a new communication model in the natural history museum

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A new communication model in the natural history museum CHEN Hui Chuan, HO Chuan Kun & HO Ming Chyuan Abstract It is a discourse to argue that how a new communication model, the instigating model, is practiced in the natural history museum of the 21st century. The variety of communication theories are suggested in practice in natural history museum since 1968. From the museum as a communication system and implications for museum education to museum exhibitions as communication media to convey ideas , the communication models have shifted obviously. Hooper-Greenhill used the metaphor of the modernist museum, the educational model (curator- centered); and the metaphor of post-museum, the interpretative model (visitor-centered), to describe those differences. Three models are compared in this study. Since the first two models concern only on the learning value in the museum, no matter what the perspective was used to develop the exhibition. This study argues that the understanding of learning process and meaning-making are the core values of the new communication model. This new instigating model develops the exhibition in a natural history museum from a memetic view, the perspectives of learning involve an infection process of meme. The meme's host could be anyone relevant to exhibition. The instigator of signal could be anything: object, artifact or text, graphic design, specimen etc. It is the responsibility of the museum designer to create the variety of experience aspects to instigate the active selection of culture evolution and to remove the gap between hosts of memes. A special exhibit on Bat Legend is used as a trial ballon to highlight the applicability of our new communication model in the natural history museum. Key Words: communication model, natural history, museum exhibition, meme 1 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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Page 1: A new communication model in the natural history museum

A new communication model in the natural history museum

CHEN Hui Chuan, HO Chuan Kun & HO Ming Chyuan

AbstractIt is a discourse to argue that how a new communication model, the instigating model, is

practiced in the natural history museum of the 21st century. The variety of communication

theories are suggested in practice in natural history museum since 1968. From the museum

as a communication system and implications for museum education to museum exhibitions

as communication media to convey ideas , the communication models have shifted obviously.

Hooper-Greenhill used the metaphor of the modernist museum, the educational model (curator-

centered); and the metaphor of post-museum, the interpretative model (visitor-centered), to

describe those differences. Three models are compared in this study. Since the first two models

concern only on the learning value in the museum, no matter what the perspective was used to

develop the exhibition. This study argues that the understanding of learning process and

meaning-making are the core values of the new communication model. This new instigating

model develops the exhibition in a natural history museum from a memetic view, the

perspectives of learning involve an infection process of meme. The meme's host could be

anyone relevant to exhibition. The instigator of signal could be anything: object, artifact or text,

graphic design, specimen etc. It is the responsibility of the museum designer to create the

variety of experience aspects to instigate the active selection of culture evolution and to remove

the gap between hosts of memes. A special exhibit on Bat Legend is used as a trial ballon to

highlight the applicability of our new communication model in the natural history museum.

Key Words: communication model, natural history, museum exhibition, meme

1 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Page 2: A new communication model in the natural history museum

A new communication model in the natural history museum

IntroductionFrom the aspect of museum sustenance,

Neil Kolter and Philip Kolter claimed some

viewpoints of marketing at the end of the 20th

century that all new museums have to face

up today: 1. museum mission and identity; 2.

building an audience; 3. attracting financial

resources. A growing number of museums

today are reinventing themselves to adapt to

changing anticipation by the revolution of

organization, exhibition design, programs,

and services. In the beginning of the 21st

century, museums in Taiwan are going to face

up to a more immediately challenge, the shift

of the government organization to public

cooperation. Visitors in museums shift the

role to customers than as students. How to

compete with other culture industries

becomes a problem today.

If a revolutionary idea of exhibition design

can be addressed, it might be the first step for

the museum to cope with the more full-scale

interaction relevant to the social and

economic revolution externally and internally.

From the museum as a communication

system and implications for museum

education to museum exhibitions as

communication media to convey ideas , the

communication models have been shifted

obviously. New communication model should

be invented to create a more practical

relationship among all relevant stakeholders

of exhibition. To solve the problems coming

from those challenges in the natural history

museum of 21st century, a new

communication model of exhibition design is

addressed in this discourse. A case study is

demonstrated for a new perspective of

exhibition design in museum practice.

1. New role of museum in the age ofexperience economy Moira G. Simpson pointed out that the past

30 years have seen significant changes in the

field of museology, perhaps none as

significant as the development of the

ecomuseum and community-based museum

and demonstrated the examples of the

new museum paradigm. A new role of

museum has emerged within a post-

industrial, post-modern society, after a

collapse of a distinction between culture and

commerce. Deirdre Stam (1993) has

demonstrated the new museology in the point

of informed muse and stated new

museologists offer less tangible metaphors to

suggest purpose: the museum can be a

forum or a dialogue between curators and the

public; or even a public access system where

visitors can assemble their own

experiences. The visitor's experience

becomes, paradoxically, the more tangible

entity, to wit, the product of the museum. This

view implies that the primary product of the

museum is then not the preservation and

display of the artifact but rather the

information to be derived by the public from

the museum.

To function as the answer for the question

of what is the utility of The New Museology

for museum practice, Deirdre Stam

concluded that museums must develop these

techniques as follows:

new methods for attempting understanding

of society and audience;

new ways of testing visitors' needs and

responses;

new organizational structures and

management approaches to deal with new

and dynamic functional relationships;

new ways to evaluate productivity ;

new communication patterns;

new approaches to information

management and utilization.

In the beginning of the 21st century,

information is not the only primary economic

offering anymore. An alternative and distinct

economic offering, experience, provides

the key to future economic growth. The age

of experience economy is emerging.

When experiences are as a fourth

economic offering, after the other offerings of

2 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Page 3: A new communication model in the natural history museum

materials, goods, services, experiences are

as distinct from services as services are from

goods. Experiences are events that engage

individuals in a personal way. As an

experience may engage customers, Pine and

Gilmore considered two dimensions of the

most important, as depicted in two axes (Fig.

1); one is absorption vs. immersion, and the

other is passive vs. active participation.

The coupling of these dimensions defines

the four realms of an experience-

entertainment, education, escape, and

aestheticism. In The Experience Economy,

they pointed out that the wide range of

satisfying experiences is the minimal

requirement for visitors, a surprise

manipulated by the experience and

transformation would be the end

achievement.

The satisfying visitor experiences in nine

Smithsonian museums have been explored

by Pekarik, et al. and were classified into four

categories: object experiences, cognitive

experiences, introspective experiences, and

social experiences. It may be the

characteristic experience in traditional

museums.

Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler also identify

the museum product with multiple

experiences of museum-going, which include

recreation, sociability, learning, an aesthetic

experience, a celebrative experience, and an

enchanting experience. They eventually

outlined three dimensions of a designed

museum-going experience and represented

three strategies to serve the marketing role of

the museums (Fig. 2). First strategy is

improving the museum-going experience ;

second is community service ; and third is

market repositioning toward entertainment.

Those dimensions roughly are corresponding

to the distinction among audience goals,

product goals, and

organizational/competitive goals.

The effort of the museum exhibition is

evaluated inevitably by all kinds of visitors'

responses. The experiences as the

revolutionary product in museums cause the

developing model of exhibition design to shift.

2. New perspectives of exhibition design To be expected or viewed as a loyal

producer, designers have to play a straight

neutral bridge between the curator/transmitter

and the visitor/receiver in the old perspectives

of the exhibition. In the traditional model of

exhibition development, curators assembled

the objects or specimens, established the

conceptual framework, and wrote the text and

labels of exhibition. The designer then

packaged the curatorial material in 3D form,

usually embodying the curator's vision.

Fig. 1 The experience realms depicted by Pine and

Gilmore

Fig. 2 A designed museum-going experience outlined by

Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler

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Afterwards, educators prepared interpretative

materials that could help visitors make sense

of the exhibition experience. However, usually

a curator's true affections were aimed at other

scholars, leaving a majority of visitors in the

dark. In the challenging times of the 1960s

and 1970s, the curator as the voice of

authority was one of the first to be

challenged. As Kathleen McLean stated that

the dynamics of dialogue in the new age of

exhibition design will be urged inevitably by

the societies of which they are a part. The

developing model of exhibition design

inevitably will be shifted by the new

perspectives of the museum paradigm.

Eilean Hooper-Greenhill used new

research paradigm: marginalizing the

museum as the subtitle of a paragraph. And

stated, a new approach to museum

audience research is becoming established

which is pushed forward partly by those who

wish to democratize the museum, and partly

by the general cultural shift towards

postmodernism and postcolonialism. Part

of this cultural shift is seen in the reworking of

concepts of education and learning. She

suggested that museum communicate on site

through a range of methods which includes

exhibitions of many different types, functions,

sizes and approaches to interpretation.

Different audiences need different provisions,

and thought should be given as to how

different types of exhibition or display can be

used to attract different sections of the public.

Popular blockbuster and the small-scale

exhibitions of a local adult education group

can serve this concept without any

contradiction. In the viewpoint of Hooper-

Greenhill, the exhibition is a piece of the

holistic approach to museum communication

and is the educational media to serve the

real people, the subgroup of audiences.

The paradigm of meaning making in

museums was concerned in the 1990s; in the

meanwhile, the paradigm of constructivism

was emerging to challenge the other

paradigms that guide disciplined inquiry.

Silverman stated, the concept of meaning

making is generating excitement within the

museum community. Providing an approach

to understanding visitor experiences, the

paradigm illuminates the visitor's active role

in creating meaning of a museum experience

through the context he/she brings, influenced

by the factors of self-identity, companions,

and leisure motivations. Jay Rounds

addressed that meaning-making paradigm,

which differs from the cultural-transmission

paradigm in some critical ways, asserts a

radically-different view of the output of the

exhibit experience-from facts successfully

transferred to meaning constructed in the

mind of visitors.

George E. Hein further clarified that all of

discussions of constructivism include

meaning making; but meaning making does

not necessarily imply constructivism. Hein

also described the constructivist museum in

the considerations below, e.g. connections to

the familiar, learning modalities,

collaborations, social interaction, and

intellectual challenge, etc.

In the perspectives of exhibitions as

communicative media, museum exhibitions

are products of research, organized and

designed to convey ideas. Flora Kaplan

pointed that an exhibition that communicates

must educate and excite the mind and the

senses; when communication is optimal it

creates an affect among spectators and

audiences. Exhibitions generally utilize the

same basic elements to tell the stories: they

employ objects either made and used by

human beings or drawn from the natural

world; they require texts, most often in the

form of label, wall panels, headlines and

banners; and they incorporate other graphic

elements, such as photographs, maps, charts

and drawings. In addition, they use lighting,

museum furniture -cases, platforms,

walls-and architectural elements that must

protect the objects shown, enhance viewing

A new communication model in the natural history museum

4 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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and enclose exhibition space. Qualities of

color and texture attach to all these elements.

Sound, seating and the media of film, video,

slide projection, computers and simulation

may also be added. Live elements often

range from planting to performance-dancers,

actors and scholars, as well as lectures and

docents. This communicative media actually

is represented as an assemblage that

consists of those so-called basic

elements.

Although the perspectives obviously shift

among those emerging paradigms, the

characteristic of exhibition design never has a

distinguishing definition. All concerns of the

communication model are exclusively

relevant to the curator/transmitter and the

visitor/ receiver, or the relationship between

them in the position of power. It seems that

the exhibition has no interpretation involving

the designer. It is a paradoxical viewpoint to

ignore designers and their influences in the

communication model, if we expect a creative

design would be a surprise to achieve and to

win the satisfaction of the visitors' experience.

I. Theories and methodologies1. Communication theories and learning

approaches

The educational role of the museum is

not only a book title of Hooper-Greenhill but

also the proper duty of all museums. She

used three words: education, interpretation

and communication, to catch on to what this

means. Museums should be the informal or

lifelong learning place is the unalterable

viewpoint, especially in natural history and

science museums.

Traditionally, the taxonomy of educational

objectives by Benjamin Bloom used in the

objective model with the setting of

predetermined goals and the methods of

formative and summative evaluation.

However, the visitor is completely different

from the student. The simple communication

model was introduced to the museum world

in North America by Cameron in the late

1960s. Cameron's emphasis on objects as

the medium of museum communication was

challenged. Knez and Wright proposed that

putting across ideas (intellectual cognition)

was the primary function of museum

communication, at least in science museums,

and their suggestions led to the modifications

in the basic communications model.

The process of communication has

evolved from the development of a simple

model to something more complex. The initial

simple description of the process of

communication was based on the idea of one

person sending a message to another,

perhaps over the telephone. Distinctions were

made at the beginning of the process

between the source and the transmitter, and

at the end of the process between the

receiver and the destination. Following up the

communication model of Shannon and

Weaver, the knowledge should be effectively

received by visitors. All of the design

problems should focus on the decrease of

noise or the increase of channel (Fig. 3). The

model can be applied to a museum

educational exhibition (Fig. 4). In this instance

the noise which interferes with the

message might include anything from crowds

to visitor fatigue or others.

The influence of the model of

communication on approaches to exhibition

production is discussed by Roger Miles who

points out how this linear understanding of

the communication process is mirrored in the

linear process of making exhibition (Fig. 5).

However, Miles proposes a very different

approach to exhibition which is much more

flexible and makes use of extensive research

at all stages of the process, including market

research before the process begins, trying-

out of exhibits during production and

summative evaluation after the exhibition

opens.

Hooper-Greenhill identified two broad

approaches to conceptualizing

5 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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communication: the transmission model and

the cultural model. The transmission model, a

geographical metaphor is used. It is clear that

a realist and positivist epistemology and a

behaviorist learning theory underpin this

model (Fig 3). The cultural approach to

understanding communication: based on the

constructivist paradigm, communication is

understood as a cultural process of

negotiating meaning, which produces

reality through symbolic systems such as

texts, object, artworks, maps, models and

museums. It is the ritual or cultural view. The

view proposes that reality has no finite

identity, but is brought into experience, is

produced, through communication. Reality is

defined within negotiated frameworks or

interpretative communication (Fig. 6).

Stephen Bitgood made a lot of contribution

to the effective exhibit and judged the

success of an exhibit in two ways-visitor

measures and/or critical appraisal by experts.

Visitor measures include behavior,

knowledge, and affection. Stopping (attracting

power) and viewing time (holding power) are

used as two indices of behavioral

measurement usually. Bicknell also worked

an alternative approach of goal-free

evaluation for a communication model. The

evaluations are more open-ended and

explore possible consequences rather than

the predetermined expectations of goal-

oriented evaluation.

Hein summarized the education theories in

four theories of teaching are located in

different quadrants (Fig. 7): pedagogy for

didactic/expository education, stimulus-

response education, discovery learning and

constructivism.

A new communication model in the natural history museum

source transmitter channel receiver destination

Noise

Fig. 4 The Shannon and Weaver model applied to exhibition

Fig. 5 The simple communications model adapted as a way of understanding the exhibition process. The move from

curator to designer to educator takes place in time.

exhibitionencodedmessage

exhibitionteam

objectstexts

eventss

fatigue, crowds, workmen, poor graphics (noises)

visitor'sheads

visitor'sunderstanding

selects objectswrites captions

produces andinstalls exhibits

curator

transmitter

designer

medium

organizes materialsand activities for school

and general visitors

educator

receiver

Fig. 3 The Shannon and Weaver communication model

Fig. 6 The model demonstrated by Eilean Hooper-

Greenhill to explain a cultural approach to understanding

communication: based on the constrructivist paradigm.

6 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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Kelman compared the objective model and

the responsive model to be used in

evaluation of exhibition. The skill of the

ethnographic research used in order to

produce a complete picture of the learning

process. Kelman used the Hein matrix to

gather a mass of detailed information as so-

called naturalistic or responsive model. This

model eliminated the tunnel vision effect in

the objective model. Responsive evaluation is

advocated by Stake, focuses attention on

program activities rather than program intent.

2. Communication approaches in memetic

view

Communication approaches in memetic

view is an alternative view to be worthy of

attention. As in Dawkins's original

formulation, memes are passed on by

imitation. The Oxford English Dictionary

defines a meme as An element of a culture

that may be considered to be passed on by

non-genetic means, especially imitation.

Memes have been variously suggested to

exist as an idea in someone's head, a

repeatable piece of behavior like a spoken

word, or embodied in the form of

artifacts, like wheels. Memes are the

replicators and tend to increase in number

whenever they have the chance.

Replicators transmit information, as Robert

Aunger says, the idea that social

communication involves the replication of

information forces us to reconceptualize what

communication is all about. In Aunger's

viewpoint, he described communication

through four approaches: mechanical,

inferential, evolutionary and coevolutionary.

Mechanical approach is devoted to

communication among agents without

intelligence, such as machines. It is based on

the mathematical model of communication,

as epitomized in the work of Chaude

Shannon and William Weaver during the

1940s, and is not directly relevant to

memetics. The mechanical approach thus

sees communication largely as a process of

finding the optimal coding system to

compensate for noise problem.

Inferential approach sees communication

as the mutual negotiation of meaning. Single

events of information exchange, exemplified

by dialogue between a sender-receiver pair,

are standard focus of both the Mechanical

and the inferential theories.

Evolutionary approach is devoted to

describing the evolution of signaling

behaviors. The theory holds that

communication is a specialized behavior

involving the broadcast of information. It is a

question of dialogue versus dissemination.

Single events of information exchange,

exemplified by dialogue between a sender-

receiver pair, are the standard focus of both

the mechanical and the inferential theories.

Dissemination suggests that the sender

tosses signals out into environment, hoping to

find one or more receivers. It is a metaphor of

message-passing story used to explain both

biological and culture evolution.

If the receiver's response to this

information is also in the sender's interest,

the ability to emit that cue will also improve.

Communication can even become an arms

race between the sender (to deceive) and the

receiver (to decipher). The transformation,

distortions, and losses of information typical

of social transmission are to be explained not

just as side effects of jumping the gap

between brains but as the normal

Fig. 7 Four domains of Hein's education theories

7 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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consequence of dueling communication

itself.

Coevolutionary approach emphasized that

a consequence of successful communication

can be the replication of the information

conveyed. Communication is explicitly linked

to large-scale of social phenomena such as

cultural change through a physical

consequence of communication by dyads: the

replication of information. It is involved not

merely as a sender and a receiver, but also

as a channel and a message.

The major claim of coevolutionary

approach is that communication

simultaneously involves the sender and

receiver in two different relationships: first, as

conspecifics with potentially divergent genetic

and social interests, but also as potential

hosts to a more or less robust, parasitic

replicator with its own revolutionary interests.

The coevolutionary theory thus suggests an

additional relationship between sender and

receiver than that of cooperators or

competitors: they also share an infection.

Signals are patterned streams of particles

flowing through a channel. In Aunger's view,

signals are not interactors; nor are they

phenotypes, instead they are what he will call

instigator. The arrival of a signal in a brain

brings an influx of energy and information,

sparking the crucial change in local area.

Artifact, whose primary function is to serve as

a signal template, can be called a

communicative artifact.

3. Methods of case study - Tracking study

& interview

The exhibition: Lucky Animals vs. Night

Monsters - the Bat Legend as a traveling

exhibition was planned and fabricated during

January 2004-February 2005; exhibited

during February-December 2005, in the

National Museum of Natural Science,

Taichung, Taiwan. This theme was schemed

out for the richness of biodiversity and

cultural diversity. The only problem is the

scarcity of bat specimens and objects of bat

motif in the museum collection. It is a

successful cooperation of different parties

that included the museum staff, the freelance

architect, the photographer of art objects, the

craftsmen of exhibits, the volunteers of the

specialist, the Bat Association of Taiwan, etc.

Each party made the contribution and the

interpretation for their work equally and freely.

A case study of developing model of

exhibition design in the perspectives of new

communication theory, in memetics view, was

explored. The entire design process of

museum exhibition includes theme

orientation, team planning, content

developing, 3D & graphic design, exhibits

design and evaluation etc. Using the system

of random sampling: each subject was

selected when the first visitor crossed the

entrance threshold at a predetermined time,

with a total of 100 subjects selected.

The methods of tracking and recording

visitor behaviors/conversation were

conducted. A more open-end questionnaire

after a request was recorded as a preliminary

study, and the interview of four docents for

this exhibition was recorded, too.

II. Case study: Bat Legend exhibition1. Results and discussions of the

exhibition

The venue of Bat Legend consists of six

sections A-F (Fig.8). The various options of

the visiting route are allowed in the venue,

the entrance and the exit shared the same

door. Most visitors (51%) follow the route of

turning right. (Table 1) Only 84% of subjects

completed the entire route and accepted the

interview.

A new communication model in the natural history museum

8 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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Each section consists of panels and

specimen/objects/exhibits. Panels consist of

subtitle, text and image (or extra specimen/

model). Each item of exhibition is created and

involved in more than two aspects of

experience but not complied with the

hierarchy or structure of the textbook's

content (Table 2). The complicated and

multidisciplinary aspects of experience create

a wide-ranging idea of design to instigate the

various responses of the visitors (Fig. 9).

Those aspects of experiences are as

follows,

Fig. 8 The layout of the Bat Legend exhibition, each

section (A-F marked by different colors) was installed to

present the aspects of experience

Fig. 9 The experience aspects of the Bat Legend

exhibition relevant to the model of museum-going

experience outlined by Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler

Fig.10 Poetic aspect: the second-order semiological system of Roland Barthes in Myth today, used for bat myth in

Chinese culture (a) and Western cultural (b)

a. Chinese culture of bat myth b. Western cultural of bat myth

Table 1 The visitor tracking result of bat exhibition

Venue route options Percentage (Total subjects =100)

Route 1: Entrance-A-B-C-D-E-F-C-Exit 51%

Route 2: Entrance-B-A-C-D-E-F-C-Exit 25%

Route 3:Various or incomplete routes excluded route1&2 24%

9 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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A new communication model in the natural history museum

Table 2 Description List of Exhibit Items

10 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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a. The fiber art marked as A2 b. The glass art marked as A4

Fig. 11 The exhibits of aesthetic aspect

Fig. 12 The exhibits of narrative aspect

a. Text panel marked as P1-2 b. The image and video panel marked as B4-B7

11 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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poetic aspect (p): poem, proverb, legend

and tale of literature, semiotic context (Fig. 10);

aesthetic aspect (ae): objects related to bat

motif, the work of fiber art, glass craft, visual

art and furniture design (Fig. 11);

narrative aspect (n): text, image and audio-

visual media (Fig. 12);

authentic aspect (au): bat fossil, mounted

specimen, objects and symbols related to bat

motif, bat images of portrait and ecological

behavior, products (e.g. Tequila) of everyday

life related to the topic of the ecological key

role of bat (Fig. 13);

social aspect (s): sensory and kinetic

hands-on exhibit, leisure furniture (Fig.14);

imitation aspect (i): magnified 3D model of

small bat and full size 3D model of big bat,

artificial fruit and bat roost, etc (Fig. 15).

The feedback from the visitor study and

the interview of docents indicated that this

exhibition is very attractive, especially in two

features: the surprising feeling about the

diversity of bat and that some bats are so

good-looking enough to overthrow the

stereotype of bat/vampire (38% in Table 3

and 70% in Table 4), and the variety of

experience aspects to satisfy the visitors (the

responses of section A, B, and C, in Table 3).

The increasing proportion of the aesthetic

aspect is much more than the other

exhibitions in natural history/science

museums appreciated and emphasized (70%

in Table 4). Some visitors further took the

picture of the exhibit of glass art (Fig. 11b)

A new communication model in the natural history museum

a. Hands-on exhibit of bat roost

marked as E4

b. Leisure furniture of

bat motif marked as F4

Fig. 14 The exhibits of social aspect Fig. 15 The exhibits of imitation aspect

a. The statue of bat (30x) marked as C2 b. A diorama of the bats in

the roost marked as E3

Fig. 13 The exhibits of authentic aspect

a. The bat specimen marked as C3 in the floor plan b. The object of bat motif marked as F2

12 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

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and got a replica of exhibit from the same

craft workshop to keep a concrete memory. In

the authentic aspect, to see the real thing is

still very important and is the only purpose of

a museum visit for some people. (Bat

specimen marked as C3, 43% in Table 3 and

52% in Table 4)

2. The characteristics of instigating model

The Bat Legend Exhibition appropriated

the innovative communication theory from

memetics for a revolutionary developing

model of exhibition design, the instigating

model. It isbased upon a culture-centered

criterion in experience aspects. The

preliminary result indicated that design

approach of creating a variety of experience

aspects made a big contribution to the

participation of cultural diversity and bio-

diversity for visitors in the natural history

museum. It also offered the pluralistic and

creative vision for the designer.

As a new theory of how we think, memetics

is a very inventing concept linked to cultural

study. It is the culture analogue to the study

of how disease-causing pathogens are

Table 3 The visitor interview result of bat exhibition

Note: The ansewrs from some subjects are multiple choices in different.

Table 4 The visitor interview result of bat exhibition

Summarized perspectives of most satifactory/ surprised/ precious items

Summarized perspectives of unsatisfactory items

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A new communication model in the natural history museum

diffused through population. This surviving

process of meme is displayed in our everyday

life and we call it popular culture. Therefore if

the wide-ranging visitor's experiences can be

created as the instigators in popular culture,

all related stakeholders of the museum

include not only the visitors, but the curator,

and the designer, may be entangled together

in the evolutionary and coevolutionary culture

in society, by the force of meme infection.

The most interesting feedback from the

evaluation of visitors is to know that some

visitors visited the venue repeatedly and

made the replicas of exhibit. The visitor

duplicated the exhibit. It is an evidence of

meme infection.

The exhibition project model of David Dean

illustrated the design developing process as

Fig. 16 The diagram comparison among three developing models of exhibition design

14 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

people

principle

process

product

Exhibition project model (illustrated by Dean, David, 1994)

idea

gath

erin

g

ConceptualPhase

Developmental Phase

FunctionalPhase

plan

ning

stag

e

prod

uctio

nst

age

oper

atio

nal

stag

e

term

inat

ing

stag

e

eval

uatio

n

idea

gath

erin

g

AssessmentPhase

meme infection loop

information transmission loop

(C) Instigating model

Evaluation Matrix in experience aspects(qualitative, naturalistic or interactive methods)

Evolutionary & Coevolutionary approaches ofcommunication model

Variety of experience aspects

Designer

Criteria of culture selection

Visitor(Viewer)

Brief of content/Object/Storyline

Curator

Exhibit/Media/Graphic design

Meaning negotiation

(B) Interpretative model

Multiple channels in culture construction

Evaluation Matrix in communication channels(responsive and goal-free evaluation)

Culture model of communication

Curator Designer

Criteria of mutual beliefs

and values

Visitor survey(Front-end evaluation)

Visitor(Viewer)

Exhibit/Media/Graphic design

Brief of content/Object/Storyline

Meaning negotiation

Visitor(Viewer)Curator Designer

(A) Educational model

Exhibit/Media/Graphic design

Holding & Attracting power in exhibit items (summative and goal-oriented evaluation)Criteria

of effectiveness

Visitor survey(Front-end evaluation)

Transmission model of communication

Formativeevaluation

Brief of content/Object/Storyline

Taxonomy of educational objectives

Authentication & Authority

Signal-instigators interaction

Formativeevaluation

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Table 5 The Comparison of critical elements among three developing models of exhibition design

15 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Page 16: A new communication model in the natural history museum

sequential arrangement of conceptual phase,

development phase, function phase and

assessment phase. This model and four

elements of design, people , e.g. curator,

exhibition designer and visitor (i.e.

viewer/audience); product , e.g. theme of

content, exhibit, and experience, etc.;

process , e.g. team-working, interaction or

transmission among different parties of

people, etc.; principle , e.g.

communication theories, methods and criteria

of evaluation, etc., are the illustrative foci of

three developing models (Fig. 16, Table 5).

Two loops around the instigating model,

one for information transmission, the other for

meme infection, this distinguishing character

makes up a variety of aspects i.e. poetic,

aesthetic, narrative, authentic, social, and

imitation aspect, etc. The various aspects of

each exhibit will be created and selected as

the instigator of the meme. Those ideas

(meme) compete among themselves for the

right to occupy the mental niche that is

devoted to the description or explanation of

some phenomenon. It will be the more

interesting and more active experience of

museum going. Afterwards, the result will

construct the criteria of culture selection that

the process goes on in social groups.

In this instigating model, the position of

power, the definition of message, and the

boundary of academic disciplines all are

blurred. Every visitor can have the

experience-making of museum-going and

might be inspired by some new ideas. The

exhibition serves the culture coevolution more

than the pedagogy in society. The memetics

how to interact with visitors should be

explored by the ethnographic research

comprehensively.

III. ConclusionNatural history/science museums

conventionally are considered as the informal

educational place before the crises emerging

in new museum age and the competition

coming from the other cultural and/or

commercial organizations. Considering the

influence of constructivism became the

popular perspective around 1989, the

concerns of learning process gradually

dominated. The interpretative perspectives

from the marginal and various subgroups of

the visitor (real people) were encouraged to

be accommodated in museums.

Hooper-Greenhill used the metaphor of the

modernist museum, the educational model

(curator-centered); and the metaphor of the

post-museum, the interpretative model

(visitor-centered), to describe those

differences. The democratic considerations

change the hierarchy concept in exhibition

content and the communication chain in team

work. The content meaning is negotiated

between the curator and the designer in the

interpretative model. The feedback loop of

information transmission between the curator

and the visitor is considered as the active

participation of cultural society. The meaning-

making in museum is shifting from the

curator-centered (educational model) point to

the visitor-centered (interpretative model)

point.

Three models are compared in this study.

This study argues that the understanding of

the learning process and meaning-making

are the core values of a new communication

model. The first two models concern only the

learning value in the museum, no matter what

the perspective was used to develop the

exhibition. The designer only technically

played a part to improve the communicative

channels or media which were assumed is

detached from the content or the knowledge

value. Both models ignored the participation

of the communicative channels and media

which would be the interpretative participants

in evolutionary culture. This viewpoint shrinks

the vision of designer and takes away the

chance of involving into the interesting culture

of technology.

A new communication model in the natural history museum

16 INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Page 17: A new communication model in the natural history museum

This new instigate model (culture-centered)

develops the exhibition in a natural history

museum from a memetic view; the

perspectives of learning involve an infection

process of meme. The meme's host could be

anyone relevant to the exhibition. The

instigator of signal could be anything: object,

artifact or text, graphic design, specimen etc.

It is the responsibility of the museum designer

to create the variety of experience aspects to

instigate the active selection of culture

evolution and to remove the gap between

hosts of memes. This viewpoint reinvents the

vision of the designer in exhibition design and

instigates the active involvement of exhibition

design in cultural progress. The problem

solving in the instigating model may be more

interesting and creative more than the noise

removing in the model of Shannon and

Weaver.

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About the authorMs. Hui-Chuan Chen 1 has worked as an assistant curator for 15 years at Exhibition Department of National Museum

of Natural Science. She has completed more than twenty projects of museum exhibition and a few research projects of

museum exhibition planning & design. She has attended the international design conferences on the topics such as

exhibition design. Her internship for the study of museum exhibition evaluation was in Natural History Museum, London.

She has received the research grant from National Endowment for Culture and Art for the study of conservation in

museum exhibition in USA. She has received both of B.S. and M.S. in biology and now is a Ph.D. student at the

Graduate School of Design in National Yunlin University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Chuan-Kun Ho 2 Education: 1) 1985, PhD of Anthropology, Washington State University, USA. 2)1977, Master of

Anthropology, Washington State University, USA. 3)1971, Bachelor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology,

National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC. Professional Experience: 1) 1998-presernt, Professor, Department of History,

National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, ROC. 2)1998-presernt, Professor, Department of History, Tunghai University,

Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. 3)1998-present, Curator and Chair, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural

Science, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. 4)1996-presernt, Professor, Graduate Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua

University, Taiwan, ROC.

Dr. Ming-Chyuan Ho 3 has worked in his field for 26 years, for reputable companies like SAMPO Technology

Corporation, which manufactures electronic products for international markets. Additionally, he has spent twelve years

as the director of various departments and centers, including his current position as dean of the College of Design at

National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, and as the President of Chinese Institute of Design. While teaching

at the university, he has been working closely with the industry and completed more than forty design and research

projects. Dr. Ho is the author of numerous publications for various academic journals of design, and has attended more

than seventy design conferences on topics such as new product R & D, user interface design, creative craft design, as

well as design strategy and management. He received both of his M. F. A. and Ph.D. in design from the University of

Kansas.

A new communication model in the natural history museum

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