Museum objects—the media most distinctive of museums—are also interesting with
regard to questions of ‘negotiability’. On the one hand, a mass of theoretical argument
and at least some empirical research argues that objects tend to make relatively
incontrovertible—they have what we might call ‘facticity’. They give substance, authority
and implied veracity to narratives. They are also often thought of by museum personnel
as relatively ‘non-interactive’, not least because of the necessity to protect items that form
part of the museum collection from damage by, say, handling. On the other hand,
however, by comparison with text, objects might be seen as relatively open to alternative
interpretation—as with the kitchen displays. One trend noted by some museum theorists
and commentators is, indeed, a ‘return of the object as curiosity’ (Bann 2003). This is
reflected in exhibitions in which objects form the centrepiece—in which they are the
beginning point for multiple stories and accounts—rather than those in which objects
basically illustrate a given narrative. In this invitation to allow visitors to approach
objects from a variety of self-selected directions, exhibition technologies such as the handsets
that My Exhibition will develop and trial, potentially have a very important role to
play (see also Grinter et al. 2002). Just how this will interact with other media, and the
degrees of authority or negotiability with which they will be invested, will be interesting to
explore. One question that may prove to be relevant is that of ‘authenticity