Christidou, D. (2015) Isolating the Private from the Public: Accounting for Co-Presence in the Museum (original) (raw)

Abstract

Co-presence is a critical attribute that can affect the ways through which people make meaning as “when a word is spoken, all those who happen to be in perceptual range of the event will have some sort of participation status relative to it” (Goffman, 1981, p. 3). This is especially the case for museum galleries where people arrive in their majority with others while encountering several others who choose to visit the same institution at the same time and on the same day (Christidou, 2013; 2012; vom Lehn, 2013; 2002). Their experience and encounters take place in relation to the exhibits as well as each other, being regulated in and through social interaction, specifically through controlled “route, speed, gestures, speaking, and sound” (Borden, 2001, p. 184) and “involvement shields” (Goffman, 1963, p. 38). This ongoing ‘choreography’ (Diamantopoulou & Christidou, in review) not only affects the overall pace and the experience of the immediate participants but also of those who just happen to share the same space. By considering videotaped aspects of in situ interactions from three museums in London, UK, this paper details the ways in which visitors monitor and negotiate co-presence and the means they use to successfully keep the private sphere of their encounter away from the public eye. Particular attention is paid to gestures and body movement in order to highlight how visitors organise, conduct and carry out their encounters with the exhibits as well as their fellow visitors. References Borden, I. (2001). Another pavement, another beach: Skateboarding and the performative critique of architecture. In: Borden, I., Kerr, J. & Rendell, J. (Eds.). The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space (pp. 178 – 199). MIT Press, Massachusetts; London. Christidou, D. (2013). Bringing Meaning into Making: How Do Visitors Tag an Exhibit as Social when Visiting a Museum. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 6: 1, 73 - 85. Christidou, D. (2012). Does ‘pointing at’ in museum exhibitions make a point? A study of visitors’ performances in three museums for the use of reference as a means for initiating and prompting meaning-making. Unpublished PhD thesis. University College of London, Institute of Archaeology. London, UK. Diamantopoulou, S. and Christidou, D. (in review). The Choreography of the Museum Experience: Visitors’ designs for learning. Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. The Free Press, New York. vom Lehn, D. (2013). Withdrawing from Exhibits: The Interactional Organisation of museum visits. In: Haddington, P., Mondada, L. and Nevile, M. (Eds.), Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion (pp. 65-90). Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin: Boston. vom Lehn, D. (2002). Exhibiting Interaction: Conduct and Participation in Museums and Galleries. Unpublished PhD thesis. King’s College, University of London, London.

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