Validation Studies
The MLC is in the process of conducting a series of validation studies as described in the Phase 2 Research plan. In our previous newsletter we described one study in this line of work. Here we continue with descriptions of some of the other validation studies currently underway.
The first of these studies, "Voices and Images: Connections between Identity and Art," was conducted this summer at the Carnegie Museum of Art, to investigate the effect of visitors' identity on their conversational elaboration as they toured a temporary exhibition of African art (masks, sculptures, textiles, and musical instruments). For this exhibition, "Soul of Africa," the museum's challenge was to present the collection as both art and artifact. One of our questions, therefore was, Which aspects of this duality did visitors understand? Further, we wanted to see the kinds of connections they made between the art and their own identities. The challenge for us, therefore, was to capture as much information about visitors' background as possible in a brief pre-interview, to obtain a complete record of the tour as unobtrusively as possible, and then to identify connections between people's identities and the responses they had to the art. Twelve small groups of visitors with varying combinations of backgrounds and knowledge were pre-interviewed about their museum attendance as well as their connections to Africa and art. (Six groups known to the researchers were invited to participate and six groups were recruited on site.) Each group was audiotaped (using a small remote microphone system) while touring the exhibition at their own pace while observers followed discreetly to track their route and stopping places. After the tour each group participated in an audiotaped post-interview. Both the pre- and post-interviews were administered under one of two conditions-a traditional researcher-led interview or a self-directed discussion in response to written card-prompts. Interviews and tour transcripts are being coded for evidence that people noticed and conversed about aspects of the exhibition that reflected curatorial intent and also for evidence of connections and ideas unintended by the museum but which people brought with them to the visit.
As a counterpoint to the group conversations that are the focus of the other MLC studies, a second study, " Talking to Oneself: Diary Studies of Museum Visits," probes the nature of individuals' reflective experience as museum visitors. For this study we have twelve participants, both male and female from across the country, who range in age from 20 to 70, and have backgrounds and interests that range from opera singer to insurance adjuster. The participants will choose five museum exhibitions to visit over several months, and will write a "diary" entry for each visit according to a common set of guidelines. These sixty diary texts will be analyzed, using the constructs of our model and perhaps using the constructs from other models of museum learning and engagement.
The information we obtain from these studies will help us understand how visitors' identity affects the museum experience. Both of these studies make use of a particular methodology that asks highly informed visitors to describe their museum experiences in one way or another. In many cases the visitors' backgrounds are known to the researchers in advance, a condition that allows us to probe more deeply into issues of identity. The information gleaned from known subjects will serve as a standard by which to measure how well we are able to elucidate the impact of identity when we interview and observe visitors whom we don't know.