1. Final Major Project | Initial Brainstorming and Fieldwork

Updated: Dec 12, 2022

Initial Brainstorming

For my initial brainstorming, I decided to focus on two main areas of interest: raves and museums. It was necessary to pinpoint the key idea behind what I wanted to do for my FMP. I realized that I was attracted to the dynamism and collective aspect of rave culture. I wanted to bring more of this dynamism to the museum setting without it turning into several of the "Night at the Museum" type ventures that are already in place at museums.

The key question that resulted from this initial brainstorming was:

How do we make museum exhibitions and cultural heritage sites more responsive, dynamic, and immersive to visitors?

I wanted to look beyond apps and see what possibilities for design could exist outside of technology. Museums and raves were interesting because generally people are fully immersed in the moment and rarely look at their phones, unless it's to take the occasional photo or video.

After more research, several additional questions arose:

Primary Question:

What is the visitor's role in constructing the experience?

Currently, the visitor experience is quite directed. We go from one room to another and the rooms are separated along very clear divisions. What could be another more fluid or spontaneous way to experience the museum? What would happen if we left space for random events and encounters to happen?

Secondary Questions:

- Where is there room for intervention in staid museums?

- How do we make the museums more dynamic?

- How can museums be more responsive to visitors?

- How does the museum fit around people?

Overlap Between Raves and Museums

Another important step was to try to find the overlap between raves and museums. What are the values that are special to each, i.e. materials, social, events?

Al suggested that I go to museums thinking of raves and go to raves thinking of museums.

Where are the similarities and contradictions?

Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2018) - Jeremy Deller

Fieldwork: V&A Friday Late and Tate Lates

To gain a greater understanding of what was already being done in museums attempting to connect with younger audiences, I went to the late night events at the V&A and the Tate Modern.

Tate Modern Late with a dj

V&A Friday Late with a dj

Snapshots from Field Research at the Tate Modern and V&A

Initial Conclusions

Although I admired the efforts to speak to a younger, more diverse audience, the V&A and Tate late nights both seemed to miss the mark. It seems like they just inserted a dj in the space and expected a crowd to respond positively. People seemed self-conscious. Very few people were actually dancing.

Overall, the experience felt quite disjointed. I wondered if there was a way to make the experience more seamless and organic.

Bletchley Park

I also went on an excursion to Bletchley Park with Ranga. We noticed how the exhibition design was not that user friendly. Visitors had to crowd around an exhibit to read the text, whereas they could make it in the round or have a QR code to scan on their phones and read the text that way.

One key observation was that, as with most museums: the objects stay stagnant whereas visitors are in constant movement.

What might be a way to offer an alternative to this one-sided encounter? Could we bring the objects to life or design for a more dynamic, embodied museum-going experience?

Even so, we did notice some innovative exhibition design, and exhibits were interactive in other ways.