Affordances and distributed cognition in museum exhibitions
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Affordances and distributed cognition in museum exhibitions. / Achiam, Marianne; May, Michael; Marandino, Martha.
In: Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 29, No. 5, 2014, p. 461-481.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Affordances and distributed cognition in museum exhibitions
AU - Achiam, Marianne
AU - May, Michael
AU - Marandino, Martha
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Exhibitions are the primary medium for the public communication of science in museums. Recently, there has been an interest in explaining the educational mechanisms of exhibitions in terms of meaning making, interaction and space; however these concepts have not yet been integrated into one consistent framework. Here, we invoke the notions of affordance and distributed cognition to explain in a coherent way how visitors interact with exhibits and exhibit spaces and make meaning from those interactions, and we exemplify our points using observations of twelve visitors to exhibits at a natural history museum. We show how differences in exhibit characteristics give rise to differences in the interpretive strategies used by visitors in their meaning-making process, and conclude by discussing how the notions of affordance and distributed cognition can be used in an exhibit design perspective.
AB - Exhibitions are the primary medium for the public communication of science in museums. Recently, there has been an interest in explaining the educational mechanisms of exhibitions in terms of meaning making, interaction and space; however these concepts have not yet been integrated into one consistent framework. Here, we invoke the notions of affordance and distributed cognition to explain in a coherent way how visitors interact with exhibits and exhibit spaces and make meaning from those interactions, and we exemplify our points using observations of twelve visitors to exhibits at a natural history museum. We show how differences in exhibit characteristics give rise to differences in the interpretive strategies used by visitors in their meaning-making process, and conclude by discussing how the notions of affordance and distributed cognition can be used in an exhibit design perspective.
KW - Faculty of Science
KW - museum
KW - diorama
KW - besøgende
KW - naturvidenskab
KW - affordance
KW - Kognition
U2 - 10.1080/09647775.2014.957479
DO - 10.1080/09647775.2014.957479
M3 - Journal article
VL - 29
SP - 461
EP - 481
JO - Museum Management and Curatorship
JF - Museum Management and Curatorship
SN - 0964-7775
IS - 5
ER -
ID: 124231027