Online session of the MULTIMODALITY TALKS series: ‘ Conversations with multimodality’

Friday 14th June 2024

Time: 12:00-13:30 BST

Presenter: Professor Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert

Discussants: Dr Eva Insulander and Dr Jennifer Blunden

Recording can be access here.

This presentation explores the use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, holograms, deep fakes, and interactive multisensory installations in museum spaces. While a lot have been written about the advantages and limitations of new technologies in museums, the presentation focuses on the potential of technology to create a sense of presence, immersion, and embodiment. More specifically, the presentation unpacks the concept of “presence” and provides examples of case studies in which new technologies in museum spaces were instrumental in making visible what cannot be seen, revealing missing or underrepresented voices, engaging multiple senses, eliciting empathetic and affective responses, and aiding immersion and embodied experiences. The case study examples come mainly from two recent volumes edited by the speaker: “Museums and Technologies of Presence” (Routledge, 2024) and “Emerging Technologies and Museums: Mediating Difficult Heritage” (Berghahn Books, 2022) as well as the work of the Museum Lab at the CYENS centre of Excellence, Cyprus.

Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert is Professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and the leader of the Museum Lab at CYENS Centre of Excellence/ CUT. Her research and artistic interests include museum studies and visual sociology with an emphasis on photography and new technologies.

More on the work of the Museum Lab: https://museumlab.cyens.org.cy/

More on Theopisti and her artistic practice: www.theopististylianoulambert.com.

Eva Insulander, PhD, is an Associate professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Education at Stockholm University. Her research focuses on designs for learning, primarily in the contexts of museums and the history of education. She is associate editor of the peer-reviewed open-access journal Designs for Learning. Presently, Eva is leading a project funded by the Swedish Research Council: “Collections and education: A historical study of the relation between schools and museums 1880-1980”. It is a four-year program 2022-2025 together with David Thorsén. Eva is also leading a project funded by the Swedish National Heritage Board: “Exhibition materialities: Effects of digitization for meaning-making”. It is a three-year grant 2023-2025 together with Fredrik Lindstrand. Her latest publication, together with David Thorsén, includes “Teaching Through Objects and Collections: The Case of Strängnäs Secondary Grammar School and School Museum 1830-1960”, in Multimodality & Society 2023.

Jennifer Blunden works and researches in the museum and gallery sector. Her research interests include the intersection of institutional, disciplinary and visitor meaning-making and knowledge practices – how can we understand them better to support more effective and inclusive visitor access and experience – with a particular focus on the relationship between the embodied physical, on-site experience of exhibitions, collections and historic sites and the digital. Jennifer is a visiting research fellow at University College London’s Institute of Education, an industry fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, and digital projects lead at the newly formed Museums of History NSW, also in Sydney.