University of Leicester Open Journals
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Museum ExplorAR: Exploring Affect and Electrodermal Activity in a Museum Augmented Reality Application
No full textAugmented Reality (AR) applications for cultural heritage environments are rapidly reaching a new stage of maturity in their development and design. This study demonstrates the affective potential of AR visitor experiences. Furthermore, it considers methods for understanding forms of embodied affective response these applications create. The study investigated visitors’ experiences during an AR tour developed at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museums Wales, UK. Through an interdisciplinary approach to affective computing, affect in heritage studies, and psychology, it problematizes the use of wearable technology in the field of affective computing when working in an open, ambulatory cultural environment. Across an interdisciplinary body of literature, a tension between the claims of affective computing, the seductive nature of neat metrics, and the physiological, psychological evidence becomes apparent. The paper concludes with a discussion and reflections on the affective potential of AR, its impact on visitor experience, and the validity of physiological data in this context
The Challenge of Measuring Performance in Museums: an exploratory study in creating a holistic set of key performance indicators
No full textThis paper examines the nature of performance measurement in museums and reports on an exploratory study to create a holistic set of key performance indicators. It approaches the issue from a management perspective. It introduces the KBAC Matrix based on the core activities of museums, i.e., knowledge, business, audiences, and collections and reports on an exploratory study with six museums in England. It reflects on the nature of the challenge facing those attempting to measure the performance of museums and the benefits of a holistic set of meaningful indicators
Book Review: Heritage at War
No full textBook review of Mark Dunkley, Lisa Mol, and Anna Tulliach (eds), Heritage at War: Plan andPrepare, Winwick, Cambridgeshire: The White Horse Press, 2024, hardback£65.00, pp. xx+21
Why Don't We Have Iridium Tools?
No full textStardew Valley offers players the opportunity to grow crops, rear livestock, and mine, using tools often present in video games such as the pickaxe, axe, and hoe. Unlike other video games, one of the most precious materials within Stardew Valley is iridium, with players being able to upgrade tools to iridium quality during late stages of the game. This begs the question, why are iridium tools not used in the real-world? This paper will consider the properties of iridium, and cost of materials to answer this question, suggesting instead that platinum-iridium alloys would create more suitable tools
Is Virgil Van Dijk a Defensive Black Hole?
No full textVirgil van Dijk is widely known as the best Premier League defender of his generation and is argued to be one of the greatest football defenders of all time. His unique defensive prowess often makes it seem like nothing can get past him, anticipating where he needs to position himself like no other with the ball often seeming like it is drawn to his feet. This journal explores if his defensive dominance is down to his presence or as fans describe it, "defending with aura", analysing this through the lens of physics, in particular black holes and the gravitational fields they generate. Although the concept of Van Dijk being a literal black hole is physically impossible, his ability to pull attackers and the ball into his control is very real
The Promised Neverland - Is Diet Linked to Degeneration?
No full textIn the manga, anime, and film The Promised Neverland, human children are raised on small, high-quality farms, only to be slaughtered by age 12 and consumed by demons. The demons require human flesh to maintain their humanoid form and intelligence; without it, they degenerate into primitive, less intelligent forms. This paper examines how dietary deficiencies contribute to biological degeneration in living organisms, particularly humans, drawing parallels to the demons’ dependence on human consumption
Can you wake up by True Love’s Kiss?
No full textFairy tales have been around for many years and the Disney version of fairy tales often portray “true love’s kiss” as a magical force that can overcome any spell. While this is fiction, there are biological and neurobiological responses to kissing and romantic love, which have real scientific implications. This paper explores the neurobiological basis of romantic attraction, particularly focusing on the neurotransmitters, hormonal responses, and brain activity associated with kissing. This paper further examines the physiological responses that can theoretically contribute to the reawakening of a person in a coma, offering a different perspective on the interaction between external stimuli and brain function
Beyond Borders: Navigating Cultural Sensitivities In Presenting Tulu Ritual Objects In Western Museums
No full textThe Tulu region of Karnataka has evolved various forms of performance-based rituals invoking the native guardian spirits, heroes, animals, etc. One such major seasonal festival of this region, Bhutakola, celebrates the several guardian spirits and tutelary deities (calleddaivas and bhutas) who protect the villages of Tulunadu. These deities are manifest during the festivals through ritual objects–in particular, masks, breastplates, and anklets–that are worn by a human performers. However, these objects have been displaced and displayed at American Art Museums through art collectors, enthusiasts, and the art market. I study the material dimensions of the Bhutakola ritual and its ritual efficacy, and its subsequent of these objects and their subsequent display in museums. I then ask: how might the identities of these objects change once they are displaced and displayed? To borrow from Richard Davis, what are the “disruptions and transformations” of these objects from their previous lives?
Keywords: Bhutakola, Tulunadu, Museum Objects, Masks, South Asi
In Search Of Our Roots. On The History Of Senegalese Paintings
No full textKen Aicha Sy is a Senegalese French curator based in Dakar, Senegal. Her curatorial research project Survival Kit aims to create a tool, Magalogue (1), for understanding the history of contemporary Senegalese art, particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s.Hundreds of paintings, graphics, films, and archival documents from the École de Dakarare housed in European museums. At the same time, communities in Senegal have no access to their cultural heritage. Survival Kit takes up the urgency that people need to know their cultural roots, allowing collective remembrance of history to envision the future. Her four-year research into Senegal's artistic heritage took her to Germany and England, where she collaborated with the Weltkulturen Museum, Iwalewa House, and SOAS University of London. While conducting her research, she sifted through museum depots and interviewed several key figures from the cultural art scenes of Europe and Africa. She gained significant insights and perspectives on European and African museum institutions and the artistic activities and networks of that time in Senegal. Notably, the artistic and museum practices of collectives Huit Facettes and Laboratoire Agit’Art have significantly impacted Ken Aicha Sy's view of museums as a venue that responds to the community and cultural rootedness. Consequently, returning cultural heritage from Europe to Africa is closely linked to the need for museums and archives to transform themselves to adapt not only to the absent objects but also to the cultural and societal environment of the place of origin
The Feral Garden Of The More-Than-Panorama Museum
No full textThis essay relates the story of a panorama museum’s care and response to Los Angeles’ multi-layered urban development and surplus materials from its most understudied space :the back garden. Connected to the rear of LA’s Union Theatre, which houses the nineteenth-century Euro-American style Velaslavasay Panorama (VP), is a garden of thick, entangled plants, with stone paths snaking beneath string lights. As the visitor traverses the ‘jungle’, she glimpses architecture like the Pavilion of the Verdant Dream with a wooden door and ornamental lattices, and the green hexagonal Arulent Gazebo with a copper-tiled roof. The garden instantiates the ‘feral’ DIY LA art that the VP curators practice, transporting thevisitor from a site of virtual travel to a site of ‘rootedness’ in the moment. Centering on the concept of ‘feral’, this essay presents the Velaslavasay garden as an organic experimental part of the more-than-panorama museum.
Keywords: Feral art, painted panorama, heterotopia, neighbourhood, Los Angele