The seminar ‘The Exhibition as a Space for Experience’ combined theoretical perspectives from museum and exhibition studies with field research on the current ‘Beziehungsweise Familie’ exhibition.
Drawing on approaches to participation, social objects and reflexive qualitative research, the students developed their own research questions and examined the exhibition using participant observation, qualitative interviews and reflexive research journals. The focus was not only on visitors’ perceptions, but also on the question of how exhibitions function as social and spatial spaces of experience.
A key feature of the seminar was the close collaboration with the exhibition’s curators. Guided tours, discussions and insights into the curatorial process enabled the students to look behind the scenes of exhibition design and to understand the diverse decisions that are made whilst balancing academic rigour, design considerations, organisational constraints and the expectations of different visitor groups.
It thus became clear that exhibitions today are far more than mere venues for the dissemination of knowledge. They are social spaces where different perspectives converge, social issues are negotiated, and visitors can contribute their own experiences, memories and viewpoints. Questions of participation, collaboration and social relevance are just as important as the design of interactions and spaces for experience.
The seminar did not view research as detached observation, but rather as a reflexive process. Through a collaborative research process that alternated between observation, discussion, theoretical analysis and reflection, the students learnt how exhibitions emerge as spaces for experience – and how closely issues of design, participation, knowledge transfer and social responsibility are interwoven.