Contemporary Visitors Research Articles

Revival and Multiplatform Presentation of Forgotten Religious Heritage Sites in the Project Named “Sacred Past”

The objective of the paper is to shed light on the importance of the digital presentation of religious heritage and present the multimedia documentation of a chapel developed within the “Oltári Múlt” (“Sacred Past”, in Hungarian) project. It aims to preserve the values of medieval churches through video documentation. Walls and stones come alive for contemporary visitors, connecting the present with the past. The paper showcases an example of a chapel and how video documentation, virtual tours, and other ICT tools are applied in the project to create a digital narrative with a creative vision and mastermind approach.

Listening to Landseer's Polar Bears

This essay adjusts the reading of one of Edwin Landseer's best-known paintings, Man Proposes, God Disposes (1864), to place its animal protagonists at centre stage. Analysis of the painting has tended to focus on its relation to the lost Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1845, and its mordant depiction of humankind's vanity in the face of a harsh Nature, symbolically embodied by the two polar bears attacking the wreckage of a boat. Departing from the usual interpretation of these bears as terrifying wild beasts, the essay takes certain jarring and abject elements in their representation as a prompt to explore the artist's probable use of living polar bears in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London as models. It investigates the animal biography of the polar bears living in the Gardens over an approximately 50-year span, examining their routes into and highly compromised lives within the Zoo, and seeks to recover their agency and experience as specific historical individuals. The polar bears’ “voices”, as manifested in their behaviour, illuminate a little-examined aspect of the experience of translocated Arctic creatures who lived as captives in Britain in a “contact zone” between humans and animals. Speculating on the impact these particular bears had on contemporary visitors, including Landseer and the viewers of Man Proposes, God Disposes, the essay suggests that they bring a destabilizing animal presence to the painting which still “speaks” to us today.

Mobile Presentation of the War History of the City of Niš

Contemporary visitors of a historical and tourist site expect access to quick information about different subjects according to their interests. Unfortunately, billboards and plates near monuments usually do not provide enough information that can satisfy the visitors’ needs. However, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones with appropriate software solutions can help visitors get the information in an appropriate manner. In this paper, we present two ways of providing information such as a web application with the usage of QR codes, and a purposely developed application for mobile devices implemented by using augmented reality technologies. We compare both these solutions and discuss their advantages and possible drawbacks. The application of these two approaches of using information technologies in representing national historical heritage are illustrated by concrete examples of their implementation in the city of Niš. By using these applications, visitors are informed about the war history of Niš, a city that was occupied many times and by many conquerors in its millennia-long history.

Curating the Profane: Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Neoclassical Art Historian and First Curator of a Public Profane Museum

Abstract Few contemporary visitors to public art museums consider the religious oddity of most such collections at their inception. From the so-called Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, to the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre, and the Apollo Belvedere and Laocoön Group in the Vatican Museums, classical statuary constituted the heart (if not the soul) of most public art museums in the first several generations of the “museum era.” In this article, I present archival evidence from the Vatican Library and the Vatican Library’s Secret Archives confirming that Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), better known as a neoclassical evangelist and art historian, was also the semi-secret curator of the Vatican’s first “Profane Museum.” Founded in 1767, expanded and completed in 1792, looted by French Revolutionaries in 1797, and repatriated in 1818, this museum first “curated the profane,” enabling the domestication of pagan idols, first in the name of fine art and later in the name of national treasure. It thereby offered a casual flirtation with pagan form that would have a very long subsequent cultural reach and influence.

Nature Interpretation as an Environmental Educational Approach in Visitor Management; The Application Dilemma for Different Target Groups at Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Various scholars have endorsed contemporary visitor management strategies broadly categorized as hard or soft approaches. The hard strategies like area closure, penalties, patrols, or limiting access have been deemed punitive and restrictive to visitors seeking escape into natural environments. On the other hand, nature interpretation (NI) and general conservation information, christened as soft strategy, are pushed as complementary or alternative non-obstructive visitor management tactics. However, these arguments notwithstanding, questions linger about the choice of appropriate NI strategies, their application, and their effectiveness. This study sought to establish which NI and visitor information approaches can be used be to manage visitors by target group effectively at the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Data was collected by surveying n = 570 respondents that constituted visitors (n = 413) and tour guides (n = 157) participating in wildlife tourism at MMNR over six months. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to present and analyze data with spearman’s correlation used for testing the relationships to answer the research question. Study results established mixed results with different NI attributes comprising a few weak, some very weak, and the majority no correlations with the respondents’ demographics. The month of the visit and type of vehicle used had very weak negative correlations with attributes of NI, generally implying inverse relationships. Nationality and gender had the least correlations, while the month of visit and the purpose of the visit had the highest number of correlations with, the latter having slightly stronger correlations. Display boards and orientation signage had the highest number of very weak and weak correlations with nearly all the respondents’ demographics except nationality and gender. Visitor codes/do’s and don’ts followed with tour guiding with no correlations with almost all the demographics. The study recommends continuous improvement of all NI approaches at the MMNR, with urgency being given to display boards and orientation signage followed by visitor codes and tour guiding, as evidenced from findings. The study further recommends research on contemporary trends in NI and conservation education and information dissemination.

A contemporary method of activating manor complexes on the example of Pisary village

In Poland, manor complexes are a reminder of the country’s history, identity and culture. Their activation is necessary to save them from being forgotten. The aim of the conceptual design pre- sented in this paper is to determine the adaptability of the area at the former manor granary in the village of Pisary, located in the municipality of Zabierzów in the Małopolskie Voivodeship. The planned activities are meant to transform the area for agritourism purposes and make it available to both visitors and residents of the municipality. The changes in the selected area over the centuries were traced with analytical methods involving field research. Based on the opportunities offered by the surrounding landscape parks, potential uses of the area were also identified. In addition, efforts were made to symbolically merge the manor estate, the structure of which had been upset by the land parcelling. As a result of the analyses, three main zones were delineated, namely the recreation, educational and service zones. The project includes an adaptation of historic buildings for agritourism purposes together with accompanying servic- es. In the conceptual design, the picturesque courtyard was developed into a multifunctional centre at a historic site with accompanying infrastructure. The terrain and natural conditions were utilised to create tourist attractions, providing active recreation. The centuries-old park, for example, has been made more suitable for walking and admiring the local fauna and flora. These interventions have enhanced the high landscape values of the site, ensuring that it meets the needs of contemporary visitors. This project shows how an attractive and welcoming facility can be created with little interference and in respect of the history of the site. This project is an example of how to use natural, geological, landscape and historical values to design an interest- ing point on the tourist map of the municipality.

Venice in Poetry and Prose: Adam Wiedemann’s Visit to the City

The main aim of the article is to identify key interpretation issues in two texts by Adam Wiedemann. Both texts feature contemporary literary pictures of visits to Venice – the Polish author wrote a short story (Sens życia. Opowiadanie śródziemnomorskie, 1998) and a poem (Tramwaj na Lido, 2015) about his journeys to Italy. Those textual visions of the urban space of Venice show that Wiedemann is fully aware of many similar attempts made earlier yet still strives to stress his distinctness, creating a record of meetings of the contemporary visitor with the unique phenomenon of the unusual urban phenomenon.

Historical Public Parks: Investigating Contemporary Visitor Needs

Worldwide, several large-scale historical gardens have been adapted to social needs and became public parks. Historical parks, designed in a different era and often subjected to pressures for development, raise concerns in meeting contemporary visitor needs, rendering them vulnerable to private interests. The main purpose of this paper was to determine whether a historical park designed in a different era can meet today’s visitor needs. The National Garden (NG) in Athens, Greece, a well-protected historical park, was selected as a case study. A questionnaire survey addressed to the visitors of the NG was undertaken on the basis of the main components of park design, factors affecting visitation, and visitor perceptions of involvement in park management. A descriptive and regression analysis was applied. Even though the NG was not originally designed as a public park but as a garden, overall results showed it satisfies its visitor’s needs. The planting and associated tranquility are the most liked characteristics of the NG that are inextricably linked with its original design as a private garden. The main qualitative traits of plants that people like were found in the NG plant species. Suggested improvements to fulfill further contemporary visitor’s needs have to be considered carefully and must comply with the statutory measures that protect the NG and associated wildlife habitat. As in many urban parks, concerns for safety and cleanliness and willingness to volunteer in park maintenance were also expressed by visitors of the NG. This study illustrates that historical gardens designed many years ago and transformed into public parks can protect and conserve the historical and cultural heritage and concomitantly meet today’s visitor needs. Further research is suggested to study other historical parks.

Designing for intersubjectivity and dialogicality in museum interactive installations about migration

ABSTRACT How do we design for intersubjective, digitally-mediated encounters in the museum? We report on the process of designing a digital interactive installation called Sit with Me for a permanent museum exhibition on migration in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Focussing on this case-study, the article aims to unpick the tensions, challenges and opportunities arising from designing for intersubjectivity in the context of migration exhibitions. It particularly explores how perspectives from the past may be brought into a relation with contemporary visitor perspectives through the design of interaction spaces that enable dialogicality and other-oriented perspective taking. Our aim is to enrich current museological discourse on exhibiting and experiencing migration in museums, contributing much needed understandings on the use and role of digital interactive technologies in these contexts; we further contribute methodological insight about a research-through-design practice that critically addressed the museum’s desire to foster intersubjectivity in the encounters between Self and Other.

‘I see their hatred’. Ethics of witnessing and The Missing Image – an intervention in Austria’s Holocaust memory space

ABSTRACT The film installation by visual artist and filmmaker Ruth Beckermann, The Missing Image (2015) uses historic archival footage to re-configure the meaning of a contested memorial in central Vienna, Memorial against War and Fascism (1988–1991) by Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka. Based on first-hand research, field observations and interviews with contemporary visitors, this article interprets The Missing Image as representative of a counter-archive memorial intervention which facilitates ethical acts of witnessing and which, in their turn, help re-frame and correct public understandings of compromised war monuments. The article offers an account of how viewers create meaning out of their experiences of witnessing difficult visual material. In doing so, I emphasize the importance of empirical reception studies to understand more deeply the impact of public art and of memorial art interventions on contemporary audiences.

From Classical Compositions to Contemporary Seriality

Classical compositions, such as those of Claude Lorrain (1600–1680), show balanced situations where the depicted objects seem to represent beauty – they appear to exist in an ideal order; they seem right, once and for all. They allow their viewers, who live in a contingent world, believe that unity and beauty are attainable. English landscape gardens in the eighteenth century offered viewers the experience of moving in real settings that seem to reproduce the canvasses of classical landscape painting. Contemporary visitors know this is an imitation; they appreciate that this is not everyday reality but a kind of realized utopia. Artworks such as the early ones by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) and those from the nineteenth century onwards (Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet), make us understand that a final rightness is not possible; that it is only possible to try again and again to attain the real – without ever arriving at the one right solution. In their endeavour to depict reality, these artists engage in a serial elaboration of the same subjects and objects of their art. These series of nearly the same subjects invoke the impossibility of getting it right once and for all. Piet Mondrian illustrates the development from seriality, as repeated attempts to depict the same with a difference, to the practice of seriality as an experiment in symmetry and balance that both goes back to Claude Lorrain and modernizes the concept of the ideal for application to abstract art. In contemporary art after the Second World War serial structures in single artworks were common, thus superseding compositions with their discredited promise of ideality. Series occurred not only in the contemporary visual arts, but also in literature, music and in the theatre. The repetitive structures of Minimal Art offer to the beholder the possibility of experiencing ‘reality’ in an age of media and fakes. My example will be the repetitive structures of Christian Boltanskiʼs oeuvre which provides an opportunity to reflect on the similarity and difference of people in contemporary democracies. My main argument is therefore that the change from composition to seriality corresponds to historical change.

Журнал «1812 год» в контексте юбилейных мероприятий 1912 года

The author explores the perception of the characteristic traits of Russian people that was widespread among military intellectuals and their associates — publishers, authors and sub­scribers of the journal “1812” at the end of the 19th — the beginning of the 20th centuries. The same group of military historians, academics and popularizers initiated the foundation of the Museum of 1812 and the Borodino panorama, painted by F. A. Roubaud for the 100th anni­versary of the Patriotic War of 1812. On the one hand, publications in the journal reflected the prevailing worldview and the lexis used at that time. On the other hand, articles of the journal disseminated a set of values amongst the readership, having an equal or lower educa­tional, cultural and social status. The knowledge of the language of the journal and the speci­ficity of its semantics allows translating the meanings encoded in the articles and the Pano­rama into the language of the contemporary visitor. This article provides a textual analysis of twenty four issues of the journal. Comparative analysis of literary, popular science and in­formation texts and the biographies and activities of the authors, makes it possible to under­stand the intended meaning these “unobtrusive participants in discourse” ascribed to the words “character trait” or “character” of Russian people.

Analysis of environmental impact on emotional health of people visiting temples of Vrindavan, India: a qualitative survey

Background: In this century, blind faith in unhealthy environments is dwindling and more focus on environmental impact on a truly spiritual and emotionally uplifting experience is regarded as most important to contemporary visitors to sacred places. The main objective is to describe the emotional state of people visiting temples of Vrindavan and to describe the viewpoints on environmental factors affecting their emotional health.Methods: Type of study: a qualitative survey, study population: visitors to temples of Vrindavan. Method of sampling: purposive sampling, sample size: 67 people, study tool: pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire for interview, data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and tabulated.Results: 82.09% of people interviewed were of the age 18-50 years. Among the visitors all were Indians, and one NRI. Majority interviewed were males. 6 people visiting temple 1 reported feeling annoyed, disturbed and insecure during visit. There were relatively positive responses regarding environmental factors due to religious constraints. Many people reported good conduct of pujaris (temple priests) in all the three temples with quite a few bad comments like professional seekers and greedy. Long queues and no comfort was disliked for all the three temples, however some people expressed no problem with it.Conclusions: Pilgrims do not critically analyze environmental aspects managed by authorities. They felt spiritual and emotionally aroused and preferred not to comment on not so comfortable experiences. We cannot neglect the rising exceptions to the usual herd of visitors who are on the rise.

Visitors' perceptions of religious tourism destinations

Abstract This paper addresses the question of how contemporary visitors perceive the more commercial facets of religious destinations. The Four Great Buddhist Mountains of China provided subtly different contexts for the work, but the themes addressed have a broad applicability to the tensions between secular and spiritual features of such sites. Two rounds of detailed interviews in 2014 and 2016 were undertaken. The first identified four types of Buddhist site images: sacred with high spiritual values, cultural with long histories, attractive with natural features, and commercial with shops and restaurants. The second found that visitors' perceptions of these types of destination image contained both strong cognitive and affective reactions to the Buddhist sites. Such perceptions were strengthened by key site features such as an impressive atmosphere, attractive environment, personal beliefs, and loyal behaviors, but weakened by commercial activities, modern buildings, environmental pollution, and secular behaviors. The findings contribute to both theory and practice by clarifying the factors influencing visitors' perceptions about these Buddhist sites and providing further implications for the sustainable development of religious tourism.

From the liminal to the lateral: urban religion in English cathedrals

ABSTRACTUsing data derived from a qualitative and quantitative study of four English cathedrals (Canterbury, Durham, Westminster, and York), I argue that these buildings combine high cultural capital with considerable liturgical flexibility, and that the latter has helped cathedrals become highly popular parts of the church and heritage landscape. In examining the ritual forms made available to visitors, including regular services, informal acts of piety such as the lighting of candles, and varieties of pilgrimage, I argue the need for a more nuanced theoretical vocabulary than is currently in play in order to describe the ways in which informants engage with liturgy. Drawing on both ritual theory and urban sociology, I juxtapose a more conventional depiction of ritual as involving entry into set-apart and liminal frames of action with the observation that many visitors engage in more ‘lateral’ forms of participation, where sacred and secular, official and non-official, blend in complex ways. Such ‘laterality’ emerges not only from contemporary responses to ritual engagement, but also out of characteristic ways in which urban publics engage with variegated city space. My broader argument is that the notion of ritual ‘laterality’ is a highly productive means of characterizing encounters between contemporary visitors and heritage sites of religious significance. Use of this category avoids a clear separation or hierarchy of value between sacred and profane realms of action, or between religious believers and tourists. An investigation of lateral interactions between visitors and such sites also assumes that informal, ambiguously articulated, and less public behaviors may be as sociologically significant as formal and easily visible ones. I conclude that ritual behavior in cathedrals points to wider trends in the encounters between diverse urban publics and ostensibly sacred spaces.

Two-dimensional engagements: photography, empathy and interpretation at District Six Museum

As one of six internationally recognised ‘Sites of Conscience’ in South Africa, District Six Museum in Cape Town has been at the forefront of the community museum movement since its inception in 1994. Organised by those directly affected by apartheid’s Group Areas Act, the Museum is dedicated to preserving and fighting for the rights and memories of those who were forcibly removed from their District Six homes between 1966 and 1982. A uniquely intimate space, the Museum seeks to balance empathy alongside what it calls ‘critical non-racialism’, as it engages in the ambitious project of re-defining racialised communities in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper explores the tensions between criticality and empathy in relation to District Six Museum’s photographic collection. Focusing particularly on the problem of perspective-taking, this paper analyses the ways in which gradual changes in the Museum’s visitor demographic are compromising its non-racial project. Based on qualitative research that suggests contemporary visitors are less likely to engage in the kind of reconstructive, politicised imaginings that the Museum’s displays require, this paper suggests that empathy, rather than a tool for critical engagement with District Six’s history, is increasingly becoming the means through which alternative memories of District Six are silenced.

Cultural memories, discursive gaps, and tourism promotion: A framework for applied research

Recent studies about the relation between heritage and tourism have consistently signaled the existence of fractures between the cultural reality of tourism destinations and the cognitive and emotional experience of contemporary visitors. On the other hand, the study of the relations between tourism and literature and the recent valorization of storytelling in tourism promotion have both pointed out the importance of different types of discourses in the constitution of tourism spaces and the shaping of visitors’ expectations and experiences. When the desire for authenticity expressed by cultural tourists is also taken into account, the existence of inconsistencies between the cultural realities of destinations, existing discourses and the expectations and perceptions of tourists becomes apparent. Adapting, in an innovative approach, the Gap Model of Service Quality, this paper intends to present a research framework capable of enlightening existing cultural inconsistencies considering the discourses involved in the promotion and experience of tourism destinations. The framework will be applied in an exploratory investigation of the role of José Saramago’s Baltasar and Blimunda in the tourism promotion of Mafra and Lisbon, Portugal, with the aim of developing a conceptual model capable of describing inconsistencies in the promotion and experience of cultural destinations and facilitating the development of adequate mediation proposals.

Taking the Next Step: Confronting the Legacies of Slavery at Historic Sites

ABSTRACT“Slavery is the ground zero of race relations,” declared James and Lois Horton in their groundbreaking book, Slavery and Public History. Engaging the history and legacy of slavery is a crucial step in understanding current U.S. society especially race relations. Historic sites that have connections to slavery have begun to explore how they can more fully engage visitors in the narrative of American slavery and subsequently, inspire and enhance the conversation of race relations among contemporary visitors. Reflecting best practices, evolving scholarship, shifting audience demographics, and expanding guest expectations, three well-known historic sites – Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and President Lincoln’s Cottage – have developed new programs and enhanced popular offerings to interpret slavery in a more nuanced manner. These public programs, educational offerings and interpretation strategies provide audiences with a deeper understanding of the institution of race-based slavery and its legacy in the present U.S. society.

“Romantic Auschwitz”: examples and perceptions of contemporary visitor photography at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

ABSTRACTVisitor photography at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is becoming increasingly popular in the age of the Internet, social media and digitalization. People visit the Auschwitz Museum for a number of reasons, and their motivations for taking photographs at the site also vary. Several of the primary reasons to photograph Auschwitz given by the sixteen participants in this study will be explored in this paper. The ethical dilemma surrounding the taking of ‘selfies’ will also be considered.

Patterns of among- and within-species variation in heterospecific pollen receipt: The importance of ecological generalization.

Coflowering plants are at risk for receiving pollen from heterospecifics as well as conspecifics, yet evidence shows wide variation in the degree that heterospecific pollen transfer occurs. Evaluation of patterns and correlates of among- and within-species variation in heterospecific pollen (HP) receipt is key to understanding its importance for floral evolution and species coexistence; however, the rarity of deeply sampled multispecies comparisons has precluded such an evaluation. We evaluated patterns of among- and within-species variation in HP load size and diversity in 19 species across three distinct plant communities. We assessed the importance of phenotypic specialization (floral phenotype), ecological specialization (contemporary visitor assemblage), and conspecific flower density as determinants of among-species variation. We present hypotheses for different accrual patterns of HP within species based on the evenness and quality of floral visitors and evaluated these by characterizing the relationship between conspecific pollen (CP) and HP receipt. We found that within-species variation in HP receipt was greater than among-species and among-communities variation. Among species, ecological generalization emerged as the strongest driver of variation in HP receipt irrespective of phenotypic specialization. Within-species variation in HP load size and diversity was predicted most often from two CP-HP relationships (linear or exponentially decreasing), suggesting that two distinct types of plant-pollinator interactions prevail. Our results give important insights into the potential drivers of among- and within-species variation in HP receipt. They also highlight the value of explorations of patterns at the intraspecific level, which can ultimately shed light on plant-pollinator-mediated selection in diverse plant communities.