In: New media & society: an international and interdisciplinary forum for the examination of the social dynamics of media and information change, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 357-360
This Conversation session will curate an open exchange about museum futures by exploring design as both a form of cultural heritage and as a catalyst for socio-cultural agency. The confluence of this subject is extremely timely and relevant given the Victoria and Albert Museum's transformative vision and influential, catalysing role in the impending Olympic Park redevelopment. As part of London's single most significant cultural infrastructure project since the establishment of "Albertopolis" back in the 1850s, the museum is approaching "V and A East" as a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to redesign the museum in response to the digital, democratic age. In this session, an invited panel of catalysts will initiate exploratory dialogue about the topic of museum futures through a set of different lenses: i.e. data, materiality, communication systems and curatorial design.
Museums today find themselves within a mediatised society, where everyday life is conducted in a data-full and technology-rich context. In fact, museums are themselves mediatised: they present a uniquely media-centred environment, in which communicative media is a constitutive property of their organisation and of the visitor experience. The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Media and Communication explores what it means to take mediated communication as a key concept for museum studies and as a sensitising lens for media-related museum practice on the ground. Including contributions from experts around the world, this original and innovative Handbook shares a nuanced and precise understanding of media, media concepts and media terminology, rehearsing new locations for writing on museum media and giving voice to new subject alignments. As a whole, the volume breaks new ground by reframing mediated museum communication as a resource for an inclusive understanding of current museum developments. The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Media and Communication will appeal to both students and scholars, as well as to practitioners involved in the visioning, design and delivery of mediated communication in the museum. It teaches us not just how to study museums, but how to go about being a museum in today's world.