From Transport to Travel: Contemporary Performance and Visitor Agency in a 21st Century Museum of Transport
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Culture & Creative Arts
Abstract
Research Context:
Contemporary museum and heritage practice recognises the importance of curation, conservation, exhibition and interpretation strategies which allow multiple readings and uses of material culture (objects and buildings). A particular challenge is to consider how the generally very fixed sites - for physical reasons - of museums and other heritage locations can function as repositories and stimuli for divergent memories and experiences, thus encouraging the formation of diverse and fluid cultural identities. Key to this approach is an understanding of heritage as an ongoing process - as 'performance' or experience-centred, rather than artefact-based. The doctoral research project will investigate, through practical experimentation, the potential of this approach by exploring the Riverside Museum as a space of play, performance and ritual for adults as well as for children. Historically, these possibilities have been underexamined in sites of heritage.
The particularities of the new Riverside Museum's location, architectural style, collection, history and remit suggest that it will provide a fruitful case study for an investigation into the potential of contemporary theatre and performance practices, beyond the more obvious forms of dramatic re-enactment and live interpretation, in the modern museum:
- As a museum of transport concerned with movement, mobility and travel, it invites experience-centred and interactive, rather than artefact-based, forms of exhibition and interpretation.
- As a new museum - an iconic landmark and destination designed by Zaha Hadid and central to the River Clyde's current regeneration strategy - it must negotiate the competing narratives of Glasgow's heritage as a centre for trade, transport and manufacturing and its current post-industrial reinvention.
- In moving to a new venue, the museum is required to navigate a transition from the homely surroundings of its former location, where it attracted 500,000 visits annually, to the insistently-contemporary environment of Hadid's building.
- Representing a major financial investment in Glasgow's cultural provision and a significant addition to the city's cluster of widely popular, generously-resourced and award-winning museums, it is also intended to capitalise on Glasgow's hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and to increase national and international interest in the city and its culture.
Aims and Objectives are to:
- Explore the potential of contemporary theatre and performance practices in developing new strategies for museum visitor engagement that is inclusive, imaginative and non-prescriptive.
- Investigate the use of practices such as play, ritual, story-telling and mediated performance as models for visitor interaction and agency.
- Test the significance of performance and action-based approaches towards museum interpretation and exhibition in a museum of transport.
Applications and benefits:
- The research will enable a greater understanding of visitor engagement and interaction within the Riverside Museum, which will impact on the future provision of interpretation and learning programmes, and which will inform and influence planned redisplays across Glasgow Museums.
- The experimental performance elements will have particular applications in developing an innovative approach towards live interpretation, both within Riverside Museum and in other museums in the service.
- The applications and benefits for Glasgow Museums will have an impact across the wider museum and cultural heritage sector. The research will explore a change of theoretical approach to visitor engagement which has the potential to develop policy and practice that will resonate throughout the sector.
Contemporary museum and heritage practice recognises the importance of curation, conservation, exhibition and interpretation strategies which allow multiple readings and uses of material culture (objects and buildings). A particular challenge is to consider how the generally very fixed sites - for physical reasons - of museums and other heritage locations can function as repositories and stimuli for divergent memories and experiences, thus encouraging the formation of diverse and fluid cultural identities. Key to this approach is an understanding of heritage as an ongoing process - as 'performance' or experience-centred, rather than artefact-based. The doctoral research project will investigate, through practical experimentation, the potential of this approach by exploring the Riverside Museum as a space of play, performance and ritual for adults as well as for children. Historically, these possibilities have been underexamined in sites of heritage.
The particularities of the new Riverside Museum's location, architectural style, collection, history and remit suggest that it will provide a fruitful case study for an investigation into the potential of contemporary theatre and performance practices, beyond the more obvious forms of dramatic re-enactment and live interpretation, in the modern museum:
- As a museum of transport concerned with movement, mobility and travel, it invites experience-centred and interactive, rather than artefact-based, forms of exhibition and interpretation.
- As a new museum - an iconic landmark and destination designed by Zaha Hadid and central to the River Clyde's current regeneration strategy - it must negotiate the competing narratives of Glasgow's heritage as a centre for trade, transport and manufacturing and its current post-industrial reinvention.
- In moving to a new venue, the museum is required to navigate a transition from the homely surroundings of its former location, where it attracted 500,000 visits annually, to the insistently-contemporary environment of Hadid's building.
- Representing a major financial investment in Glasgow's cultural provision and a significant addition to the city's cluster of widely popular, generously-resourced and award-winning museums, it is also intended to capitalise on Glasgow's hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and to increase national and international interest in the city and its culture.
Aims and Objectives are to:
- Explore the potential of contemporary theatre and performance practices in developing new strategies for museum visitor engagement that is inclusive, imaginative and non-prescriptive.
- Investigate the use of practices such as play, ritual, story-telling and mediated performance as models for visitor interaction and agency.
- Test the significance of performance and action-based approaches towards museum interpretation and exhibition in a museum of transport.
Applications and benefits:
- The research will enable a greater understanding of visitor engagement and interaction within the Riverside Museum, which will impact on the future provision of interpretation and learning programmes, and which will inform and influence planned redisplays across Glasgow Museums.
- The experimental performance elements will have particular applications in developing an innovative approach towards live interpretation, both within Riverside Museum and in other museums in the service.
- The applications and benefits for Glasgow Museums will have an impact across the wider museum and cultural heritage sector. The research will explore a change of theoretical approach to visitor engagement which has the potential to develop policy and practice that will resonate throughout the sector.
Planned Impact
The project will have identifiable beneficiaries in three intersecting categories: 1/ Glasgow Museums, 2/ the wider museum and cultural heritage sector and 3/ the people of Glasgow.
1/ The project will enable a greater understanding of visitor engagement within the Riverside Museum, which will impact on the future provision of learning programmes throughout Glasgow Museums. Live interpretation has been an underexplored area and it is anticipated that the experimental performance elements of the project will inform the future development of this aspect of interpretation within the new Riverside Museum and across Glasgow Museums. The project will inform and influence the planned redisplays in other museums within the service, such as the Burrell Collection and the People's Palace, and feed into future redisplays at the Riverside Museum. The project will also enable Glasgow Museums to engage in a form of academic research that it has not previously explored. This will further enhance Glasgow Museums growing reputation for innovative collaborative research and will potentially influence future areas of research activity.
Delivery: Direct interaction between the doctoral student and staff at Riverside Museum during the devising, realisation of and reflection on the performance elements. The student will attend and contribute to Riverside Museum and Glasgow Museums' meetings where strategies for learning and interpretation and for display are developed. They will present a paper at Glasgow Museums Research Conference. They will deliver a report to Glasgow Museums and Glasgow Life, which will have the potential to influence policy on museums and other heritage sites within the city.
2/ It is perceived that the project will have a major impact on a wider scale across the museum and cultural heritage sector. The research will explore a change of theoretical approach to visitor engagement, extending earlier studies on museum theatre and live interpretation, which has the potential to develop policy and practice that will resonate throughout the sector. It is anticipated to have a particular impact on museum theatre and live interpretation practices.
Delivery: The doctoral thesis, and documentation of practical experiments, will be available online. The student will be encouraged to present a paper at industry conferences such as the Museums Association conference and to submit an article to journals such as Museums Journal. Reports, reflections and findings will be posted regularly on blogs such as Museums 2.0. Findings relating to museum theatre and live interpretation practice will be disseminated via conferences and websites of professional organisations such as the International Museum Theatre Alliance.
3/ A significant proportion of visitors to Glasgow's Museums are local residents: both the old Museum of Transport and Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery were/are extremely popular family destinations for Glaswegians. As the enhancement of visitor agency and engagement is at the core of the project, it will impact directly on local visitors' experiences. The collections at the Riverside Museum (e.g., tramcars and tram paraphernalia, material relating to Glasgow's maritime histories) have deep significance in terms of the formation of Glaswegian cultural identities. By pioneering new ways to encourage active and creative engagement with these collections, the project is intended to allow visitors, of all ages and backgrounds, to interact with this material, thus facilitating inclusive, diverse, trans-generational uses and readings of cultural heritage.
Delivery: Direct interaction with members of the public, through practical experimentation, performance and discussion/evaluation of practice. Documentation, reflections and findings posted on the Glasgow Life website. Direct input into the interpretation and learning
1/ The project will enable a greater understanding of visitor engagement within the Riverside Museum, which will impact on the future provision of learning programmes throughout Glasgow Museums. Live interpretation has been an underexplored area and it is anticipated that the experimental performance elements of the project will inform the future development of this aspect of interpretation within the new Riverside Museum and across Glasgow Museums. The project will inform and influence the planned redisplays in other museums within the service, such as the Burrell Collection and the People's Palace, and feed into future redisplays at the Riverside Museum. The project will also enable Glasgow Museums to engage in a form of academic research that it has not previously explored. This will further enhance Glasgow Museums growing reputation for innovative collaborative research and will potentially influence future areas of research activity.
Delivery: Direct interaction between the doctoral student and staff at Riverside Museum during the devising, realisation of and reflection on the performance elements. The student will attend and contribute to Riverside Museum and Glasgow Museums' meetings where strategies for learning and interpretation and for display are developed. They will present a paper at Glasgow Museums Research Conference. They will deliver a report to Glasgow Museums and Glasgow Life, which will have the potential to influence policy on museums and other heritage sites within the city.
2/ It is perceived that the project will have a major impact on a wider scale across the museum and cultural heritage sector. The research will explore a change of theoretical approach to visitor engagement, extending earlier studies on museum theatre and live interpretation, which has the potential to develop policy and practice that will resonate throughout the sector. It is anticipated to have a particular impact on museum theatre and live interpretation practices.
Delivery: The doctoral thesis, and documentation of practical experiments, will be available online. The student will be encouraged to present a paper at industry conferences such as the Museums Association conference and to submit an article to journals such as Museums Journal. Reports, reflections and findings will be posted regularly on blogs such as Museums 2.0. Findings relating to museum theatre and live interpretation practice will be disseminated via conferences and websites of professional organisations such as the International Museum Theatre Alliance.
3/ A significant proportion of visitors to Glasgow's Museums are local residents: both the old Museum of Transport and Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery were/are extremely popular family destinations for Glaswegians. As the enhancement of visitor agency and engagement is at the core of the project, it will impact directly on local visitors' experiences. The collections at the Riverside Museum (e.g., tramcars and tram paraphernalia, material relating to Glasgow's maritime histories) have deep significance in terms of the formation of Glaswegian cultural identities. By pioneering new ways to encourage active and creative engagement with these collections, the project is intended to allow visitors, of all ages and backgrounds, to interact with this material, thus facilitating inclusive, diverse, trans-generational uses and readings of cultural heritage.
Delivery: Direct interaction with members of the public, through practical experimentation, performance and discussion/evaluation of practice. Documentation, reflections and findings posted on the Glasgow Life website. Direct input into the interpretation and learning
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Minty Donald (Principal Investigator) |