Participation and digitality in the museum

The doctoral project, whose subject area can be defined by the terms museum, participation and digitality, is cumulative and is being supervised by Prof Dr Lina Franken from the University of Vechta and Prof Dr Sebastian Vehlken. Museums are institutions that are committed to a broad public. With the emergence of New Museology in the 1980s, which recognised the role of museums as actors in social and political processes, the self-image of museums and their external presentation changed.   Participation and opportunities for cultural involvement are central themes in the museum discourse in German-speaking countries, as various publications and projects show. A further development in the museum world is the advancing digitalisation, which on the one hand includes the digitalisation of work areas - databases, digital tools and 3D scans. On the other hand, digital mediation formats are also becoming increasingly relevant. The first interrelationships between participation and digitalisation are becoming apparent. Cultural scientist Birgit Mandel argues that with increasing digitalisation, visitors' expectations are also changing towards more participatory and dialogue-based formats. Digitalisation offers museums completely new opportunities for participation.

The central question of the doctoral project is: How do museums think about the topics of participation, digitisation and digitality in different formats in order to enable, promote and benefit from an exchange in the digital world? Which different museum and non-museum stakeholders are involved in this field? What strategies are museums pursuing to activate non-museum stakeholders? Linked to this is the question of the extent to which there is reciprocity between digitality and participation in the museum. What new opportunities does digitalisation open up in terms of participation? Can participation also accelerate digitalisation or improve digital museum offerings?

The question is explored on the basis of three case studies: the projects ‘Deine Hafenstadt’ and ‘ARtefact’ of the German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven, the project ‘Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe: The Role of Museums in a Digital “Post-Truth” European Society’ (CHAPTER) of CARMAH Berlin and the OER project of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. All museums and partners in the case studies deal with cultural-historical topics. Many museums are active in this field and produce a wide range of digital formats and applications. A scientific analysis that goes beyond project-related reports, best-practice examples and workbooks has not yet been the subject of digital participation and museum research. Based on the three practical case studies, a project is being created that critically examines current museum practice in relation to digitalisation and participation. The research process aims to highlight not only positive developments, but also conflicts and challenges between the various stakeholders. The aim of the research is to create a deeper understanding of how museums (jointly) implement the topics of participation and digitalisation and which actors are involved in this area and how. The research question is pursued using an ethnographic research approach that has been digitally adapted, consisting of participant observation, interviews and collaboration in the field.