Co-production: Visitors, Knowledge and Politics for CETAID
- 1. Co-production: Visitors, Knowledge and Politics Helen Graham Workshop for the CETAID project, Portugal, 20th February 2013 https://www.facebook.com /CETforAID
- 2. Q1. What are the key words you have been using in your workshops so far?
- 3. Q2. Are there examples of co-produced and user- generated content you’ve been involved in at your museums? Why do museums do co- production? What do we hope co- production will achieve?
- 4. It is probably not excessive to suggest that the profound feeling of unworthiness (and of incompetence) which haunts the least cultivated visitors as if they were overcome with respect when confronted with the sacred universe of legitimate culture, contributes in no small way to keeping them away from museums. (p. 53) It’s not really news that art galleries might be exclusive!
- 5. Northern Spirit: 300 Years of Art in the North East, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Images: Nicola Maxwell
- 12. Artists have seen the North East in lots of different ways. How does the North East look to you today?
- 14. Visitor research: Success in one way (…but did the co- produced content help?) • 50% split on whether the gallery was about ‘art’ or about the ‘north east’ • Phase 1 visitor research: noticed was little use of the AV • Phase 2 visitor research: focus in on each AV element
- 15. • Space matters – wall space counts!
- 16. But… • Form matters – touchscreens = ‘information’
- 17. When asked to listen or look at the co-produced media then visitors gave positive comments – It’s interesting to see It’s quite cool to see the changes (e.g. the city from a Interesting mix.. (between Tyne, between then local’s point of known photograph and and now) view… unknown photography) ‘makes it a bit more *Listening to people’s personal to the people stories+ ‘makes it a little bit around here which is more real, how it used to good’ exist’ I think it adds to your experience and understanding. You look at the paintings and you have your own perspective and then if you add *support idea that’ someone else’s perspective, you ‘anyone can take pictures get a different idea of how it has and capture a nice developed… moment’
- 18. • Not strong enough connection between paintings and co-produced media (as a result felt ‘too much’)
- 19. • Need for stronger explanation about why co- produced content was there – give authored and personal reasons (because this is what gives it it’s value) Maybe it would be nice if you used people’s comments to explain the significance of the place for them… Doesn’t really say how the content has been generated…
- 20. Q3. What are the issues with displaying collections and co-produced and user- generated content side-by-side? Is it helpful to treat them differently? And if so, in what ways?
- 21. Experiential knowing is through direct face-to-face encounter with person, place or thing; it is knowing through the immediacy of perceiving, through empathy and resonance. Presentational knowing emerges from experiential knowing, and provides the first form of expressing meaning and significance through drawing on expressive forms of imagery through movement, dance, sound, music, drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, story, drama and so on. Propositional knowing ‘about’ something, is knowing through ideas and theories, expressed in informative statements. Practical knowing is knowing ‘how to’ do something and is expressed in a skill, knack or competence (Heron, 1992, 1996a).
- 22. Museum/profes sional mediating role? Individual/com Visitors/Public munities v.?
- 23. Q4. Do these different ‘ways of knowing’ reflect your experience of developing exhibitions? Is anything left out?
- 24. Workshop Visitor Experiences of Co-produced Exhibits/Exhibitions: Sharing research and exploring approaches 18th December, St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious life
- 25. Experiential knowing is through direct face-to-face encounter with person, place or thing; it is knowing through the immediacy of perceiving, through empathy and resonance. Presentational knowing emerges from experiential knowing, and provides the first form of expressing meaning and significance through drawing on expressive forms of imagery through movement, dance, sound, music, drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, story, drama and so on. Propositional knowing ‘about’ something, is knowing through ideas and theories, expressed in informative statements. Practical knowing is knowing ‘how to’ do something and is expressed in a skill, knack or competence (Heron, 1992, 1996a).
- 26. Participant control Museum control D TELL SELL CONSULT JOIN DELEGATE Museum decides Museum decides Museum invites Museum invites Museum turns then sells and then informs input before others to make decision over to positive aspects others deciding decisions with others. of the decision. them. Courtesy of Kinharvie Institute and Curious Conference, St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious Life. 5th and 6th December 2012.
- 27. Think about the projects you are working on – Can you think (or not!)of an example where you think the museum can legitimately: Tell, Sell, Consult, Join, Delegate Participant control Museum control D TELL SELL CONSULT JOIN DELEGATE Museum decides Museum decides Museum invites Museum invites Museum turns then sells and then informs input before others to make decision over to positive aspects others deciding decisions with others. of the decision. them. Courtesy of Kinharvie Institute and Curious Conference, St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious Life. 5th and 6th December 2012.
- 28. Sherry R. Arnstien’s Ladder of Participation (1969)
- 29. Austerity and co-production What is core to the museum?
- 30. Q5. Does content produced by visitors present a different challenge and possibilities to co-produced material by a group working with the museum?
- 31. Q6. Return to our motivations for doing co-production… How might co-production and visitor-generated content renew museums for 21st century and in the context of cuts?
- 32. More on Northern Spirit and the co-produced content see: artontyneside.wordpress.com Helen Graham: helengraham@wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
- #15: Visitor research
- #16: Easy to see – gets most attention
- #17: BUT design perhaps didn’t help
- #18: Makes it personal, real, link between now and then – helps idea of different perspectives.Principle – anyone can…
- #19: Interpretative lack – clearer about the value and importance of the content
- #20: Heighten the personal element within the interpretation – as a way of explaining why it is there.