One finding of the research was that the presence of interactive ‘hands-on’ exhibits was
a main prompt to an exhibition being defined as ‘for children’ by respondents (adult and
child). Perhaps more interesting and unexpected, however, was a finding that visitors
tended to conceptually link exhibits of similar media in their accounts of what they
believed the exhibition’s narratives to be. Thus, in relation to an exhibition about food,
many visitors said that it was about changes over time, and in doing so they talked about
the various ‘sets’ or ‘reconstructions’ (e.g. of a shop or a kitchen) in the exhibition. Other
visitors, however, told a story of the exhibition as being about ‘good foods and bad
foods’, referring to the various hands-on exhibits (e.g. exercise bikes or exhibits about
how additives—such as emulsifiers—work) to illustrate this. What was fascinating was
that these exhibits had not been linked together by the curators or designers, and they
were not linked in the exhibition space. Moreover, by linking them, visitors created
accounts that were not always those that had been intended by the curators. For example,
the section of the exhibition about food additives had been intended as a neutral
‘scientific’ explanation of how these work rather than about them being ‘bad’, but once
conceptually associated with exhibits such as exercise bikes they became conceived as part
of a ‘health education’ narrative, itself intertextually shaped by the genre of health
education exhibits. The ‘changes over time’ narrative likewise was surely prompted in
part by the existence of a familiar genre of historical exhibitions that predominantly use
reconstructed sets
One finding of the research was that the presence of interactive ‘hands-on’ exhibits wasa main prompt to an exhibition being defined as ‘for children’ by respondents (adult andchild). Perhaps more interesting and unexpected, however, was a finding that visitorstended to conceptually link exhibits of similar media in their accounts of what theybelieved the exhibition’s narratives to be. Thus, in relation to an exhibition about food,many visitors said that it was about changes over time, and in doing so they talked aboutthe various ‘sets’ or ‘reconstructions’ (e.g. of a shop or a kitchen) in the exhibition. Othervisitors, however, told a story of the exhibition as being about ‘good foods and badfoods’, referring to the various hands-on exhibits (e.g. exercise bikes or exhibits abouthow additives—such as emulsifiers—work) to illustrate this. What was fascinating wasthat these exhibits had not been linked together by the curators or designers, and theywere not linked in the exhibition space. Moreover, by linking them, visitors createdaccounts that were not always those that had been intended by the curators. For example,the section of the exhibition about food additives had been intended as a neutral‘scientific’ explanation of how these work rather than about them being ‘bad’, but onceconceptually associated with exhibits such as exercise bikes they became conceived as partof a ‘health education’ narrative, itself intertextually shaped by the genre of healtheducation exhibits. The ‘changes over time’ narrative likewise was surely prompted inpart by the existence of a familiar genre of historical exhibitions that predominantly usereconstructed sets
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