Information, Interaction & Interpretation in Museums & Galleries

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In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of aburgeoning corpus of video-based field studies within variousdisciplines concerned with 'multimodal' interaction, inparticular with the ways in which objects, tools andtechnologies feature in conduct and communication. As yethowever, there is little academic or applied research thatexamines how various forms of text and related resourcesfeature in how people interact with each other and engagetheir immediate environment. Museums and galleriesprovide a unique opportunity to examine how informationprovided through labels, gallery cards and electronic devicesand the like, is used by people as they explore, discover anddiscuss exhibits such as works of art and applied art.Museums and galleries invest substantial time and resourcesin providing information to visitors and it is widely believedthat this information is critical to the ways in which visitorsengage and participate in exhibitions. This studentshipprovides a unique opportunity to collaborate with teams at aleading art institution, namely the Royal Academy of Arts,London, to address how various sources of informationfeature in the exploration of exploration and interpretation ofart and applied art.Drawing on analytic developments within the social sciences,namely ethnomethodology and conversation analysis,coupled with the burgeoning corpus of research concernedwith 'multimodal' communication, the project will examinehow people access and use information provided throughlabels, electronic devices and the like in approaching,inspecting and discussing works of art and applied art. Datawill include audio-visual recordings of visitors' behaviour andinteraction in gallery spaces, interviews with visitors,curators, educationalists and exhibition designers, and fieldobservation of exhibition design meetings. It will also involvea series of 'naturalistic' experiments in which we 'rewrite' andreorganise the information provided to visitors and examinewhether, and how, it changes the ways in which peopleinteract, engage and examine exhibits and exhibitions.The research will contribute contemporary developmentswithin studies of organisational interaction and multimodality,studies that have arisen within various disciplines includingmanagement science, sociology, applied linguistics andsocial psychology. It will also generate findings that bearupon research within museum and cultural studies. Workingclosely with Royal Academy will also provide the opportunityto develop and disseminate the practical implications of theresearch, key considerations and issues that can bedemonstrated to have a significant impact on the behaviourand engagement of visitors.12 Project description: pleasecopy/paste/write a full description of theproposed project here, outlining its aims,Social science contributions and challenges: The propos