The Sound of Folk - Participatory Design of a Sound-Driven Museum Installation

This thesis is an exploratory study based on a participatory design project that unfolded at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology during 2017 and early 2018. In this project, four museum researchers engaged with a group of high school students affiliated with a youth council from the multi-ethnic eastern part of Oslo. Together they discussed issues of identity, ethnicity and belonging related to the exhibition FOLK – From racial types to DNA sequences (FOLK), which explored historical and contemporary research on human biological diversity and its interactions with society and culture. The participatory process ended with the design of an interactive sound-installation to accompany the exhibition. Drawing on the insights from the co-design process and the artefact that was designed, the thesis examines questions of interpretations of participatory museum installations. It describes how multiple interpretations arise against the backdrop of different contexts of museum visits. Visitors relate the museum encounter to their previous experiences and knowledge, which affect motivation and meaning-making. The visitors also interpret the installations considering the possibilities for social interactions they enable. Lastly, the physical context can afford or constrain interpretational openness. The thesis discusses the role sound plays in visitor interpretations of the installation. It suggests that sounds further open the interpretational space by providing a creative and playful activity, and supporting a form of meaning-making that happens in the interaction between the creator of a soundscape and the listener. Furthermore, sounds stimulate sensual and pre-reflective aspects of experiences and might thus contribute to more comprehensive museum experiences, connecting action, emotion, rational thought and reflection with the senses. On the other hand, the thesis suggests that sound might be a problematic medium concerning usability in a museum installation. The temporal aspect of the medium makes it difficult and time-consuming for users to browse through collections of digital sound files. The thesis further discusses underlying tensions and dilemmas concerning interpretations. While linking the visitors’ everyday lives with the museum experience presupposes openness to interpretation, good usability is vital in museum installations as well, and usability suggests only one single, correct interpretation. The thesis suggests several measures to achieve balance between openness and usability. Another tension arises in the attempt to align the visitors’ interpretations with the knowledge that the museum wants to get across in open-ended interactive installations. The thesis points to several reasons for a possible lack of alignment between the exhibition topic and the visitors’ interpretations of the installation