Engaging with Social Media in Museums. This project will prototype the use of social media in museums to produce a new source of high-quality cultural information, and link regional, rural and international users with city-based institutions. It implements National Research Priority Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries: promoting an innovation culture and economy and smart information use.
The Australian museum sector is undergoing a period of substantial c ....Engaging with Social Media in Museums. This project will prototype the use of social media in museums to produce a new source of high-quality cultural information, and link regional, rural and international users with city-based institutions. It implements National Research Priority Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries: promoting an innovation culture and economy and smart information use.
The Australian museum sector is undergoing a period of substantial change in response to policy and technology initiatives, yet little formal collaboration exists between museums and researchers. This project brings some of the country's major museums together with the Smithsonian Institution, one of the world's foremost cultural institutions.Read moreRead less
Curating Museum Collections for Climate Change Mitigation. The Project aims to investigate how museum collections, many of which have histories entangled in Australia’s high emission sectors that supported the nation’s economic growth, can be curated to support climate change mitigation. Drawing together the disciplines of biogeochemistry, museology, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledge and education, the Project anticipates enhancing the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences' capacity f ....Curating Museum Collections for Climate Change Mitigation. The Project aims to investigate how museum collections, many of which have histories entangled in Australia’s high emission sectors that supported the nation’s economic growth, can be curated to support climate change mitigation. Drawing together the disciplines of biogeochemistry, museology, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledge and education, the Project anticipates enhancing the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences' capacity for climate action through innovative programs. Its benefits include developing new collections-based climate research which incorporate the perspectives of multi-stakeholders, including Indigenous Australians, and builds museums' capacity to grow public climate literacy.Read moreRead less
The Collaborative Museum: Embedding Cultural Infrastructure in the City. In partnership with the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences, this project analyses the developing, complex processes of collaboration needed to embed the new Powerhouse Museum within the key Western Sydney city of Parramatta. The project’s significance lies in exploring the concept of the ‘collaborative museum’ as a synergising agent, proposing an invaluable, ground-breaking framework for establishing community-embedded cul ....The Collaborative Museum: Embedding Cultural Infrastructure in the City. In partnership with the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences, this project analyses the developing, complex processes of collaboration needed to embed the new Powerhouse Museum within the key Western Sydney city of Parramatta. The project’s significance lies in exploring the concept of the ‘collaborative museum’ as a synergising agent, proposing an invaluable, ground-breaking framework for establishing community-embedded cultural infrastructure. Its outcomes will be beneficial across the entire cultural sector in shaping dynamic programs and encounters that resonate both locally and globally in underpinning an exciting model for conducting innovative, engaged research in large, diverse and culturally under-resourced metropolitan regions. Read moreRead less
Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Th ....Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Theory (RUT)-based modelling approach allowing managers of cultural attractions to understand and predict the likely visitation consequences of potential initiatives. We wish to model visitor choices of museums versus other competing attractions to allow museums to identify specific strategic actions (or combinations) to achieve organisational goals.Read moreRead less
Migration memories: an analysis of representations of Australian migration histories. This project is an innovative analysis of the representation of Australian migration heritage through community and archival research and imaginative forms of representation. The research focuses on underexplored regional locations and involves developing a pilot museum exhibition. The research for the exhibition will use the material of personal memory to create a dynamic connection between individual stories ....Migration memories: an analysis of representations of Australian migration histories. This project is an innovative analysis of the representation of Australian migration heritage through community and archival research and imaginative forms of representation. The research focuses on underexplored regional locations and involves developing a pilot museum exhibition. The research for the exhibition will use the material of personal memory to create a dynamic connection between individual stories, historical narratives and places. Community engagement with the exhibition will be investigated as part of the research process. This research will bridge the gap that exists in Australia between theoretical work on history and memory, migration and diaspora, and interpretive and museological practice.Read moreRead less
Australian Indigenous Collectors and Collections. 'Indigenous Collectors and Collections' considers Indigenous people's contemporary roles in shaping private and public collections, and the influence of historical circumstances and ideas of communal ownership and responsibility. It therefore subverts the dominant emphasis upon Europeans as collectors and appropriators of indigenous objects. By considering Indigenous people as collectors, curators and presenters of beloved objects, this project w ....Australian Indigenous Collectors and Collections. 'Indigenous Collectors and Collections' considers Indigenous people's contemporary roles in shaping private and public collections, and the influence of historical circumstances and ideas of communal ownership and responsibility. It therefore subverts the dominant emphasis upon Europeans as collectors and appropriators of indigenous objects. By considering Indigenous people as collectors, curators and presenters of beloved objects, this project will offer major new perspectives on Australian Indigenous history and museology. By exploring the power of material objects in cultural identity and historical consciousness, this project disrupts the stereotype of Indigenous people as purely 'museum victims'.Read moreRead less
Reconceptualising Heritage Collections: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Museum Collections and Documentation. Museums worldwide are responding to technical advances in digital media. Collection databases and their availability on the World Wide Web are part of this initiative. The potential scope for collections documentation has been transformed by digital technologies, but in reality this has not been matched by the quality of information held in databases - its relationship to current knowled ....Reconceptualising Heritage Collections: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Museum Collections and Documentation. Museums worldwide are responding to technical advances in digital media. Collection databases and their availability on the World Wide Web are part of this initiative. The potential scope for collections documentation has been transformed by digital technologies, but in reality this has not been matched by the quality of information held in databases - its relationship to current knowledge, the needs of online users and new interdisciplinary approaches to material culture research. This project will reconceptualise museum collections acquisition, documentation practices, create a new multidisciplinary multimedia knowledge structure and reform museum practice to address these issues to greatly enhance the value of collections.Read moreRead less
Studies of the degradation of dyes and pigments in inks on paper, in photographic media, and on painted surfaces. The National collecting institutions (the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of Australia,Screen Sound Australia, the National Library of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial) have collections important to our national heritage on paper, photographic film and other media which they are required by law to preserve for future generations of Australians. Surveys ....Studies of the degradation of dyes and pigments in inks on paper, in photographic media, and on painted surfaces. The National collecting institutions (the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of Australia,Screen Sound Australia, the National Library of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial) have collections important to our national heritage on paper, photographic film and other media which they are required by law to preserve for future generations of Australians. Surveys of their collections have shown that a significant proportion of their most important collections is in need of conservation. This project aims at determining ways of conserving these valuable artefacts, and developing strategies for their display and storage.Read moreRead less
Global Citizenship and the Agency of the Museum Sector in Climate Change Interventions. Australia plays an important role in the global response to climate change. This project will benefit Australian communities by building capacity to more effectively respond to and make informed decisions about climate change by looking to the museum sector as change-agents, well-equipped to operate as a global network. It will develop institutional capacity to communicate high-level state of the art knowledg ....Global Citizenship and the Agency of the Museum Sector in Climate Change Interventions. Australia plays an important role in the global response to climate change. This project will benefit Australian communities by building capacity to more effectively respond to and make informed decisions about climate change by looking to the museum sector as change-agents, well-equipped to operate as a global network. It will develop institutional capacity to communicate high-level state of the art knowledge about climate change to produce better informed citizens; provide forums where diverse interests can meet; and produce new avenues for Australian communities to interact and contribute to local and global debates and decision-making on climate change.Read moreRead less
The Other Within: Visual Culture through Indigenous, tribal, minority,"subaltern" and multicultural displays in Asia-Pacific museums today. The reseach project will analyse and assess current practice and developing modes of museum representation and inclusion in the changing societies of the Asia-Pacific. Comparative research will be undertaken into Indigenous, tribal, minority, 'subaltern' and multicultural displays in eight museums and four cultural festivals. The research will focus on the ....The Other Within: Visual Culture through Indigenous, tribal, minority,"subaltern" and multicultural displays in Asia-Pacific museums today. The reseach project will analyse and assess current practice and developing modes of museum representation and inclusion in the changing societies of the Asia-Pacific. Comparative research will be undertaken into Indigenous, tribal, minority, 'subaltern' and multicultural displays in eight museums and four cultural festivals. The research will focus on the Industry Partner, the National Museum of Australia. It will develop a model for a non-Eurocentric approach. It will have practical outcomes for all the Investigators in consolidating networks, and producing colloquia, exhibitions, publications and a multimedia presentation.Read moreRead less