Exhibitions as Research: Experimental Methods in Museums

Exhibitions as Research contends that museums would be more attractive to both researchers and audiences if we consider exhibitions as knowledge-in-the-making rather than platforms for disseminating already-established insights. Analysing the theoretical underpinnings and practical challenges of such an approach, the book questions whether it is possible to exhibit knowledge that is still in the making, whilst also considering which concepts of "knowledge" apply to such a format. The book also considers what the role of audience might be if research is extended into the exhibition itself.

Providing concrete case studies of projects where museum professionals have approached exhibition making as a knowledge-generating process, the book considers tools of application and the challenges that might emerge from pursuing such an approach. Theoretically, the volume analyses the emergence of exhibitions as research as part of recent developments within materiality theories, object-oriented ontology and participatory approaches to exhibition-making.

Exhibitions as Research will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museology, material culture, anthropology and archaeology. It will also appeal to museum professionals with an interest in current trends in exhibition-making.

Peter Bjerregaard holds a PhD in anthropology and works as program manager at Danish Museum for Science and Technology. Until recently he was senior adviser of exhibitions at Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. His recent interest has been on exhibitions as a particular mode of research and in developing experimental approaches to exhibition-making that allow research to materialize in non-textual forms. He has been project leader and curator for a number of exhibitions, among them COLLAPSE – human being in an unpredictable world and Letting go. Together with Anders Emil Rasmussen and Tim Flohr Sørensen, he edited Materalities of Passing: Explorations in Transformation, Transition and Transience (2016).