompt questions from the interview, and by observation of visitors in the gallery
and using the CD-ROM.
The questionnaire used in this survey consisted of both open-ended and closed
questions in order to generate both quantitative and qualitative data that were
suited to understand the visitors’ reactions, attitudes, and perceptions towards the use of the CD-ROM and their experience with original art objects in the gallery before and after using the CD-ROM (see Appendix II for a questionnaire sheet, p.256-262). The mixture of open-ended and multiple-choice questions was devised to explore the specific aims described earlier. The detail regarding the design of the questionnaire for this particular survey will be discussed in the next section.
Most of questions were multiple-choice type for the following reasons: 1. for casual visitors, it is sometimes difficult to define their own experience in their
145 own words; 2. multiple-choice questions can produce quantitative data and the
impact of the CD-ROM program can be revealed with percentages. Two questions
included open-ended sub questions asking about audiences’ general perceptions regarding their answers to the closed-questions (question no.2 and no. 10). These
sub-questions attempted to elicit qualitative descriptions that would be able to reveal the audience’s specific feelings or attitudes towards the CD-ROM as well as their psychological process regarding the experience of art objects. As
McManus (1996b, p.3) noted categorizing the audience’s responses to open-ended data can produce numerical data (reported in percentages) as a result of categorization and exploratory analysis on it. This survey employs this exploratory analysis on open-ended sub-questions that “involves sorting replies to open-ended questions under headings that eventually reflect the concerns raised by the people interviewed” (Ibid, p.3).
Questionnaire surveys can be either interviewer-completed or respondent-completed (Veal, 1997, p. 147). The interviewer-completion style is where an interviewer reads the questions out to the respondent and records the respondent’s answers on the questionnaire. The respondent-completed questionnaire is usually presented to the respondents and respondents read and fill out the questionnaire themselves.
This survey used the respondent-completed style but the interviewer attended every interviewee while she/he completed the questionnaire and prompted for further information or answered any queries they had. The respondent-completion style was employed in order not to limit the time taken in completing the questionnaires and also to avoid giving audiences any pressure while they were
146 answering questions. During the survey, the interviewer received comments from interviewees regarding their perception on the CD-ROM program and their experience in the exhibition. These comments will be shown in the survey analysis in the next chapter.
Questionnaire design
The questionnaire used in this survey was designed to examine the specific points regarding CML and aesthetic education already outlined. Questions related to the aims mentioned in figure 3.4 (see ^Aims o f the survey \ p. 139 - 140) were as follows.
Aim 1: To see whether visitors were encouraged to make a personal involvement in their discovery of the work of art during their use of the CD-ROM program.
With this computer program, did you find that you could make Q.19 various approaches to understanding the painting?
With this computer program, did you find that you could learn Q.20 about the painting in your own way?
With this computer program, did you find that it was easy to Q.21 find information you wanted to know?
With this computer program, did you find that you liked being Q.22 able to choose information either in text or sound?
How much do you agree that the program helped you to think Q.5 why the painting was attractive to you?
147 Aim 2: To see whether the CD-ROM program stimulated visitors to look at the original work of art actively and attentively.
How much do you agree that this program made you want to Q.12 see the original object?
How much do you agree that you spontaneously looked Q.14 carefully at a painting on the wall after the use o f this program?
Aim 3: To understand whether visitors were provided with a situation in which they were stimulated for further learning about the art work of their concern.
How much do you agree that the program helped you to value Q.6. the creativity o f the artist?
“Did Zooming-up help you to do any o f the following? ” Q g (d) It kept me interested in the painting. (e) It made me want to know more about the painting.
How much would you agree that during the use o f the Q .ll. program, your curiosity about the painting increased or expanded?
148 Aim 4: To examine whether the CD-ROM stimulated visitors’ emotional involvement with the work of art during their investigation of the object.
How much do you agree that while you were investigating the Q.13 painting on the program, you felt emotions such as joy, nostalgia, sensation, anger, etc. When I used the program, I felt pleasure because I found out Q.16 that already I understood a lot about the painting from looking it.
Aim 5: To examine whether the CD-ROM contributed to the enhancement of perceptual skills’ which encourage an analytical viewing of the art object.
How much do you agree that program encouraged you to look Q 2 more carefully at the painting?
“Did Zooming-up help you to do any o f the following? ” (a) It helped me to notice more things in the painting than I saw at first. Q.9. (b) It helped me to understand the techniques the artist used to make the image. (c) It helped me to understand the materials the artist used to make the image. Did the GAME function help you to make a close observation o f the painting? Q.IO
What did you think and about the GAME?
149 Aim 6: To examine whether the CD-ROM contributed to the enhancement of intellectual skills’ which contribute to the audience’s cognitive understanding about the art object.
What feature o f the painting did you find out about from the program? You can reply to as many as you want. a) the artist's technique o f visual expression b) the artist's use o f materials c) the subject matter o f the painting Q,8 d) the artist's views o f the subject matter e) the use o f colour line, and composition f) the emotional impression given by the painting g) art history h) the artist's life i) political or social issues concerned with the painting.
Aim 7: To examine whether the CD-ROM contributed to the enhancement of the skill of sensitive awareness’ which supports emotional responses in the mind of the viewer during his/her art experience.
How much do you agree that the program encouraged you to Q.3 feel more familiar with the painting?
How much do you agree that looking at the painting on the Q.4 program prompted you to think o f memories of things that had happened to you in the past?
How much do you agree that the program helped in Q.7 encouraging you to feel in sympathy with the artist?
The survey also examined other findings such as: the visitor's satisfaction with the use of program features; and the possibility of the visitor's future use of the
150 program for learning and enjoyment. Questions which related to the examination of these findings are:
Q.15 (Group A) How much do you agree that after you used the program, your appreciation o f the painting increased? Q17 (Group B)
What did you like doing on the program? (choose from 7 Q.18 categories)
Next time you visit the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, do you Q.23 think you will want to use this program again to find out more about the collection?
151 Figure 3.5 Aims of the survey and the related questions
AIM QUESTIONS 1. Examine the computer's support for a personal involvement Q.19^0^1^2, in the discovery process about the work of art. Q.5
2. Examine the CD-ROM's contribution to stimulate visitors Q12, Q14 to look at the original work of art actively and attentively.
3. Examine whether the CD-ROM provides visitors with a Q6, Q9 (d & e), situation in which they were stimulated for further Q ll learning about the art work of their concern.
4. Examine whether the CD-ROM stimulates visitor's emotional involvement with the work of art during the use Q13, Q16 of CD-ROM.
5. Examine the CD-ROM's contribution to the enhancement Q2, Q9 (a,b& c), of the audience's "perceptual skills". QIO
6. Examine the CD-ROM's contribution to the enhancement Q8 of the audience's "intellectual skills".
7. Examine the CD-ROM's contribution to the enhancement Q3, Q4, Q7 of the audience's "skill of sensitive awareness".
Sele c t io n o f S ix Im a g es U sed f o r T h e S urv ey
The survey involved the examination of six selected images in the CD-ROM. The six art objects were chosen because the CD-ROM appeared to support various dimensions of aesthetic education. The list of works of art used in this survey and the information which is obtainable in the contents of the program are as follows.
Figure 3.6 - 3.25 appear in Appendix I (p.236 - p.255). Words and phrases written
152 in italics indicate the visual elements and background information of the picture
which are obtainable from the CD-ROM program. Sentences in bold are the title,
painter, and the year of each painting was produced.
1. An Egyptian feast’ by Edwin Long, oil on canvas, 1877. (fig. 3.6)
• The text page and sound information provides the subject matter of the
painting and the artist’s biography.
• The zooming-up image contains three close-up details (fig.3.7-3.9) and
hotspot highlights enable spectators to see closely the expression of human
faces, colours of traditional Egyptian clothes and the decoration of buildings,
and lastly, the composition, and space of the paintings.
• The game section instructs “Click on the picture where the details belong.”
An image of part of the painting is superimposed on top of the image of the
entire painting and the user is asked to find the spot where this detail belongs
in the image of the main painting. This invites the users to scrutinize the
painting while looking for the spot in the main picture.
• The link section 1) offers the user the opportunity of thinking about the
romantic expression of the woman’s figure in the late nineteenth century by
comparing it with a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 2) shows different
ways of making composition through the comparison of two paintings, both
of which depict large numbers of people. 3) offers information about the
different visual symbols in different cultures that accompany the ritual and
customs concerning death.
• Ideas for learning provides: 1 ) the opportunity of looking at a video clip made
by a student film maker. She made a moving image response to the Egyptian
153 feast that offers a unique viewpoint (illuminated by music and moving image)
for looking at this painting. 2) Information about a workshop on cultural ideas
about Egypt using various approaches which involved making Egyptian food,
discussing journeys and jewelry, and, also, performances of music, drama and
shadow puppets.
2. ‘The lemon tree’ by Henry Tuke, oil on canvas, 1892-3. (fig. 3.10)
• The text page and sound information provide ideas about the artist’s use o f
colours, and the painting technique employed for the impressionistic
expression of nature. It also offered information about the artist’s life and the
artist group that Henry Tuke belonged to.
• The zooming up image contains two close-up details. One highlights the
colour and light used for the expression of the subject matter (fig. 3.11). The
other highlights the butterfly that can only be noticed on close scrutiny (fig.
3.12).
• The game section instructs “Click on the picture where the image has
changed. Can you find three changes?” Users need to make careful
observations to find the three changes, so stimulating longer looking at the
painting.
• The link section offers the user the opportunity of 1) thinking about the visual
impression made by the use o f colour and composition through the
comparison of this figurative painting with another abstract painting; 2)
thinking about the subject matter of new life and continuity depicted through
the figures of fruit and the butterfly in the painting; 3) understanding about
the use of yellow colour for expressing emotional content in the painting
154 through the comparison with another abstract painting which uses yellow to
make a violent impression.
• The ideas for learning section provides 1) the opportunity tocontemplate the
image of trees heavily laden with fruit. It helps users to imagine their own
way of depicting the subject and to understand the artist's technique o f visual
expression by comparing a photograph with the painting of the lemon tree; 2)
the photograph of daisies in a field stimulates the user’s understanding about
the image impressionist painters might have been inspired by.
3. The Emigrant Ship’ by Charles Joseph Staniland, oil on canvas, 1880. (fig. 3.13)
• The text page and sound information provide the subject matter of the
painting - a Victorian dockside and the people of that time. It alsooffers an
explanation o f visual expression through the composition and colours that
create the atmosphere of the painting and theemotional impression depicted
in the painting.
• The zooming-up image contains four hot spot highlights (fig. 3.14 - 3.16)
which enable users to look closer at human figures, facial expressions,
costumes of the period, the use of colours, andthe artist's technique in
creating the emotional impact and atmosphere of the painting.
• The game section instructs “Click on the picture where the image has
changed”. This invites the user to scrutinise the painting while searching for
the spot in the picture.
• The link section offers the user the opportunity of 1) comparing paintings
from different cultures which depict the same subject but in different styles'.
155 2) information about the concept o f the colour red in the Victorian age; 3)
thinking about the expression o f the subject matter of migration and ethnic
identity by comparing this figurative painting with another abstract painting.
• The ideas for learning provides information about an educational project
regarding this painting. It includes a discussion ofVictorian culture.
4. ‘Housewives with steak-knives’ by Sutapa Biswas, mixed media on paper mounted on canvas, 1985-6. (fig. 3.17)
• The text page and sound information provide the subject matter o f the
painting (the explanation of the figures and things such as three arms holding
knives, flag, flowers, etc. and the necklace around the neck of the human
figure).
• The zooming-up image contains two hot spot highlights (fig. 3.18 - 3.19)
which enable users to see the texture of the picture surface and figures derived
fi’om the artist’s imagination. It allows users to think about the artist’s
technique and the artist’s view o f the subject matter.
• The game section instructs “Click on a country. Where was Sutapa Biswas
bom?” This question reminds the user of the artist’s Indian origin and her
cultural background.
• The link section offers the user the chance to think about the symbolic
elements o f the work, the aggressive and powerful figures o f woman, and
ideas o f the portrait.
• The ideas for learning section provides letters exchanged between the painter
Sutapa Biswas and several visitors who made responses inspired by the
painting. It offers the user information about Hindu mythology, the
156 seventeenth century Italian artist who gave inspiration to Biswas, the artist’s
views o f technique, use o f colours and lines, and the subject matter.
5. Zones of Dreams’ by Salima Hashmi, mixed media on paper, 1996. (fig. 3.20)
• The text page and sound information provide information about the subject
matter of a map and the Asian countries depicted in the painting.
• The zooming-up image contains four hotspot highlights (fig. 3.21 - 3.23)
which allow users to look carefully at the unique use o f colour (especially
unique in terms of tonal variation) used in the mystic image.
• The game section instructs “Click on the picture where the details belong”.
An image of part of the painting is superimposed on the top of the image of
the entire painting and the user is asked to find the spot where the detail
belongs in the image of the whole painting. This invites users to scrutinize the
painting while searching for the spot in the main picture.
• The link section offers the user the opportunity of 1) thinking about the
subject matter (map) by comparing it with the painting which depicts people
who travel; 2) comparing two paintings of the same subject matter (map)
using different materials (mixed media); 3) thinking about the image of the
painting by comparing it with the intricate carving of a Jali screen.
A Textile
6. ‘Zero’ by Nina Edge, Batik with tie-dye on cotton, 1996. (fig. 3.24)
• The text page and sound information provide information about the technique
o f batik, and the concept of zero that was invented by Indian thinkers in the
sixth century AD. They also offer explanation of the symbolic expression o f
157 zero .
• The zooming-up image contains a close-up detail of the centre of the art work
(fig. 3.25). It enables the user to see clearly the hues of blue and white and
little dots that constitute the various shapes of zero in the art work.
• The link section offers the user the opportunity of 1) looking at another
example of a batik textile work and understanding about the technique o f
batik; 2) comparing two works from different cultures (Hindu and Muslim)
which share the common philosophical idea of infinity in terms of subject
matter; 3) having insights into the artist’s idea o f the subject matter (void - an
empty infinite space) through comparing this art work with another abstract
painting in which the maker also wishes to convey the feeling of void.
• Ideas for learning provides: 1) information about a workshop which
introduced the materials and techniques of the work. Participants made batik
quilt and learnt about tie-die and batik techniques.
Disc u ssio n o f M eth o d
The Cartwright Hall survey had originally been intended as a preliminary study
for a much more extensive research project. However, for the reasons mentioned
in the preface, the research became restricted to the Cartwright Hall survey only, relying on a questionnaire survey. The sample size of 102 may not be entirely
statistically valid as a representation of population, but is nevertheless appropriate as an exploratory examination of the impact of the use of ICT on the aesthetic educational approach to people’s learning in the museum. It was hoped that the findings from this survey would be able to establish in broad terms whether the
158 ICT would be useful to support aesthetic education.
In the fuller study which was planned, However, several methods would have
been combined to enable a more in-depth examination of the role that the
multimedia kiosk played in the exhibition to be undertaken. Past surveys of
computer applications in museums have adopted various evaluation techniques
suited to their research theme (e.g. demographic figures of computer users; time
spent on the computer; user attitudes towards the use of the computer; the visitor’s
learning from the computer program) (Economou, 1998, p.38). These techniques
would have included interviews, more detailed observation and perhaps focus
group discussions as described above.
Su r v ey P r o c edu r e
Interviews were carried out in the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery over two weekends
in November 1997 and four weekends in April - May 1998. The weekends are the
best time for data collection because the museum normally had more visitors at
the weekend. Interviewees were chosen among visitors either who came into the
gallery where the CD-ROM kiosk was installed or who approached the CD-ROM
kiosk. Each interviewee selected was the first available person when the
interviewer was ready after completing the previous interview.
Each interviewee was asked to choose one painting fi"om the six chosen to be studied for this research (see section ‘Selection of six images for the survey’, p. 152). Each interviewee were to be asked to use icons for the information pages, sound information, zooming up function, the links, ideas for learning, and the
159 game in their investigation of the work of art of their interest.
The number of interviewees was divided in half and a different interview process for each group was employed (see below). In both cases, no time limits were placed on either looking at an original work of art or using the CD-ROM.
Interviews were conducted after the interviewees finished both their investigation of the CD-ROM and viewing of the real art object.
The vrocess o f interviews with sroup A
Each interviewee was asked to investigate, on the screen, the art object of their choice from the six selected from the CD-ROM “ART COLLECTIONS Cultural
Links” (Figure 3.6, p. 161). After viewing the CD-ROM they were asked to look at the original art object (Figure 3.7, p. 161). The interviewee then replied to the questionnaire.
The vrocess o f interview with sroup B
Each interviewee was asked to choose a work of art which interested him or her from among the six art objects which were specially chosen for the survey. First, the interviewee contemplated the original work of art of his or her choice then used the CD-ROM to investigate that art work. The interviewee then replied to the questionnaire.
160 Figure 3.26
An interviewee was asked to investigate, on the screen, the art object of their choice from the CD-ROM program
Figure 3.27 A fter viewing the CD-ROM they were asked to look at the original art objects
161 Chapter 4
Survey Analysis and Interpretation
As noted, this survey was conducted on two weekends in November 1997 and four weekends in April and May 1998. The collected sample number during these six weekends was 102. The data from the closed questionnaire with multiple choices was coded and this data was entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for counting and analysis. Open-ended questions were entered manually in Microsoft
Word for later analysis.
All the findings from the questionnaire is summarised in tables which are listed in appendix V.
1. THE SAMPLE
A ge a n d Sex o f Sa m ple (table 4.1)
There are eight more males than females in the sample. From observation, males were more interested in the computer kiosk than females. Seventy three percent of those interested were over 26 years old.
162 2. QUESTIONNAIRE DATA
S e l e c t io n o f t h e Pa in t in g
The paintings selected by the audience are illustrated in table 4.2. Group A viewed the CD-ROM first then looked at the painting. Group B looked at the painting first and then used the CD-ROM.
Ta b l e 4.2 C h o ic e o f pa in t in g
Painting Group A Group B Total
(CD-ROMDArt Object) (Art ObjectDCD-ROM)
The lemon tree 9 17 26
Egyptian feast 16 8 24
Emigrant ship 13 7 20
Housewives 6 10 16
Zero 3 7 10
Zone of Dreams 5 1 6
Total 1 52 50 1 102
163 Section A
Findings of the program’s support for personal involvement in the discovery process about the work of art [A im 1: s e e p. 139]
Questions no. 19, 20, 21, 22 and 5 are concerned with whether visitors were encouraged to achieve self-directed exploratory learning during their use of the
CD-ROM program. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.3 to 4.7 (see appendix V).
Question No. 19 (table 4.3)
Y could make various approaches to understand the painting. ”
I nterpretation
Sixty-six percent of the responses indicated that using the CD-ROM enabled visitors to make various approaches to understanding a painting.
C o m m e n t s o n q u e s t io n n o . 19
• ‘This program is just like a game. I play around and leam about the painting’.
- 37 year old white male who chose ‘Housewives with steak-knives’.
• “This program offers personal and interactive learning”. - 20 year old white
male photographer who chose ‘An Egyptian Feast’.
164 Question no.20 (table 4.4)
could learn about the painting in my own way. ”
Interpretation
Almost seventy percent of visitors reported that the CD-ROM program offered them the opportunity ofconstructing the learning process in their own way. This suggests that visitors were given freedom to explore the paintings according to their preferred way of learning.
C o m m e n t s o n q u e s t io n n o .20
• “You can search about the painting freely and it is easy to leam about the
painting. It is very good”. - 45 year old white female who chose ‘Housewives
with steak-knives’.
Question no. 21 (table 4.5)
7/ was easy to find information I wanted to know**
I nterpretation
Almost seventy percent of the sample reported that it was easy to find the information they wanted from this CD-ROM program.
165 C o m m e n t s o n q u e s t io n n o . 21
Many users commented that they wanted to have more information and thought that the computer program should be used for the satisfaction of the general information needs of the audience in the museum. Some users showed fmstration about the lack of specific information they wanted. Two users added the following comments: “you don’t know clearly what kind of information is available” and “if only you know how to use this program, I could say yes to this question”. These comments clearly show that in order to make an interactive program effective, it is important to show the user what kind of information is available and how he or she can get that information before the user starts to search the program. That is, the architecture of the program and program contents should be made clear for the user.
Other comments:
“The information is too specific. I wanted to have more varied information,
such as the information about other paintings by the same artist”. - 35 year
old white male who chose ‘The Lemon Tree’.
“The information is not deep enough. It would be better to see an art history
book than to use this CD-ROM”. - 28 years old white male who chose
‘Housewives with steak-knives’.
“I wanted more information. Links is interesting but it would be better if the
program enabled me to relate the painting in this gallery with the collections
in other galleries”. - 37 years old white male who chose ‘Zone of Dreams’.
166 Question no. 22 (table 4.6)
"Hike being able to choose information either in text or sound. ”
I nterpretation
More than eighty percent of the responses agreed that it was good to be able to
choose information either in text or sound. This finding indicates that the user
likes to have the jfreedom to choose their learning medium. Choice is likely to
support learning in the informal education environment of the museum.
Question no. 5 (table 4.7)
"It helped me to think why the painting was attractive to me"
I nterpretation
At the beginning of the interview, the audience was asked to choose one image
that spontaneously attracted their attention or interest.
As a result of their exploration on the CD-ROM about the art work, either before
or after viewing it, around sixty eight percent of the sample reported that the
program helped them to understand why an object was valuable or attractive to them. This finding indicates that a CD-ROM program can offer the opportunity to
contemplate and examine individual experiences.
167 C o m m e n t s o n q u e s t io n n o . 5
“To judge whether you really like it or not, you need to see the original
object”. - Art dealer who choose ‘Zone of Dreams’.
“It gives a sense of deep inner powers and unfolds secrets which I have
always found fascinating in Egyptian art”. - 32 year black male who chose
‘An Egyptian feast’.
Summary of section A: CD-ROM*s support for individual learning
Overall it can be seen that around seven out of ten users of the CD-ROM felt that the program was quite supportive in helping audiences to construct their learning about the painting in individual context.
Ta b l e 4.8 S u m m a r y o f S e c t io n A
Percentage of Question Aspect positive answer
22 Appreciate a choice of language medium 81%
20 Support for individual learning 69% Help in thinking about why a painting was 5 68% attractive 21 Ease of information search and access 67% Support for varied approaches for understanding 19 66% the painting.
168 Section B
Findings of the program’s power to stimulate visitors to look at the original work of art more actively and attentively [A i m 2: s e e p. 139]
Questions no. 12 and 14 are concerned with whether visitors were encouraged to look at the original art object more attentively. Both questions were completed by fifty-three interviewees who saw the CD-ROM first and then looked at the painting. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.9 to 4.10 (see appendix V).
Question no. 12 (table 4.9)
"This program made me want to see the original object ”
I nterpretation
Seventy-six percent of visitors who viewed the CD-ROM before looking at the painting found that the CD-ROM programstimulated them to want to see the original object.
The high rate of positive response to this question indicates that well prepared
CD-ROM programs are likely to encourage users to seek aesthetic engagement with a nearby original art object because they can stimulate users to look at an art object attentively.
169 Question no. 14 (table 4.10)
"/ spontaneously looked carefully at a painting on the wall after the use of this program, ”
I nterpretation
Almost 70 percent of the sample reported that their attention was absorbed when looking at the original painting on the wall after finding out about it fi*om the CD-ROM.
The high percentage of positive responses to the question indicates that the visual experience with the program (including learning varied information regarding the work of art and the examination of details of the image on the screen) encouraged users to look more carefully at the original object.
170 Summary of section B: The CD-ROM^s power to encourage attentive examination of the original works of art
The CD-ROM program was helpful in oSering audiences the opportunity to make a deeper connection with the art object in terms of the length of time they spent looking at the object and the quality of their art experience.
Around seven out of ten of those who used the CD-ROM to find out about a painting before looking at the original image found that the program made them want to see the original and/or to look more carefully at it when they did so.
T a b l e 4.11 S u m m a r y o f S e c t i o n B
Percentage of Question Aspect positive answer Desire to see original object after the use of 12 76% CD-ROM Perceptual involvement with the original 14 68% object after the use of CD-ROM
171 Section C
Findings of the program’s power to provide visitors with a situation in which they were stimulated for further learning about the work of art [Aim 3: s e e p. 139]
Questions no.6, 9 (sub-section d and e), and 11 are concerned with whether visitors were encouraged to make active discoveries and whether appreciation of the art object was enhanced. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.12 to 4.14 (see appendix V).
Question no. 6 (table 4.12)
"It helped me to value the creativity of the artist ”
I nterpretation
Seventy-seven percent of visitors gave a positive response to the question about the program’s capacity forhelping them to grasp the creativity of the artist.
One visitor who made a negative response to this question commented “you can’t see clearly the texture of the surface of the painting from the digital image on the screen”. This indicates that people are aware that the visual experience with the digital image can’t be equivalent to an experience with the original object, with regard to the experience of sensing and feeling the colour and texture of the art object.
172 Question no. 9 (table 4.13)
“Did Zooming-up help you to do any of the following?**
(d) It kept me interested in the painting,
(e) It made me want to know more about the painting.
I nterpretation o f t h e t o p i c ( d )
Sixty-five percent of the sample reported that the zooming up function helped
them to keep an interest in the painting. This finding indicates that a CD-ROM
program can be helpful in sustaining visitor interest in exploring an art object.
I nterpretation o f t h e t o p i c ( e )
About half of the sample (48%) reported that the zooming-up functionmade them want to know more about the painting.
Question no. 11 (table 4.14)
During the use of the program, my curiosity about the painting increased or
expanded, **
(This question is completed by Group A interviewees who saw the CD-ROM first then looked at the painting)
I nterpretation
Seventy-four percent of the sample felt that the CD-ROM program increased
173 their curiosity towards the object of their choice.
This finding strongly indicates that the CD-ROM program is effective in encouraging the audience to forge further learning about the art object.
Summary of section C: CD-ROM's support for increasing curiosity for further learning
The CD-ROM program was effective in stimulating the audience's interest in the painting because 77% of total sample mentioned that the program enhanced the appreciation of the creativity of the artist. The 74% of the group A who looked at the CD-ROM first mentioned that CD-ROM helped to heighten their motivation for making active discovery about the object they chose.
T a b le 4.15 Summary of Section C
Question Aspects Percentage of
positive answer
6 Insight into the creativity of the artist 77%
11 Increase in curiosity towards a painting 74% (n=53)
(d)Zooming-up: increasing interest in the painting 65% 9 (e)Zooming-up: increasing curiosity 48%
174 Section D
Findings of the program’s support of stimulating visitor’s emotional involvement during the use of the CD-ROM [A im 4: s e e p. 139]
Questions no. 13 and 16 examine whether learning about the work of art with the
CD-ROM program enhances the audience's emotional involvement during the learning process. Question 13 was answered by Group A who used the CD-ROM first and then looked at the painting. Question 16 was answered by Group B who viewed the original object first and then used the CD-ROM. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.16 to 4.17 (see appendix
V).
Question no. 13 (table 4.16)
"While I was investigating the painting on the program, I felt emotions such as Joy, nostalgia, sensation, anger, etc, ”
I nterpretation
Sixty-eight percent of the sample reported that the investigation about a painting with the CD-ROM program did not stimulate their emotional responses.
175 Question no. 16 (table 4.17)
'^When I used the prograntf I felt pleasure because I found out that already I
understood a lot about the painting from looking at it **
I nterpretation
Seventy-three percent of the sample reported that they discovered when they later researched the painting with the CD-ROM program that they had come to know a lot about a painting from looking it on the wall. They felt pleasure in this discovery.
This finding indicates that the CD-ROM program offered the users confidence and validation of the appropriateness of the personal understandings about the art object they had arrived at.
176 Summary of section D: CD-ROM^s support for the audience^s emotional involvement during the art experience
From the survey, only thirty percent of the sample who used the CD-ROM first then looked at the original painting indicated that they had some emotional response towards the art object during their use of the CD-ROM. However, more than seventy percent of the audience who looked at the original painting first then viewed CD-ROM reported that they experienced pleasure from the understanding that they discovered a lot about the painting from looking at the original object and the program confirmed them in their prior understanding about the painting.
Using the CD-ROM after looking at the original work of art was an enriching and pleasurable experience for the audience in this condition.
T a b l e 4.18 S u m m a r y o f S ec t io n D
Percentage of positive Question Aspect answer Pleasure in knowledge of own 13 73% of Group B understanding
16 Support for emotional responses 32% of Group A
177 Section E
Findings of the program’s power to encourage an analytical viewing of the art object [Aim 5: see p.140]
Question no. 2, 9 (sub-section a, b, c), and 10 are concerned with the program's power to stimulate the visitor to look at the work of art more closely and analytically. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.19 to 4.21 (see appendix V).
Question no.2 (table 4.19)
"It encouraged me to look more carefully at the painting, "
I nterpretation
Eighty-six percent of the sample reported that the CD-ROM program encouraged them to take a more careful look at the art object either on screen or on the wall.
One interviewee commented that he found that the CD-ROM program gave him in-depth information which helped him to look at and think more deeply about the painting than the text label on the wall could.
The ART CONNECTION program influenced the duration of the user’s perceptual engagement with an art object because it offered varied information and supporting tools for the exploration of the painting of concern to the viewer.
178 Analysis of the comments on question 2
There were thirty-seven comments on question 2 made by the audience. The comments can be reviewed and categorised into eight sections according to the core meaning expressed in the audience’s words (see below). Among the comments from the audience, many showed that the reason for the CD-ROM’s ability to stimulate the viewer’s perceptual engagement with the art works was that the program offered them the opportunity to look at visual details of the art works and also provided them with a lot of contextual information regarding the art object. The lists of comments are indicated in appendix VI.
Question no. 9 (table 4.20)
“Did Zooming-up help you to do any of the following?”
(a) It helped me to notice more things in the painting than I saw at first
(b) It helped me to understand the techniques the artist used to make the image.
(c) It helped me to understand the materials the artist used to make the image.
I nterpretation o f t h e t o pic (a )
Eighty percent of the sample reported that the zooming-up function helped them to pay attention to more visual aspects of the painting than they saw at first. This finding coincides with the findings from question fourteen that the around seventy percent of the sample thought that the prior use of the CD-ROM enhanced attentive looking at the original object in the exhibition hall.
The zooming-up function could enlarge the whole image of the painting on the
179 screen. It also enabled the highlighting of close-up details of a certain part of the
painting on the screen. Each image contains two to three hot spots. Most of the
users enjoyed hot spot highlighting and they paid attention to things which
normally remained unnoticed when viewing the original object on the wall. This
circumstance was especially remarkable among the users who chose the painting
of “The Lemon Tree”. In the image of this painting, there is a butterfly depicted in
the centre of the painting. However, it is quite difficult to notice this butterfly if
one looks at the painting superficially because the colour of the butterfly is quite
similar to that of the background scene of bushes and plants. Many users noticed
the butterfly in the painting when they viewed the hot spot. One interviewee said
“I did not know there was a butterfly in the painting! This is interesting and I will
take a look at it in the painting later on.” This was the situation of users who were
asked to look at the original painting first and then view the CD-ROM. The
zooming up function therefore is quite useful in bringing users’ attention to the
details of a painting and in encouraging more careful looking at art objects.
I nterpretation o f t o p ic s (b ) a n d (c)
These two questions were designed to examine how effective the zooming up
function was in supportingunderstanding of the techniques and materials the
artist used to make the image. The findings indicate that a minority of users
thought that the zooming-up function helped them to understand these (26% for
understanding about the material and 20.5% for understanding the technique).
The visual image on a computer screen can only show a flat image of the painting and so it is difficult for any CD-ROM program to encourage the perceptual and sensitive awareness required for fully recognising the techniques and materials the artist used for visual expression.
180 Question no. 10 (table 4.21)
“Did the GAME function help you to make a close observation of the painting?**
and
"What did you think about the GAME? **
(There is no Game section for the "Zero" selection)
I nterpretation
Sixty-three percent of visitors reported that the Game function was a useful aid
for making close observation of the painting on the screen. The Game function
was effective in encouraging the user to look more carefully at, and take a
longer look at, the image. Also, it encouraged interactive learning about the art
object.
A n a l y se s o f t h e a n s w e r o n t h e q u e s t io n “W h a t d id y o u t h in k a b o u t THE GAME FUNCTION?”
There are seventy-nine comments about the game function. The comments can be
reviewed and categorised into eight sections according to the core meaning
expressed in the audience’s words (see below). Among these comments, 62 %
showed their positive opinion on the use of the game function.2 0 % of total comments mentioned that the game function was helpful for close observation of the painting. 19 % of the comments were about fact that they enjoyed the game function and that it kept their interest in the picture. 19 % of the comments mentioned that the game function might be helpful in encouraging young people to understand the painting. Selections of comments are indicated in appendix VI.
181 Summary of section E: CD-ROM^s effectiveness for the development of perceptual skill
Looking at the work of art is important for learning about the painting. The
CD-ROM was quite effeetive for stimulating the audienee's careful looking at the work of art. Eighty six percent of the sample reported that the CD-ROM program encouraged them to take a more careful look at the art object. Eighty percent of the sample thought that the zooming-up function helped them to pay more attention to visual aspects of the painting than they saw at first. Sixty-three percent of the sample agreed that the zooming up function was useful for helping to make a closer observation. Many comments indicated that the zooming up function was fun and enjoyable and also, useful for children to learn about the painting.
Table 4.22 S um m ary of S ection E
Percentage of Question Aspect positive answer
2 Focusing on a work of art 8 6 % Zooming-up helped (a) notice more things in the painting than at 80% first 9 (b) understand the techniques in the painting 26%
(c) understand the materials the artist used 20.5%
Game function helped to make a close 10 63% observation of the painting
182 Section F
Findings regarding the program’s capacities to contribute to the cognitive understanding of the audience (the development of the visitor’s ‘intellectual skills’) [A im 6: s e e p.140]
Question no. 8 examines the visitors' opinions about the kinds of information about the painting the CD-ROM program offered. Audience’s responses are summarised in table 4.23 (see appendix V).
Question no. 8 (table 4.23)
“What feature o f the painting did you find out about from the program?^
(a) the artistes technique o f visual expression
(b) the artistes use o f materials
(c) the subject matter o f the painting
(d) the artistes views o f the subject matter
(e) the use o f colour, line, and composition
(f) the emotional impression given by the painting
(g) art history
(h) the artistes life
(i) political or social issues concerned with the painting
183 Interpretation and summary of Section F: Features of painting discovered from the use of CD-ROM
The provision of contextual knowledge about the work of art contributes to
making a closer contact with the art object.
In question 8 , visitors were asked to give their opinion about the kinds of
information that they thought they learned from the program. There were 9
features of the art work in the selection that visitors were asked to choose and
multiple responses were possible. The first four features which were most
supported through the use of the CD-ROM, were subject matter, emotional impact,
technique, colour, line, and composition. On the other hand, the last five features
which were less studied through the use of the CD-ROM, were the artist's view,
art history, materials, social and political issues, and artist's life.
The first four categories that were mentioned are concerned with the visual
elements of the art object, such as colours and subject matters. The last four
categories that were less well supported mainly concerned the general knowledge
of the painting such as its social historical context and the details of the artist's life.
Although there were differences in the quantity of information for each painting in the program, it was likely that the program better supported the visitor for understanding about related pictorial elements of the painting than about general knowledge. This may be because this program supports visitors quite well in looking more carefully at the image itself.
184 Section G
Findings of the program’s power to stimulate the visitors’ emotional responses (the development of the visitor’s ‘skill of sensitive awareness’) [Aim 7: see p.140]
Questions no.3, 4 and 7 are concerned with the involvement of affective domains
during the learning process with the CD-ROM program. Audience’s level of
agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.24 to 4.26 (see appendix
V).
Question no.3 (table 4.24)
"It encouraged me to feel more familiar with the painting, ”
I nterpretation
Eighty-two percent of the sample reported that the CD-ROM program was effective in encouraging them to feelfamiliarity with the art object.
This is important for aesthetic education because it can bring the audience’s attention to what is fine or interesting about a particular work to them personally.
185 Question no. 4 (table 4.25)
^'Looking at the painting on the program prompted me to think of memories of things that had happened to me in the past. ”
I nterpretation
Seventy-seven percent of the sample thought that CD-ROM programdid not
help them to make a personal connection with the art object.
C o m m e n t o n t h e q u e s t io n n o . 4
• “I concentrated on the use of this program and did not think about my
memories and feelings with regard to this painting. But, if I were from India
or some other neighboring countries of India, probably, it might happen”. - 67
years old white male who chose the ‘Zone of dreams’.
Question no.7 (table 4.26)
"// helped in encouraging me to feel in sympathy with the artist. "
Interpretation
Half of the visitors agreed that the computer program encouraged them to feel sympathy with the artist.
186 Summary of the section G: CD-ROM^s power to stimulate emotional response
More than eighty percent of the sample thought that the CD-ROM was effective in encouraging them to feel familiarity with the art object. The increased familiarity occurs because audiences were given many ways of understanding about the art object (from analysis of question no. 19, p. 164) and also, they looked more carefully at the original object after the use of the CD-ROM (from analysis of question no. 14, p. 170). Half of the sample reported that the program encouraged to feel sympathy with the artist. However, only one out of five audiences agreed that the CD-ROM evoked their memories with regard to the painting.
T a b l e 4.27 S l m iv ia r y o f S e c t io n G
Percentage of Question Aspect positive answer 3 Increased familiarity with the painting 82% Encouragement of the feeling of sympathy 7 49% with the artist
4 Evocation of memories 23%
187 Section H
OTHER FINDINGS:
1. T h e p r o g r a m ’s contribution t o t h e enhancement o f t h e v is it o r 's appreciation o f t h e a r t o b je c t
2. S atisfaction w it h t h e u se o f p r o g r a m f e a t u r e s
3. T h e possibility o f f u t u r e u se o f t h e p r o g r a m f o r l e a r n in g a n d ENJOYMENT
Questions no. 15 and 17 are the same question concerned with whether the program helped the visitor to appreciate the art object. Audience’s level of agreement with the statement are summarised in table 4.28 to 4.30 (see appendix
V).
Question no. 15 (for Group A) and 17 (for Group B) (table 4.28)
"After I used the program, my appreciation of the painting increased, "
I nterpretation
Seventy-seven percent of the total sample (80% in group A and 76 % in group B) reported that the CD-ROM program offered information which helped toincrease their appreciation of the painting they were concerned with. Just 1 % of the total sample mentioned his/her disagreement on this question.
188 Question no.l8 (table 4.29)
“What did you like doing on the program?”
(a) reading a text
(b) listening to sound information
(c) just looking at the coloured image
(d) zooming-up the image
(e) doing the game
(f) ideas for learning (the education pages)
(g) links to other works of art
I nterpretation
The most popular activities were using the zoom-up and listening to sound information, followed some way behind in popularity by using the links icon. The responses of individual features are described below.
• The Zoom-up function was very popular and three out of four of the
audience liked it. Many users reported earlier that the zoom-up function made
them look more carefully at the object and that they had pleasure from this
experience. The zoom-up function offers the opportunity of looking at certain
details of the painting which illuminate aesthetically unique features or
particular parts of the painting so that it helped to heighten the user’s
appreciation of the art object.
• The listening to information is popular with 61% of responses, while 35 %
liked reading text. The reason for the popularity of the sound information may
189 be because listening is much easier and sense simulative on a computer platform.
The Links section was appreciated by around half of the sample, probably because of its unique opportunities for learning about the collection at
Cartwright Hall. The Link section offered text information which related the painting to other art objects in the collection and enabled the user to compare these images at the same time on the screen. This is a novel learning opportunity which is normally unavailable from visual experiences in the exhibition space.
Around one third of users liked to just look at the coloured image on the screen.
Around twenty percent enjoyed ideas for learning
The high popularity of“zooming-up”, “listening to sound information", and “links to other works of art” indicate the likely effectiveness of computer technology as a new learning tool because these functions are most easily available through the use of computer technology. Users are likely to enjoy this new communication and learning opportunity when in the art gallery space.
The reason for the low appreciation (n = 5, 7%) ofthe game function could be because 90% of the sample was over the age of twenty-six.
From observation, the game was very popular among children. Several adults enjoyed playing the game with their children and in these cases, this interactive CD-ROM program contributed to family learning in the museum setting. Most adults reported that the game supported their children in becoming familiar with the painting very well and that it stimulated their
190 interest because the children could ‘learn by doing’.
Question no.23 (table 4.30)
“Next time you visit the Cartwright Hall Art gallery, do you think you will want to use this program again to find out more about the collection?**
I nterpretation
Sixty one percent of the sample indicated their definite intention to re-use the
CD-ROM program in future.
Summary of Section H
The "ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links" was quite effective in helping visitors to increase their appreciation of the painting they were concerned with.
Overall, visitors appreciated the zoom-up, sound information, and the fi-eedom of learning in their own way. A very large proportion of the sample felt that the
CD-ROM program enhanced appreciation of the paintings and expressed the intention of using the program to find out about the Cartwright Hall collection on later visits. About eighty four percent of the sample definitely or probably wanted to use the program again for future reference.
191 3. MAIN FINDINGS FROM THE SURVEY
G eneral Summary
"ART CONNECTION Cultural Links" is elective as an information tool for
supporting the user's understanding and interpretation of paintings in the
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. Most users enjoyed learning about the painting of their interest via the computer-mediated-leaming program and found that this program offered the opportunity to understand more fully what they were seeing and to become personally involved with an art object.
In this survey, the seventy-six percent of visitors who used the CD-ROM program before viewing the original object reported that the use of the program stimulated them to look at the original art object and that they were absorbed by the painting on the wall after using the CD-ROM. Eighty percent of the sample who viewed the original object first and then used the program thought that this computer program enhanced their appreciation and understanding of the painting they were interested in. Eighty-four percent of the total sample showed positive feelings about future use of the program to find out more about other paintings in the gallery.
I shall now move on to summarise findings regarding the level of support for each of the seven aims of aesthetic education.
192 Su ppo r t o f P e r so n a l In v o lvem ent in th e Disc o v er y P r o c e ss (A i m I)
The CD-ROM program was useful in helping users to construct their own
meanings from the painting. 6 8 % of the sample understood why an object was
valuable or attractive to them. This is mainly because the CD-ROM offered
diverse information and allowed users to explore the meanings contained in the
object via a computer-mediated-leaming system. As a result, 6 6 % of the sample
reported that they discovered that they could learn about the painting with various
approaches and 69% of the sample thought that the CD-ROM helped them to
learn about the object in their own way. The CD-ROM program offered users the chance to understand various aspects of an art object through one-to-one communication and so it enhanced their personal involvement and contemplation of the art object when viewed 'on the spot'.
S tim u latio n o f A tten tiv e L o o k in g (A im 2)
In this survey, 76% of the audience who used the CD-ROM program before viewing the original object reported that the use of the program stimulated them to look at the original art object. 6 8 % of them were absorbed by the painting on the wall after using the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM encouraged users to maintain contact with the original object, which is an important aspect for supporting aesthetic education.
Stim u latio n o f F ur th er L e a rn in g (A im 3)
This CD-ROM was effective in encouraging the users’ motivation towards an
193 active discovery because 74% of the sample who viewed the CD-ROM before
looking at the original painting reported that the CD-ROM program increased
their curiosity towards the painting. 65% of the total sample reported that
zooming-up helped them to keep interest in the painting. 77% of the total sample
reported that the CD-ROM program helped to enhance their appreciation of the
painting. Overall, the CD-ROM program was helpful for increasing the visitor's
curiosity and for stimulating their further learning about the art object.
Su ppo r t o f E m o t io n a l In v o lvem ent (A im 4)
Only one-third of the sample reported that they were emotionally involved during their investigation of the painting with the CD-ROM program. On the other hand, around 73% of the audience in group B (who viewed the CD-ROM after they looked at the painting) reported that they felt pleasure to know that they already understood quite a lot about a painting before viewing CD-ROM. The findings from this section could not expose much about visitors’ emotional involvement during their experience of art. One reason for this was that it was quite difficult to ascertain people’s ‘emotional statement’ from the use of a closed questionnaire.
An open-ended questionnaire or in-depth interviews would be better instruments to help understand more clearly the qualitative features of the audience’s art experiences (e.g. emotional involvement during audience’s learning with computer-mediated-leaming).
De v e l o pm e n t o f P e r c e ptu a l sk ills (A im 5)
This CD-ROM was very effective in the development of the user’s perceptual
194 skills because it stimulated responses towards various types of visual stimuli
contained in the paintings. 8 6 % of the sample reported that the program
encouraged them to look more carefully at the painting. In particular, the
zooming-up function contributed to this process. 80% of the sample reported that
the zooming-up function helped them to notice more things in the painting than
they saw at first and they enjoyed this experience. The game was also useful for
stimulating audiences' careful and longer examination of the painting. 63% of the
sample reported that the game function helped them to scrutinise the painting while they played the game on the screen. Many parents who came to the gallery with their children commented that the game function was very helpful for children to learn about the painting. From observation, visitors who came as a group (friends or family) enjoyed the game function together. The computer-meditated-leaming program in the gallery may therefore be helpful for group learning.
De v el o pm e n t o f Intellectual Sk ill s (A im 6)
The CD-ROM was not very effective in supporting the development of cognitive understanding about the object. Among nine features of the painting (subject matter, emotional impact, technique, visual elements, the artist's view, art history, materials, social issues, artist's life), only one feature (subject matter) was discovered to be well supported (more than 50% response was obtained).
However, the CD-ROM offers varied contextual information about painting. Thus, there are several possible reasons for this result and these include: the visitors’ indifference to the contextual information; and the lack of a support or navigation
195 system in the CD-ROM program to allow the visitor to understand fully the
contextual information about the art object.
Many users thought of the computer kiosk as an information tool and so made
comments to the effect that they wanted more information about the object from
this program. Although half of the users admitted that it was easy for them to find
the information they wanted, there were several responses which made clear that
users did not understand fully what range of information was available and how
they could get the particular information they wanted to have. Formative
evaluation may have helped overcome this situation. Museum visitors may focus their attention on a work of art if they find that their individual curiosity and interest in the particular features of an artifact is aroused. Thus, it would be more effective if the CD-ROM had offered a navigation system which enabled users to understand the contents of the program before exploring the information they needed or were interested in. This would help avoid disappointment while enhancing the awareness of what was being looked at and, at the same time, the cognitive processes involved in coming to terms with, and forming personal values about, an art object.
De v e l o pm e n t o f th e Sio lls o f Se n sitiv e A w areness (A im 7)
23% of the sample reported an interaction between the user’s prior experience or knowledge and information or the ideas conveyed in the art work as a result of using the program. About half of the sample reported that the CD-ROM program encouraged them to feel sympathy with the artist. 82% of the sample thought that
CD-ROM was effective for increasing their familiarity with the art object. The
196 enhancement of feeling and familiarity are important for encouraging visitors to
have a close connection to the art object.
4. SUMMARY
The goal of aesthetic education in museums is to enhance the viewer's active
learning process and appreciation about art collections in museums. The survey
showed that by employing a computer-mediated-leaming system in the exhibition
space as a supporting tool for viewer/user interpretation, the art museum has the potential to offer visitors an enriched visual experience.
From the survey, 6 6 % of the audience agreed that the CD-ROM supported varied approaches to understanding the work and 69% mentioned that the program helped their own exploration of the art object of their concern. 81% of the sample liked the fact that they had a choice of learning medium (text or sound).
This high percentage shows the audience’s preference for various media to assist their understanding of the artwork, which suggests that computer-mediated-leaming could provide a very useful interpretation tool for art exhibitions.
Overall, the CD-ROM program supported the audience’s perceptual engagement and it gave the audience the enjoyment of learning about paintings. As a result of the use of the CD-ROM, 6 8 % of the visitors agreed that they spontaneously looked carefully at the painting. Also, the initial use of the CD-ROM program enhanced both the audience’s desire to see the original object and their curiosity
197 towards the painting. As a result, for both Group A and Group B, the use of the
CD-ROM inereased appreciation of the painting.
This is because the CD-ROM program was helpful in providing the audience with
a situation that supported the following areas during their visual experience as
indicated by the table below.
T a b l e 4.31 S u m m a r y o f t h e F i n d i n g s f r o m t h e S u r v e y
Supported by CD-ROM Dimension of Aesthetic Education Well Not so well
1. Self- directed exploratory learning. 4
2. Attentive looking (take a longer time in 4 contemplation of art object).
3. Enhanced motivation for active discovery and retained curiosity for further 4 learning 4. Enhancement of emotional involvement (feel familiar with the art object because 4 of their deeper connections with the art object)
5. Enhancement of perceptual sill (look 4 closely at the original object)
6. Enhancement of intellectual skill (understanding about various aspects 4 embedded in the work of art). 7. Enhancement of sensitive awareness 4
198 Conclusion
My question for this research started from the notion that conventional art
museums tend to offer exhibitions where content is exhibited in a way that reflects
the ‘true’ structure of the knowledge contained in the art object (e.g. originated
from art historical research) or in the exhibition theme (e.g. the curator’s message
to the audience). In such cases, interpretation is normally based on giving specific
information to the audience, thus, the exhibition is likely to fail to consider the
learner’s own previous experience or their cognitive and affective attitudes towards understanding of art. Recent publications on museum learning have started to take a constructivist perspective into account (Cole, 1995, p. 227) which considers that learning in the museum setting is not a question of knowledge gain by study or teaching but rather, a construction of meaning that is based on one’s prior knowledge and experience. Thus, Swift (1999, p.48) noted that “the museum has become more effective at changing the way we see, think or feel about something, and enhancing our understanding than at adding to our knowledge”.
My proposition in this research is to advocate the use of computer-mediated-leaming (CML) systems for the enhancement of the quality of visitors' experience with art museum collections. The concept of the CML system includes the use of interactivity, simulation, dissemination of varied levels information and user-driven information manipulation, which are potentially effective in prompting informal learning opportunities for museum audiences. By applying a computer-mediated-leaming system for supporting interpretation, I believe, art museums could become places in which visitors forge a personal
199 involvement with the art experience rather than merely receive the institutional
interpretation. The exploratory survey with the CD-ROM project in the
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, U.K. was conducted as an illustrative
practical investigation.
The CD-ROM project "ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links" was not explicitly
designed to support aesthetic education. However, it aimed both to provide visitors with a visually and sensually exciting learning context and to support
individual approaches to understanding the collections in the gallery. For this reason, I considered that an examination of visitors' art experiences before and after the use of the CD-ROM program would reveal useful information about the impact of multimedia applications for aesthetic education. Seven elements were examined to assess the impact of the CD-ROM on the development of visitor's aesthetic approach: 1 . a personal involvement in the discovery process about the work of art; 2. stimulation of active perceptual engagement with art objects; 3. stimulation of further learning about the art object; 4. stimulation of emotional involvement in the process of art experience; 5. enhancement of the visitor's perceptual skills; 6 . enhancement of the visitor's intellectual skills; and 7. enhancement of the visitor's sensitive awareness.
The survey revealed that the "ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links" was helpful in supporting aesthetic education in the art museum. Generally, the program was effective in helping the user to spend more time in contemplation of an art object and in making inter-connections with it. This is because the CD-ROM program appeared to be supportive in heightening visitors’ perceptual engagement with the art object and also because the program increased their curiosity about seeing the
200 original art object. Among the many approaches to understanding the collection
contained in the programs, zooming-up, sound information, and link section,
which support comparative study of one painting with three other paintings in the
collection, were most popular. Considering that these approaches available from
the use of ICT, it may have a great potential to be an effective interpretative
medium for supporting visitors’ deeper involvement in understanding, thinking
and feelings about art museum collections.
FUTURE STUDIES
Since this research has considered of an exploratory survey, there are a number of possibilities for future studies. First, the conclusions of this research need to be tested against a range of other case studies using a variety of survey techniques to establish the demand for investment in multimedia development in the art museum areas.
Furthermore, the examination of both users and non-users of computer applications in museum exhibitions is imperative if museums are to develop the use of computer-mediated-leaming systems in the future. It is particulary important that the reason for non-use is understood (Keating, 1999, p. 25).
It is also useful to understand the best situation for the use of the computer-mediated-leaming system in the exhibition floor. In the pilot survey, many family visitors made positive comments about the usefulness of the computer program because parents could develop learning with their children.
201 Focus group discussions would be useful in helping to understand the effective
situation of the use of computer program for specific audiences.
Lastly, there is the need for the expansion of the survey methodologies for
understanding fully the audience’s qualitative aspects of learning with
computer-mediated-leaming system (e.g. attitudinal change or the affective
aspects of visitor learning). In this exploratory survey, the questionnaire was
useful in providing data for assessing the user's immediate and intuitive ideas
about the impact of the program on their learning process. Although closed
questions were useful in measuring audiences' tendency towards specific attitudes
(e.g. whether the audience's appreciation of the art object was increased), elosed
questions could offer little information about why such an attitude occurred. A
mixture of open-end and closed-questions would be useful for gaining richer
information for analysis of the cause and effect relationship. As an alternative, in-depth interviews would be useful for providing information for understanding visitors' feelings, attitudes and insights into the use of computers during their art experience.
Considering the likely continuous technological development in the future, more and more museums will adopt computer interactives in order to respond to the demand for quality services to the public. By developing further research on the educational impact of the eomputer-mediated-leaming system in the museum setting, art museums will be able to develop more effective learning opportunities for publie audiences.
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235 A PPEN D IX I
à © Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.6 ‘An Egyptian feast’ by Edwin Long
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.7 Detail of ‘An Egyptian feast’
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mfww
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.8 Detail of ‘An Egyptian feast’
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.9 Detail of ‘An Egyptian feast’
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w
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.10 ‘The lemon tree’ by Henry Tuke
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f
Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.11 Detail of The lemon tree’
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.12 Detail of The lemon tree’
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.13 ‘The Emigrant Ship’ by Charles Joseph Staniland
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Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.14 The detail of ‘The Emigrant Ship’
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.15 Detail of The Emigrant Ship’
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r
Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.16 Detail of ‘The Emigrant Ship’
246 APPEN D IX I
Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.17 ‘Housewives with steak-knives’ by Sutapa Biswas
247 APPEN D IX I
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.18 Detail of ‘Housewives with steak-knives’
248 APPEN D IX I
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.19 Detail of ‘Housewives with steak-knives'
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È
5
I
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.20 ‘Zones of Dreams’ by Salima Hashmi
250 APPEND IX I
t
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.21 Detail of ‘Zones of Dreams’
25 A PPEND IX I
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.22 Detail of ‘Zones of Dreams’
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- 6 -^1
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.23 Detail of ‘Zones of Dreams’
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.24 ‘Zero’ by Nina Edge
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© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums 1997
Figure 3.25 D etail o f ‘Z ero’
255 A PPE N D IX n
CARTWRIGHT HALL ART GALLERY “ART CONNECTIONS Cultural Links” CD-ROM for the Aesthetic Education
QUESTIONNAIRE DATE TIME SEX l.M ale 2. Female AGE GROUP A. CD-ROM □ Art Object B. Art Object □ CD-ROM
Introduction to the questionnaire Good morning / afternoon. I wonder if you could help me. The Cartwright Hall Art Gallery wants to make sure that people enjoy the paintings as much as possible. 1 am investigating how the computer program helps people understand works of art in this gallery. Could you spare a little time to choose one of these paintings, look at the part of computer program about the paintings, look the actual painting, and tell me what you think.
Ask interviewee to choose an image among seven paintings specially chosen for this survey. During the investigation with the program, all functions on the screen should be used.
1. Which painting did you choose?
a. The lemon tree b. An Egyptian feast c. The Emigrant ship d. Housewives with steak-knives e. Zero f. Zones of dreams
256 A PPE N D IX n
Section I This part of the questionnaire is about how the program was in helping you to appreciate the painting you chose. How much do you agree with the following?
2. “It encouraged me to look more carefully at the painting.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
Comments:
‘It encouraged me to feel more familiar with the painting.’
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
4. “Looking at the painting on the program prompted me to think of memories of things that had happened to me in the past.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
5. “It helped me to think about why the painting was attractive to me.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
257 A P PE N D IX n
6. “It helped me to value the creativity of the artist.’
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
7. “It helped in encouraging me to feel in sympathy with the artist.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
Section U Program Detail
8. What feature of the painting did you find out about from the program? You can reply to as many as you want.
(a) the artist’s technique of visual expression A (b) the artist’s use of materials B (c) the subject matter of the painting C (d) the artist’s views of the subject matter D (e) the use of color, line, and composition E (f) the emotional impression given by the painting F (g) art history G (h) the artist’s life H (I) political or social issues concerned with the painting I
258 A PPE N D IX n
9. Did zooming up help you to do any of the following? You can reply to as many as you want.
(a) It helped me to notice more things the painting than I saw at A first. (b) It helped me to understand the techniques the artist used to B make the image. (c) It helped me to understand the materials the artist used to C make the image. (d) It kept me interested in the painting. D
(e) It made me want to know more about the painting. E
10. Did the GAME function help you to make a close observation of the painting?
Yes / No
What did you think about the GAME function?
Section m To be completed by interviewees who saw the CD-ROM first then looked at Painting
Now you have looked at the progamme and painting. How much would you say that the following statements are true for you?
11. “During the use of the program, my curiosity about the painting increased or expanded.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
259 A PPE N D IX n
12. “This program made me want to see the original object.’
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
13. “While I was investigating the painting on the program, I felt emotions such as joy, nostalgia, sensation, anger, etc.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
14. “ I spontaneously looked carefully at a painting on the wall after the use of this program.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
15. “After I used the program, my appreciation of the painting increased.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
260 A PPE N D IX n
Section IV To be completed by interviewees who looked at the painting first then viewed CD- ROM
How much do you agree with the following statement?
16. “When I used the program, I felt pleasure because I found out that already I understood a lot about the painting from looking at it.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
17. “After I used the program, my appreciation of the painting increased.”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
Section V To be completed by every interviewee.
18. What did you like doing on the program? Please tick as many as you like.
(a) reading a text A (b) listening to sound information B (c) just looking at the colored image C (d) zooming-up the image D (e) doing game E (f) ideas for learning (the education pages) F (g) links to other works of art G
261 A PPE N D IX n
How much do you agree with the following statement?
19. “I could make various approaches to understanding the painting.”
(a) very much (h) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
20. “I could learn about the painting in my own way.’
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
21. “It was easy to find information I wanted to know.’
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
22. “I like being able to choose information either in text or sound”
(a) very much (b) quite a lot (c) not much (d) not at all
23. Next time you visit Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, do you think you will want to use this program again to find out more about the collection?
1 . Yes 2 . Probably 3. No
Thank you very much.
262 APPENDIX ni
Schedule for unstructured Interviews with Museum Educators
First phrase of interviews was conducted in spring 1999 with two museums: the
Tate gallery of Britain (former Tate gallery), London: the British Museum. Second phrase of interviews conducted in spring 2001 with three other museums: Tate
Modem, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum; National Portrait Gallery,
London. The schedule for interviews is as follows:
Institution Name / position Day • John Humphreys / Head of Tate Britain 15 March 99 Education • Rowena Loverance / British Museums 11 March 99 Educational IT department • Claire Gittings / Museum National Portrait Gallery 2 February 01 Educator • David Judd / Education Victoria & Albert Museum Officers in the British 9 February 01 Gallery Project Team • Toby Jackson / Head of Tate Modern 12 February 01 Education
263 APPENDIX IV
Guidelines for Semi-structured Interviews with Museum Educators
Interviewer: Tomoko Kanoshima
Institution Interviewee Date
About my research 1. The aim of my survey is to examine the impact of multimedia educational tool on the visitor's experiencing of art collections and the museum environment. 2. I am interested especially in the use of information technology for aesthetic education strategy. Aesthetic education is an educational approach that emphasizes the enhancement of the quality of individual experience of art object.
The interviewees Museum educators & IT professionals in the museum.
The aim of the interview 1. Understand the educational philosophy or purpose of the Museum. 2. Understand educators’ and museum professionals’ perceptions towards Aesthetic Education. 3. Understand the museum professionals’ perceptions, understandings, and hopes about the use of ICT educational and communicational development in general.
264 APPENDIX IV
Educational Philosophy of the museum
1. What is the educational philosophy or purpose of your museum? 2. To who, and for what aims do you plan educational programme?
265 APPENDIX IV
Aesthetic education I would like to have your opinion about Aesthetic Education. Aesthetic education is an educational strategy which emphasize the enhancement of quality of the visitors' individual experience of art.
3. Do you think which is the best that audiences should be encouraged to make their subjective reaction to works of art or to follow the objective perception that curators often favor or something of each?
□ Making subjective reaction (making their own meaning in art objects). □ Following objective perception (follow the idea of experts about art). □ Something of each.
The following statements are considered to be focal points in the development of aesthetic educational strategy in the museum context. Do you think these statements are important when considering the educational approach? If so, how do you think these situations can be developed?
□ Enhancement of visitor's personal and active involvement in the discovery process about the work of art. □ Encouraging the visitor's active and tentative looking (taking the time to look at the work of art carefully) □ Offering the situation that visitors are stimulated towards further learning about the work of art. □ Encouraging the visitor to have an emotional involvement during the visual experience
266 APPENDIX IV
Information Technology for the Educational Strategy in Museums
5. In your museums, do you use multimedia applications for educational purpose?
6. What is your opinion about the benefits of using 1) the Internet and 2) CD-ROMs for education and communication in museum? 7. How many access do you have in one day via the Internet 8. How many sold your CD-Rom program?
The Internet □ Access Number (if applicable)
CD-ROM □ How many sold ? (if applicable)
267 A PPEN D IX V
Tables Analysed in Chapter 4
T a b l e 4.1 A g e a n d S e x o f S a m p l e
Sex N um ber Percentage Male 55 54%
Female 47 46%
Age N um ber Percentage 10-14 8 1 8 %
15-25 20 20%
26-30 15 15%
31-40 26 25 % 41-50 17 17 %
50+ 16 15%
SECTION A
Table 4.3 Support for varied approaches to understanding the
WORK OF ART (N = 102)
Table 4.3 illustrates responses about the degree of learning support the CD-ROM program offered for making varied approaches to understanding the work of art.
Painting | Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer The lemon tree 6 6 4 6 4 Egyptian feast 13 7 3 1 0 Emigrant ship 7 6 3 2 2 Housewives 5 4 4 3 0 Zero 1 4 5 0 0 1 Zone of Dreams 2 2 1 0 1 Total 37 30 15 12 8 % 36% 29% 15% 12% 8% % 66% 26% 8%
268 A PPEN D IX V
Table 4.4 S upport for individual learning (n = 102)
Table 4.4 illustrates the responses about whether the CD-ROM program was helpful in learning about the art object in an individual way.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
The lemon tree 12 5 3 2 4 Egyptian feast 10 8 2 3 1 Emigrant ship 5 8 2 2 3
Housewives 4 5 4 2 1 Zero 2 6 0 0 2
Zone of Dreams 2 3 0 0 1 Total 35 35 11 9 12 % 34% 34% 11% 9% 12% % 69% 20% 12%
T a b l e 4 .5 E a s e o f information s e a r c h / a c c e s s ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.5 illustrates responses regarding the ease of search for information in the CD-ROM program.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer The lemon tree 11 6 3 2 4 Egyptian feast 10 6 4 3 1 Emigrant ship 5 8 3 0 4 Housewives 5 3 2 0 1 ^ Zero 1 3 5 1 0 1 Zone of Dreams 1 2 1 1 1 Total 36 32 15 8 11
% 35% 31% 15% 8% 11%
% 67% 23% 11%
269 A PPEN D IX V
T able 4.6 C hoice of language mediuivi (n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.6 illustrates whether the visitors liked being able to receive information either in text or sound.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
The lemon tree 9 9 2 2 4 Egyptian feast 12 8 2 0 2
Emigrant ship 6 10 1 0 3 Housewives 9 6 1 0 0 Zero 4 5 0 0 1 Zone of Dreams 2 3 0 0 1
Total 42 41 6 2 11 % 41% 40% 6% 2% 11%
% 81% 8% 11%
T a b l e 4 .7 G e n e r a t i n g ‘ in d i v i d u a l m e a n i n g ’ ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.7 illustrates the visitor’s thoughts as to whether the program was helpful in generating “individual meaning” regarding the art object.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
The lemon tree 9 11 5 1 0
Egyptian feast 6 12 3 2 1 Emigrant ship 5 10 5 0 0
Housewives 0 6 6 4 0 Zero 4 5 1 0 0
Zone 0 1 5 0 0
Total 24 45 25 7 1
% 24% 44% 25% 7% 1%
% 68% 31% 1%
270 A PPEN D IX V
SECTION B
Table 4.9 De s ir e t o s e e o r i g i n a l o b j e c t a f t e r t h e u s e o f CD-ROM PROGRAM (N = 53)
Table 4.9 illustrates the degree of the support the CD-ROM offered in encouraging the user to feel they wanted to see the original object after the use of CD-ROM. Interpretation
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at allNo answer The lemon tree 4 2 2 0 1 Egyptian feast 6 6 0 1 3 Emigrant ship 5 6 1 1 0 Housewives 2 1 1 1 1 Zero 3 1 0 0 0 Zone of dreams 2 2 0 1 0 Total 22 18 4 4 5 % 42% 34% 8% 8% 9% % 76% 24%
T a b l e 4.10 S t i m u l a t i o n o f p e r c e p t u a l involvement w it h t h e im a g e OF THE ORIGINAL OBJECT AFTER THE USE OF THE CD-ROM PROGRAM (N = 53)
The table 4.10 illustrates the degree of the user’s engagement with the original painting after finding about it on the CD-ROM.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer The lemon tree 1 5 2 0 1 Egyptian feast 6 5 2 1 2 Emigrant ship 2 6 4 1 0 Housewives 4 0 0 1 1 Zero 1 2 1 0 0 Zone of dreams 3 1 1 0 0 Total 17 19 10 3 4 % 32% 36% 19% 6% 8% % 68% 25% 8%
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SECTION C
T a b l e 4 .1 2 I n s i g h t in t o a e s t h e t i c c r e a t i v i t y ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.12 illustrates the visitors' thoughts about whether the program gave insights into the creativity of the artist.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all The lemon tree 9 11 5 1
Egyptian feast 8 11 5 0
Emigrant ship 6 9 4 1
Housewives 7 5 3 1
Zero 4 5 1 0
Zone of Dreams 1 3 2 0
Total 35 44 20 3 % 34% 43% 20% 3% % 77% 23%
T a b l e 4 .1 3 O l t c o m e o f t h e u s e o f z o o m f u n c t i o n ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.13 illustrates the support which visitors thought was given by the use of zooming-up function.
Support Lemon Egypt Emigrant House Zero Dreams Total %
(d) Help to keep interest in the 21 6 18 4 4 13 66 65% painting
(e) Increased curiosity 16 4 13 2 5 9 49 48%
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T a b le 4.14 E n h a n c e m e n t o f c u r io s it y a b o u t t h e pa in tin g (n = 53)
Table 4.14 illustrates the degree of support the CD-ROM offered for enhancing the user’s curiosity about the painting they were concerned with.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
The lemon tree 2 5 0 1 1
Egyptian feast 5 5 3 1 2
Emigrant ship 2 9 2 0 0
Housewives 1 2 0 2 1
Zero 1 3 0 0 0
Zone of dreams 0 4 1 0 0
Total 11 28 6 4 4
% 21% 53% 11% 8% 8%
% 74% 26 %
273 A PPEN D IX V
SECTION D
T a b l e 4 .1 6 S u p p o r t f o r e m o t io n a l r e s p o n s e s ( n = 5 3 )
Table 4.16 illustrates the degree of support the CD-ROM program offered the user in making an emotional response during the process of their investigation about the painting.
Painting I Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
The lemon tree 1 2 2 3 1
Egyptian feast 1 3 8 2 2
Emigrant ship 2 6 4 1 0
Housewives 1 0 2 2 1
Zero 0 0 3 1 0
Zone of dreams 1 0 3 1 0
Total 6 11 22 10 4 % 11% 21% 42% 19% 8% % 32% 68%
T a b l e 4 .1 7 P l e a s u r e in k n o w l e d g e o f o w n understanding ( n = 4 9 )
Table 4.17 illustrates the degree to which visitors found pleasure in realizing while using the CD-ROM that they understood a lot about a painting after looking at the original object.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer The lemon tree [ 8 6 3 0 0 Egyptian feast 1 3 1 0 3 Emigrant ship 1 3 2 0 1 Housewives 1 7 0 2 0 Zero 1 5 0 0 0 Zone of Dreams 0 0 1 0 0 Total 12 24 7 2 4 % 24% 49% 14% 4% 8% % 73% 27%
274 A PPEN D IX V
SECTION E
T a b l e 4 .1 9 F o c u s i n g o n a w o r k o f a r t ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.19 illustrates the degree of the visitor’s perceptual engagement with the image of the art object of their choice as a result of his or her use of this CD-ROM.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all The lemon tree 14 9 3 0 Egyptian feast 9 13 1 1 Emigrant ship 4 14 2 0 Housewives 3 11 1 1 Zero 2 6 2 0 Zone of Dreams 0 3 3 0 Total 32 56 12 2 % 31% 55% 12% 2% % 86% 14%
T a b l e 4 .2 0 O u tc o iv ie o f t h e u s e o f z o o m f u n c t i o n (n = 1 0 2 , m o r e
THAN ONE RESPONSE WAS POSSIBLE)
Table 4.20 illustrates the support which visitors thought was given by the use of zooming-up function.
Support Lemon Egypt Emigrant House Zero Dreams Total %
(a) Notice more things 22 11 21 5 7 16 82 80%
(b) Understand technique 12 1 2 2 6 4 27 26%
(c) Understand artistic 9 1 3 0 5 3 21 20.5% materials
275 A PPEN D IX V
T a b le 4.21 C l o se observation v ia Ga m e (n=92)
Table 4.21 illustrates the visitor’s perception that the Game function helped close observation of the painting.
Perception percent Lemon Egyptian Emigrant Housewives DreamsI Total %
Yes 20 12 12 9 5 58 63%
No 2 12 8 5 0 27 29%
No answer 4 0 0 2 1 I 7 8%
SECTION F
T a b l e 4 .2 3 F e a t u r e s o f p a in t in g d i s c o v e r e d f r o m t h e u s e o f
CD-ROM PROGRAM (n=379, m u l t ip l e a n s w e r s w e r e p o s s i b l e .)
Table 4.23 illustrates the supporting information which users thought was given during their use of the program.
Painting Total % Lemon Egyptian Emigrant Housewives Zero Dreams
Information
Subject matter 70 68% 15 8 20 4 9 14
Emotional impact 50 49% 8 8 14 2 5 13
Technique 49 48% 14 6 11 3 5 10
Colour, line, and 45 44% 14 3 9 2 6 11
composition
The artist's view 38 37% 9 7 11 1 4 6
Art history 37 36% 7 8 9 2 5 6
M aterials 36 35% 13 6 3 3 10 1
Social and political 29 28% 2 7 6 1 2 11
issues
Artist’s life 25 24.5% 9 5 5 0 3 3
276 A PPEN D IX V
SECTION G
T a b l e 4 .2 4 I n c r e a s e d familiarity ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.24 illustrates the visitors’ reports of whether the CD-ROM program had an effect on the user’s familiarity with the art object.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all The lemon tree 14 9 3 0
Egyptian feast 5 12 5 2
Emigrant ship 3 15 2 0
Housewives 3 8 3 2
Zero 4 6 0 0 Zone of Dreams 0 5 1 0
Total 29 55 14 4 % 28% 54% 14% 4% % 82% 18%
T a b l e 4 .2 5 E v o c a t io n o f m e m o r i e s (n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.25 illustrates the visitor’s reports of whether the program evoked a personal connection with the art object they were concerned with.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all The lemon tree 4 9 9 4
Egyptian feast 0 2 13 9
Emigrant ship 2 1 11 6
Housewives 2 2 8 4
Zero 0 1 7 2
Zone of Dreams 0 0 1 5
Total 8 15 49 30 % 8% 15% 48% 29%
% 23% 77%
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Table 4.26 Encouragement of the feeling of sympathy with the
ARTIST (n=102)
Table 4.26 illustrates the visitors’ opinion as to whether the program encouraged the individual ability to identify as closely as possible with the concerns of the artist.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all The lemon tree 6 9 1 4
Egyptian feast 2 8 9 4 Emigrant ship 4 7 9 0
Housewives 3 4 4 5
Zero 1 5 2 2
Zone of Dreams 0 0 2 4
Total 16 33 33 19 % 16% 33% 33% 19% % 49% 51%
SECTION H
Table 4.28 Increase in appreciation o f a painting (n=102)
Table 4.28 illustrates the degree of support the CD-ROM program offered in enhancing the user’s appreciation about the painting.
Painting Very much Quite a lot Not much Not at all No answer
Group AB ABA B A B AB
Total 12 15 30 22 11 8 0 1 0 3
% in group 23% 31% 57% 45% 21% 16% 0% 2% 0% 6%
Total 27 52 19 1 3
% 26% 51% 19% 1% 3%
% 77% 23% 3%
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T a b l e 4.29 Appreciation of CD-ROM activities (n= 344, m o r e t h a n
ONE RESPONSE WAS POSSIBLE.)
Table 4.29 illustrates the responses showing the users’ appreciation of the activities for the investigation of a painting which the CD-ROM program offered.
Activity Total % Lemon Egypt Emigrant House Zero Dreams
Zooming-up 76 74.5% 19 8 19 5 7 18
Listening to sound 62 61% 13 8 14 5 8 14 information Links 53 51% 15 4 13 1 8 12
Reading text 36 35% 9 7 5 4 2 9
Looking coloured 34 33% 9 5 8 3 5 4 image Ideas for learning 22 21.5% 10 1 2 3 2 4
Game 17 16% 12 2 0 2 0 1
T a b l e 4.30 Possibility of future use of the CD-ROM p r o g r a m ( n = 1 0 2 )
Table 4.30 illustrates the user’s opinion about the possibility of their use of the program in the future for more investigation about the collection in the gallery.
Paintings Yes Probably No No am.
The lemon tree 15 5 3 3
Egyptian feast 13 7 3 1
Emigrant ship 11 6 0 3
Housewives 12 3 1 0
Zero 7 2 0 1
Zone of Dreams 4 1 1 0
Total 62 24 8 8 % 61% 24% 8% 8% % 84% 16%
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Comments Analysed in the Section E (Chapter four)
T h e l ist s o f c o m m en ts o n Q u e st io n n o .2
1. Asreement with the CD-ROM yrosram's effectiveness in stimulatins careful lookins. - 11 comments (30%)
"It encourages me to look at detail more carefully."
"Look more carefully in a structured way."
"Because of the enhanced detail."
"It encouraged me to look at it very much."
"Especially after people comments and questions about work."
"With the subject so close its easier to appreciate and therefore see more."
"Because it showed how all the people from many backgrounds emigrated."
" I noticed quite a lot of detail which I would have missed."
"It gives more visual perception of the painting."
"Because there is more to the picture than I thought."
"I looked more in detail rather than the painting as a whole."
2. Expression o f the audience’s enjoyment. - 7 comments (19%)
"I am happy that I could see the butterfly detail."
"Making galleries fun and more interesting."
"Interesting about artists' details."
" I saw this painting with 'new eyes'."
"You leam more about the painting in depth."
"It also helped me to understand what the painting meant and what it represented."
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"It did show you about it (the painting) in a fun way."
3. Positive opinion about learnins with the CD-ROM prosram.
- 5 comments (13,5%)
"An excellent use of technology to make one observe and leam."
"Prompted more detailed study."
"It looks 3D and you can imagine the noise background."
"1 could look at much more detail at parts higher than eye level."
"1 liked that 1 could see the detail."
4. Opinion about the difference between lookins at orisinal object and at imase on the screen. - 5 comments (13.5%)
"Looking at the original painting is much more aesthetically pleasing."
"1 looked at detail at the computer but preferred the whole 'statement' in reality."
"The computer image/program can not come close to the work itself."
"It is a complex painting. Looking closely is important."
"Nothing can compare with standing before and looking at the actual painting."
5. Opinion about the prosram. - 4 comments (11%)
"It would have been nicer to look at more closely."
"Some details were not very clear on the CD-ROM. Particularly letters to four answers from the artists."
"The representation for the subject were explained."
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"Because I knew about the picture's background I wanted to find out more."
6. Nesative opinion about the vrosram. - 2 comments (5%)
"The program presents a "fixed" information of the painting."
"Poor colour reproduction."
7. General feelins towards the paintins. - 2 comments (5%)
"I think the colours are rich in style."
"The effect of bright sunshine is very effective."
8. Others. -1 comment (3%)
"I had already looked quite carefully!"
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Se l e c t io n o f c o m m e n t s o n q u e s t io n n o .10
7. Helpful for closer lookins. - 16 comments (20%)
"It made me look at the original art work more carefully. It was interactive and quite good."
"It asked you to look around the painting and so it helped me to look at the painting more carefully. It engaged me with the painting."
"It made me look at the part of the painting."
"Quite good. I made a closer look at the painting."
"It made me look closer, but for the questionable motive of "spotting the difference." Better stimulus could be found to initiate examination."
"It made me look more closely at the painting."
"Excellent for improving observation skill."
"Extremely useful way of getting people to consider the work in more detail in an interesting way."
"It's quite useful. It helps to see whether you are able to notice small details."
"Made me look in more detail."
"A good idea. It made you look closer at the painting."
"It was useful to look at details of the whole painting."
"Make one look more at detail."
"It is interesting that it encourages the public to make closer observations of the painting."
2. Gives pleasure and fun. -12 comments (19%)
" I got it right. It gave me pleasure."
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" Fun, but it was quite difficult due to the poor quality of the original picture."
" Quite stimulating."
" It was very interesting and made you look very closely at the picture. Yes. 10 out of 1 0 ."
" Interesting, educational and informative."
" I enjoyed it and it was a bit like zooming because it kept me interested."
" Kept me interested in the picture."
" This was most enlightening."
3. Useful for children. -12 comments (19%)
"Useful for children."
"Helpful, especially for children. Appreciation of the painting. Interest value."
"Useful particularly for young people."
"Not sure I would have done it alone. Excellent for children."
"Not very useful for me. But it might be of more interest to a younger person or someone studying art in more detail."
"It's probably good to encourage young people, familiar with computer games rather than paintings. Actually better to look at pictures in this way."
4. Positive opinion. - 9 comments (11%)
"Very good."
"It was quite good. But could have been more clear interface."
"Quite good but it could or should have more to look at."
"It tells me more about the painting than I first thought."
"Concept is good. But practice short and too simple."
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"Not that bad.
5. Nesative opinion. - 1 comments (9%)
"Not much at all."
"Very little."
"Boring."
"Limited. Sound was O.K."
"It did not help me to leam anything."
"I felt that I had to get the question right rather than just enjoying the program."
"Very short and uninvolving. Forced close observation rather than intrigued to see more."
6. Neutral. -7 comments (9%)
"1 am not interested in the Game."
"Not particularly interesting."
"O.K. but could have been more complex."
"Didn't do much for me - possibly more questions would be valuable if evaluating painting in more detail."
"Not much. Details is not clear in close up."
7. Felt difficulty in usins GAME function. - 5 comments (6%)
"You were comparing two slightly different images to find the differences. Both
285 APPENDIX VI
images were too small to show detail."
"The poor reproduction of the picture made the game difficult as the two were quite different in colour and tone. I don't like games."
"The pictures were not large or clear enough to make comparisons easily. I needed a hint from someone who knew the answers."
"It was quite difficult to find differences because the picture shown is not so clear."
"The scale of the big image and the small image was different and it made this game very difficult. But it was O.K. I liked it."
8. Others. -11 comments (14%)
"Very poor relative to the other elements of the software."
"Did not use it extensively enough to be able to comment properly."
"I want more detail."
"If it was more explorable and makes you imagine more it would be actually good, but its not."
"Too simple for adults."
"Painting could be brought into more detail."
"This game function is very easy to use even though I had a little difficulty understanding it at first."
"Seems intended for teachers."
"Evocational."
286 C. "T \