Narrative, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience

获奖者将在大英博物馆（BM）进行关于游客参与解释性叙事的实证研究，并通过对叙事学，博物馆学和博物馆游客研究相关文献的批判性审查。随后将对2001年至2010年期间在BM举办的12个展览的标签和画廊计划进行叙事学分析，旨在追踪BM的解释发展。如支持案例中所述，实证工作将包括在参观付费展览和免费画廊期间对参观者进行不引人注目的观察，对个别参观者群体进行简短而深入的访谈，并对参观者在博物馆的行为进行不引人注目的观察。参观者围绕展览的对话也将被记录下来。在项目期间，他们将与BM的口译团队密切合作，定期与学习和观众负责人会面（他将是主要的BM主管），BM的研究经理和口译团队经理，对于一个18-在为期一个月的时间里，将在BM的办公室与口译团队的成员一起工作。BM对口译有浓厚的兴趣，对来访者进行分类。它于2004年首次成立了一个口译部门，此后发展了自己独特的基于对象的口译风格。它也是英国最早将游客从人口统计学重新分类为基于身份动机的博物馆之一。因此，获奖者将受益于BM工作人员已经对该拟议项目的问题和背景进行思考的浓厚兴趣和承诺。BM还认识到，有机会与研究游客意义和叙事结构的专家合作，对这些问题进行更有条理的学术研究，将为他们自己的知识和兴趣的发展提供重要机会。获奖者还将受益于PI和BM工作人员之间的密切合作关系，参与该项目，这是通过在提交本提案之前的18个月内举行的多次会议发展起来的。除了UCL考古研究所（IOA）和BM之间对该项目的共同兴趣之外，以及管理局员工在这方面的广泛经验和专业知识，项目的协作性质也带来了具体的实际好处。通过与口译团队的合作，将有可能谈判进入博物馆画廊进行游客研究，包括与画廊工作人员联络，安排在特定时间录音。更一般地说，与BM的这种合作提供了BM工作人员与博物馆游客研究专业知识和PI和获奖者对叙事学领域当前理论发展的认识之间的创新知识交流的潜力，这将产生新的理论和经验见解。博物馆的口译团队在开发新的博物馆评估方法方面具有国际知名度，并在一系列评估方法方面拥有丰富的专业知识。因此，与口译团队的合作为澄清叙事研究中的概念提供了巨大的潜力，这些概念通过本项目的经验因素进一步完善，可能有助于为评估游客体验的新方法提供信息。

The award-holder will undertake empirical work on visitor engagement with interpretative narratives at the British Museum (BM), informed by a critical review of relevant literature in narratology, museology, and museum visitor research. This will be followed by a narratological analysis of the labels and gallery plans of twelve previous exhibitions at the BM between 2001 and 2010, with the aim of tracing the development of interpretation at the BM. As described in the case for support, the empirical work will involve unobtrusive observation of visitors during a visit to a paying exhibition and the free galleries, conducting short and in-depth interviews with individual visitor groups and unobtrusive observation of visitor behaviour in the BM. Visitor conversations around the exhibitions will also be recorded. For the duration of the project, they will work closely with the Interpretation Team at the BM, will meet regularly with the Head of Learning and Audiences (who will be the primary BM supervisor), the BM's Research Manager and the manager of the Interpretation Team, and for an 18-month period will be physically located with members of the Interpretation Team at the BM's offices.The BM has a strong interest in interpretation and the classification of its visitors. It first began an interpretation department in 2004 and has since developed its own unique style of object-based interpretation. It was also one of the first museums in the UK to reclassify its visitors from demographics to identity-based motivations. The award-holder would therefore benefit from the substantial degree of interest and commitment that BM staff already have to thinking about the issues and context of this proposed project. The BM also recognise that the opportunity to undertake more structured academic research on these questions, in collaboration with specialists in the study of visitor meaning-making and narrative-construction, will provide an important opportunity for the development of their own knowledge and interests. The award-holder will also benefit from the close, collaborative relationship between the PI and the BM staff involved in this project, which has developed through a number of meetings over an 18 month period prior to the submission of this proposal.In addition to this broader context of shared interest in this project between UCL Institute of Archaeology (IOA) and the BM, and the wider experience and expertise of BM staff in this area, there are also specific practical benefits arising from the collaborative nature of the project. Through working with the Interpretation Team it will be possible to negotiate access to conduct visitor research in the museum's galleries, including liaising with gallery staff about arrangements for audio-recording at specific times. More generally, this collaboration with the BM offers the potential for an innovative exchange of knowledge between BM staff with expertise in museum visitor research and the PI and award-holder's awareness of current theoretical developments in the field of narratology, which will generate new theoretical and empirical insights. The BM's Interpretation Team has an international profile in developing new approaches to museum evaluation, as well as substantial expertise in a range of evaluation methods. Collaboration with the Interpretation Team therefore offers significant potential for clarifying how concepts from the study of narrative, further refined through the empirical element of this project, might help to inform new ways of evaluating visitor experiences.