‘My London’: Exploring Identities Through Audience Participation and Critical Consumption
Mary Lester, Joanna Marchant, Ellie Miles and Kathrin Pieren
Abstract
Recently a growing recognition of partiality in the museological representationof community identity has encouraged museums to strive towards producingmore inclusive narratives with a broad appeal (Sandell, 2002; McLean, 2008). Yet it is an indisputable truth that a narrative always remains the product of aconditioned selection process. Despite the use of multimedia and interactiveelements, material culture displays tend to be static and, therefore, contrastwith peoples’ multiple and transitional identities. Consequently a greaterfocus has been placed on raising awareness of the constructed nature ofmuseum displays. Involving visitors in the production of exhibition contenthas also provided museum professionals with a clearer understanding oftheir contribution to meaning-making (Mason, 2005). This article outlines anapproach to developing these ideas concerning visitor interpretation throughexploring the creation of identity at the Museum of London. Additionally itdocuments the process by which Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) studentsand the Museum of London sought to identify a means of conveying knowledgeresulting from academic research.
Key words: Civic identity; knowledge transfer; social inclusion; sharingauthority; Museum of London.
