As scholarly institutions, museums are expected to produce research similar to academic institutions, i.e. journal articles, book chapters and monographs. At the same time, there are ongoing discussions in the academic sector about the status of artistic research, and it is possible to approach exhibition making from the perspective of artistic research. In order to bolster the contribution of museums towards spreading democracy and participatory culture, it becomes necessary to devise methods for bringing together audience engagement and possibilities for artistic research in the creation of new knowledge. The article presents the Tingens Metod or the thing-based method as an opportunity to involve audiences in exploring museum objects. Based on the actor network theory, the object method capitalizes on the possibility of allowing objects to be at the center of gatherings in the museum. In order to ensure that work with the audiences does not remain only sporadic or, for example, limited to the domain of pedagogues, it is necessary to find different methods that would allow other departments and activities of the museum to cooperate with a wider audience. Four workshops using the object-based method were held in cooperation between Malmö Museums and Malmö University. The workshops brought together teenagers, media technology and graphic design students, as well as young adults who discussed different objects found in the museum. We selected twelve items that had also been on display at the exhibition of sailors' memorabilia of the Malmö museums. The workshops took place on the Zoom platform using the Google Jamboard application, which set low technological barriers and encouraged participants to focus on the museum's objects in a way that a single thing rarely receives in the context of an entire exhibition. The participants talked about history, culture, migration, economic and trade relations, art, war and much more. Focus on things makes it possible to lower the participation barrier, and with their questions and curiosity, participants can make their contribution towards work with museum collections. Linking the object-based method with artistic research allows us to examine the items by combining methods such as reading and discussion with, for example, drawing and the search for information on the Internet. In this way the self-confidence of the participants is boosted and their interest sparked. The object-based method can be part of the preparation of the exhibition, where participants can ask questions that the exhibition will later answer, or be part of the work with collections or discovery learning. Integrating the object -based method into the museum's activities through a range of different activities invites audiences to participate in a museum that will never be finished. Questions asked by visitors can reveal gaps in the museum's knowledge and create unexpected and miscellaneous connections. They can likewise help find new and interesting applications for collections that have a narrow field of meaning. To draw a comparison from the world of technology, the museum can also be seen as operating in a beta version where audiences have been engaged in the development process and visitors can contribute to the continuous improvement of the exhibition by virtue of inclusive creative research.
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Apr 29, 2023
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