The Importance of Atmosphere and Spatiality in Creating Social Experiences
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M USEOLOGICA BRUNENSIA STUDIE/ARTICLES THE IMPORTANCE OF ATMOSPHERE AND SPATIALITY IN CREATING SOCIAL EXPERIENCES MARTIN BRANDT DJUPDRÆT https://doi.org/10.5817/MuB2019-1-1 ABSTRACT/ABSTRAKT: i návštěvu muzea jako společen- • a forum where visitors’ social ský zážitek. Obojí může napomoci identity can be shown, and The aim of the article is to analyse k posílení návštěvníkovy vlast- the influence of atmosphere and ní identity a procesu poznání, • a forum where the museum’s reminiscence in the social space of ke kterému může dojít, když stories and contents are discussed. the museum. In the 1990s, museum návštěvníci sdílejí svoje znalosti theorists drew attention to the fact a zážitky. The social museum experience that museum visitors play a part in meets both personal and social constructing their museum visits KEYWORDS/KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA: needs. This aspect of the use of and also focused on the importance authenticity – remembrance – museums is worth considering in of the social context in the museum dementia – social context – personal the light of how it can be supported visit. Using examples of interior at context in the museum spaces and the Danish open-air museum Den autenticita – vzpomínání – communications. Gamle By dated to 1950s and 1970s demence – společenský kontext – the article analyse how museum osobní kontext It is also worth bearing in mind space and communications support that a normal visit to a museum is both the visitors’ experience of in fact a shared social experience. their own history and experiences, Museums are stories. They are People rarely visit museums alone. and the visit to the museum as art, science, history, things that Numerous surveys of how visitors a social experience. Both can happened once upon a time, and use museums have documented help to strengthen the visitor’s traces of life. They are content. that visiting a museum is a joint own identity and the learning experience with other people.1 process which can take place when An aspect that is just as important, visitors share their knowledge and however, is the visitors’ own This article focuses on the museum experiences. needs. The museum is a space that as a social space, and will analyse people choose in the belief that the 1 One of these surveys has collected figures Důležitost atmosféry a prostoru museum can fulfil the individual nationwide since 2009 from the majority of pro vytvoření společenských visitor’s personal and social needs. Danish museums. The percentage for how many zážitků Museums can be used to tell people visit a museum in company with others varies from year to year, but lies between 91 % and about who they are, and to show 95 %. LUNDGAARD, Ida Brændholt and Anna Cílem článku je analyzovat others their values and interests. Maria FOLDGAST. National brugerundersøgelse 2011. Copenhagen: Kulturstyrelsen, 2012, vliv atmosféry a vzpomínek ve Confirmation of one’s own identity p. 28; JENSEN, Jacob Thorek and Ida Brændholt společenském prostoru muzea. happens when there are others LUNDGAARD. MUSEER – Borgere og Bæredygtige Løsninger [online]. København: Kulturstyrelsen, V devadesátých letech muzejní teo- present, and experiences from the 2015, p. 68 [accessed 2019-01-20]. Available retikové poukazovali na skutečnost, museum are shared. This type of from www: <https://slks.dk/publikationer/ že návštěvníci muzea mají podíl use of the museum is thus linked museer-borgere-og-baeredygtige-loesninger/>; Den nationale brugerundersøgelse for museer. na vyznění návštěvy muzea a také to the people you visit the museum Årsrapport 2017 [online]. København: Slots- og se zaměřili na důležitost společen- with, or to the people you talk Kulturstyrelsen, September 2018, p. 6 [accessed 2019-01-20]. Available from www: <https:// ského kontextu při návštěvě muzea. to about the visit afterwards. In slks.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/0_SLKS/ S využitím příkladu dánského skan- this way there are several aspects Dokumenter/Publikationer/2018/Den_nationale_ brugerundersoegelse_2017._Rapport.pdf>. zenu Den Gamle By s datováním to a shared social experience at The same tendencies have also been registered do padesátých a sedmdesátých a museum. It can be in the USA, the UK, Australia and elsewhere: let článek analyzuje, jak muzejní DIERKING, Lynn D. Museum as social learning. In LUNDGAARD, Ida Brændholt and Jacob prostor a komunikace podporují jak • a forum where basal social needs Thorek JENSEN. Museums: social learning spaces návštěvnický zážitek na základě are met; and knowledge producing processes. Copenhagen: Kulturstyrelsen – Danish Agency for Culture, vlastní historie a zkušeností, tak 2013, p. 202. 2 2019 /08 /01 the influence of atmosphere and reminiscence in the social space. The cases used in the article are primarily taken from the Danish open-air museum Den Gamle By (The Old Town in Danish), where in recent years special focus has been directed to studying and developing the museum as a social space.2 Theories of the museum as a social space In the 1990s, the museum theorists Kenneth Hudson, George Hein, Gaynor Kavanagh, Elaine Heuman Gurian and others drew attention to the fact that museum visitors play a part in constructing their museum visits.3 A visit to a museum should no longer only be understood on the basis of the objects and what the museum Fig. 1: Falk and Dierking’s The Interactive Experience Model. was showing, but should include and be seen from the angle of the visitors’ own history and the Museum Experience.4 In their book common stories you share with agenda they brought with them they introduced the Interactive your companions; to the museum. The social aspect Experience Model, where, besides of a visit to a museum was part the visitor’s personal context and • The Physical context – the of this extended understanding the physical space, they add the setting, the room, the objects and of the museum and the museum social context as a third important other physical surroundings of the experience. Museum and learning element in the museum experience. visit.6 researchers John H. Falk and Later on, Falk and Dierking revised Lynn D. Dierking emphasised this the model and renamed it the Falk and Dierking’s element in 1992 in the book The Contextual Model of Learning, acknowledgement of the social and added more examples of the aspect of the experience and three aspects of the museum informal learning at the museum experience.5 The main point of the are in line with the attention 2 This article was first presented as a lecture revised model remained the same, focused by Albert Bandura held in May 2018 at Centre of Museology at however: the museum experience and David A. Kolb and other Masaryk University. I would like to thank Judita Matyášová, Denisa Brejchová, Komise pro práci has three primary contexts: researchers on the social aspects s veřejností a muzejní pedagogiku AMG, Lucie of learning in the 1970s and Jagošová and the Centre of Museology for making the visit at Masaryk University possible. I will also • The Personal context – your own 1980s, and in the growing field of thank students at Centre of Museology for good history and experiences; investigations in recent decades response to my lecture, World Translation for help with translation and colleagues at Den Gamle into social learning theory and 7 By for useful discussions about the topics of the • The Social context – who is with social learning spaces. article. you when you visit the museum, 6 FALK, John H. and Lynn D. DIERKING. The 3 GURIAN, Elaine Heuman. Noodling Around and the social setting and the Museum Experience. Washington, D.C.: Whalesback with Exhibition Opportunities. In KARP, Ivan and Books, 1992, pp. 1–7; FALK, John H. and Lynn Steven D. LAVINE (eds.). Exhibiting cultures: the D. DIERKING. Learning from Museums: Visitor poetics and politics of museum display. Washington, Experiences and the Making of Meaning. Oxford: D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, pp. 4 FALK, John H. and Lynn D. DIERKING. AltaMira Press, 2000, p. 10; FALK, John H. and 176–190; HEIN, George E. Learning in the museum. The Museum Experience. Washington, D. C.: Lynn D. DIERKING. The Museum Experience London: Routledge, 1998; HUDSON, Kenneth. Whalesback Books, 1992. Revisited. New York: Routledge, 2013, pp. 26–29. The Museum Refuses to Stand Still. Museum international, 1998, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 43–50; 5 FALK, John H. and Lynn D. DIERKING. Learning 7 BANDURA, Albert. Social learning theory. KAVANAGH, Gaynor. Making histories, Making from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971; KOLB, Memories. In KAVANAGH, Gaynor (ed.). Making of Meaning. Oxford: AltaMira Press, 2000; FALK, David A. Experiential learning: experience as the histories in museums. London: Leicester University John H. and Lynn D. DIERKING. The Museum source of learning and development. Englewood Press, 1999, pp. 1–14. Experience Revisited. New York: Routledge, 2013. Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1984. The literature 3 M USEOLOGICA BRUNENSIA In the terms of Falk and Dierking’s model, museums can primarily control one of the contexts: The physical context. As this article will describe, however, by orchestrating the museum’s spaces and content, it is also possible to influence the other two contexts. Den Gamle By The museum I will use as a case study in this article is Den Gamle By, which is where I work. Time- wise, Den Gamle By is an open-air museum which shows the pre- industrial period and periods in Fig. 2: One of the flats in the 1974 town district. living memory. It was founded in 1914 as an open- -air museum focusing on urban years and the modernity and words of John Williams-Davies, history and culture. Apart from mechanisation of that period. This the former director at St Fagan’s being a national museum of urban part of the museum focus on the in Wales, in 2009: “When open-air history, since 2011 the museum year 1927.