Research Plan #1: Curating my Own Exhibit
What and how can museum exhibits use manipulative strategies to make the exhibit more visually engaging to the visitors?
Steps:
- Learning and understanding about the process of museum curation- finding websites/books explaining it, so talking to research librarians to help me finding those
- Going to the New School Library/NYU Library to find book resources, websites(scholarly)- Jstor, interviews with librarians, curators, interviewing people who are part of the process of curation (through connections and hopefully setting up a meeting/call), asking viewers at these museum exhibits and their thoughts on how the museum has been curated
- Looking up manipulative strategies that museum exhibits use to engage visitors into the objects- at least 3-4 so that can help me when I’m curating my own exhibit- finding online sources on Jstor, book, or interview a curator can tell me, or by going to various museum exhibits and observing what methods each of them use
- I went to four museum exhibits:
- Age of Empires: Chinese Art of Qin and Han Dynasties(MET)
- From the Collection: 1960s (MOMA)
- NY At Its Core (Museum of the City of NY)
- Manus X Machina (MET)
- Saw many similarities between these exhibits even though they were on completely different topics because all of these exhibitions were really successful
- Laid it out in a way that the visitors can follow through the exhibit on their own- no need for signs
- Either the exhibit was a huge circle or an upside-down “U” shape except NY At Its Core, which was broke into different sections (a little confusing)
- At two of them the title was at the entrance of exhibit in a large font and on top of a huge wall whereas the other two had it on a wall but in a simpler way
- Layout- things surrounded the walls and then several huge pieces in the middle, so the visitors would know
- Also as soon as you enter a different room, in the corner (right as you enter) they showcased a video, so they attention goes straight there
- Interview a curator- head of the department/ part of the team
- Ask them questions on museum curation and the manipulative strategies they use to attract visitors/engage visitors into the exhibit
- If the exhibit is on a specific topic, which doesn’t appeal to everybody, then how do you make it appeal to the whole public? Ex: Chinese Dynasties
- How do you decide the layout of the exhibit? Where to put each piece and which room? How to organize each part of the rooms?
- Do you believe using these manipulative strategies really affects the success of the exhibit?
- If I am planning to create my own museum exhibit through first-year Parsons students, then I need to start telling people to submit work and decide on a theme/section
- Telling students to give artwork that I can borrow to set up in a room
- Deciding if there is going to be writing that describes the piece
Research Plan #2: Making a Presentation on the Process of Curation
What and how can museum exhibits use manipulative strategies to make the exhibit more visually engaging to the visitors?
Steps:
- Learning and understanding about the process of museum curation- finding websites/books explaining it, so talking to research librarians to help me finding those
- Going to the New School Library/NYU Library to find book resources, websites(scholarly)- Jstor, interviews with librarians, curators, interviewing people who are part of the process of curation (through connections and hopefully setting up a meeting/call), asking viewers at these museum exhibits and their thoughts on how the museum has been curated
- Searching for manipulative strategies that museum exhibits use to engage visitors into the objects- at least 3-4 so that can help me when I’m curating my own exhibit- finding online sources on Jstor, book, or interview a curator can tell me, or by going to various museum exhibits and observing what methods each of them use
- Answering why museums use those strategies and if they actually work and why (even though you see it because those exhibits are successful
- Deciding on how I am actually going to create this presentation- Powerpoint presentation, just through pictures? Descriptions? Video?
- Interviewing a couple of people on the process of curation and how exactly they use manipulative strategies to make their exhibits stand out
- Which manipulative strategies do you use? Would you say that you use any?
- Do you guys have a basic structure you follow for the layout of the exhibit? Or is it different for every exhibit?
- Are there specific steps that you follow to curate an exhibit? Or is it a different experience every time?
- How do you know which pieces you are going to select and which ones you are not?
- How do you decide which section each piece goes into? How do you group them together?
- How do you decide what the exhibit is going to be about? Do you do the manipulative strategies based off of that? How do you know if it will appeal to the whole public?
- I have realized that they are two basic layout structures that most museum exhibits do when curating an exhibit:
- Either the exhibit was a huge circle or an upside-down “U” shape except NY At Its Core, which was broke into different sections (a little confusing)
- Layout- things surrounded the walls and then several huge/ smaller pieces in the middle, so the visitors would know (depending on the pieces and what the exhibit is about)
- The entrances of the different rooms are also very similar because it is either a narrow pathway or a really broad entrance because there is a video that is being display or a huge piece displayed right in the middle of the room and other pieces surrounding that huge piece
FINAL RESEARCH PLAN
What and how can museum exhibits use manipulative strategies to make the exhibit more visually engaging to the visitors?
Idea:
- Create a mini-model of a museum exhibit with my art pieces
- Design the layout of the exhibit and the pieces and try to include some manipulative strategies
Timeline:
- Completely understand the process of museum curation and the manipulative strategies used by the museums- get all the sources down and take out the information that is important and can be used
- Go to these exhibits again(if i can) and get images of the layout and written information in order to get a idea of the patterns and design
- Age of Empires: Chinese Art of Qin and Han Dynasties(MET)
- From the Collection: 1960s (MOMA)
- NY At Its Core (Museum of the City of NY)
- Manus X Machina (MET)
- Cindy Sherman: Once a Upon Time
- Notice the similarities and differences between the exhibits in order to observe what patterns were repeated through the exhibits and which ones were not.
- Laid it out in a way that the visitors can follow through the exhibit on their own- no need for signs
- Either the exhibit was a huge circle or an upside-down “U” shape except NY At Its Core, which was broke into different sections (a little confusing)
- At two of them the title was at the entrance of exhibit in a large font and on top of a huge wall whereas the other two had it on a wall but in a simpler way
- Layout- things surrounded the walls and then several huge pieces in the middle, so the visitors would know
- Also as soon as you enter a different room, in the corner (right as you enter) they showcased a video, so they attention goes straight there
- Interview a curator- head of the department/ part of the team
- Ask them questions on museum curation and the manipulative strategies they use to attract visitors/engage visitors into the exhibit
- If the exhibit is on a specific topic, which doesn’t appeal to everybody, then how do you make it appeal to the whole public? Ex: Chinese Dynasties
- How do you decide the layout of the exhibit? Where to put each piece and which room? How to organize each part of the rooms?
- Do you believe using these manipulative strategies really affects the success of the exhibit?
- Decide on the pieces that I will put into the exhibit and why?
- Create mock-up on paper of how I am going to layout my exhibit
- Need to get the supplies- shoebox, card box, photographs, paint, sculpy(maybe?)
- Create the actual mini exhibit with 10-15 pieces in a show box with 2 rooms(2 different layout)
