Abstract
Abstract Based on a large corpus of video and eye-tracking data and inspired by multimodal conversation analysis, this paper analyses how visitors discover natural phenomena during their use of hands-on exhibits in a science and technology centre (STC). In these discoveries, individual multisensorial experiences of natural phenomena are communicatively transferred from one visitor to another. This paper describes two contrasting sequential formats of joint discoveries in the STC. In the first and more frequent case, experiences are socially shared by focussing the co-visitors’ visual attention on one point in their interactional space, while in the second case perceptions are socially shared via reproduction sequences, i.e. by repeating the actions that have led to the discovery with exchanged roles. We will argue that in these reproduction sequences, sharing experiences can be understood via the concept of “intercorporeality” (Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 2014 [1945]. Phenomenology of perception. London, New York: Routledge). Our paper contributes to the current debate on intercorporeality, as it empirically shows that it is analytically fruitful to extend the concept to situations without simultaneous perception.
Highlights
Science and technology centres (STCs) are a modern type of museum
The aim of the present paper is to describe two contrasting formats of discoveries in the science and technology centre (STC), which we have reconstructed based on our corpus, using the methods of multimodal conversation analysis
While the most characteristic element of format I is a swiftorientation towards the discovered phenomenon, format II lacks this element: If there is a bodily reorientation at all, it is directed towards the participant who has initiated the discovery
Summary
Science and technology centres (STCs) are a modern type of museum. They are often referred to as “interactive” (but see Heath et al 2005), since they replace the classic museum displays by exhibits that can and must be manipulated by their visitors in order to bring about the respective phenomena. In our video and eye-tracking corpus of visitor interactions in a large STC (see Section 3), discoveries are a pervasive element: Visitors continuously signal to each other that they have had some novel and exciting experience while engaging with the hands-on exhibits of the STC Often, this marks the start or endpoint of a sequence of knowledge construction. The aim of the present paper is to describe two contrasting formats of discoveries in the STC, which we have reconstructed based on our corpus, using the methods of multimodal conversation analysis These two formats represent two contrasting solutions to the problem of how individual sensory experiences can be shared in interaction. 1 “Prereflexive” refers to embodied knowledge that is “independent of or below the level of conscious representation” (Stukenbrock 2017: 238), but is one of the key elements of “mutual incorporation” in intercorporeality (Fuchs and De Jaegher 2009). 2 For studies on intercorporeality in dance instructions, see Ehmer, this issue and Keevallik, this issue
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