Ethnographies of Public Spaces

Harvard Art Museum

I chose to visit the Harvard Art Museums. This museum is visited mainly by Harvard students, tourists, and residents in the surrounding Cambridge area. On my visit, I observed mainly adults (tourists) viewing the galleries. Of the 5 floors that had a gallery or exhibit of some sort, only 3 of the floors had a gallery that was accompanied with a tech component. The first technology I observed was immediate upon entry into the museum. To my right was a wall that displayed about 20 small television screens with artwork being shown on them. As I toured the rest of the museum, I found myself getting bored due to the lack of interaction occurring. Most of the exhibits were created to manifest an independent and siloed experience for museum-goers. It wasn’t until I reached the final exhibit on the 5th floor that I experienced interaction through the exhibit in a technical way. The 5th floor of the museum contains the Lightbox Gallery which is stated to be a “collaborative space for digital projects.” Inside of the exhibit was a piece of work known as the “Great Salt”. This gives portrays a sonic interpretation of the story of the Great Salt and allows viewers to interact with the display via the thumb pianos connected to the 40 electronic synthesizers that make up this display. I observed users become increasingly fascinated with the perceived complexities of such a rare depiction of historical narrative. Yet, very few visitors who interacted with the display actually read what it was about. And so while the interaction occurred, a knowledge gap still existed because users had no idea what it all meant.