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Intro_pt_1

Page history last edited by Sarah Barton 14 years, 4 months ago

Who This Book is For, Why It Exists, and How to Use It

 

    The word "participatory" is on the lips of cultural professionals all over the world. In a broad sense, a participatory institution is one that invites audience members to act as co-creators--developing, sharing, critiquing, and redistributing content in partnership with formal cultural institutions. As the idea of participatory cultural institutions has risen in prominence, the conversation has mostly focused on the why of participation as opposed to the how. There are some big conceptual shifts implied in moving towards participatory practice--a more flexible stance on institutional authority, greater trust and respect for audience contributions, and operating models that provide high-quality experiences for consumers and co-creators alike.

     The conversation about these changes is ongoing and is the extension of decades-old dialogue about the evolving relationship between audience and institution. Arguments for audience participation can be traced back at least a century to leaders like John Cotton Dana, who argued in 1917 that museums and libraries should be as relevant, accessible, and useful to the public as department stores. More recently, in 1984, the authors of the AAM publication Excellence and Equity, mostly educators, argued that visitors' needs are of equal importance as those of curators. Today, academic journals, museum conferences, and cultural practice blogs continue to debate and define contemporary expectations of audience experiences in an information age. Institutional authority and relationships with audiences are not fixed; they continue to evolve with cultural expectations and professional perspectives on best practice. (Is it of value to note that the word 'participatory' is also prominent in the world of politics, public policy and democratic deliberation? It is a cultural phenomenon of our time, renewed formally in the 70's with the rise of NEPA requirements for public engagement in development of public infrastructure, and experiencing current resurgence. SB).

    While this book is greatly informed and indebted to the work that has come before, it is not an updated theoretical argument in favor of participation. This book is a practical guide for professionals who dream of participatory institutions and seek actionable strategies to make them real. (SB: suggest BOLD for the two key sentences (above and below) speaking to the purpose of the book.)While you will find many arguments for participation in this book, they are are couched in the "how" of developing, implementing, and evaluating participatory audience experiences.

    This book is for people who are interested in developing experiences in cultural institutions that encourage and enable audience members as participants.(SB Bold and suggest rewrite: This book is for people interested in developing cultural institutions that will encourage and enable audience participation.)  It is a book of practice born out of the belief that well-designed participatory strategies can make cultural institutions more relevant, dynamic, essential places. I’ve tried to cover a wide diversity of design techniques and case studies, from the simplest talk-back wall to the most complex visitor co-created experiences. Participatory experiences are not one-size-fits-all, and this book provides design theory, frameworks, examples, and activities to help you identify which participatory techniques might best fit into your institution.

   

    At the end of the book, you will find references both to published material referenced throughout the text as well as a listing of all of the projects used as case studies. Many of these references are digital links, and I encourage you to visit the book’s website (www.participatorymuseum.org) to access these links directly rather than trying to type long strings of text into your browser.

    The website is also a place for further dialogue and sharing about these ideas. When I started writing this book, colleagues encouraged me to make the book itself a participatory product. To that end, this book is supplemented by an online community where we can talk about all these ideas and devise future participatory projects. Recommend deletion of the italicized section.SBThe website is one starting point for you to share your own case studies and connect with other practitioners who are interested in this topic. On the site, you will find the full text of the book available for digital annotation, questions, and comments. There is also a forum where you can post your own experiments and ideas. And I’ll be there with you, listening, learning, and joining the discussion.

    While the Acknowledgements section thanks specific people at length, I want to express my gratitude to all of you who contributed to the participatory process that led to this book’s existence. In 2006, I started the Museum 2.0 blog to investigate how participatory online culture might impact museums, and since then, my readers have joined me on a collaborative learning journey. Hundreds of people have commented on, argued with, and redeveloped the ideas in this book. Many inspirational voices and thrilling projects inform the content and my own design thinking. While I take responsibility for the words on these pages, the growth of participatory design practice in the museum community belongs to all of us. 

    Recommend deletion of this paragraph now in italics, redundant, weakens the ending. SB This book is not a set of best practices for participatory museum experiences. Many of these practices are still emerging and evolving at institutions around the world. Please use the website to share your own experiences with me and our new and widely distributed friends and colleagues. We are all in this together. I hope this book opens up a conversation that will shape our work for years to come.

 

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Comments (3)

heidi@marketearlyamerica.com said

at 9:53 am on Nov 9, 2009

"I was not brilliant enough to find a way to converse with you directly through these pages, nor to empower you to talk with each other in this hunk of paper. Instead, this book is supplemented by an online community where we can talk about all these ideas and devise future participatory projects."

I think the fact that the book has a companion website where readers can participate makes it a participatory product...so don't sell yourself short by saying you weren't brilliant enough to accomplish that goal. I think you achieved it! - HLG

rcnnolly@memphis.edu said

at 3:39 pm on Nov 11, 2009

ditto above - no self-deprecating comments

Nina Simon said

at 4:03 pm on Nov 11, 2009

Offending sentence removed! Thanks.

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