Archive for the 'Journal' Category

The most recent issue of The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum includes:

• Embracing the Wider Audience Through Creative Engagement and Installation Practices by Abbie Dean.
• Learning from Art Museums: Three Course Assignments for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers by Nur Balkir-Kuru.
• If We Build it, Will They Come? Changing Course in an International Institution by Amy Van Allen.
• Cultural Heritage – The Best Teacher by Lea Kuznik.
• “Expographic Storytelling”: The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin as a Field of Dialogic Representation by Anna Maria Pecci and Gianluigi Mangiapane.
• Creating a City Museum with Inclusive Efforts: A Case of Canakkale City Museum and Archive by Hanzade Uralman.
• Jakarta Historical Museum: Whose History? by Irmawati Johan and Ajeng Ayu Arainikasih.

Congratulations to Ingrid Templer the winner of the International Award for Excellence in the inclusive museum field with the paper New Media Interactivity in the Museum: Democratisation or Dumbing Down?

Paper abstract: New media discourse brings to the table discussions about interactivity, about how humans interact with media and technology in terms of engagement and meaning making. New media, is the result of old media becoming computerised, that is, produced, stored and distributed in a numerical form. It includes media such as the web, computer games and DVDs. Virtual reality environments also employ new media.

This paper questions whether new media interactivity fundamentally differs from interactivity in general. More specifically it explores whether new media enhances the museum experience or trivialises it. Does it democratise knowledge, or is it a form of ‘dumbing down’ in order to appeal to the greatest possible number of people?

Two museums are analysed, both in the Johannesburg area, namely, the Origins Centre and the Maropeng Visitors Centre. Both have themes of mankind’s origin and early development in Africa. Their approach to interactivity however, differs considerably, thereby providing fertile contexts for comparison.

If you have read this paper and would like to make comments please add a review.