Taming War - Contemporary display strategies and modes of visitor perception in military history museums

随着大量的纪念服务、表演和展览，第一次世界大战百年纪念活动即将结束，但对博物馆景观的影响仍然存在：对军事历史的重新兴趣产生了新的展示战略，旨在建立军事历史博物馆，作为一个可以讨论人类状况和当前地缘政治发展的环境。这些发展的核心是战争的字面规模：博物馆的立体图出人意料地卷土重来。不是尝试不可能的事情--重现战争体验--而是结合新技术和大型展品来创造情感体验空间，促进对战争和暴力的讨论和思考。与此同时，这些博物馆不断受到政治压力，由于财政限制，只能缓慢和长期地实施新的展示战略。然而，参观者对这些新的展示策略的看法还不是很清楚，这些新的展示策略使用了更新的立体图，结合了大型展品和增强现实等新技术。此外，策展人、建模师和其他行为者在这些发展中的动机和作用在很大程度上是未知的。因此，如果没有进一步的调查，就不可能说这些新的展示策略是否成功。总有一种危险，那就是参观者和策展人都会退回到传统的观念和展示模式，简单地将立体图视为战争经历的伪现实再现。该项目希望通过定性的参观者采访来阐明这些方面，这些采访集中在这种展示战争的新形式的感知、效果和情感潜力上。同时，对策展人、设计师和模特师的采访是这一国际研究项目的重要方面，该项目横跨三个国家(英国、新西兰和德国)和十个博物馆，从当地的小型机构到大型的国家博物馆。他们都在展示中使用立体模型、微型模型和大型展品。很少有军事历史博物馆的研究使用这种结合不同博物馆演员的定性叙事采访的方法，这一项目希望填补这一空白。与可比研究相比，该项目不仅依赖于传统的访谈技术，如叙述性面对面访谈或焦点小组，而且还采用了非言语访谈技术，如个人意义地图、参与式专业军事游戏和乐高严肃游戏会议，以补充和扩展博物馆游客研究的方法论。这种方法使人们对战争的博物馆化及其对游客和幕后演员的影响有了更深的理解。

With a plethora of commemorative services, performances and exhibitions the centennial of the First World War found its end, but the effects on the museum landscape remain: a renewed interest in military history produced new strategies of display that aim on establishing military history museums as an environment where the human condition and current geopolitical developments can be discussed. Central to these developments is the literal scale of war: the museum diorama has a surprising comeback. Instead of attempting the impossible - to recreate experiences of war - dioramas are used in combination with new technologies and large scale exhibits to create affective experiential spaces that promote discussion and contemplation of war and violence. At the same time these museums are under constant political pressure and can implement new display strategies only slowly and over a long time due to financial constraints. Nevertheless it is not well understood how visitors perceive these new strategies of display that employ the updated diorama in combination with large scale exhibits and new technology such as augmented reality. In addition the motivation and role of curators, modelers and other actors in these developments is largely unknown. Accordingly it is impossible to say if these new strategies of display are successful without further enquiry. There is always the danger that visitors and curators alike slip back into traditional perceptions and modes of display that simply see the diorama as a pseudo-realistic reconstruction of war experiences. The project wants to elucidate these aspects through qualitative visitor interviews that focus on the perception, effect and affective potential of this new form of exhibiting war. At the same time interviews with curators, designers and modelers are an important aspect of this international research project that spans three countries (England, New Zealand and Germany) and ten museums, ranging from small local institutions to large national museum. All of them use dioramas, miniatures and large scale exhibits in their displays. Few studies of military history museums make use of such an approach that combines qualitative narrative interviews with different museum actors, a gap this project wants to address.Contrary to comparable studies the project not only relies on conventional interviewing techniques such as narrative face-to-face interviews or focus groups, but also embraces non-verbal interviewing techniques such as Personal Meaning Maps, participatory professional wargames and Lego Serious Play sessions to supplement and expand methodologies of museum visitor research. This approach engenders a deeper understanding of the musealization of war and its effects on visitors as well as the actors behind the scenes.