Chen, Hailin
(2024)
Textual and non-textual communication in exhibitions –
a comparative study of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
The Pitt-Rivers Museum (PRM) in Oxford is a special museum that communicates through its typological displays, whose exhibitory layout can be studied by defining two opposite formats of exhibitions. The first is the textual, like how texts are organised in the writing process. The second is the non-textual, as in how narratives are embedded in a space by focusing on body experience. The two formats provide a basis for understanding how the difference in communication in the museum is generated and how the visitor experience is thereby affected. This research aims to reveal the role of textual and non-textual communications and verify both in the context of the detailed case study of PRM.
Based on a detailed review of literature drawn from the disciplines of museology, linguistics and architectural theory (including the long-standing idea of architecture as a language), the deep logic of communication within the museum is investigated. The PRM presents an archive-like exhibition, which is rendered by its typological displays, to motivate visitors’ spontaneous exploration among juxtaposed cabinets. This conventional mode of exhibition is analysed as a ‘writerly’ structure by borrowing Roland Barthes’ theory of ‘readerly’ and ‘writerly’ texts in literary semiotics. As the ‘writerly’ texts are ambiguously presented to convey meanings and require some re-creation from readers, the ‘writerly’ experience in the PRM accordingly requires visitors’ additional interpretations on the meaning-making of exhibitory contexts. The comparison between ‘readerly’ and ‘writerly’ texts in Barthes’ original theory is therefore reflected in the way museums communicate. To illustrate this comparison more specifically and to reveal the deep structure of communication in museums, a systematic literature review on the relevant idea of communication, which should be properly studied as the language, is conducted. This is vital for knowing how ‘readerly’ and ‘writerly’ structures can respectively form two different modes of exhibitions – the narrative exhibition and the archive exhibition – to build up an innovative theoretical model that takes the textual and non-textual features as the core and fundamental part of communication.
To deepen the comparative study, a virtual reconfiguration of the PRM was made and tested using a series of 3D modelling software, illustrating the theme Rites of Passage based on the PRM’s collection. The virtual exhibition is presented in multi-formats (such as textual stories, 2D graphics, 3D animations, and interactive 3D models) on different online platforms to invite anonymous visitors’ participation. Additional questionnaires are also embedded to collect basic visitor feedback data. The essence of the virtual exhibition is the ritual theory presented in three main formats: textual, non-textual and hybrid. By these means, an evaluation of the role of the textual and non-textual modes of communication in an exhibition is carried out – broadly corresponding to the distinction between structuralism and phenomenology addressed within the literature review.
The virtual experiment reveals some new possibilities for the future development and application of digital tools in the creation of more effective museum visitor communication. For example, through the contextualisation of isolated objects within specific narrative structures, along with the possibility for individual personalisation and dynamic interaction between visitors and reconfigurable exhibition displays. However, future risks should also be noted: digital techniques can also raise questions regarding accessibility for a range of users, potentially compromising their ability to intensify communication and to enable effective visitor learning. Nevertheless, the thesis proposes that focusing on the nature of language (and its origin), as well as the nature of spatial and bodily communication in architecture, can provide an effective framework for deploying a range of communicative tools within museums and exhibitions.
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