Museum Thresholds: The Design and Media of Arrival

281 Pages·2018·18.89 MB·English

by  Ross Parry

Museum Thresholds
Museum Thresholds is a progressive, interdisciplinary volume and the first to explore the
importance and potential of entrance spaces for visitor experience. Bringing together an
international collection of writers from different disciplines, the chapters in this volume offer
different theoretical perspectives on the nature of engagement, interaction and immersion in
threshold spaces, and the factors that enable and inhibit those immersive possibilities.
Organised into themed sections, the book explores museum thresholds from three different
perspectives. Considering them first as a problem space, the contributors then go on to explore
thresholds through different media and, finally, draw upon other subjects and professions,
including performance, gaming, retail and discourse studies, in order to examine them from an
entirely new perspective. Drawing upon examples that span Asia, North America and Europe,
the authors set the entrance space in its historical, social and architectural contexts. Together, the
essays show how the challenges posed by the threshold can be rethought and reimagined from a
variety of perspectives, each of which has much to bring to future thinking and design.
Combining both theory and practice, Museum Thresholds should be essential reading for
academics, researchers and postgraduate students working in museum studies, digital heritage,
architecture, design studies, retail studies and media studies. It will also be of great interest to
museum practitioners working in a wide variety of institutions around the globe.
Ross Parry is Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Digital) at the University of Leicester (UK), and associate
professor in its School of Museum Studies. For over twenty years, his interdisciplinary and highly
collaborative research has considered the relationship between digital media and the cultural herit-
age sector. A former national chair of the UK’s Museums Computer Group, and a Tate Research
Fellow, he was one of the founding Trustees of the Jodi Mattes Trust – for accessible digital culture.
He is the author of the book Recoding the Museum (the first major history of museum computing)
and Museums in a Digital Age – a volume that helped define the subject area of ‘digital heritage’.
Ruth Page spends her time teaching and writing about storytelling, especially focusing on the stories
that people tell in social media contexts. She has written several books including Stories and Social
Media (Routledge, 2012), Narratives Online: Shared Stories and Social Media (Cambridge University
Press, 2018), and was the lead author of the student textbook, Researching the Language of Social
Media (Routledge, 2014). Her publications in journals and edited collections have explored narra-
tives in a wide range of contexts, from print literature and the mainstream media to conversational
stories and stories published in online contexts such as blogs, social network sites and Wikipedia.
Alex Moseley is a National Teaching Fellow and Head of Curriculum Enhancement at the
University of Leicester. He has had long experience as both practitioner and researcher of
course design and development for higher education and also teaches innovative Digital Media
courses in Museum Studies and Historical Studies. His principal research area is in games-
based learning: he has written widely in this area including Using Games to Enhance Teaching
and Learning (Routledge, 2012) and New Traditional Games for Learning: A Case Book
(Routledge, 2013), has designed and consulted on a number of games for museum and educa-
tion contexts, chairs the Association for Learning Technology special interest group on Playful
Learning, and co-organises the Playful Learning conference.
Routledge Research in Museum Studies
Academics, Artists, and Museums: 21st-Century Partnerships ed. Irina
Costache and Clare Kunny
Public Art and Museums in Cultural Districts J. Pedro Lorente
Museum Thresholds: The Design and Media of Arrival ed. Ross Parry,
Ruth Page and Alex Moseley
Rodney: Personalization of the Museum Visit Seph Rodney
Collecting the Past: British Collectors and their Collections from the 18th
to the 20th Centuries ed. Toby Burrows and Cynthia Johnston
Museum Communication and Social Media: The Connected Museum
Kirsten Drotner, Kim Christian Schrøder
Climate Change and Museum Futures ed. Fiona Cameron and Brett
Neilson
Introducing Peace Museums Joyce Apsel
Museums, Heritage and Indigenous Voice: Decolonizing Engagement
Bryony Onciul
Exhibiting Madness in Museums: Remembering Psychiatry Through
Collection and Display ed. Catharine Coleborne and Dolly MacKinnon
Belgian Museums of the Great War: Politics, Memory and Conference
Karen Shelby
Museums, Immigrants, and Social Justice Sophia Labadi
Museum Storage and Meaning: Tales from the Crypt ed. Mirjam Brusius
and Kavita Singh
Global and World Art in the Practice of the University Museum ed. Jane
Chin Davidson and Sandra Esslinger
For more information on this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Museum-Studies/book-series/RRIMS
Museum Thresholds
The Design and Media of Arrival
Edited by Ross Parry, Ruth Page
and Alex Moseley
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2018 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parry, Ruth Page and Alex
Moseley; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Ross Parry, Ruth Page and Alex Moseley to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 9781138646032 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315627793 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables x
List of contributors xi
Foreword xv
Acknowledgements xvii
1 On a new threshold 1
ROSS PARRY, RUTH PAGE AND ALEX MOSELEY
PART I
Locating and defining the threshold 11
2 Hysterical atria 13
KATHERINE SKELLON AND BEN TUNSTALL
3 The complexity of welcome: visitor experience at
the museum threshold 33
COLIN MULBERG
Conversation 1: The Royal Air Force Museum London 54
4 Design-driven innovation for museum entrances 58
MARCO MASON
PART II
Affordances and potential of the threshold 79
5 Suspended: art in the threshold 81
PETER RIDE
vi Contents
6 Curation at the threshold: making museum meanings
through new interfaces 107
ANGELINA RUSSO AND PHILIP POND
Conversation 2: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 119
7 Using 3D visualisation technology to improve design
and visitor orientation 124
DAVID BURDEN
8 Difficult thresholds: negotiating shared and embedded
entrances 153
STEVEN KRUSE
PART III
The threshold rethought 173
9 Games in the lobby: a playful approach 175
ERIK KRISTIANSEN AND ALEX MOSELEY
Conversation 3: The British Postal Museum and
Archive 189
10 Retail perspectives on the threshold 192
TRACY HARWOOD
11 Setting the tone for the visit: soundscape design 211
CHRISTIAN HVIID MORTENSEN AND ANGUS DEUCHARS
Conversation 4: The Royal Shakespeare Company 228
12 The visitor as evaluator: using appraisal theory to
understand ‘threshold fear’ 231
RUTH PAGE
Index 254
Figures
2.1 V&A courtyard, visitors enjoying the sun 22
2.2 V&A Chihuly glass chandelier 23
2.3 Albert looks down on visitors 29
2.4 Walkway in new atrium 30
3.1 Typical visitor questions reflecting concerns about a visit 36
3.2 How museum visitors construct the visitor offer 39
3.3 The classic retail buying process gives insight into the
stages of museum visitors’ decision-making 41
3.4 How visitors structure their visit at the museum threshold 46
3.5 Portsmouth Historic Dockyard threshold before
redevelopment: visitors were given little help in
understanding the visitor offer, the various ticket
options or working out what to see 50
3.6 PHD threshold after redevelopment: decision-making is
supported by impressions of the experience of each
attraction, purchase decisions are explained clearly
and visitors are guided in structuring their visit 50
4.1 Conceptual map of the entire information system 60
4.2 Examples of pictures combined with short descriptions
highlighting the essential insights to illustrate environments
and activities 63
4.3 Customer experience journey map for the information
system 64
4.4 Prototype of the multi-touch screen to test the interactions
for the best combination(s) resulting from the user’s choice 65
4.5 Paper prototype to try out interactions on the multi-touch
screen 66
4.6 Mixed-fidelity prototype to try out interactions on the
multi-touch screen 67
5.1 Bin Jelmood House, Msheireb Museum, Qatar, showing
the projection of moving shadow figures in the threshold 84
viii List of figures
5.2 Dale Chihuly, V&A rotunda chandelier (2001) at the
V&A, London 87
5.3 John Grade, Wawona. Seattle Museum of History and
Industry (MOHAI), showing the positioning of the
sculpture in the threshold 88
5.4 John Grade, Wawona. Seattle Museum of History and
Industry (MOHAI), interior of sculpture, looking up 90
5.5 John Grade, Wawona. Seattle Museum of History and
Industry (MOHAI), visitors interacting with sculpture 91
5.6 Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, exterior looking towards
the main entrance 93
5.7 Aisha Khalid, Your Way Begins on the Other Side (2014).
Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, interior 95
5.8 Artist Lee Mingwei, The Moving Garden (2009/2011).
Brooklyn Museum 97
5.9 Brooklyn Museum visitor interacting with sculptures
by Auguste Rodin, Burghers of Calais (1889), in the
pavilion 98
5.10– Museum of London, following the visitors’ entrance
5.13 from the external rotunda, inside the rotunda to the
foyer display 101
7.1 Developments in computer model rendering 125
7.2 Example Second Life builds 128
7.3 The Three Ring Model 132
7.4 The Virtual Library of Birmingham 133
7.5 Interaction systems in the Virtual Library of Birmingham 134
7.6 Virtual Library of Birmingham orientation 136
7.7 Virtual Library of Birmingham – Physical and Virtual
comparisons 139
7.8 As-is and ‘white room’ models of the New Walk
Museum threshold space 143
7.9 Virtual reality examples 149
8.1 Simplified plans of the museum within the university 157
8.2 Courtyard entrance of the museum and department 158
8.3 Simplified plans of the museum within the cathedral 160
8.4 West Entrance of Ely Cathedral 161
8.5 Simplified plans of the museum within the college 165
8.6 Front of the Royal College of Surgeons 166
9.1 The lobby design game 180
9.2 Chatsworth House front view, Derbyshire, England 184
9.3 Playful signage at Chatsworth House 185
10.1 Typical store layouts 197
List of figures ix
10.2 Aspects of the store environment 198
10.3 Sight lines across store layouts 199
11.1 The mediating relationship between individual and
environment through sound at the Petrie Museum 212
11.2 Positive vs negative ratings of how the stairwell prepared
the visitor before the intervention 220
11.3 Positive vs negative ratings of how the stairwell prepared
the visitor after the design intervention 222
12.1 New Walk Museum and Art Gallery approach to
the entrance 237
12.2 New Walk Museum and Art Gallery view from the door
into the foyer 238
12.3 Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology approach to
the entrance 239
12.4 Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology view to the
entrance door from the stairs 240