Description
This paper aims to use a video-taped fragment of conduct and interaction in a museum to
illustrate the analysis of visitors’ interactionally produced response to works of art.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Examining “response”: video-based studies in museums and galleries
Dirk vom Lehn
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Dirk vom Lehn, (2010),"Examining “response”: video-based studies in museums and galleries", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and
Hospitality Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 33 - 43
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Examining ‘‘response’’: video-based
studies in museums and galleries
Dirk vom Lehn
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to use a video-taped fragment of conduct and interaction in a museum to
illustrate the analysis of visitors’ interactionally produced response to works of art.
Design/methodology/approach – The method draws on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis
to investigate the social and sequential organisation of people’s action and interaction. The fragment
discussed as part of this paper sheds light on the social and interactional production of people’s
response to and experience of exhibits.
Findings – The detailed analysis of one video-fragment illustrates how the analysis progresses from an
inspection of the sequential organisation of talk to an examination of the sequential organisation of
verbal, visual and bodily conduct. The analysis also makes a small substantive contribution to current
debates on people’s experience of artwork in museums. In particular, the ?ndings suggest that the
experience of works of art is not a subjective and cognitive response to the objects, but arises in and
through socially organised, embodied practices at the exhibit-face.
Originality/value – The paper discusses an innovative way to analyze video-data, and makes a
contribution to the growing body of research in arts marketing and museum marketing on the exhibition
?oor.
Keywords Video, Conversation, Arts, Museums
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Museums provide people with opportunities to encounter and experience original works of
art, alone and in concert with others. People often visit museums with companions, friends
and family. They explore galleries, encounter, view and experience artworks and other kinds
of exhibit together (Falk and Dierking, 1992, 2000; Wright, 1989). A growing body of
research explores how social interaction impacts the ‘‘museum experience’’ (see Leinhardt
et al., 2002; McManus, 1994). This research considers the museum as primarily an
educational institution and the museum experience as a learning experience. The research
however shows relatively little interest in how the experience of museums, be it educational
or otherwise, arises in interaction at the exhibit-face.
The investigation of the ways in which people explore and make sense of exhibits in and
through social interaction, requires an approach that provides the researcher with a
theoretical and methodological framework to explore the activities through which people
examine and experience museum exhibits. This paper discusses an approach that uses
video-recordings of museum visitors’ conduct and interaction as principal data augmented
by ?eld observation and informal interviews with museum staff and visitors. The analysis
focuses on situated conduct and interaction at exhibits, drawing on methodological
developments within sociology and in particular ethnomethodology (Gar?nkel, 1967) and
conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). A growing body of research that has come to be known
as ‘‘workplace studies’’ (Heath and Luff, 2000; Luff et al., 2000; Suchman, 1987) augments
DOI 10.1108/17506181011024742 VOL. 4 NO. 1 2010, pp. 33-43, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 33
Dirk vom Lehn is a
Research Fellow based at
the Work, Interaction and
Technology Research
Centre, Department of
Management, King’s
College London, London,
UK.
Received November 2007
Revised April 2008
Accepted May 2008
This research has been funded
by the AHRC project
‘‘Enhancing Interpretation: New
Techniques and Technologies
for Fine and Decorative Art
Museums’’ (AR17441). It
bene?ted also from the support
of the NSF-funded ‘‘Centre for
Informal Learning and Schools’’
(CILS). The author thanks the
visitors who kindly agreed to
participate in the research and
the management and staff of
the National Gallery in London,
in particular, Louise Gouvier
who kindly allowed them
access to their exhibitions. The
author also thanks colleagues
at the Work, Interaction and
Technology Research Centre
for their contribution to the
analysis of the data,
participants in the
ESRC-funded seminar
‘‘Creative Methods of Enquiry in
Arts/Heritage Marketing and
Consumption’’ at the University
of Bradford and the Guest
Editors and reviewers of this
special issue for their valuable
comments and suggestions.
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these general methodological developments. These studies direct analytic attention
towards the action and interaction with and around the material environment and in particular
the ways in which tools, technologies, objects and artefacts feature in, and gain their
occasioned sense and signi?cance through, practical collaborative activity. They include for
example studies of control centers, newsrooms and operating theatres. They use video,
augmented by ?eld studies, to examine the ?ne details of interaction and to explore how
people, in concert with others accomplish social actions and activities. The study here draws
on this body of research and examines one video-taped fragment of interaction at a work of
art to explore how people orient and respond to exhibits in museums.
2. Visual arts consumption and video
Arts marketers evince considerable interest in the visual arts and ?lm, and a growing
concern with the study of people’s experience of cultural objects and events (see Kerrigan
et al., 2004; Rentschler and Hede, 2007; Schroeder, 2002). Perhaps surprisingly, relatively
few researchers in this ?eld use visual data to explore how people orient to and make sense
of cultural objects when they encounter them, for example in museums and galleries.
In retail marketing and cognate areas, researchers use video as data in prior studies. A
growing body of studies explores the consumption of goods and services using
video-recordings of social situations in shops, markets and other retail settings (Belk et al.,
1988; Belk and Kozinets, 2005; Clark et al., 1994; Schmid, 2006). In recent years, qualitative
research methods including ethnography, video analysis and qualitative interviews have
grown in signi?cance also in studies of cultural consumption. This research sheds light on
the range of social action and interaction involved in cultural consumption in the privacy of
the home as well as in public cultural venues. These inquiries explore the social context in
which people watch television, listen to music use technology at home, view ?lms in
cinemas, participate in music events and respond to exhibits. These studies highlight the
‘‘embodied’’ aspects of the experience of artworks (Joy and Sherry, 2003) and suggest that
social interaction is critical to the ways in which people watch television, view ?lms in the
cinema or participate in cultural events (Ang, 1995; Hitzler and Pfadenhauer, 1999; O’Reilly
and Larsen, 2005; Silverstone and Hirsch, 1992; Srinivas, 2002).
Studies of cultural consumption and audience research consider museum visiting as a
social activity that forms part of many people’s everyday lives (Bagnall, 2003; Goulding,
2001; Longhurst et al., 2004; Macdonald, 2006; Storey, 1999). They explore how people
embed their visit to museums within the social context of their day-to-day activities. However,
they have shown relatively little interest in the speci?cs of the social context in which people’s
experience of exhibits and exhibitions arises, on the museum ?oor. They therefore often
neglect to investigate howpeople react to exhibits at the ‘‘point of experience’’ where people
consider and experience exhibits. Joy and Sherry (2003) point out that people’s experience
of art is an embodied experience. They however focus on cognitive and subjective aspects
of the aesthetic experience and curiously ignore the bodily action and activity through which
people experience works of art.
Visitor studies, a largely applied ?eld of research, explores people’s behavior in and learning
from museums. It aims to produce observations and ?ndings that help museum managers,
curators and designers to enhance the effectiveness of exhibitions (Falk and Dierking,
2000). Following the emergence of socio-cultural theory and its impact on the cognitive
sciences, visitor studies are now exploring how museum experience arises in and through
social interaction and talk at the exhibits (see Leinhardt et al., 2002; McManus, 1994). These
studies deal with the impact of social interaction on the learning outcome of museum visits.
They focus on the content of talk and its relationship to the exhibition. Yet, they largely ignore
the social organisation of talk and how visitors’ bodily and visual conduct and their
interaction with others facilitate talk.
As part of a small programme of research the author together with colleagues at King’s
College London explores how people examine exhibits in social interaction with each other
and how the experience of exhibits is inextricably embedded within the practical
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circumstances in which the experience is made (Heath and vom Lehn, 2004; Vom Lehn,
2006, 2007; Vom Lehn et al., 2001). The analysis uses video-recordings of people’s conduct
and interaction at exhibits as principal data. This paper discusses an approach to analyze
video-recordings of conduct and interaction in museums.
3. Data collection
Part of the research includes studies of conduct and interaction in a range of museums and
galleries in the UK and abroad including, the Courtauld Galleries, the National Gallery, the
National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum
(all in London), the Musee des Beaux Arts Rouen, Beatrice Royal Arts and Crafts Gallery,
Nottingham Castle, the Zentrum fu¨ r Kunst und Medien (ZKM, Karlsruhe), the Sculpture and
Functional Arts Exposition (Chicago) and Shipley Art Gallery.
The study includes gathering a large corpus of audio-visual recordings augmented by
?eldwork and a small number of interviews with museum staff and visitors. The audio-visual
recordings however form the principal vehicle for analysis of social interaction. They offer
certain advantages over more conventional qualitative data. They provide the resources
through which the researcher can capture (versions of) the conduct and interaction of
visitors and subject their actions and activities to detailed, repeated scrutiny, using
slow-motion facilities and the like. They expose the ?ne details of conduct and interaction,
details that are unavailable in more conventional forms of data, and yet details that form the
very foundation to howpeople see and experience exhibits in museums and galleries. Unlike
other forms of data, audio-visual recordings also afford the researcher the opportunity to
share, present and discuss the evidence which supports observations and analysis, a
facility that is rare within the social sciences and that places an important constraint on the
analysis of data.
Field observation and data gathered through interview and discussion augment the analysis
of the audio-visual materials. These and related materials, such as exhibit speci?cations,
copies of labels, instructions, gallery guides and the like, provide important resources with
which to situate and understand the conduct and interaction of visitors. For example, people
quite often selectively voice instructions or labels to others as they approach or examine an
exhibit. The analysis of the interaction needs to consider how participants occasion, embed,
or transform, this information within talk and interaction. Audio/video recording inevitably
provides a selective view of events, and while this view may encompass a broad range of
actions and activities that arise at an exhibit, it can be useful to know what else may be
happening more generally within the scene. The data collection process includes the
systematic interweaving of ?eld observations, information from materials and comments
from interviews and discussions with recorded data. Where relevant, the analysis of the
participants’ action and interaction took this data into account.
Debates in qualitative research raise a number of ethical issues about undertaking
video-based ?eld studies (Grimshaw, 1982; Knoblauch et al., 2006; Speer and Hutchby,
2003). Following discussions with museum personnel and visitors, the present study
includes developing and applying a set of practices to publicise the research and its aims
and objectives and to maximize opportunities for participants to withhold or withdraw
cooperation if they so wish. The study includes places notices informing visitors of the
research at the entrance to the museum and the relevant galleries; notices that invite
potential participants to discuss data collection with the researcher, and if they have any
reservations, before, during or after the event offering to cease recording or destroy any
records. In general, visitors have shown a great deal of interest in the research and
willingness to participate.
Audio-visual recording follows a period of ?eldwork in museums and galleries. Fieldwork,
including discussions with museum staff, provides useful information concerning exhibits
and exhibitions and areas in galleries that might be of particular interest. Fieldwork also
provides an opportunity to consider how best to position the camera(s) and place
microphones. Positioning equipment so as to minimize the obtrusiveness of the equipment
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and the recording are important considerations. The camera needs positioning to capture
the conduct and interaction of the participants within the scene whilst not demanding that
the researcher remains behind the camera. The researcher however remains in the gallery to
undertake ?eld observation, answer any queries from visitors, whilst having set the camera
to record, participants should not see the researcher operating the equipment. In this
regard, audio-visual recording coupled with background ?eldwork can prove far less
obtrusive than conventional participant and non-participant observation.
A review follows initial data collection, in which the researcher examines the materials to
assess the quality of the images and sound and to identify any issues that might be relevant
to further data collection. The researcher also undertakes preliminary analysis of a selected
number of fragments and begins to re?ect upon any particular actions and activities that
might inform how s/he gathers further data, through video, ?eldwork or even interview. The
preliminary analysis leads to further data collection that in turn is subject to more detailed
analysis. Data collection and analysis therefore is an iterative and complementary process
designed and re?ned with regard to the practical issues and analytic insights that emerge
through detailed inspection of the data.
4. Analyzing audio-visual data
The studies draw on ethnomethodology (Gar?nkel, 1967) and conversation analysis (Sacks,
1992) as the theoretical and methodological framework. They highlight the local, ‘‘indexical’’
and practical production of social action and interaction. They argue that action and context
are re?exively interrelated. Sense and signi?cance of actions and objects link inextricably to
the speci?cs of the occasion in which they arise. They therefore rely on a dynamic and
contingent concept of context. Social actions and activities are contingently accomplished
with regard to each other, gradually reshaping and renewing the context in which they arise
(Heritage, 1984). Conversation analysts have utilised ethnomethodology’s principal
assumption of ‘‘indexicality’’ and ‘‘re?exivity’’ to explore the social organisation of talk.
They have revealed the sequential organisation of talk and elaborated on how a next
utterance, a turn at talk, is a product of preceding action(s) and provides the framework for a
subsequent action. The emergent and socio-temporal character of human action is a critical
feature of context and situation; indeed, the real time contributions of others are the most
pervasive ‘‘contingency’’ for social action. The situated character of practical action like talk,
visual and bodily conduct therefore points not simply to the circumstances in which an
activity arises but rather to the ways in which social actions and activities emerge, moment
by moment. The analysis of audio-visual data elaborates on the ways in which participants
produce and make sense of particular actions. The analytical work focuses on the practices
and reasoning that inform the practical accomplishment of everyday, emergent, context
embedded, activities.
The analysis of the audio-/video-data proceeds case by case. The analysis subjects
particular actions to a highly detailed scrutiny and examines the immediate context and a
particular interactional environment in which they arise. The speci?c location and character
of an action, be it vocal, visual or material, and its relationship to the immediately surrounding
framework of activity, the actions immediately prior to and following on from it, is critical, to
how the participants produce and coordinate their actions and how it is scrutinized. The
analysis focuses on the ways in which particular actions reveal interactional relations to the
immediately prior and proceeding action(s). For example, it might examine how a particular
action such as a question or a bodily turn creates an opportunity for, and engenders, a
speci?c action from a co-participant, that in turn, implicates subsequent action. These
sequential relations between actions therefore form an important focus of analytic enquiry
and provide a foundation to the ways in which people accomplish activities in interaction,
with each other.
To unpack and elaborate the sequential organization of activities the researcher employs a
system that facilitates the capturing and representation of features of participants’ conduct.
In conversation analysis there is a long-standing convention for the transcription of talk, a
convention that is primarily concerned with representing the interactional features of talk
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(Sacks, 1992; Schegloff, 1992). A similar convention is not available for the transcription of
people’s visual and material conduct, such as the handling an object. The study relies on a
solution that is used by others who are interested in ‘‘multi-modal interaction’’; the study
includes transcribing, at least the onset and completion, of the visual and material features of
the participants’ conduct with regard to the talk and/or silence or pauses (Goodwin, 1981;
Heath, 1986). The transcription is an important means for the researcher to familiarise
himself with the complexities of a particular fragment and to begin to explicate the relations
between actions and activities. The transcription also provides an important resource for
documenting observations and recalling insights and analytic observations.
5. Encouraging response
Museum managers and curators are increasingly interested in the ways in which people
examine, respond to and make sense of artwork. They track and observe people in
museums and use questionnaires and other interview techniques to gain insights into the
ways in which people experience and make sense of exhibitions. The analysis of
video-recordings of conduct and interaction allows researchers to explore, in detail, how
people’s response to artwork arises at the exhibit-face. The following section discusses a
fragment to illustrate the analysis and the observations about the ?ndings.
The following fragment occurred at a painting entitled, ‘‘Man seated reading at a table in a
lofty room’’ which was on display at the ‘‘Rembrandt 400’’ exhibition at the National Gallery in
London in 2006. (A picture of the painting can be seen at, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/). The
painting shows a large room with a ?replace on the right and a ?gure sitting at a table on the
left. Behind the man is a window through which light comes in, casting a shadow on large
parts of the scene.
The analysis uses a transcript of the participants’ talk that captures line by line the
participants’ utterances. The transcription uses Jefferson’s (1984) conventions. A ‘‘[’’ stands
for overlapping talk, ‘‘:’’ for elongated utterances, ‘‘ ¼ ’’ for talk that latches onto another, ‘‘(.)’’
for momentary but hear-able pauses (‘‘micropause’’) and ‘‘.hhhh’’ for an audible in-breath
(see Figure 1).
The overlapping utterances (line 3-5) arise in the light of Paula’s actions a moment earlier.
After a few seconds of silence during which the two participants view the painting Paula
Figure 1 Transcript 1
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produces an in-breath (Transcript 2; line 1 (Figure 2)) that projects a subsequent utterance;
‘‘.hhh’’. She then encourages Jo to, ‘‘look at all that (.)’’, and then while gesturing along the
contours of the ?replace depicted in the painting describes the object, ‘‘porcelain thats a
?replace isnt it (.)’’. By virtue of her talk and gestures coupled with her looking to the ?replace
Paula demarcates visibly for her friend a particular exhibit feature. In the course of Paula’s
actions Jo shifts her visual orientation to that part of the painting; yet she does not exhibit a
response to the ?replace. Only when a moment later Paula begins to reformulate her
description of the object Jo produces an utterance, ‘‘quite dif?cult to see’’. This utterance at
the same time displays that Jo has seen the ?replace and offers an account for a delay in her
response (Transcript 2).
The analysis of the video-data provides an understanding of the overlapping talk. People
who simultaneously view a work of art often examine it in different ways. To align their
perspectives they produce and coordinate their talk, visual and bodily conduct and thus
momentarily constitute particular exhibit features as noteworthy. In the case at hand, Paula’s
actions facilitate and shape Jo’s experience of the painting and her noticing of the tall
?replace depicted in the piece. By virtue of her slight shift in bodily orientation and gesture
as well as her talk, Paula encourages Jo to look at a particular aspect of the painting and
con?gures her way of seeing the painting.
Despite encouragement to look at the ?replace Jo notices and experiences the object on her
own, ?rst hand. She uses Paula’s actions in front of the canvas as resources to adjust her
stand- and viewpoint. She displays her discovery of the ?replace when she is in the right
place to see the image. Her experience of the painting arises in the moment at hand, when
she and Paula collaboratively assemble their bodies in particular ways at the painting and
consider the piece together. The shared experience of the work of art however lasts only for a
Figure 2 Transcript 2
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brief moment; a split of a second later, Jo notices and points out another exhibit feature and
Paula shifts her orientation to the next painting on the wall.
The analysis of this fragment suggests that the interaction between visitors produces the
response to a work of art. It progresses from an inspection of the sequential organisation of
talk to an examination of the sequential organisation of verbal, visual and bodily conduct.
Thus, the analysis highlights the importance of considering how people coordinate their
visual and bodily conduct with their talk for an understanding of the emergence of people’s
response to artwork in museums. The analysis does not stop here but continues by
comparing and contrasting similar fragments in which people progressively align their
perspectives to an exhibit. The comparison of fragments allows for the understanding of
reoccurring patterns of interaction, illuminating general aspects of speci?c cases.
6. Implications
Arts marketing research inquires into cultural production and consumption, exploring
people’s participation with and experience of cultural objects, events and programmes. It
hopes that observations and ?ndings fromthe research informthe design and deployment of
resources that enhance people’s experience of cultural events like ?lms, concerts and
museums (Kerrigan et al., 2004; Rentschler and Hede, 2007). This paper has discussed
video-based research methods to examine how people use the resources provided by
museums to make experiences of exhibits and exhibitions. Observations and ?ndings of
research employing this method may have important implications for current academic
debates as well as for the work of art marketing practitioners in museums.
Recent debates in marketing have been increasingly concerned with the ‘‘embodied
experience’’ (Joy and Sherry, 2003) of aesthetic, leisure and shopping environments.
Drawing on interview data, these studies suggest that people’s bodily relationship to the
environment shapes their experiences. The focus of these studies is with the individual and
her/his subjective, inner experience of the world. They rarely examine how the practical
involvement of the body in the production of the experience in situations where they are
alone or with others. The detailed analysis of video-recordings contributes to these debates
by exploring the ‘‘embodied practice’’ (Gar?nkel, 2002) through which people examine and
make sense of exhibits.
Research into museum visiting increasingly suggests that social interaction is critical for
people’s experience of exhibitions (see Falk and Dierking, 2000). This research coincides
with museum managers’ growing interest in creating environments that people can explore
and experience with family and friends as well as in larger groups. Video-based studies in
museums provide observations and ?ndings about the ways in which people explore and
make sense of exhibits in and through social interaction. They suggest how people’s
response to and experience of exhibits arises in and through the social organization of
people’s verbal, visual and bodily action and activity (see Heath and vom Lehn, 2004; Vom
Lehn, 2006).
Museum managers are concerned with the way in which people navigate, explore and
experience exhibitions. They collaborate with architects and exhibition designers to support
visitors’ navigation and experience of the galleries. Research by architects argues how the
presence of and interaction with others in?uences the navigation of galleries (Hillier and
Tzortzi, 2006). Video-based studies add to this body of research by exploring the social
organisation of people’s transition between exhibits. They reveal that people are continually
sensitive to others’ activities and state of engagement and align their actions with them (see
Vom Lehn et al., 2001).
Museum managers increasingly deploy new technologies such as personal digital
assistants (PDA), information kiosks and more advanced systems to enhance people’s
experience of exhibits and exhibitions. The deployment of these systems often stems from
technological innovation and current fads and rarely from research that examines how
visitors may use systems and devices when viewing artwork or other kinds of exhibit.
Video-based research has begun to explore how people use technology like PDAs and
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information kiosks on the exhibition ?oor. Some video researchers argue that these systems
and devices are detrimental to and undermine the emergence of social interaction and talk
between visitors. They suggest the need for observations and ?ndings fromdetailed studies
of action and activity in exhibitions to inform the development of resources that people may
seamlessly embed in their interactional experience of museums (Ciol? et al., 2007;
Hindmarsh et al., 2005; Vom Lehn and Heath, 2005; Vom Lehn et al., 2007).
Observational and video-based research may produce observations and ?ndings that make
important contributions to current debates in arts marketing and cultural consumption and
perhaps also to other marketing areas. Furthermore, the possibility of showing
video-recordings to practitioners provides arts marketing researchers with a powerful tool
to inform practice and policy.
7. Discussion
In the light of recent social scienti?c debates about the importance of ‘‘experiential’’ aspects
of people’s participation in society and engagement in social life (Schulze, 1992, 2000; Pine
and Gilmore, 1999), cultural consumption and the experience that people have of events,
exhibitions and other cultural objects increasingly concern arts marketing. They have
recently turned to qualitative research methods and approaches like grounded theory
(Goulding, 2000, 2001, and this issue) to unpack people’s experience of museums and
heritage sites. The research primarily relies on interviews and therefore provides relatively
little insight into the action and activities through which exhibits produce experiences.
Using video-recordings of visitors’ conduct and interaction at exhibits as principal data
coupled with an analytic and methodological framework drawn from ethnomethodology
(Gar?nkel, 1967) and conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). By employing this approach the
analysis investigates the social and sequential organisation of action and activities through
which people experience and make sense of exhibits. This analytical work suggests for
example how the actions of co-participants occasion and shape a response to an exhibit,
and argues that social interaction not only in?uences which exhibit feature people consider
but also how they respond. The response is not a ‘‘pure response’’ to an object but the
design of verbal, bodily and visual conduct occasions and shapes it. The reaction emerges
as a display of a discovery, an emotion or taste in ‘‘response’’ to the object and not to the
co-participant’s talk and gesture that overlay the object.
Consider possible directions for future research concerned with interaction in museums.
Arts marketing research often draws on Bourdieu (1990, 1993), Bourdieu and Darbel (1991)
and related research (Schulze, 1992) to explore how social conventions and ‘‘cultural
codes’’ in?uence museum visiting and the experience of exhibitions (Kirchberg, 1999,
2007). Video-based and ethnographic studies in museums may help exploring how such
conventions and codes are brought to bear at the exhibit-face and how people themselves
differentiate between and assess cultural objects when they face and examine them.
When people visit museums they have myriad and multifaceted experiences. Arts marketing
research on the exhibition ?oor may help bring to light the different aspects of these
experiences and the ways in which people’s encounters with works of art or other kinds of
exhibits produce experiences. For example, visitor research increasingly highlights affective
aspects of the museum experience, often considering emotion as a response to exhibits.
Video-based studies may help unpack the relationship between emotion, people’s activities
and the material environment by exploring how emotional responses arise in social
interaction.
Scholars in museum studies and cognate areas display a growing concern with the
relationship between visitor behavior and exhibition design (see Macdonald, 2006, 2007).
Arts marketing often focuses on knowledge about (potential) visitors’ social and cultural
dispositions to inform museum managers’ decision making. Findings from video-based
studies on the exhibition ?oor add to this important body of knowledge about the relationship
between the material environment and people’s behavior within and towards it. They provide
arts marketing researchers with a powerful resource and with visual evidence to support
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managers in deciding on the development of galleries and the deployment of new
interpretation devices.
Despite the growing corpus of research, arts marketing still is a relatively young discipline.
This paper has discussed how researchers can use video-recordings coupled with an
appropriate analytic and methodological framework to explore people’s experience of
museums. Detailed studies of the practices in and through which culture is seen and
experienced then and there provide arts marketing with insights about the emergence of
cultural experiences that are critical to enhance the impact of the discipline on academic
debates and to inform marketing practice and arts policy.
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Corresponding author
Dirk vom Lehn can be contacted at: [email protected]
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This article has been cited by:
1. Dirk vom Lehn. 2010. Discovering ‘Experience-ables’: Socially including visually impaired people in art museums. Journal of
Marketing Management 26, 749-769. [CrossRef]
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doc_731302346.pdf
This paper aims to use a video-taped fragment of conduct and interaction in a museum to
illustrate the analysis of visitors’ interactionally produced response to works of art.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Examining “response”: video-based studies in museums and galleries
Dirk vom Lehn
Article information:
To cite this document:
Dirk vom Lehn, (2010),"Examining “response”: video-based studies in museums and galleries", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and
Hospitality Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 33 - 43
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Examining ‘‘response’’: video-based
studies in museums and galleries
Dirk vom Lehn
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to use a video-taped fragment of conduct and interaction in a museum to
illustrate the analysis of visitors’ interactionally produced response to works of art.
Design/methodology/approach – The method draws on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis
to investigate the social and sequential organisation of people’s action and interaction. The fragment
discussed as part of this paper sheds light on the social and interactional production of people’s
response to and experience of exhibits.
Findings – The detailed analysis of one video-fragment illustrates how the analysis progresses from an
inspection of the sequential organisation of talk to an examination of the sequential organisation of
verbal, visual and bodily conduct. The analysis also makes a small substantive contribution to current
debates on people’s experience of artwork in museums. In particular, the ?ndings suggest that the
experience of works of art is not a subjective and cognitive response to the objects, but arises in and
through socially organised, embodied practices at the exhibit-face.
Originality/value – The paper discusses an innovative way to analyze video-data, and makes a
contribution to the growing body of research in arts marketing and museum marketing on the exhibition
?oor.
Keywords Video, Conversation, Arts, Museums
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Museums provide people with opportunities to encounter and experience original works of
art, alone and in concert with others. People often visit museums with companions, friends
and family. They explore galleries, encounter, view and experience artworks and other kinds
of exhibit together (Falk and Dierking, 1992, 2000; Wright, 1989). A growing body of
research explores how social interaction impacts the ‘‘museum experience’’ (see Leinhardt
et al., 2002; McManus, 1994). This research considers the museum as primarily an
educational institution and the museum experience as a learning experience. The research
however shows relatively little interest in how the experience of museums, be it educational
or otherwise, arises in interaction at the exhibit-face.
The investigation of the ways in which people explore and make sense of exhibits in and
through social interaction, requires an approach that provides the researcher with a
theoretical and methodological framework to explore the activities through which people
examine and experience museum exhibits. This paper discusses an approach that uses
video-recordings of museum visitors’ conduct and interaction as principal data augmented
by ?eld observation and informal interviews with museum staff and visitors. The analysis
focuses on situated conduct and interaction at exhibits, drawing on methodological
developments within sociology and in particular ethnomethodology (Gar?nkel, 1967) and
conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). A growing body of research that has come to be known
as ‘‘workplace studies’’ (Heath and Luff, 2000; Luff et al., 2000; Suchman, 1987) augments
DOI 10.1108/17506181011024742 VOL. 4 NO. 1 2010, pp. 33-43, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 33
Dirk vom Lehn is a
Research Fellow based at
the Work, Interaction and
Technology Research
Centre, Department of
Management, King’s
College London, London,
UK.
Received November 2007
Revised April 2008
Accepted May 2008
This research has been funded
by the AHRC project
‘‘Enhancing Interpretation: New
Techniques and Technologies
for Fine and Decorative Art
Museums’’ (AR17441). It
bene?ted also from the support
of the NSF-funded ‘‘Centre for
Informal Learning and Schools’’
(CILS). The author thanks the
visitors who kindly agreed to
participate in the research and
the management and staff of
the National Gallery in London,
in particular, Louise Gouvier
who kindly allowed them
access to their exhibitions. The
author also thanks colleagues
at the Work, Interaction and
Technology Research Centre
for their contribution to the
analysis of the data,
participants in the
ESRC-funded seminar
‘‘Creative Methods of Enquiry in
Arts/Heritage Marketing and
Consumption’’ at the University
of Bradford and the Guest
Editors and reviewers of this
special issue for their valuable
comments and suggestions.
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these general methodological developments. These studies direct analytic attention
towards the action and interaction with and around the material environment and in particular
the ways in which tools, technologies, objects and artefacts feature in, and gain their
occasioned sense and signi?cance through, practical collaborative activity. They include for
example studies of control centers, newsrooms and operating theatres. They use video,
augmented by ?eld studies, to examine the ?ne details of interaction and to explore how
people, in concert with others accomplish social actions and activities. The study here draws
on this body of research and examines one video-taped fragment of interaction at a work of
art to explore how people orient and respond to exhibits in museums.
2. Visual arts consumption and video
Arts marketers evince considerable interest in the visual arts and ?lm, and a growing
concern with the study of people’s experience of cultural objects and events (see Kerrigan
et al., 2004; Rentschler and Hede, 2007; Schroeder, 2002). Perhaps surprisingly, relatively
few researchers in this ?eld use visual data to explore how people orient to and make sense
of cultural objects when they encounter them, for example in museums and galleries.
In retail marketing and cognate areas, researchers use video as data in prior studies. A
growing body of studies explores the consumption of goods and services using
video-recordings of social situations in shops, markets and other retail settings (Belk et al.,
1988; Belk and Kozinets, 2005; Clark et al., 1994; Schmid, 2006). In recent years, qualitative
research methods including ethnography, video analysis and qualitative interviews have
grown in signi?cance also in studies of cultural consumption. This research sheds light on
the range of social action and interaction involved in cultural consumption in the privacy of
the home as well as in public cultural venues. These inquiries explore the social context in
which people watch television, listen to music use technology at home, view ?lms in
cinemas, participate in music events and respond to exhibits. These studies highlight the
‘‘embodied’’ aspects of the experience of artworks (Joy and Sherry, 2003) and suggest that
social interaction is critical to the ways in which people watch television, view ?lms in the
cinema or participate in cultural events (Ang, 1995; Hitzler and Pfadenhauer, 1999; O’Reilly
and Larsen, 2005; Silverstone and Hirsch, 1992; Srinivas, 2002).
Studies of cultural consumption and audience research consider museum visiting as a
social activity that forms part of many people’s everyday lives (Bagnall, 2003; Goulding,
2001; Longhurst et al., 2004; Macdonald, 2006; Storey, 1999). They explore how people
embed their visit to museums within the social context of their day-to-day activities. However,
they have shown relatively little interest in the speci?cs of the social context in which people’s
experience of exhibits and exhibitions arises, on the museum ?oor. They therefore often
neglect to investigate howpeople react to exhibits at the ‘‘point of experience’’ where people
consider and experience exhibits. Joy and Sherry (2003) point out that people’s experience
of art is an embodied experience. They however focus on cognitive and subjective aspects
of the aesthetic experience and curiously ignore the bodily action and activity through which
people experience works of art.
Visitor studies, a largely applied ?eld of research, explores people’s behavior in and learning
from museums. It aims to produce observations and ?ndings that help museum managers,
curators and designers to enhance the effectiveness of exhibitions (Falk and Dierking,
2000). Following the emergence of socio-cultural theory and its impact on the cognitive
sciences, visitor studies are now exploring how museum experience arises in and through
social interaction and talk at the exhibits (see Leinhardt et al., 2002; McManus, 1994). These
studies deal with the impact of social interaction on the learning outcome of museum visits.
They focus on the content of talk and its relationship to the exhibition. Yet, they largely ignore
the social organisation of talk and how visitors’ bodily and visual conduct and their
interaction with others facilitate talk.
As part of a small programme of research the author together with colleagues at King’s
College London explores how people examine exhibits in social interaction with each other
and how the experience of exhibits is inextricably embedded within the practical
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circumstances in which the experience is made (Heath and vom Lehn, 2004; Vom Lehn,
2006, 2007; Vom Lehn et al., 2001). The analysis uses video-recordings of people’s conduct
and interaction at exhibits as principal data. This paper discusses an approach to analyze
video-recordings of conduct and interaction in museums.
3. Data collection
Part of the research includes studies of conduct and interaction in a range of museums and
galleries in the UK and abroad including, the Courtauld Galleries, the National Gallery, the
National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum
(all in London), the Musee des Beaux Arts Rouen, Beatrice Royal Arts and Crafts Gallery,
Nottingham Castle, the Zentrum fu¨ r Kunst und Medien (ZKM, Karlsruhe), the Sculpture and
Functional Arts Exposition (Chicago) and Shipley Art Gallery.
The study includes gathering a large corpus of audio-visual recordings augmented by
?eldwork and a small number of interviews with museum staff and visitors. The audio-visual
recordings however form the principal vehicle for analysis of social interaction. They offer
certain advantages over more conventional qualitative data. They provide the resources
through which the researcher can capture (versions of) the conduct and interaction of
visitors and subject their actions and activities to detailed, repeated scrutiny, using
slow-motion facilities and the like. They expose the ?ne details of conduct and interaction,
details that are unavailable in more conventional forms of data, and yet details that form the
very foundation to howpeople see and experience exhibits in museums and galleries. Unlike
other forms of data, audio-visual recordings also afford the researcher the opportunity to
share, present and discuss the evidence which supports observations and analysis, a
facility that is rare within the social sciences and that places an important constraint on the
analysis of data.
Field observation and data gathered through interview and discussion augment the analysis
of the audio-visual materials. These and related materials, such as exhibit speci?cations,
copies of labels, instructions, gallery guides and the like, provide important resources with
which to situate and understand the conduct and interaction of visitors. For example, people
quite often selectively voice instructions or labels to others as they approach or examine an
exhibit. The analysis of the interaction needs to consider how participants occasion, embed,
or transform, this information within talk and interaction. Audio/video recording inevitably
provides a selective view of events, and while this view may encompass a broad range of
actions and activities that arise at an exhibit, it can be useful to know what else may be
happening more generally within the scene. The data collection process includes the
systematic interweaving of ?eld observations, information from materials and comments
from interviews and discussions with recorded data. Where relevant, the analysis of the
participants’ action and interaction took this data into account.
Debates in qualitative research raise a number of ethical issues about undertaking
video-based ?eld studies (Grimshaw, 1982; Knoblauch et al., 2006; Speer and Hutchby,
2003). Following discussions with museum personnel and visitors, the present study
includes developing and applying a set of practices to publicise the research and its aims
and objectives and to maximize opportunities for participants to withhold or withdraw
cooperation if they so wish. The study includes places notices informing visitors of the
research at the entrance to the museum and the relevant galleries; notices that invite
potential participants to discuss data collection with the researcher, and if they have any
reservations, before, during or after the event offering to cease recording or destroy any
records. In general, visitors have shown a great deal of interest in the research and
willingness to participate.
Audio-visual recording follows a period of ?eldwork in museums and galleries. Fieldwork,
including discussions with museum staff, provides useful information concerning exhibits
and exhibitions and areas in galleries that might be of particular interest. Fieldwork also
provides an opportunity to consider how best to position the camera(s) and place
microphones. Positioning equipment so as to minimize the obtrusiveness of the equipment
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and the recording are important considerations. The camera needs positioning to capture
the conduct and interaction of the participants within the scene whilst not demanding that
the researcher remains behind the camera. The researcher however remains in the gallery to
undertake ?eld observation, answer any queries from visitors, whilst having set the camera
to record, participants should not see the researcher operating the equipment. In this
regard, audio-visual recording coupled with background ?eldwork can prove far less
obtrusive than conventional participant and non-participant observation.
A review follows initial data collection, in which the researcher examines the materials to
assess the quality of the images and sound and to identify any issues that might be relevant
to further data collection. The researcher also undertakes preliminary analysis of a selected
number of fragments and begins to re?ect upon any particular actions and activities that
might inform how s/he gathers further data, through video, ?eldwork or even interview. The
preliminary analysis leads to further data collection that in turn is subject to more detailed
analysis. Data collection and analysis therefore is an iterative and complementary process
designed and re?ned with regard to the practical issues and analytic insights that emerge
through detailed inspection of the data.
4. Analyzing audio-visual data
The studies draw on ethnomethodology (Gar?nkel, 1967) and conversation analysis (Sacks,
1992) as the theoretical and methodological framework. They highlight the local, ‘‘indexical’’
and practical production of social action and interaction. They argue that action and context
are re?exively interrelated. Sense and signi?cance of actions and objects link inextricably to
the speci?cs of the occasion in which they arise. They therefore rely on a dynamic and
contingent concept of context. Social actions and activities are contingently accomplished
with regard to each other, gradually reshaping and renewing the context in which they arise
(Heritage, 1984). Conversation analysts have utilised ethnomethodology’s principal
assumption of ‘‘indexicality’’ and ‘‘re?exivity’’ to explore the social organisation of talk.
They have revealed the sequential organisation of talk and elaborated on how a next
utterance, a turn at talk, is a product of preceding action(s) and provides the framework for a
subsequent action. The emergent and socio-temporal character of human action is a critical
feature of context and situation; indeed, the real time contributions of others are the most
pervasive ‘‘contingency’’ for social action. The situated character of practical action like talk,
visual and bodily conduct therefore points not simply to the circumstances in which an
activity arises but rather to the ways in which social actions and activities emerge, moment
by moment. The analysis of audio-visual data elaborates on the ways in which participants
produce and make sense of particular actions. The analytical work focuses on the practices
and reasoning that inform the practical accomplishment of everyday, emergent, context
embedded, activities.
The analysis of the audio-/video-data proceeds case by case. The analysis subjects
particular actions to a highly detailed scrutiny and examines the immediate context and a
particular interactional environment in which they arise. The speci?c location and character
of an action, be it vocal, visual or material, and its relationship to the immediately surrounding
framework of activity, the actions immediately prior to and following on from it, is critical, to
how the participants produce and coordinate their actions and how it is scrutinized. The
analysis focuses on the ways in which particular actions reveal interactional relations to the
immediately prior and proceeding action(s). For example, it might examine how a particular
action such as a question or a bodily turn creates an opportunity for, and engenders, a
speci?c action from a co-participant, that in turn, implicates subsequent action. These
sequential relations between actions therefore form an important focus of analytic enquiry
and provide a foundation to the ways in which people accomplish activities in interaction,
with each other.
To unpack and elaborate the sequential organization of activities the researcher employs a
system that facilitates the capturing and representation of features of participants’ conduct.
In conversation analysis there is a long-standing convention for the transcription of talk, a
convention that is primarily concerned with representing the interactional features of talk
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(Sacks, 1992; Schegloff, 1992). A similar convention is not available for the transcription of
people’s visual and material conduct, such as the handling an object. The study relies on a
solution that is used by others who are interested in ‘‘multi-modal interaction’’; the study
includes transcribing, at least the onset and completion, of the visual and material features of
the participants’ conduct with regard to the talk and/or silence or pauses (Goodwin, 1981;
Heath, 1986). The transcription is an important means for the researcher to familiarise
himself with the complexities of a particular fragment and to begin to explicate the relations
between actions and activities. The transcription also provides an important resource for
documenting observations and recalling insights and analytic observations.
5. Encouraging response
Museum managers and curators are increasingly interested in the ways in which people
examine, respond to and make sense of artwork. They track and observe people in
museums and use questionnaires and other interview techniques to gain insights into the
ways in which people experience and make sense of exhibitions. The analysis of
video-recordings of conduct and interaction allows researchers to explore, in detail, how
people’s response to artwork arises at the exhibit-face. The following section discusses a
fragment to illustrate the analysis and the observations about the ?ndings.
The following fragment occurred at a painting entitled, ‘‘Man seated reading at a table in a
lofty room’’ which was on display at the ‘‘Rembrandt 400’’ exhibition at the National Gallery in
London in 2006. (A picture of the painting can be seen at, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/). The
painting shows a large room with a ?replace on the right and a ?gure sitting at a table on the
left. Behind the man is a window through which light comes in, casting a shadow on large
parts of the scene.
The analysis uses a transcript of the participants’ talk that captures line by line the
participants’ utterances. The transcription uses Jefferson’s (1984) conventions. A ‘‘[’’ stands
for overlapping talk, ‘‘:’’ for elongated utterances, ‘‘ ¼ ’’ for talk that latches onto another, ‘‘(.)’’
for momentary but hear-able pauses (‘‘micropause’’) and ‘‘.hhhh’’ for an audible in-breath
(see Figure 1).
The overlapping utterances (line 3-5) arise in the light of Paula’s actions a moment earlier.
After a few seconds of silence during which the two participants view the painting Paula
Figure 1 Transcript 1
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produces an in-breath (Transcript 2; line 1 (Figure 2)) that projects a subsequent utterance;
‘‘.hhh’’. She then encourages Jo to, ‘‘look at all that (.)’’, and then while gesturing along the
contours of the ?replace depicted in the painting describes the object, ‘‘porcelain thats a
?replace isnt it (.)’’. By virtue of her talk and gestures coupled with her looking to the ?replace
Paula demarcates visibly for her friend a particular exhibit feature. In the course of Paula’s
actions Jo shifts her visual orientation to that part of the painting; yet she does not exhibit a
response to the ?replace. Only when a moment later Paula begins to reformulate her
description of the object Jo produces an utterance, ‘‘quite dif?cult to see’’. This utterance at
the same time displays that Jo has seen the ?replace and offers an account for a delay in her
response (Transcript 2).
The analysis of the video-data provides an understanding of the overlapping talk. People
who simultaneously view a work of art often examine it in different ways. To align their
perspectives they produce and coordinate their talk, visual and bodily conduct and thus
momentarily constitute particular exhibit features as noteworthy. In the case at hand, Paula’s
actions facilitate and shape Jo’s experience of the painting and her noticing of the tall
?replace depicted in the piece. By virtue of her slight shift in bodily orientation and gesture
as well as her talk, Paula encourages Jo to look at a particular aspect of the painting and
con?gures her way of seeing the painting.
Despite encouragement to look at the ?replace Jo notices and experiences the object on her
own, ?rst hand. She uses Paula’s actions in front of the canvas as resources to adjust her
stand- and viewpoint. She displays her discovery of the ?replace when she is in the right
place to see the image. Her experience of the painting arises in the moment at hand, when
she and Paula collaboratively assemble their bodies in particular ways at the painting and
consider the piece together. The shared experience of the work of art however lasts only for a
Figure 2 Transcript 2
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brief moment; a split of a second later, Jo notices and points out another exhibit feature and
Paula shifts her orientation to the next painting on the wall.
The analysis of this fragment suggests that the interaction between visitors produces the
response to a work of art. It progresses from an inspection of the sequential organisation of
talk to an examination of the sequential organisation of verbal, visual and bodily conduct.
Thus, the analysis highlights the importance of considering how people coordinate their
visual and bodily conduct with their talk for an understanding of the emergence of people’s
response to artwork in museums. The analysis does not stop here but continues by
comparing and contrasting similar fragments in which people progressively align their
perspectives to an exhibit. The comparison of fragments allows for the understanding of
reoccurring patterns of interaction, illuminating general aspects of speci?c cases.
6. Implications
Arts marketing research inquires into cultural production and consumption, exploring
people’s participation with and experience of cultural objects, events and programmes. It
hopes that observations and ?ndings fromthe research informthe design and deployment of
resources that enhance people’s experience of cultural events like ?lms, concerts and
museums (Kerrigan et al., 2004; Rentschler and Hede, 2007). This paper has discussed
video-based research methods to examine how people use the resources provided by
museums to make experiences of exhibits and exhibitions. Observations and ?ndings of
research employing this method may have important implications for current academic
debates as well as for the work of art marketing practitioners in museums.
Recent debates in marketing have been increasingly concerned with the ‘‘embodied
experience’’ (Joy and Sherry, 2003) of aesthetic, leisure and shopping environments.
Drawing on interview data, these studies suggest that people’s bodily relationship to the
environment shapes their experiences. The focus of these studies is with the individual and
her/his subjective, inner experience of the world. They rarely examine how the practical
involvement of the body in the production of the experience in situations where they are
alone or with others. The detailed analysis of video-recordings contributes to these debates
by exploring the ‘‘embodied practice’’ (Gar?nkel, 2002) through which people examine and
make sense of exhibits.
Research into museum visiting increasingly suggests that social interaction is critical for
people’s experience of exhibitions (see Falk and Dierking, 2000). This research coincides
with museum managers’ growing interest in creating environments that people can explore
and experience with family and friends as well as in larger groups. Video-based studies in
museums provide observations and ?ndings about the ways in which people explore and
make sense of exhibits in and through social interaction. They suggest how people’s
response to and experience of exhibits arises in and through the social organization of
people’s verbal, visual and bodily action and activity (see Heath and vom Lehn, 2004; Vom
Lehn, 2006).
Museum managers are concerned with the way in which people navigate, explore and
experience exhibitions. They collaborate with architects and exhibition designers to support
visitors’ navigation and experience of the galleries. Research by architects argues how the
presence of and interaction with others in?uences the navigation of galleries (Hillier and
Tzortzi, 2006). Video-based studies add to this body of research by exploring the social
organisation of people’s transition between exhibits. They reveal that people are continually
sensitive to others’ activities and state of engagement and align their actions with them (see
Vom Lehn et al., 2001).
Museum managers increasingly deploy new technologies such as personal digital
assistants (PDA), information kiosks and more advanced systems to enhance people’s
experience of exhibits and exhibitions. The deployment of these systems often stems from
technological innovation and current fads and rarely from research that examines how
visitors may use systems and devices when viewing artwork or other kinds of exhibit.
Video-based research has begun to explore how people use technology like PDAs and
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information kiosks on the exhibition ?oor. Some video researchers argue that these systems
and devices are detrimental to and undermine the emergence of social interaction and talk
between visitors. They suggest the need for observations and ?ndings fromdetailed studies
of action and activity in exhibitions to inform the development of resources that people may
seamlessly embed in their interactional experience of museums (Ciol? et al., 2007;
Hindmarsh et al., 2005; Vom Lehn and Heath, 2005; Vom Lehn et al., 2007).
Observational and video-based research may produce observations and ?ndings that make
important contributions to current debates in arts marketing and cultural consumption and
perhaps also to other marketing areas. Furthermore, the possibility of showing
video-recordings to practitioners provides arts marketing researchers with a powerful tool
to inform practice and policy.
7. Discussion
In the light of recent social scienti?c debates about the importance of ‘‘experiential’’ aspects
of people’s participation in society and engagement in social life (Schulze, 1992, 2000; Pine
and Gilmore, 1999), cultural consumption and the experience that people have of events,
exhibitions and other cultural objects increasingly concern arts marketing. They have
recently turned to qualitative research methods and approaches like grounded theory
(Goulding, 2000, 2001, and this issue) to unpack people’s experience of museums and
heritage sites. The research primarily relies on interviews and therefore provides relatively
little insight into the action and activities through which exhibits produce experiences.
Using video-recordings of visitors’ conduct and interaction at exhibits as principal data
coupled with an analytic and methodological framework drawn from ethnomethodology
(Gar?nkel, 1967) and conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). By employing this approach the
analysis investigates the social and sequential organisation of action and activities through
which people experience and make sense of exhibits. This analytical work suggests for
example how the actions of co-participants occasion and shape a response to an exhibit,
and argues that social interaction not only in?uences which exhibit feature people consider
but also how they respond. The response is not a ‘‘pure response’’ to an object but the
design of verbal, bodily and visual conduct occasions and shapes it. The reaction emerges
as a display of a discovery, an emotion or taste in ‘‘response’’ to the object and not to the
co-participant’s talk and gesture that overlay the object.
Consider possible directions for future research concerned with interaction in museums.
Arts marketing research often draws on Bourdieu (1990, 1993), Bourdieu and Darbel (1991)
and related research (Schulze, 1992) to explore how social conventions and ‘‘cultural
codes’’ in?uence museum visiting and the experience of exhibitions (Kirchberg, 1999,
2007). Video-based and ethnographic studies in museums may help exploring how such
conventions and codes are brought to bear at the exhibit-face and how people themselves
differentiate between and assess cultural objects when they face and examine them.
When people visit museums they have myriad and multifaceted experiences. Arts marketing
research on the exhibition ?oor may help bring to light the different aspects of these
experiences and the ways in which people’s encounters with works of art or other kinds of
exhibits produce experiences. For example, visitor research increasingly highlights affective
aspects of the museum experience, often considering emotion as a response to exhibits.
Video-based studies may help unpack the relationship between emotion, people’s activities
and the material environment by exploring how emotional responses arise in social
interaction.
Scholars in museum studies and cognate areas display a growing concern with the
relationship between visitor behavior and exhibition design (see Macdonald, 2006, 2007).
Arts marketing often focuses on knowledge about (potential) visitors’ social and cultural
dispositions to inform museum managers’ decision making. Findings from video-based
studies on the exhibition ?oor add to this important body of knowledge about the relationship
between the material environment and people’s behavior within and towards it. They provide
arts marketing researchers with a powerful resource and with visual evidence to support
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managers in deciding on the development of galleries and the deployment of new
interpretation devices.
Despite the growing corpus of research, arts marketing still is a relatively young discipline.
This paper has discussed how researchers can use video-recordings coupled with an
appropriate analytic and methodological framework to explore people’s experience of
museums. Detailed studies of the practices in and through which culture is seen and
experienced then and there provide arts marketing with insights about the emergence of
cultural experiences that are critical to enhance the impact of the discipline on academic
debates and to inform marketing practice and arts policy.
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Corresponding author
Dirk vom Lehn can be contacted at: [email protected]
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This article has been cited by:
1. Dirk vom Lehn. 2010. Discovering ‘Experience-ables’: Socially including visually impaired people in art museums. Journal of
Marketing Management 26, 749-769. [CrossRef]
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