Transforming Thresholds: Digital Media and Visitor Behaviour in Museum Foyers

在经济紧缩时期，博物馆消除潜在的障碍，让现有的和新的观众都能接触到他们的藏品，这一点至关重要。门厅是重要的、有限的空间，构成了参观者与博物馆的第一次现场接触。然而，它们的问题在于：(a)在概念、社会和空间取向方面对游客提出了复杂的要求；(b)很少以与画廊内空间相同的方式进行策展，并且是博物馆展示其身份的竞争场所；(c)在学术研究中被忽视，在博物馆学、游客研究、智力脚手架、符号学和博物馆背景下的可视化工作中只被提及（如果有的话）；(d)挑战现有用于追踪访客行为的地理移动技术资源（例如GPS或RFID）；(e)缺乏一个明确的、经过测试的模型来衡量游客的行为，以及一项政策来管理这个空间的参与和定位的最佳做法。转型阈值网络的核心目标是汇集一个国际跨学科团队，他们在数字媒体的文本、视觉、空间、策展和人际使用方面具有专业知识，以及来自零售、剧院、游戏、教育、博物馆和画廊的合作伙伴。总之，这个整体将通过在一系列博物馆环境中创建、测试和审查创新的数字形式的智力脚手架来解决游客参与门厅空间的问题。传统上，印刷资料（标志、地图和传单）一直是博物馆在门厅向参观者介绍其藏品的主要手段。虽然数字技术的发展使得非现场的互动形式（通过网页）和画廊内的互动增加了观众的参与度，但这些互动的数字模式很少被创造性地应用于游客进入博物馆的第一个地方：门厅。“转换阈值”网络建立在Parry， Ortiz-Williams和Sawyer（2007）的工作基础上，他们率先将画廊内的印刷标签转变为实时的，可更新的数字标签。作为LIVE！博物馆AHRC网络（Parry 2009-10），转型门槛网络同样寻求探索数字媒体的变革潜力，但侧重于特定的，未充分利用和研究的博物馆环境（门厅）和游客体验的特定方面（他们对智力脚手架的需求）。《网络》将会问：游客对门厅空间的核心需求是什么，数字媒体如何满足他们？在电子学习、游戏和零售中发现的数字参与模式将如何改变博物馆门厅及其标牌的设计？我们如何衡量游客在门厅空间的行为，数字技术能否帮助这一过程？使用数字形式的脚手架会产生或解决哪些访问和制度问题？我们如何在线下和现场的数字互动形式之间架起桥梁？数字媒体作为一种脚手架形式的局限性是什么？该网络将在两年的时间里举办一系列有组织的五次住宅工作坊和创意交流会，最终以公共节日的形式结束。项目活动围绕以下主题展开：——现有实践与游客需求；-基于屏幕和移动媒体形式的智力脚手架；-数字媒体的局限性及其与非数字媒体的关系。该网络的调查结果将通过西米德兰兹数字文化遗产示范者主办的公共网站、开放获取资源（由莱斯特研究档案馆提供）、社交媒体平台和同行评审出版物进行交流。该网络的一个核心目标是为未来的知识交换研究投标产生至少一项提案。

In a time of austerity, it is vital that museums remove potential barriers and make their collections accessible to existing and new audiences. Foyers are significant, liminal spaces that constitute the visitor's first on-site engagement with the museum. However, they present problems in that they(a) place complex demands on visitors in terms of conceptual, social and spatial orientation; (b) are rarely curated in the same way as in-gallery spaces, and are contested sites for the museum to project its identity; (c) have been neglected in academic research, and mentioned only tangentially (if at all) in museology, visitor studies, in work on intellectual scaffolding, semiotics and visualisation in museum contexts;(d) challenge existing geo-mobile technological resources (such as GPS or RFID) used for tracking visitor behaviour;(e) lack a clear, tested model for measuring visitor behaviour, and a policy to govern best practice for engagement and orientation in this space.The central aim of the Transforming Thresholds Network is to bring together an international, interdisciplinary team with expertise in the textual, visual, spatial, curatorial and interpersonal uses of digital media, along with partners from retail, theatre, gaming, education, museums and galleries. Together, this ensemble will tackle the problem of visitor engagement in the foyer space by creating, testing and reviewing innovative digital forms of intellectual scaffolding in a range of museum contexts.Traditionally, printed information (signs, map plans and leaflets) have been the principal means by which museums have provided orientation and information about their collections for visitors in foyers. Although digital technology has now developed so that off-site forms of interaction (via web pages) and in-gallery interactives have enabled increased audience engagement, these digital modes of interaction have rarely been applied creatively to the communication provided at the first point in which the visitor enters the museum: its foyer.The 'Transforming Thresholds' Network builds on the work of Parry, Ortiz-Williams and Sawyer (2007) which pioneered the transformation of in-gallery printed labels to live, updateable digital labels. As one of the projects identified by the LIVE!Museum AHRC Network (Parry 2009-10), the Transforming Thresholds Network similarly seeks to explore the transformative potential of digital media, but focuses on a specific, under-used and under-researched museum context (the foyer) and a specific aspect of the visitors' experience (their need for intellectual scaffolding). The Network will ask:What are the core needs of visitors in foyer spaces, and how can digital media meet them?How might models of digital engagement found in e-learning, gaming and retail transform the design of museum foyers and their signage?How do we measure visitor behaviour in foyer spaces, and can digital technology help this process?What access and institutional issues are raised or resolved by the use of digital forms of scaffolding?How can we bridge offline and on-site forms of digital interaction?What are the limits of digital media as a form of scaffolding? The Network will hold a structured series of five residential workshops and creative encounters over two years, culminating in a public festival. Project activities focus on the following themes:-existing practice and visitor needs; -screen-based and mobile media forms of intellectual scaffolding; -the limits of digital media and its relationship to the non-digital.The findings of the Network will be communicated via a public website hosted by the West Midlands Digital Cultural Heritage Demonstrator, open access resources (made available by the Leicester Research Archive), social media platforms, and peer reviewed publications. A core objective of the Network is to generate at least one proposal for a future Knowledge Exchange research bid.