Research Article
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Nesne Olarak Müze: Kartpostaldan Paylaşıma

Year 2024, , 139 - 160, 05.11.2024
https://doi.org/10.55755/DepArch.2024.31

Abstract

İster kartpostal paylaşımıyla ister ziyaretçilerin müzelerde çektikleri fotoğrafları sosyal medyada paylaşmasıyla olsun, bu görsel paylaşım süreçleri genellikle önemsiz olarak değerlendirilse de, ziyaretçi, müze ve daha geniş bir kitle arasında ilişkiler kuran ve sürdüren önemli eylemler olarak görülmelidir. Bu makale, kartpostalları ve Instagram paylaşımlarını, müze değerlerini ve ziyaretçi tercihlerini yansıtan, karşılaştırılabilir sosyal, nesnel ve öznel araçlar olarak ele alarak, bu görselleri anlamlı, performatif bir medya biçimi olarak konumlandırmaktadır.
British Museum’u bir vaka çalışması olarak ele alan bu makale, kartpostallar ve Instagram gönderilerini üretim, kullanım ve dağıtım bağlamlarında analiz eder. Ziyaretçi mesajları, görsellerle birlikte incelenir ve temellendirilmiş kuram yöntemi kullanılarak karar alma süreçleri ve bu görsellerin içerdiği anlam potansiyeli yorumlanır. Bu yaklaşım, Haldrup ve Larsen’in (2010) turistik medya çalışmalarında ‘fotoğraf çekme’ konusuna daha fazla odaklanılması gerektiğine dair çağrılarına yanıt verirken, fotoğrafçılığın müze ziyaretçi deneyimlerindeki rolüne dair daha derin bir anlayış sunar.
Müzenin fotoğraflanması, üç boyutlu mekânları iki boyutlu nesnelere dönüştürerek müzeyi küçültür, taşınabilir hale getirir ve onu ‘yeni’, sosyal kullanımlar için hazırlar. Araştırmalar, fotoğrafçılığın amacı müze, ticari yayıncı ve ziyaretçi arasında farklılık gösterse de, üretimi yönlendiren kararların genellikle tutarlı olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Bu süreçte, ziyaretçi ile müze arasında bir bağ kurulur ve hem kurumsal hem de kişisel mesajlar bir bütünlük içinde okunur. Çevrimiçi paylaşımlarda, fotoğraflar ‘gerçek zamanlı’ olarak ziyaretçi deneyimlerini yansıtan anlatılarla birlikte paylaşılır ve bu bağ daha da güçlenir. Bu fotoğraf paylaşım pratikleri, ziyaretçi deneyimini zenginleştirir, ziyaretçilerin müzeyi ‘sahiplenmesini’ sağlar ve sosyal etkileşimleri destekleyip kolaylaştırır.

References

  • Barthes, R. (1993). A roland barthes reader. Vintage Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA74348984
  • Beard, M. (1992). Souvenirs of culture: deciphering (in) the museum. Art History, 15(4), 505-532. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1992.tb00504.x
  • British Museum. (n.d.1). British Museum. The suicide exhibition (part 2). Retrieved January 9, 2024 from https://soundcloud.com/britishmuseum/the-suicide-exhibition-part-2.
  • British Museum. (n.d.2). The British Museum, towards 2020, the british museum’s strategy. Retrieved January 10, 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/Towards_2020-The_British_Museum_Strategy.pdf
  • British Museum. (n.d.3). Architecture. Retrieved 9th June 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/architecture
  • British Museum (n.d.4). The British Museum story. Retrieved 30th June 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story#:~:text=The%20Museum%20is%20driven%20by,to%20expand%20and%20share%20knowledge
  • Budge, K., & Burness, A. (2017). Museum objects and Instagram: agency and communication in digital engage-ment. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 32(2), 137-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1337079
  • Budge, K. (2017). Objects in focus: museum visitors and Instagram. Curator The Museum Journal, 60(1), 67-85. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12183
  • Budge, K. (2018). Visitors in immersive museum spaces and Instagram: self, placemaking, and play. The Journal of Public Space, 3(3),121-138. https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v3i3.534
  • Burness, A. (2016). New ways of looking: self-representational social photography in museums. In: Stylianou-Lambert, T. (Ed.) Museum and visitor photography: redefining the visitor experience (pp.152-183). Edinburgh & Boston: MuseumsEtc.
  • Djenar, D. N., Ewing, M, C., & Manns, H. (2017). Style and intersubjectivity in youth interaction. De Gruyter Mou-ton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516439
  • Edwards, E. (2022). Little marks of ownership: photographic postcards and the culture of the museum, 1913-39. In Edwards. E. (Ed.), What photographs do. the making and remaking of museum cultures (pp. 32-54). UCL Press.
  • Edwards, E., & Ravilious, E. (2022). Museum cultures of photography: an introduction. In Edwards, E. Ravilious, E. and Ravilious, E. (Ed.), what photographs do. the making and remaking of museum cultures (pp. 1-31). UCL Press.
  • Frier, S. (2020). No Filter. The inside story of how Instagram transformed business, celebrity and culture. Ran-dom House Business.
  • Glaser, B. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory. Sociology Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA13992196
  • Glaser, G., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Routledge Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/2575405
  • Greenwald, E. (2007). On the history of photography and site/sight seeing at yellowstone. Environmental History, 12(3), 654-660. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/12.3.654
  • Haldrup, M., & Larsen, J. (2010). Tourism, performance and the everyday. consuming the orient. Routledge Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA91171214
  • Haworth-Booth, M., & McCauley, A. (1998). The museum & The photograph: collecting photography at the Vic-toria and Albert Museum. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
  • Hill, C, W. (1999). Picture postcards. Shire Publications Ltd.
  • Kress, G. van Leeuwen., T. (2006). Reading images. The grammar of visual design (Second Ed.). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
  • Larsen, J., & Svabo, C. (2014). The tourist gaze and “Family Treasure Trails” in museums. Tourist Studies, 14(2), 105-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797614532178
  • Leaver, T., Highfield, T., & Abidin, C. (2020). Instagram: visual social media cultures. John Wiley & Sons Press.
  • Ledin, P., & Machin, D. (2018). Doing visual analysis. From theory to practice. SAGE Publications.
  • Martins, C. (2021). Was culture a commodity ‘all’ victorians could afford? notes on the first British public muse-ums. Anglo Saxonica, 19(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5334/as.42
  • Merkel, J. (2002). The museum as artifact. The Wilson Quarterly, 26(1), 66-79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40010088
  • Perkins, H, C., & Thorns, D, C. (2001). Gazing or performing? Reflections on urry’s tourist gaze in the context of contemporary experience in the antipodes. International Sociology, 16(2), 185-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580901016002004
  • Rogan, B. (2005). An entangled object: The picture postcard as souvenir and collectible, exchange and ritual communication. Cultural Analysis, 4(1), 1-27.
  • Sadler, N. (2016). Museums the postcard collection. Amberley Publishing.
  • Sanders, A. (1984). The British Museum. AA Files, (6), 50-57.
  • Sante, L. (2023, July 13-14). The American Photographic Postcard (1905-1930) as an Ancestor of Social Media. Photography and Culture Industries: From Leicas to Likes [Conference session]. ISCAP The Centre for Intercul-tural Studies, New York, USA.
  • Sassoon, J. (2005). Photographic materiality in the age of digital reproduction. In E. Edwards and J. Hart (Ed.), Photographs Objects Histories (pp. 299-319). Routledge Publishing.
  • Snow, R. (2010). Correspondence here: real photo postcards and the snapshot aesthetic. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
  • Staffs, F. (1979). Picture postcards and travel. a collector’s guide. Lutterworth Press.
  • Staffs, F. (1966). The picture postcard & its origins. Lutterworth Press.
  • Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage Publications.
  • Stylianou-Lambert, T. (2012). Tourists with cameras: reproducing or producing? Annals of Tourism Research, 39(4), 1817-1838. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2012.05.004
  • Suess, A. (2014). Art gallery visitors and Instagram [Unpublished Master’s dissertation]. University of Arts Lon-don.
  • Suess, A. (2018). Instagram and art gallery visitors: aesthetic experience, space, sharing and implications for educators. Australian Art Education, 39(1), 107-122. https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/382511
  • Urquhart, C. (2013). Grounded theory for qualitative research. A practical guide. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526402196
  • Urry, J. (1990). The tourist Gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies. SAGE Publications. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA11177435
  • Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The tourist Gaze 3.0. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446251904
  • Yaneva, A. (2022). Latour for architects. Routledge Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429328510
  • Young, D. (2018). Rematerializing colour. from concept to substance. Sean Kingston Publishing. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:729092
  • Youngs, Y. (2011). On Grand Canyon postcards. Environmental History, 16(1), 138-147. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emr028
  • Youngs, Y. (2012). Editing nature in Grand Canyon National Park Postcards. Geographical Review, 102(4), 486-509. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2012.00171.x
  • Zhao, X., & Lindley, S. (2014, April 26-29). Curation through use: understanding the personal value of social media [Conference session]. SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, Toronto, Canada.
  • The following archival records related to the postcards were obtained from the respective institutions by the au-thor.
  • British Museum (1912). List of Pictorial Postcards on Sale at the British Museum. Darlington & Son.
  • British Museum (1935). List of Pictorial Postcards (Coloured). Trustees of the British Museum.
  • British Museum Original Paper Records (1905). Report: Director’s report on Photography
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1906). Photographing from the Collections. Trustees of the British Muse-um, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1912). Sale of Photographs. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1914). Special Standing Committee - Readmission of women-visitors. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1919). Trustee Minutes. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1921a). Sales of Postcards, &C: Treasury conditions. Trustees of the Brit-ish Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1921b). Postcards: Prices to Agents. British Museum. Trustees of the Brit-ish Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1971). Cleaning of the Museum (Vol. 1969-1971). Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • The Times (1920). Museum Postcards, Sculpture, Metalwork and Textiles. The Times, 42420.
  • The Times (1924). Picture Postcards of Museum Exhibits. The Times, 43830.
  • The Times (1927). Natural History Museum. Postcards of Rare Moths. The Times, 44513.

Museum as Object: From Postcard to Post

Year 2024, , 139 - 160, 05.11.2024
https://doi.org/10.55755/DepArch.2024.31

Abstract

Whether it’s through sharing picture postcards or visitor-produced photographs of museums on social media, these processes of image sharing, often dismissed as trivial, are acts which create and sustain relationships between the visitor, museum, and a wider audience. This paper positions picture souvenirs as significant, performative media, and understands postcards and Instagram posts as social, objective and subjective mediums which reflect museum values and visitor decision-making.
Using the British Museum as a case study, this paper analyses postcards and Instagram posts within their networks of production, use, and distribution. Visitor messages are analysed alongside imagery, and grounded theory is used to offer an interpretive understanding of decision making and inherent meaning potential. This approach responds to Haldrup and Larsen’s (2010) call for greater emphasis on ‘photographing’ in studies of tourist media and contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of photography in museum visitor experiences.
Photography of the museum transforms 3D spaces into 2D objects, miniaturising the institution, making it mobile, and readying the museum for ‘new’, social uses and research indicates that whilst the aims of photography differs between museum, commercial publisher, and visitor, the decisions which underpin production are consistent. Through use, a connection is fostered between museum and person, and institutional and personal messages are read congruently. This connection is heightened online with photographs shared in ‘real-time’ alongside narratives which more closely reflect lived experiences. These photo-sharing practices enrich the visitor experience, allow visitors to ‘own’ the museum, and facilitate and support social interaction.

Ethical Statement

As part of the PhD study of Charlotte Simpson at the University of Nottingham, the study has the Faculty of Engineering Ethics Committee approval.

References

  • Barthes, R. (1993). A roland barthes reader. Vintage Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA74348984
  • Beard, M. (1992). Souvenirs of culture: deciphering (in) the museum. Art History, 15(4), 505-532. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1992.tb00504.x
  • British Museum. (n.d.1). British Museum. The suicide exhibition (part 2). Retrieved January 9, 2024 from https://soundcloud.com/britishmuseum/the-suicide-exhibition-part-2.
  • British Museum. (n.d.2). The British Museum, towards 2020, the british museum’s strategy. Retrieved January 10, 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/Towards_2020-The_British_Museum_Strategy.pdf
  • British Museum. (n.d.3). Architecture. Retrieved 9th June 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/architecture
  • British Museum (n.d.4). The British Museum story. Retrieved 30th June 2024 from https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story#:~:text=The%20Museum%20is%20driven%20by,to%20expand%20and%20share%20knowledge
  • Budge, K., & Burness, A. (2017). Museum objects and Instagram: agency and communication in digital engage-ment. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 32(2), 137-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1337079
  • Budge, K. (2017). Objects in focus: museum visitors and Instagram. Curator The Museum Journal, 60(1), 67-85. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12183
  • Budge, K. (2018). Visitors in immersive museum spaces and Instagram: self, placemaking, and play. The Journal of Public Space, 3(3),121-138. https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v3i3.534
  • Burness, A. (2016). New ways of looking: self-representational social photography in museums. In: Stylianou-Lambert, T. (Ed.) Museum and visitor photography: redefining the visitor experience (pp.152-183). Edinburgh & Boston: MuseumsEtc.
  • Djenar, D. N., Ewing, M, C., & Manns, H. (2017). Style and intersubjectivity in youth interaction. De Gruyter Mou-ton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516439
  • Edwards, E. (2022). Little marks of ownership: photographic postcards and the culture of the museum, 1913-39. In Edwards. E. (Ed.), What photographs do. the making and remaking of museum cultures (pp. 32-54). UCL Press.
  • Edwards, E., & Ravilious, E. (2022). Museum cultures of photography: an introduction. In Edwards, E. Ravilious, E. and Ravilious, E. (Ed.), what photographs do. the making and remaking of museum cultures (pp. 1-31). UCL Press.
  • Frier, S. (2020). No Filter. The inside story of how Instagram transformed business, celebrity and culture. Ran-dom House Business.
  • Glaser, B. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory. Sociology Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA13992196
  • Glaser, G., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Routledge Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/2575405
  • Greenwald, E. (2007). On the history of photography and site/sight seeing at yellowstone. Environmental History, 12(3), 654-660. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/12.3.654
  • Haldrup, M., & Larsen, J. (2010). Tourism, performance and the everyday. consuming the orient. Routledge Press. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA91171214
  • Haworth-Booth, M., & McCauley, A. (1998). The museum & The photograph: collecting photography at the Vic-toria and Albert Museum. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
  • Hill, C, W. (1999). Picture postcards. Shire Publications Ltd.
  • Kress, G. van Leeuwen., T. (2006). Reading images. The grammar of visual design (Second Ed.). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
  • Larsen, J., & Svabo, C. (2014). The tourist gaze and “Family Treasure Trails” in museums. Tourist Studies, 14(2), 105-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797614532178
  • Leaver, T., Highfield, T., & Abidin, C. (2020). Instagram: visual social media cultures. John Wiley & Sons Press.
  • Ledin, P., & Machin, D. (2018). Doing visual analysis. From theory to practice. SAGE Publications.
  • Martins, C. (2021). Was culture a commodity ‘all’ victorians could afford? notes on the first British public muse-ums. Anglo Saxonica, 19(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5334/as.42
  • Merkel, J. (2002). The museum as artifact. The Wilson Quarterly, 26(1), 66-79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40010088
  • Perkins, H, C., & Thorns, D, C. (2001). Gazing or performing? Reflections on urry’s tourist gaze in the context of contemporary experience in the antipodes. International Sociology, 16(2), 185-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580901016002004
  • Rogan, B. (2005). An entangled object: The picture postcard as souvenir and collectible, exchange and ritual communication. Cultural Analysis, 4(1), 1-27.
  • Sadler, N. (2016). Museums the postcard collection. Amberley Publishing.
  • Sanders, A. (1984). The British Museum. AA Files, (6), 50-57.
  • Sante, L. (2023, July 13-14). The American Photographic Postcard (1905-1930) as an Ancestor of Social Media. Photography and Culture Industries: From Leicas to Likes [Conference session]. ISCAP The Centre for Intercul-tural Studies, New York, USA.
  • Sassoon, J. (2005). Photographic materiality in the age of digital reproduction. In E. Edwards and J. Hart (Ed.), Photographs Objects Histories (pp. 299-319). Routledge Publishing.
  • Snow, R. (2010). Correspondence here: real photo postcards and the snapshot aesthetic. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
  • Staffs, F. (1979). Picture postcards and travel. a collector’s guide. Lutterworth Press.
  • Staffs, F. (1966). The picture postcard & its origins. Lutterworth Press.
  • Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage Publications.
  • Stylianou-Lambert, T. (2012). Tourists with cameras: reproducing or producing? Annals of Tourism Research, 39(4), 1817-1838. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2012.05.004
  • Suess, A. (2014). Art gallery visitors and Instagram [Unpublished Master’s dissertation]. University of Arts Lon-don.
  • Suess, A. (2018). Instagram and art gallery visitors: aesthetic experience, space, sharing and implications for educators. Australian Art Education, 39(1), 107-122. https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/382511
  • Urquhart, C. (2013). Grounded theory for qualitative research. A practical guide. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526402196
  • Urry, J. (1990). The tourist Gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies. SAGE Publications. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA11177435
  • Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The tourist Gaze 3.0. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446251904
  • Yaneva, A. (2022). Latour for architects. Routledge Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429328510
  • Young, D. (2018). Rematerializing colour. from concept to substance. Sean Kingston Publishing. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:729092
  • Youngs, Y. (2011). On Grand Canyon postcards. Environmental History, 16(1), 138-147. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emr028
  • Youngs, Y. (2012). Editing nature in Grand Canyon National Park Postcards. Geographical Review, 102(4), 486-509. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2012.00171.x
  • Zhao, X., & Lindley, S. (2014, April 26-29). Curation through use: understanding the personal value of social media [Conference session]. SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, Toronto, Canada.
  • The following archival records related to the postcards were obtained from the respective institutions by the au-thor.
  • British Museum (1912). List of Pictorial Postcards on Sale at the British Museum. Darlington & Son.
  • British Museum (1935). List of Pictorial Postcards (Coloured). Trustees of the British Museum.
  • British Museum Original Paper Records (1905). Report: Director’s report on Photography
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1906). Photographing from the Collections. Trustees of the British Muse-um, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1912). Sale of Photographs. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1914). Special Standing Committee - Readmission of women-visitors. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1919). Trustee Minutes. Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee. (1921a). Sales of Postcards, &C: Treasury conditions. Trustees of the Brit-ish Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1921b). Postcards: Prices to Agents. British Museum. Trustees of the Brit-ish Museum, London.
  • British Museum Standing Committee (1971). Cleaning of the Museum (Vol. 1969-1971). Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  • The Times (1920). Museum Postcards, Sculpture, Metalwork and Textiles. The Times, 42420.
  • The Times (1924). Picture Postcards of Museum Exhibits. The Times, 43830.
  • The Times (1927). Natural History Museum. Postcards of Rare Moths. The Times, 44513.
There are 61 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Architectural History, Theory and Criticism
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Charlotte Simpson 0000-0002-1740-7419

Jonathan Hale 0000-0002-4929-0497

Laura Hanks 0000-0003-0806-5274

Early Pub Date November 5, 2024
Publication Date November 5, 2024
Submission Date July 2, 2024
Acceptance Date October 15, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024

Cite

APA Simpson, C., Hale, J., & Hanks, L. (2024). Museum as Object: From Postcard to Post. DEPARCH Journal of Design Planning and Aesthetics Research, 3(2), 139-160. https://doi.org/10.55755/DepArch.2024.31

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