Sharing the Museum: Social Media and Curatorial Practice

■ Antonelli, Paola. Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011. ■ Greenfield, Susan. “Screen culture may be changing our brains”, Australian Broadcasting Corporation The 7:30 Report, March 19, 2009.■ Hsiang-Yi Liu, Alison . “Using online communities to attract museum visitors.” International Journal of Education through Art 4, no. 3 (2008): 259-274, doi: 10.1386/eta.4.3.259/1.■ MacDonald, George F., and Stephen Alsford. “The Museum as Information Utility.” Museum Management and Curatorship 10, no. 3 (1991): 305-311, doi: 10.1080/09647779109515282.■ Rawsthorn, Alice. “MoMA Exhibit Shows How Technology Is Getting the Point Across.” The New York Times, July 17, 2011, Section C, 25. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/arts/moma-exhibit-shows-how-technology-is-getting-the-point-across.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22MoMA%20Exhibit%20Shows%20How%20Technology%20Is%20Getting%20the%20Point%20Across%22&st=cse■ Rosenberg, Karen. “Art That Interacts if You Interface.” The New York Times, July 28, 2011, Section C, 22. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/arts/design/momas-talk-to-me-focuses-on-interface-review.html?_r=1&_r%E2%80%A6%204/4.■ Russo, Angelina, Jerry Watkins, Linda Kelly, and Sebastian Chan. “How will social media affect museum communication?” in [Proceedings] Nordic Digital Excellence in Museums (NODEM), Oslo, Norway, 07-09 December 2006. Oslo: Department of Media and Communication - University of Oslo, 2006. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6067/1/6067_1.pdf.■ Russo, Angelina, and Darren Peacock, “Great expectations: sustaining participation in social media spaces”, in Museums and the Web 2009, the international conference for culture and heritage on-line: proceedings of an international conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, 15-18 April 2009, edited by Jennifer Trant, and David Bearman, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, 2009. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/papers/russo/russo.html.■ Russo, Angelina, Jerry Watkins, and Susan Groundwater-Smith. “The impact of social media on informal learning in museums.” Educational Media International 46, no. 2 (2009): 153-166, doi: 10.1080/09523980902933532.■ Staniszewski, Mary Anne. Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art. Cambridge MASS: MIT Press, 1998.

CASE STUDY_ Talk to Me: Design and Communication between People and ObjectsMUSEUM_ The Museum of Modern ArtPLACE_ New York CityDURATION_ July 24 - November 7, 2011ORGANIZED BY_ Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, and Kate Carmody, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern ArtDESIGNED BY_ The Department of Advertising and Graphic Design at The Museum of Modern Art

The paper explores how the social media sphere has been challenging the way museum exhibitions are conceived.

Before, during and after Talk to Me, people were invited to add content to a real exhibition in an open and reciprocal collaboration with museum professionals.

Museums are no longer talking to a general audience according to a traditional one-way communication scheme; nowadays, they are part of a dialogue, which includes museumgoers as individuals.

The introduction of social media in the exhibition design broadened interaction to a new level, where visitors interact with the exhibit and, through it, they interact among themselves as well.

But the scenario brought up by social media is quite revolutionary especially because it questions not only the way of conveying content but also the very way of producing it. The goal of the users is no longer entertainment but the creation of knowledge which is accessible and meaningful to them and their peers.

What was a uniquely passive cultural consumption has really been turning into a cultural production. According to this scenario, the Internet is no longer only a preview of reality, but also and above all an amplification of it.

SOCIAL MEDIA / EXHIBITION DESIGN

CASE STUDY

Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.Exhibition Installation.


Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.Website.


Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.Label.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sharing the Museum: Social Media and Curatorial Practice

Autore: M. Sarzotti (Tutor: Professor M. Ruffilli; Co-tutor: Professor F. Montanari)Dottorato di Ricerca in Design e InnovazioneSeconda Università di Napoli, Dip. IDEAS - Industrial Design Ambiente Storia, Abazia di San Lorenzo ad Septimum, Aversa (IT) | mail: [email protected], tel +39 055 2638207

Instead of engagement, the new “open sesame” to visitors’ satisfaction is participation. A user - centered approach is needed in order to properly design a two-way communication which supports actions taken by communities.

Apparently, influencing the expectations of museum visitors, social media have also started the modification of the curatorial practice.

Social networking widened the horizon of curatorial expertise from curating objects to curating information.

DESCRIPTION_ The exhibition displayed nearly 200 projects centered on interaction and aiming to emphasize how the need to engage in communication with users is overtaking form and function in contemporary design. Talk to Me showed how different innovations are transforming the way we live: objects communicate with us and in turn can help us communicate with others. The ‘file rouge’ of this dialogue was unraveled through the six sections of the exhibition’s organization: objects, bodies, life, city, worlds, double entendre.