Affect and Relational Experiences in the Museum

Omar J. Camarero Montesinos

Master Dissertation

MA Art Museum and Gallery Studies University of Leicester 2011

Affect and Relational Experiences in the Museum

Omar J. Camarero Montesinos

Word count: 14,452 Abstract:

This dissertation addresses the topic of affect in museums in an attempt to shape a valid theoretical framework to approach the spectrum of these affective responses within the exhibitions. The work is extensively dedicated to outline a definition of affect and a description of the circumstances, effects and contexts that may condition its emergence within museums and galleries. Additionally, focusing on the result of those affective reactions, this paper analyses the production of transformative experiences and the different agents involved in these processes. The research on affect is culminated with the design of a brief taxonomy of affect in museums. The second part of this research is focused on one of the types of affect previously defined, the relational affect. This affect has been extracted from a series of artistic practices that Nicolas Bourriaud explored in his Relational Aesthetics (2002). Consequently, in order to focus on what seems to be the state-of-the-art of affective responses in museums, this dissertation discusses and describes relational affect and relational transformative experiences. A profound discussion of the circumstances of relational aesthetics is supported by a few examples. Apparently, the relational transformative experiences are generated by the inter-connexion of two events, on the one hand, the momentary formation of micro-communities, which leads to a process of collective generation of knowledge and affect. On the other hand, there is a continuous connexion between this cloud of collective affect and the quotidian reality of peoples everyday life. These phenomena are explored independently in order to elucidate their details and precise causes. The conclusion of the research points at the concept of the relational museum, an institution that includes within its practices the implications and contexts of the relational affect in order to enhance the experience of its visitors and the impact of the museum in their lives.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2. Affect .......................................................................................................... 9 Experiencing transformation.............................................................................. 15 Managing affect in museums: a taxonomy of affect. ......................................... 22
Absolute-Objective Affect .................................................................................. 24 Relative-Objective Affect. .................................................................................. 24 Absolute-Subjective Affect................................................................................. 25 Relative-Subjective Affect.................................................................................. 26 Absolute-Relational Affect. ................................................................................ 27 Relative-Relational Affect. ................................................................................. 28

Managing visitors attention ............................................................................... 28 Chapter 3. RELATIONAL aesthetics, affect, and transformative experiences .. 31 'learning to inhabit the world in a better way .................................................... 31 Folksonomy, the power of community producing meanings. ............................ 37 The continuum of connections with the everyday life. ....................................... 41 Chapter 4. The Relational Museum ...................................................................... 48 Learning to Love You More ............................................................................... 48 Personal Change for Social Change ................................................................. 52 Learning to Love You More in the Museum: The Relational Museum ............... 54 Chapter 5. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 58 Appendix 1. Triggers for Transformational Experiences ....................................... 62 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 64

List of Illustrations

Figure 1

Set of equations for generating affect, emotions, feelings and transformative experiences. Agents involved in transformative experiences in museums. Formula of Transformative Experiences. Formula for Appendix I). Authentic transformative experience (see

p. 14

Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

p. 18 p. 19 p. 20

Figure 5

Formula for Motivational transformative experience (see Appendix I). Table of Taxonomy of Affect in Museums. The First Emperor: Chinas Terracotta Army. The British Museum, London. Eleven Heavy Things by Miranda July. Felix Gonzalez-Torrex. Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A), 1991 (left) and Untitled (Blue Mirror), 1990 (right). Caravaggio. St Matthew and The Angel (left - 1st version rejected for being undecorous) and St Mathew and The Angel (right - 2nd version more traditional). Repetitive cycle of relational transformative experiences (based on relational affect). Taxonomy and Social Steve.Museum project Tagging for Museums.

p. 21

Figure 6 Figure 7

p. 23 p. 26

Figure 8 Figure 9

p. 32 p. 34

Figure 10

p. 35

Figure 11

p. 36

Figure 12

p. 39

Figure 13

Learning to Love You More. By Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. LTLYM. A selection of assignments and reports by diverse authors.

p. 49

Figure 14

p. 51

1. Introduction

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In a sense, these are assignments in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking. (Learning to Love You More, Fletcher and July, 2002)

Breathing deeply in front of the ocean and stop thinking when kissing are examples of intimate affective states. No rational interferences. No cognitive aspects. It is just that groundless sensation so difficult to fit. Thinking about affect brings up a lovely mood, a sense of beauty, deepness and transcendence that, although very far for being unfamiliar, seems impossible to find a gap for it in the scope of human mind, a proper definition to determinate its boundaries and possibilities. It is probable for someone to remind easily that so dramatic exhibition that s/he went to and transmitted an indescribable sense of fear at the beginning and compassion when leaving. Everyone has had the feeling of being immersed in a place where before being able to consciously realise of and perceive any rational meaning s/he feels a shiver down the spine, an involuntary and unconscious response. After that, one analyses the context and approaches things consciously, but, to some extent, everything will be already

conditioned to that primary response. This affective world, which appears wonderful and incontrollable at the same time, is the heart of this dissertation, a magnificent door to explore the human experience. The field of human experience has been in the spotlight of museums since the last decade. A lot of research has been dedicated to improve the ways to engage people and enhance their encounters within exhibitions. Exhibition designers, curators, and sometimes artists have been combining efforts and bringing their skills together in order to place the museum in a competent position considering the blast of new media, captivating theme parks and the spectacular industry of entertainment today. Among this existent scholarship focused on what people experience within the museum, little research has been undertaken regarding the affective responses that occur at the very beginning of such experiences. This dissertation has mainly two purposes. Initially it is outlined a theoretical ground for starting to consider the role of affect in museums. With this purpose the second chapter is entirely dedicated to develop in detail the concepts to be used in the next sections, such as affect, experience and transformative experiences. It will be followed a deductive reasoning approach along the chapter, starting with some metaphysical and general conceptions by Henri Bergson (1912) to later deepening more into the Theory of Affect by Silvan Tomkins (2008) and the interesting notes of Parables for the Virtual by Brian Massumi (2002) to differentiate between emotions, feelings and affect. Coming closer to the particular purpose of this chapter, Andrea Witcomb (2010) will give the necessary theoretical support to complement the aimed definition of affect. Subsequently, John Dewey, in Art as Experience, (1980) and Barbara Soren (2009) will help to outline the basis of transformative experiences based on affect. As a result, the second chapter encloses a series of definitions, applicable to museums, from affective responses to their resultant 6

transformative experiences. It must be noticed that a number of concepts and neologisms will be mentioned related with each other and appearing gradually arranged from the more general to the more specific regarding the purpose of this work. The chapter will conclude with two main contributions. Firstly, it will be suggested a formula to consider those transformative experiences and the agents that may be involved during the process. Finally, a taxonomy of affect in museums will be outlined in order to foresee, to some extent, the potential affective phenomena which might happen in an exhibition. Once the different types of affect have been defined, as there is not room in this research to explore the whole spectrum of affective experiences, it seems appropriate to focus on the kind of affect that will probably condition more the direction of museum practices in the future. This is the second main purpose of this work and the core of the third chapter, dedicated to develop the term of relational affect, pointed out in the previous chapter, and to mention the artistic practices, from which it has been deduced, discussed by Nicolas Bourriaud in his Relational Aesthetics (2002). The terms relational affect, as an affect based on peoples interactions connected with their everyday lives, and relational transformative experiences will be explored along their circumstances, causes and results. Consequently, the third chapter undertakes a deep exploration along the two determining axes of relational transformative experiences: the idea of collective intelligence and collaborative creation of affect, supported by the example of the application of folksonomy in museums (Trant, 2006); and, on the other hand, the conception of the everyday life and its impact on the individuals experiences, guided mainly by philosophers David Novitz (2001) and Leddy (2005). Interestingly, this link with the everyday life is what will empower the relational affective response and, at the same time, will provoke certain changes in peoples sense of their daily life. With this fundamental idea, this dissertation closes its theoretical framework.

The fourth chapter, in an attempt to materialise what has theoretically been discussed in previous chapters, will provide some examples of relational affective experiences, such as the project Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher (2002). To complement the academic support of this chapter the critiques to Bourriauds work by Claire Bishop (2004) and Svetlichnaja (2005) will be very valuable. For the very last purpose of this dissertation, the theory on relational affect will be applied to museums by embodying it in the concept of the relational museum. At this point, they will be brought the theories of new institutionalism and performative curating by Claire Doherty (2004). This work is eminently based on concepts. Although some examples are provided to illustrate and support the theory, most of the paper attempts to analyse thoroughly those concepts. Different studies of humanities, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and museum studies have been combined in order to shape the most accurate ground for a further work on the topic of affect in museums. However, it must be noticed that this work is far away from any scientific intention and accurateness, and, as it stays in the realm of humanities, every definition, formula, and statement must be considered as flexible and lexically expandable. As the scope of this dissertation is limited, among the three pairs of types of affect suggested in the second chapter, it has been decided to focus, for further analysis, on the relational, as they might be considered those that enclose the most complex circumstances and reactions. Nonetheless, much more research might be undertaken from the basis outlined in the second chapter, indeed, this is the reason because half of the entire work is dedicated to this part. On the other hand, relational affect has been chosen because it is eventually what better defines the trend toward which museums strategies and practices are evolving today.

2. Affect

the spark that makes your hair stand on end

To address the challenge of finding a definition for affect, it is necessary to previously come down to the basis of metaphysics guided by Henri Bergson and his exploration of the different ways of knowing a thing. According to Bergson (1912), an object can be accessed by analysis or by intuition. The former involves the process of moving round the object, the latter that the beholder enters into it. Analysis consists in obtaining different images depending on the point of view at which the subject is situated and on the symbols by which we express ourselves (Bergson, 1912: 1), reducing the object to other elements already known, other than the object itself. Intuition, by contrast, neither depends on a point of view nor rely on any symbol (Bergson, 1912:1). Therefore, analysis multiplies without end the number of its points of view in order to complete its always incomplete representation (Bergson, 1912:8). Thus, accessing an object through analysis supposes to stop at the relative, whereas intuition involves an approach to the absolute. For example, 9

positive sciences use analysis when accessing an object by comparing it with others. On the other hand, by using intuition, Bergson meant that beholders must place themselves within the object applying a sort of intellectual sympathy and through this coincide with what is unique in it and consequently inexpressible (Bergson, 1912:7). For Bergson, it is through intuition that the individual accesses entirely the object and the absolute. In order to illustrate this, the author mentions how readers might identify themselves with some characters in a novel, empathising with them and recognising features of their own personality (Bergson, 1912). The connexion produced by Bergsons intuition will be the starting point for defining affect. Beyond this metaphysical explanation, it must be remarked, so far, that the fact of bonding with the absolute essence of an object would imply to bring into play this sympathetic intuition in contrast with a scientific or positive analysis, which would require external observation and an infinite number of references to other objects. Thus, it is clearly differentiated that retrieving the pure and absolute essence of an object will require a process based on concepts such as empathy, sympathy, and intuition, in opposition to the external and relative observation on which is based the scientific approach, completely dependent on an infinite number of references. Moving one step forward, it must be considered the first psychologist that dedicated extensively to theorise on affect, Silvan Tomkins, and how he criticised the underestimation of its role given by Psychoanalysis, where supposedly affect was subordinated to drive systems, the Freudian

physiological needs (see drive reduction theory in Freud, 1961). However, Tomkins postulates that the case is exactly the opposite and, indeed, affect works as an amplifier or attenuator of such drive systems conditioning their motivational impact (Tomkins, 2008). An example is given in his text about the need of eating: one does not need to feel and then learn the pain of hunger 10

(drive system) in order to get used to eat, [t]he organism is so constructed that the pleasure of eating [affective system] is more acceptable that the pain of hunger (Tomkins, 2008: 12), and consequently the motivation comes primarily from the affective system. Additionally, he remarkably links the issues of attention and consciousness of peoples everyday life with the affective systems. This dissertation will come back to these concepts later as they are very relevant to the aim of this research. Nevertheless, Tomkins theory of affect resulted finally in a very reductionist position when structuring affect in nine and only nine groups of pairs of concepts. On the contrary, this dissertation will support that affect involves an infinite spectrum that could be merged and combined producing unlimited manifestations. The mentioned purely metaphysical and purely scientific approaches stay round the definition aimed by this work and thus, in order to move closer to the peculiarities of affect, it must be brought up Massumis work (Massumi, 2002). Brian Massumi explored, in Parables for the Virtual (2002), the variety of registers of sensations appearing in different media. His approach results very appropriate for the purpose of this work as he combines a psychological theory with a more humanistic method. He discovered that in the process of watching an image or sequence there was a gap between the content and the effect produced. Similarly to what was stated by Tomkins, Massumi advocated the primacy of the affective in image reception. Affect, therefore, would fill the gap between the content and the consequent effect. In order to examine this gap and Massumis work this dissertation outlines the equation Qualifications + Intensity = Emotion.

11

Intensity, later equated with affect, according to Massumi (2002), is an unconscious reaction, unexpected and outside adaptation, delocalised from vital function and any meaningful narration. Therefore, intensity is
a state of suspense, potentially of disruption. It is like a temporal sink, a hole in time, as we conceive of it and narrativize it. It is not exactly passivity, because it is filled with motion, vibratory motion, resonation. And it is not yet activity, because the motion is not of the kind that can be directed toward practical ends in a world of constituted objects and aims (Massumi, 2002:26).

On the other hand, qualities are depth reactions, belonging exclusively to the form/content level and they are a mix of consciousness and autonomy, narrative elements that move the action ahead, taking its place in socially recognized lines of action and reaction (Massumi, 2002: 26). While qualities establish a loop of consciousness, affect signifies a never-to-be-conscious autonomic remainder (Massumi, 2002: 25). Interestingly, Massumi remarks the manifestations of affect and qualities in the body and the relationship of them with their implicit meanings. Whereas qualification is manifested in more autonomic functions such as heartbeat and breathing, affect is revealed spontaneously in the skin, bristling it, as it is the surface of the body and the first interface with things. Hence, affect is the first stage appearing in the experience, even before reaching the consciousness and it is spread over the generalized body surface like a lateral backwash from the function-meaning interloops that travel the vertical path between head and heart (Massumi, 2002: 25). With all the above it is clear that the human experience is based on a first spontaneous unexpected reaction which interrupts the loop of automatic consciousness generating eventually a processed response, which it will be called emotion, to complete the previous equation.

12

Although affect and emotion have frequently been confounded, the latter is a personal experience defined by Massumi as qualified intensity, the point of insertion of intensity into semantically and semiotically formed progressions, into function and meaning (2002: 28). Emotion is the result of both, unconscious affective reaction plus its qualification through the rational autonomous loop. Surprisingly, the equation is not just an addition. The relationship between affect and qualification is one of resonation or interference, amplification or dampening (Massumi, 2002: 25). This interaction is what makes affect to be owned and recognized and, consequently, very useful and significant for the aim of this work. After understanding the emotional stage, it is necessary to complement the definition of affect with some of the points stressed by Andrea Witcomb (2010). She retrieved the work of Susan Best (2001 quoted on Witcomb, 2010) and Silvan Tomkins again to complete the previously stated equation adding that affect, though being involuntary, might mean at the same time to be productive and generate feelings which, when processed, can turn into emotional and eventually cognitive insights (2010: 41). Processing feelings might be understood as a combination of those with either already existent feelings and/or rational and intellectual materials. For the first time and very importantly, the cognitive aspect, as a resulting process, is brought up. To recapitulate what have been mentioned so far, the following equations (Figure 1), far from scientific accurateness, pretend to summarize the processes of human experience, which may make affect becomes eventually

transformative experiences.

13

Figure 1. Set of equations for generating affect, emotions, feelings and transformative experiences. 1. Stimuli = Intuition + Sensorial Experience 2. Affect = Spontaneous and unconscious irruption of Stimuli 3. Emotion = (Qualified Affect) or (Affect + process of consciousness) 4. Feelings = Emotions + Emotions/Intellectual materials 5. Transformative Experiences = Feelings + Feelings/Thoughts

However, as this paper will support below, it is necessary to modify the first point in these equations (Figure 1) of affect by adding something that makes it going beyond the sensorial experiences as potential initiators. So far, it has been implicitly argued that affect is produced as a result of a passive expectancy to external stimuli. But this dissertation will complement this first generative stimulus with two new factors: social relationships and intellectual material, which did not appear until a further stage in the experience (point 4 in the equations). It is understood here that, even though the subject stays still in the realm of the unconscious, potentially, social relationships occurring at a given moment might interact with existent intellectual material and complement the set of equations above. Thus, during an experience based on a social interaction is likely to happen that this contributes to the generation of affect by supplementing it with unconscious material coming from this interaction. Additionally, this material could have been merged, still unconsciously, with other intellectual material previously shared in the memory. Consequently, without abandoning the realm of the unconsciousness, it is worth remarking how social interactions might especially contribute to the generation of affect,

14

producing what it will be coined later as relational affect. Hence, the first point in the equation would be modified as following:
1. Stimuli = Intuition + Sensorial Experience + Social Interactions + Existent Intellectual Material

Moving forward, discussing about affect would make no sense if the transformative consequences that it involves, represented in the last equation above (Figure 1), are not argued.

Experiencing transformation Before thinking about transformative experiences, they should be briefly pointed out some qualities of the human experience itself. With this aim, it seems essential to bring John Deweys work (1980) to the discussion. He profoundly explored the concept of experience applied to art from the basis of its original link with life-experiences. Although, primarily focused on art, Deweys approach is a very wide one, including artefacts and every manifestation of human daily life. The essential point to remark in Deweys work is the critique he develops about the isolation of art products from the human conditions under which [they were] brought into being and from the human consequences [they engender] (1980:1). This return to peoples daily life is indispensable to understand what mostly determines human experiences and will be crucial for the argument in subsequent sections. On the other hand, it is worth stressing the difference between to experience things and to have an experience. According to Dewey, it is the closeness character what makes clear this distinction; we have an experience when the material experienced runs its course to fulfillment [sic.] (1980: 36). When considering transformative experiences, this fulfilment will be identified with the implicit transformation, which will be the consequent result. Thus, the potential 15

outcome derived from this transformation might suppose the reframing of oneself in relation to an object [and/or] leaving with a vivid impression or memory that will last beyond (Soren, 2009). At this point, with a detailed definition of affect and the process that leads to an experience, it seems appropriate to deepening further into the elements that settle the transformational aspect of those experiences and then finally, think about them into the museum. Barbara Soren has gathered together a number of definitions and discussions about the nature of transformative experiences in her article Museum experiences that change visitors (2009). Among them, for instance, Gardner (1991 quoted in Soren, 2009: 234) focuses on the character of inventing knowledge and transforming past experiences as essential aspects of the process; whereas Mezirow addresses the definition to the transformation of peoples taken-for-granted frames of reference by making them more inclusive, open, emotionally capable of change and consequently guiding to action (Mezirow 2000 quoted in Soren, 2009: 234). With these opinions, according to Soren
transformational experiences seem to happen if we discard old ways of thinking and provide new opportunities for individual to invent personal knowledge and explore new ideas and concepts [creating] challenges in which people can discover the interconnectedness of ideas (2009: 234).

Regarding the museum, it must be considered the variety of implications and connotations that it involves as a space separated from daily life, isolated in a range of historical and cultural meanings. It seems so, that such a space might facilitate the reframing of subjects and consequent transformative experiences. Hooper-Greenhill (2007), indeed, remarks the relationship between the transformational aspect of museums and the novelty of the situation, the place.

16

Curiously, in order to achieve these transformations, museums must also reframe themselves and become what Gurian calls the essential museum (2007, quoted in Soren, 2009:235), a museum aimed in transforming how users think of museum visits from an occasional day-out to a drop-in service. However, apart from the unique character of the museum as a place, what spark is really producing those transformative experiences? What factors are involved during the process? In order to answer these questions two approaches will be combined. Firstly, the triggers for transformational museum experiences (see Appendix 1) defined by Barbara Soren (2009) and secondly, the equations from the previous section (Figure 1) will be brought back. Soren describes ten triggers, for generating transformative experiences, based on interviews with her students at the University of Toronto (see Appendix I). However, instead of considering them as triggers, this work will think about them as a few examples of types of transformative experiences. Therefore, unexpected, traumatic, cultural or behavioural will be terms to refer these experiences in museums depending on the factors and actual triggers that originated them. Some of these experiences, for instance, are due to the exhibit content, the combination with personal experiences or the historical context. Thus, in order to develop up to detail each of these experiences, these determining factors must be established. So far, it has been argued that the progression runs from affect to the transformative experience but the elements that condition such progression are still unknown; the framework and the games rules (Figure 1) are clear, but the players must be still defined. These players will be called agents, and they are involved in every stage of transformative experiences. These agents may vary in number, quality, or intensity depending on the museum, the exhibition, the museums staff and visitors personality among other factors. Nevertheless, this work illustrates

17

some of them providing a brief list (Figure 2) with a description and some examples.

Figure 2. Agents involved in transformative experiences in museums.

Name Ambience and Atmosphere Art and Aesthetics

Description Dramatic and theatrical features created through sensorial qualities such as design, lighting, smell, touch, or colour. Related with the range from pleasantness to rejection produced by a sense of beauty Historical, cultural, geographical or any other background implicated in the configuration of meanings Visitor memories. Experiences, related or not with the exhibitions subject, that bring some kind of link to memory. Referring to those connections between two or more people, the result of connections between people and the exhibition itself, or even between people and other peoples interactions. Museological definition. Pieces of the material or intangible world displayed in the exhibition. Arrangement of objects under a relevant meaningful sequence.

Contexts Past Experiences

People Interactions

Objects Stories and Narratives

Consequently, the definitive transformative experience responds to a formula (Figure 3) that combines a permutation of those agents (Figure 2) with the previous equations (Figure 1) generating diverse types of experiences, such as those described by Soren (see Appendix I).

18

Figure 3. Formula of Transformative Experiences.

Therefore, according to the formula in figure 3, transformative experiences are caused by the addition of affect, generated by a permutation of agents, to a new blend of agents, which generates emotions, which are finally added to a new combination of agents producing the resultant thoughts and consequently the transformative experience. Every stage is called, according to the progress from unconscious to cognition: affective, emotional and cognitive stages respectively. Hence, any pre-determined transformative experience, as those seen in Appendix I is likely to be produced with this formula. For instance, the authentic transformative experience is explained through a visit to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
At the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, now a museum, a visitor felt completely immersed in the history because of the reality of the building, and the authenticity of the objects and the mosaics. The experience was a culmination of everything she had learned and seen related to this masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. (Soren 2009, see Appendix I)

This example shows very clearly the agents involved in every stage, and the transformative experience could be developed as following: the atmosphere of the place, merged with the authenticity of the objects and the building, would produce the first affective impression. Then, this affect would be combined with

19

the knowledge than the visitor had learned about the history of the place (past experiences) producing emotions. Finally, thinking about the place and the emotions caused combined with the fact of being in a moment of history (contexts) produce the actual transformative experience. The formula in figure 4 summarizes the entire process.

Figure 4. Formula for Authentic transformative experience (see Appendix I).

Objects (building and mosaics) + Atmosphere Affect + Past Experiences (learned knowledge) Emotions + Contexts (current and past history) Thoughts Authentic Transformative Experience.

Another example might be the motivational transformative experience (see Appendix I), showed through the example of a young visitor going to Colonial Williamsburg.
A 16-year-old who visited Colonial Williamsburg found it a place to literally walk into the middle of history and feel a part of the history. During the visit a costumed interpreter who found him smart-mouthed called him historical names in the context of Colonial America, and invited him to sit on a jury at a trial to see how law breakers were dealt with. The outcome was a realization that through studying history and museum studies

20

it was possible to re-create for teens the experience at Colonial Williamsburg. (Soren 2009, see Appendix I)

Here the agents could be extracted as well. In this case, it is history (contexts) what triggers the affective response. But then, the emotions are generated entirely by merging the play of the costumed interpreters (people interactions) with the narrative of their stories. These emotions and the past and current experiences of the visitor produced at the end a deep reflection about the visitors future and museums function in general. Again the transformative experience could be summarized in a formula (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Formula for Motivational transformative experience (see Appendix I).

Contexts (history) + Objects (the place) Affect + People Interactions (interpreters) + Narratives (their stories) Emotions + Contexts (current and past history) + Past Experiences Thoughts Motivational Transformative Experience.

Once this work has explored deeply the theoretical process of developing transformative experiences in the museums, the focus will be brought back again onto affect, which is considered by this paper as the most important stage in the configuration of these experiences. The main issue when researching on

21

this subject is the subjectivity implied in these processes. The task of defining the exact desired experience for every people is almost impossible, as most of the agents will depend mostly on the visitors perception and their unconscious response. Nevertheless, an exhaustive analysis of the types of affect in the museum might lead to closer interpretation and consideration of affective reactions occurring within the place.

Managing affect in museums: a taxonomy of affect. Although museums can barely decide with accuracy the thoughts and experiences they want to produce, namely those experiential zones, as Fisher describes, of the mysterious, the auratic and the ritualistic (2006:27), it is possible to discuss how they can work toward an effective management of affect within the institution and their exhibitions. This section outlines a potential taxonomy of affect and explores the management of attention in museums, as starting points to reflect on visitors affective response. Following with the systematic approach exposed in previous sections, defining now a taxonomy of affect in museums seems a proper way to start reflecting on how these institutions may consider affect within their exhibits. As mentioned above, affective responses belong not only to the deepest internal subjective part of visitors mind, but also to the spectrum of involuntary reactions of the unconscious. This fact makes particularly challenging the work to foresee and planning affective responses in museums. Nevertheless, the more accurate and sophisticated is the research about classification and understanding of affect and its effects, the more probable is the anticipation of potential affective outcomes, which is one of the purposes of the present work.

22

Considering the results of previous sections, and particularly the agents that produce affect in museums, it is possible to make some assumptions and to outline a certain taxonomy of affect in museums. This taxonomy would be structured in two axes: a) Object-Subject-Relations and b) Absolute - Relative. In the axe a, when mentioning objects, this means the individuals external world, including not only material objects, but also the range of physical and environmental manifestations of the exhibition. By contrast, subject refers to the individuals and their subjective circumstances. Relation is an element, based on interactions, that points at different subjects and their interactions themselves. Absolute and relative, in the axe b, are attributes to indicate the character of the relationship between the elements and the subsequent affective reaction. Understandably, the aim of this paper is clearly far away from discrete and precise scientific descriptions and conversely is more in the realm of social sciences and humanities, so the scope of every type of affect and the range of determinants and consequences must be understood according to this statement. The boundaries between some affect and another are flexible and so the interpretation of their definitions. This work must be considered as a guide to focus on certain peculiarities that are repeatedly more visible in museums when thinking about affect. Therefore, the matrix of taxonomy of affect in museums is illustrated in figure 6 and developed below. Every section, dedicated to each type will follow the same scheme: description, example, and the viability of managing this specific affect in the museum.
Figure 6. Table of Taxonomy of Affect in Museums. Object Absolute Relative
Absolute-Objective Affect Relative-Objective Affect

Subject
Absolute-Subjective Affect Relative-Subjective Affect

Relations
Absolute-Relational Affect Relative-Relational Affect

23

Absolute-Objective Affect This affect is implicitly and evidently generated because of the object/materiality of the exhibition. Its absolute character and main feature is that it is accessible for a general public and understanding. The effect of this affect is derived from a matter of general culture, universal knowledge, etc. Normally, this consideration of universality is relatively flexible and concerns the use of boundaries such as, for example Western culture or any specific country. The essential quality of this affect concerns the cognitive and objective side in opposition with the aural and environmental peculiarity that determinates the group of subjective categories. The reason of this is mainly because it is based on knowledge. As an example of this category, a topic such as the Holocaust in a Western museum would be surrounded by this affect. A large majority of people within this context are supposed to have a general understanding of the theme with all the connotations, meanings, stories, and feelings that involve it. Managing this kind of affect is relatively easy for museums and definitely the easiest in comparison with the others. The museums staff, applying the statistical data of the visitors, will have an idea of the communities visiting the place and what it could be understood as general culture for each of them according to their background. Accordingly, the museum might simply make an approximation of when and how this affect is being generated. Relative-Objective Affect. This affect is just a derivation of the absolute objective affect but, in this case, the affect results objective just for a specific community or group of people, determining thus the relative feature of this category. The concept points to

24

specific minority groups visiting the museum that share a common knowledge relating again to the museums materiality and contents. An example of this type might be the National Gas Museum in Leicester, where the community of engineers, workers and experts in gas industry, when visiting the museum, will share exclusive knowledge about the themes and consequently they will have access to this kind of affect. In the same way that in the previous category, visitors attendance data will show the museum in what cases and proportion this kind of affect is occurring.

Absolute-Subjective Affect. In opposition with the previous group, this affect is generated by factors and agents outside cognitive and material aspects of objects. The causes are especially those referring to the atmosphere, drama and aura of the exhibition. Even though these features are derived eventually from objects and material sources, their essence and significance are purely intangible and they make sense when are perceived by the subject. The absolute attribute of this category indicates that this affect is based on general and universal patterns of emotions, which might be pre-determined to some extent. Thus, for instance, sad music is likely to suggest sadness and a colourful lighting ambience would probably provoke a mood of happiness. Examples of this type are found in all kind of exhibits based on design, lighting, sound, smell and any other sensorial combination. For instance, the Chinas Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum in London was based primarily on dramatic and theatrical qualities.

25

Figure 7. The First Emperor: Chinas Terracotta Army. The British Museum, London.
Photographs taken from the design company website, Metaphor. (www.metaphor.eu) (18/05/11)

Regarding the management of this affect, museums staff can carefully work on these aspects in order to control and determine when and how it is generated. Providing the universal quality of these patterns of emotional reactions and the triggers that produce them, the configuration of a desired mood would be possible. The largest research undertaken so far about affect has addressed so far this specific type; therefore, curators and exhibit designers know today countless techniques to shape it.

Relative-Subjective Affect. It is caused by the affective contents embodied by an exhibition or pieces of the exhibition (objects, aura, narratives) but exclusively for a given individual, depending on the history, experiences, and contexts of this precise individual among other factors. This affect is restricted for every subject and it is triggered depending on the unconscious connections between the particular subject and the surrounding material world within the museum. There are as many examples of this affect as people in the world. It might be an object that reminds someone a toy from his/her childhood or the particular

26

atmosphere of an exhibit that produces a feeling of fear in a subject because of past experiences and remembrances. The prediction and consequent management of this kind of affect is practically unachievable in the museum due to the impossibility of knowing everyones personal and past experiences; albeit certain connections may be expected for particular groups, such as darkness is likely to produce fright in young children. Nevertheless, starting to reflect on such groups would bring us to the realm of the absolute-subjective affect.

Absolute-Relational Affect. This affect is generated by social interactions occurring within the museum or as a result of it, for example, after visiting the museum. In this group are included interactions within the audiences, one person with each other, and between the public and the exhibition or pieces of the exhibition. Nicolas Bourriaud in Relational Aesthetics (2002) explores a number of artistic performances developed upon the idea of generating this affect. The range of affective responses and circumstances surrounding this group are the heart of this work and the following chapter will treat in detail on them. In order to provoke or manage this affect, museums only can provide frameworks for the development of these kinds of interactions, and probably, depending on the framework, some specific interactions and links might be anticipated. Indeed, the absolute of this category denotes this unique umbrella, which embody all the interactions. However, once these interactions are happening the final results will be unexpected due to the character of recurrent and spontaneous self-construction based on people-generated contents.

27

Relative-Relational Affect. In this case, the affect appears when an individual experiments an encounter with other peoples interactions, such as those stated in the previous type. The subject would be outside the framework that determines those relationships, meaning not participating. The existence of both relative and absolute relational affects implies the involvement of two different communities, one the temporal community created by the interaction with the artwork and two, the general audience that watches these interactions. Normally, both groups are intermingled and move from one group to each other, changing their role. A very illustrative instance of this kind of affect is clearly visible in the example given for the emotional type of transformative experiences (see Appendix I) where a person feels certain emotions when reading a comment book by visitors in a museum. A comment book supposes a framework to foster relationships between visitors and the exhibition. Although, this method is unidirectional and there is no interaction and feedback for the visitor, the relationship is established according to the previous type of affect, absoluterelational. Now, the visitor, acting as a reader and not as a writer and thus, from outside the relational framework, might experience a relative-relational affect. As with absolute-relational affect, although museums might foster these reactions, their results are unmanageable.

Managing visitors attention Obviously, these manifestations of affect are related one with each other and many of them can occur at the same time. In fact, in the museum there is a large background of possible agents and stimuli due to the infinite circumstances surrounding the premises, objects, aura and people involved. In spite of the fact that some of them could be measured or expected to some

28

extent, the environment is eventually extensively complex. Obviously, the individual will always be likely to perceive just a tiny selection of this available range. According to Jonathan Crary (2001), this selection is isolated from the other options configuring what has historically been considered as attention. The way in which people have experimented attention, selecting external stimuli and focusing in some of them, has evolved along history influenced by the continuum of causality implied in a number of revolutionary changes, such as, for instance, industrial revolution and capitalism. Crary develops along his work (2001) a historical analysis of changes in peoples attention, especially from the 1800s until today. Since the late nineteenth century, the problem of attention becomes a fundamental issue. [It was] directly relate to the emergence of a social, urban, psychic, and industrial field increasingly saturated with sensory input. (Crary, 2001: 13). In fact, was then when inattention started to be understood as a serious problem and danger. Crary remarks how during the World War II issues of vigilance in radar screens, for example, brought a new trend of research into attention (Crary, 2001: 34). Regarding the museums, Henning explores how visitors attention has evolved in museums along history, largely influenced by rapid changes in social life, communication and technology (Henning, 2006). Their form of spectatorship has been shaped in response to other modern experiences and attractions (Sandberg 1995, quoted in Henning 2006). Today, the rise of new technologies, Internet and social networks are producing entirely new patterns of attention conceived under the concepts of multi-task, interconnectivity, and real time connexions. This rapid and impulsive stream of change in attention and the need of holding it are the most important challenges for twentieth-century curators and exhibit designers. For them the production of new forms of spectatorship and habits of attention are currently in the spotlight. The management of ones attention, as stated by Crary, depends on the capacity of an observer to adjust to continual 29

repatternings of the ways in which a sensory world can be consumed (2001: 33). This view considers the individuals point of view although the institutions one might be inferred from it. Thus, the museum might manage its visitors attention through detailed analysis and study of the affective world available to these visitors and the possible way they have to consume it. After having analysed above the dimension of this affective spectrum in museums, its categories and its triggers, configuring certain management of attention might be somewhat feasible. However, the aim of this dissertation is focusing just on some of these affective systems, the relational, and exploring profoundly how they are produced and what kind of connections created in social environments and, more specifically, museums. The next chapter is dedicated exclusively to this purpose.

30

3. RELATIONAL
aesthetics, affect, and transformative experiences

learning to inhabit the world in a better way (Bourriaud, 2002: 13)

A series of eleven sculptural works were made by the filmmaker, writer and artist, Miranda July for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and installed in a garden at the Giardino delle Vergini. These sculptures, however, are not exactly art; they configure a framework for art to be developed within. Because these cast fiberglass pieces are designed for interaction: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and freestanding abstract headdresses. A wider pedestal for two people to hug on reads, We dont know each other, were just hugging for the picture (July, 2010) (Figure 8). But, it does not finish here. Miranda July, through her work Eleven Heavy Things, invites people to take pictures of their interactions and

31

upload them to the Internet and by doing so, the result, the artwork itself, is being generated by the people.
Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance that is only complete when these tourist photos are uploaded onto personal blogs and sent in emails at which point the audience changes, and the subject clearly becomes the participants, revealing themselves through the work (July, 2010). Figure 8. Eleven Heavy Things by Miranda July.
Photographs taken from the artists website (www.mirandajuly.com) (18/06/11)

Eleven Heavy Things is an example of a number of artistic practices today acknowledged under the term of relational art. The French critic and curator, Nicolas Bourriaud, coined the term in his work Relational Aesthetics (2002), a collection of essays analysing and discussing the last artistic movements arose in the 1990s. This theoretical work, according to some authors (Bishop, 2004 and Farquharson, 2003 among many others) has probably been the most precise and thoughtful exploration of the direction art has been assuming since the late twentieth century, an art taking as its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context (Bourriaud, 2002:14).

32

Following a historical approach, Bourriaud explores how artworks, at the very beginning, functioned as interfaces to allow human society to communicate with the deity and therefore, they were first situated in a transcendent world (2002: 27). At a later date, according to the author, from the Renaissance on, art gradually abandoned this goal, and explored the relations existing between Man and the world (2002: 27). Then, Cubism supposed a radical challenge for the artworks purpose, in an attempt to analyse our visual links with the world using objects of peoples everyday life (Bourriaud, 2002: 28). However, Bourriaud writes, today this history seems to have taken a new turn artistic practice is now focused upon the sphere of inter-human relations (2002: 28). Thus, for instance, when Felix Gonzalez-Torres makes exhibitions based on piles of sweets1 or piles of sheets of paper2 (Figure 9) and invites the public to freely take one of them, he is not just adding an interactive feature to the work, but he is particularly making of this act the artwork itself while doing a reflection on the publics responsibility. People understand that they compromise the artwork when participating by exercising their right of taking a piece. And it is definitely this aura, this shared sense of freedom and concern, what triggers the relational affect in this kind of experiences. The museum today is accordingly transformed in an experimental laboratory, reconceptualising the traditional white cube (Bishop, 2004: 51) in which individuals get involved in dynamic and participative activities that make them reframe their links with the world and, at the same time, with their personal life. The relational affects, absolute and relative, as seen in the previous chapter are the main responsible pieces in this context. The result of these experiences, based on relational affect, and the subsequent transformations in the beholder will be termed from here as relational transformative experiences. This is what concerns to this chapter,

1 2

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), 1991. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Blue Mirror), 1990.

33

how they happen and what are the factors involved in them and the process that produces changes through relational affect.
Figure 9. Felix Gonzalez-Torrex. Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A), 1991 (left) and Untitled (Blue Mirror), 1990 (right).
Photographs taken from open sources in the Internet.

Initially, is worth mentioning that these relational practices are not precisely new. To some extent, art has always been relational (Bourriaud, 2002: 15) since it has fostered reactions and dialogue among people. For instance, when Caravaggio interpreted religious motifs, such as St Matthew and The Angel (Figure 10), whose iconography and representations had always been fixed to certain conventions and rules, in a completely new way, understood as indecorous and out of the conventions, the reaction and impressions of people were of astonishment in that time; especially when the work was usually rejected and the artist commissioned a new one (Langdon, 1999). The dialogue, impressions, and reflections produced around this fact might be accepted today as some kind of relational response and, to some extent, were these reactions what added a different meaning and public approach to the artwork, in opposition to other more conventional pieces.

34

Figure 10. Caravaggio. St Matthew and The Angel (left - 1st version rejected for being undecorous) and St Mathew and The Angel (right - 2nd version more traditional).
Photographs taken from Langdon, 1999.

With all the above, what is now a real novelty is the matter of doing of those reactions the central core and target of the artwork. A few recent movements, for instance, such as those of Situationist International or Minimal Art, the latter which speculated on the presence of viewer as an intrinsic part of the work (Bourriaud, 2002: 59), have already been basing their practices onto the social arena. However, relational art would add to this physical presence the artists work in inter-subjectivity, in the emotional, behavioural and historical response, given by the beholder to the experience proposed (Bourriaud, 2002: 59). This spectrum of responses is what eventually constitutes, as seen above, the relational affect. Understandably, it is evident that those practices with a special attention to promote social interactions, if not the only ones, are more likely capable to produce this kind of affect, though, as it has already been mentioned, the entire affective response must be understood considering the combination of different categories of affect. In any case, the relational aesthetics, by being based on principles of collaborative elaboration of meanings and collective intelligence, is apparently able to produce more intense responses than those in

35

a lone individual. Nonetheless, this statement will be analysed thoroughly in the following sections. Understanding that there is a connection between relational aesthetics and relational affect, now it is necessary to explore further the details of what happens next. As seen above, the desired result of any experience in a museum or artistic environment, whether it is based on affective responses or not, would be some sort of transformation. In the case of relational transformative experiences, the main peculiarity of their process is that it is constituted in a closed repetitive cycle, as it will be subsequently showed. Similarly to what it has been exposed in the first chapter, there are certain triggers that enclose such process (Figure 11).
Figure 11. Repetitive cycle of relational transformative experiences (based on relational affect).

36

As seen in figure 11, the individuals relational transformative experience occurs when there is a recurring connection between his/her personal life experiences and environment and the collectively constructed affective system within the framework of the exhibition, if referring to museums or galleries. Thus, the individuality becomes connected with the collaboratively created cloud of relational affect generated within what is understood now as a laboratory (Bishop, 2004): the exhibition venue. Therefore, the relational experience is constituted in a bipolar cycle where the individual, after connecting with and participating in the collective affect, returns to a self-reflection based on terms of his/her everyday life producing eventually an effective relational transformative experience. But, why this cyclical circuit of peoples relations and interactions produce such transformative experiences? What are the key features to bring into being successful relational affective experiences? The answer swing between two fundamental poles, which deserve especial attention: in one side, the configuration of purpose-based temporal communities, responsible of the collaborative elaboration of affect; and on the other side, the strong link to situations of the everyday life (Figure 11).

Folksonomy, the power of community producing meanings. When in 1994 Jens Haaning installed a megaphone in the Oslos Turk district to broadcast jokes in Turkish (Haaning, 2003) something extraordinary happened. Automatically, a micro-community of just those people able to understand Turkish were gathered in that place creating a momentary grouping that gave rise to an specific arena of exchange (Bourriaud, 2002: 17). This sense of group or community produced among the participants a unique attitude in the place. In order to illustrate how a collaborative process between these momentary groups of people may lead to the creation of affect, contents and

37

knowledge, this section comes down to the basis of the conceptual frame of collective intelligence by introducing an example, now in a more practical way, about this shared elaboration of meanings and interpretations. This process is clearly discernible in the recent use of folksonomy or social tagging in museums (see Trant, 2006). This concept was extracted from the Internet and originated by the combination of the words folk and taxonomy (Quintarelli, 2005). The term defines a collaborative categorisation of contents through the aggregation of tags or keywords by the general public. The classification of the contents depends on the repetition of keywords added by people, obtaining thus a gradually more refined classification when a larger group of people participates. This feature, representing an interesting common elaboration of knowledge, was first introduced by websites like Del.icio.us3 and Flickr4, and today is widely spread in the Internet by graphic representations consisting in words clouds. Social tagging, applied to museums, was first developed in the steve.museum project 5 (see Trant, 2006). A number of professionals and academics from the museum sector worked out to improve the interpretation of artworks and artefacts in museums and the access to them in museum records. According to Trant, it was required bridging the semantic gap between the professional, curatorial language of art history and the public perceptions of its visual evidence (2006: 3). Through the addition of non-expert and more emotional and affective tags to certain contents, museums might apparently broaden their perspectives and adapt to better meet their missions (Figure 12). Thus, as a result of this method, people were able to approach and find more easily artefacts and objects in the accessioning records of certain museums.

3 4

http://del.icio.us http://www.flikr.com 5 http://www.steve.museum

38

Figure 12. Taxonomy and Social Tagging for Museums. Steve.Museum project
Photographs taken from the steve.museum project website (http://www.steve.museum) (28/06/11)

The example of steve.museum project, albeit not really illustrative of the affective sense of social interactions, shows very clearly how meanings or knowledge elaborated by collaborative methodologies are reasonably more effective to be transmitted to the general public, as it was there, in the people, where they had their origin. Nowadays, the revolutionary possibilities of social networks in the Internet, as well as the sharing of opinions, information and contents in real time, are allowing the emergence of new concepts in social interactions and common generation of contents, which are being mirrored not only in the Internet but also offline. This arena of exchange (Bourriaud, 2002) is logically interconnected with most contemporary artistic practices and might be extrapolated as well to many other sectors and more specifically, museum practices. Consequently, providing that a larger group of people is likely to produce more improved and accurate meanings, when talking about affect, it is derived that such groups would produce more intense emotional and affective situations. In the same way that in social tagging every individual makes a contribution of personal knowledge with a common purpose, to some extent, the relational 39

affect represents a shared elaboration of a mood, an unconscious individual collaboration to the configuration of the collective aura in the exhibition. In words of Jennifer Fisher,
[the] use of the term affect must be understood as distinct from individually felt emotions. Instead, affect consolidates collectively sensed singularities of feeling, for instance the social climates of urgency, love, evil, shock, joy, shame, awe, conviviality or even terror (Fisher, 2006: 28).

Referring to Felix Guattaris theory, Bourriaud claims that

subjectivity is the network of relations between the individuals and other models of subjectivity, which construction process proceed wherever the social prevails. Hence, subjectivity is random as it splits, connects, re-connects and redistributes; it never is subsumed under a homogenic [sic.] self (Bourriaud 2002 quoted in Svetlichnaja, 2005: 5).

Accordingly, Svetlichnaja, stressing the unexpected property of relational affect, states that the aura is created by accidental connection between the situation and the participants, - this aura is one of random subjectivity (2005: 5). These aspects of randomness and spontaneity are symptomatic of the concept of affect, in opposition to concepts such as feelings or emotions as were defined in the first chapter. Thus, it seems evident that, providing a favourable framework for that, certain momentary groups of people may produce spontaneously and through the projection of their subjectivity a common affective aura. However, how does this peoples subjectivity refer back to material from the everyday world within such unexpected and subjective aura? How is the transformative affective cycle closed?

40

The continuum of connections with the everyday life. Albeit this sense of community and collective feeling empowers the resultant experiences, as well as produces feedback reactions that are added to the communal work and shared with future public, the second key fact that makes relational affect to emerge and produce transformative experiences and change is the intrinsic connection with daily-life situations. This is what results in a thoughtful reflection and eventually leads to some personal change. In Untitled (Tomorrow Is Another Day)6 at the Klnischer Kunstverein, Tiravanija erected a reconstruction of his New York apartment and made it open to the public (Bishop, 2004: 57). Inside the artwork [p]eople could use the kitchen to make food, wash themselves in his bathroom, sleep in the bedroom, or hang out and chat in the living room (Bishop, 2004: 57). According to Kittelmann, this unique combination of art and life offered and impressive experience of togetherness to everybody (1996 quoted in Bishop, 2004: 57). It not only formed that momentary grouping mentioned before, but also connected their experiences with a sense of personal daily life. Similarly, encounters and performances such as Christine Hills angelic programme, involved in giving massages, shining shoes, organising group meetings etc. (Bourriaud, 2002: 36) or Tiravanijas cooking performances in museums and galleries, are examples of the fundamental connection with feelings and memories of daily life occurred in relational practices. It is evident that the choice of particular topics and the approach in which they are presented in relational art are essential pieces directly founded on the creation of links with the everyday life of the individual. Curiously, this is a shared quality in relational art and will be found in every artwork under the relational umbrella.
Exhibition by Rirkrit Tiravanija held in Cologne at the Salon Verlag and Klnischer Kunstverein, 1996.
6

41

In order to understand this point and why those artists use it, exploring how the everyday life affects these experiences appears necessary. John Dewey, already mentioned, is practically the founder of the philosophy branch aimed to recover the continuity of esthetic experience with normal processes of living (Dewey, 1980: 9). It seems evident that there has always been an intrinsic need of returning to the basic experience of human being where art had initially its origin. According to Dewey, most of ancient arts and artefacts displayed today in museums flourished as part of religious rites and [popular] celebrations (1980:5). Precisely, first theories about aesthetics and art, conceived in ancient Greece, were based on the idea of imitation of nature, an act of reproduction. Philosopher David Novitz points out how the separation between high art and popular art originated the break between the idea of aesthetics and the everyday life (2001). According to him, this rupture occurred since the Renaissance, when it grew a tendency to distinguish the fine arts from other arts or skills [with] no bearing on, or relation to, the issues of everyday life (2001: 14). But, what does it mean exactly to talk about everyday life? At this point, Henri Lefebvres definition is worthwhile:
Everyday life is profoundly related to all activities it is their meeting place, their bond and their common ground. It is in everyday life that the sum total of relations that are expressed and fulfilled those relations that bring into play the totality of the real: friendship, love, the need to communicate, play, etc. (Lefebvre, 1991: 97, quoted in Tuomi-Grhn, 2008: 8).

Then, according to Lefebvre everyday life would be closely connected with a sort of basic relations and a link of this basis with all activities. Evidently, apart from this broad definition, what everyday life most frequently recalls is a homely sense of familiarity, safeness, and comforting stability. This idea of familiarity, contrasted with the notion of strangeness, is the core of Haapalas examination into the aesthetics of the everyday life (2005). According to him, the typical 42

understanding of aesthetics, especially in art, would be linked to the concept of strangeness, as peoples sensitiveness is higher in unfamiliar environments, paying more especial attention to details and to the most trivial-looking things (Haapala, 2005: 44), for example, when visiting a new city. Familiarity, conversely, implies something that is looked through rather than looked at (Haapala, 2005: 45), the beholder is in a kind of passive state surrounded by his/her routine. Thus, strangeness points to the status that art has acquired along history, an epiphenomenon physically and intellectually placed in a remote position, the museum, only accessible to certain cultured elite (Novitz, 2001). However, scholars such as Novitz would not claim just the return and connection of art to the everyday life, what he advocates is the idea that arts are a fundamental and altogether indispensable part of our lives since they are the skills by which we live (2001: 19). He finds in different situations of daily life, such as clothes, designs, flower arrangements, bathroom decoration, or even the arts of seduction, a high sense of aesthetics (Novitz, 2001). Under this idea, relational art constructs its arena, its framework for social interactions. Gillick stated that the relational artwork become a constantly changing portrait of the heterogeneity of everyday life (Troncy, 1992: 89). According to Bourriaud, the everyday now turns out to be a much more fertile terrain than pop culture a form that only exist in contrast to high culture, through it and for it (1995: 47). Similarly to Novitz, Leddy brings up the term, coined by philosopher Arnold Berleand, environmental aesthetics (Berleant 1997, quoted in Leddy, 2005) recalling this aesthetics present in lived experiences, such a walk in the woods (Leddy, 2005:4).
My own daily walk to work is an example of a fairly complex experiential whole that may be analyzed along the lines of environmental aesthetics. I may appreciate the nature of the day (sunny and fresh), the seasonal variations of

43

the plant life (spring has arrived!), the flowery smells of plant-clippings (brought out by a recent rain), the physical pleasure of my own bodily movement, and the fashion statements of students as I enter the campus. All of the senses are involved (Leddy, 2005: 4).

Also recalling the importance of the senses, especially smell and taste, when considering the aesthetics of the everyday life, David W. Prall observed how certain combinations in nature of such senses can make up a rare beauty (Prall 1929, quoted in Leddy, 2005: 11). He mentioned this feeling in an exquisite way worth quoting here:
If there is a beauty of August nights or the fresh loveliness after rain, if there is ripe and languorous beauty in the mist and mellow fruitfulness of autumn, or a hard, cold beauty of glittering winter frosts, such beauty is not all for the eye and ear, and if we do not ourselves know how to blend smells and tastes with sound and form and color to compose such beauties, we need not foist our limitation upon nature If we know no modes of arranging smells or tastes or vital feelings or even noises in works of art, nature does not hesitate to combine the soughing of pines, the fragrance of mountain air, and the taste of mountain water to make a beauty intense and thrilling in an unexpected purity and elevation, almost ascetic in its very complexity and richness (Prall, 1929, quoted in Leddy, 2005: 11).

This remembrance of taste and smell is just one point more to stress the aesthetic capacity inherent in the everyday experience. Likewise, Zen Buddhist monks, Schopenhauerian artists and Japanese culture, have traditionally been capable to transform everyday aesthetic experiences into something

extraordinary (Leddy, 2005: 17). According to Leddy, for them there is such a thing as the aesthetic attitude [and] anything can be appreciated under the aesthetic attitude, and hence become aesthetic (2005: 17).

44

In the same way, Yuriko Saito in The Aesthetics of Weather (2005), criticizes the Westernized vision of aesthetic practices while claiming that the aesthetic experiences of peoples everyday life are universally shared, unlike art appreciation, which is limited to those cultures with institutionalized artworld and, even within that culture, only to those who have some access to and knowledge about the artworld (Saito, 2005: 156). She mentions how philosophers Melvin Rader and Bertram Jessup
call attention to the fact that the majority of non-Western cultures lack the equivalent notions of art, artist and artworld The Balinese, for example is said to have a saying: We have no art, we do everything the best way we can (Rader, M. and Jessup, B. 1976 quoted in Saito, 2005: 157).

This vision of art and aesthetics, as something implicit in everyday life and human condition, is essential to understand the effect of relational transformative experiences. When Saito chooses the topic of weather to research on everyday aesthetics, she does so because it is not an object, affect us through many senses is intimately bound up with our various practical interests is changing [and is] experienced by every human being (Saito, 2005: 157). These are accordingly, incredibly relevant points to exemplify, in parallel, the main attributes that relational art should match: subjective, affective, practical (linked with sense of everydayness), unexpected, and universal, respectively. Interestingly, according to these theories it seems that a museum or art venue today would probably imply strangeness, as being still an unfamiliar and institutionalised environment. However, this should not be a completely negative aspect, as this sense of strangeness is needed to some extent to provoke an attitude of sensitiveness and especial attention, because, according to Hapaala (2005), familiar environments would foster submission and the absence of awareness. Apparently, this would seem contradictory with what this 45

dissertation attempts to infer: relational art as an experience based on links with the everyday life. Nonetheless, on the contrary, this contradiction is the key factor in this papers argument. So far, it is clear that relational art is developed in a context primarily surrounded by strangeness and completely unfamiliar for the audiences. Initially, this would incite people to be sensitive and expectant, as seen above. However, as seen, relational art takes advantage of Novitzs notion of merging art and aesthetics experiences with the everyday life to the extent of fusing them completely. Thus, when this relational art, placed in a strange site, generates an aesthetic situation, which unexpectedly connects the people with a sense of their everyday life, the contradictory peculiarity of the experience produces an extraordinary shocking impact. Finding an image with an aura of familiarity in a strange unacquainted context supposes a rupture with the usual understanding of how art must be surrounded by strangeness and thus completely separate from their daily life. This paradox results in an effect of vibration in peoples consciousness, and consequently, a break in such consciousness is what will give entrance to the relational affect, which, as examined in the first chapter, needs of an unconscious environment to be prompted. This is the actual and essential trigger of relational affect and what move down the individual from the pole of collective affect and get him/her ready to gather personal reflections and emotions that subsequently will be added, back again, to that affect in the next iteration of the cycle of the emerging relational transformative experience (Figure 11). The interesting point in these experiences is that when happening those iterations between the common affective sphere and the sense of everyday life, every repetition in the cycle produces an influence from one pole to another. In other words, the sense of everyday life that an individual is invited to recall in the place will contribute to the collective relational affect. But, on the other hand, this relational affect

46

experienced will produce a reflection on the basis of the individuals everyday life. This is the real powerful key point of relational transformative experiences, the resulting reflection and consequently change that is eventually produced in an individual regarding his/her daily life, based on contributions from an affective aura collaboratively created. Thus, eventually the change will be assumed on the basis of the individuals everyday life.

47

4. The Relational Museum

Generosity exists in exchanges, like conversations, and within temporal experiences shared by a social or communal body, which are conceived as art, crafted by artists, though these generous acts might not look like art, or in fact be art but become art-like moments. (Jacob, 2005: 7)

Learning to Love You More These art-like moments is what relational artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher considered as their basic pieces for creating the web-based project Learning to Love You More (LTLYM) (Fletcher and July, 2002). Some of the concepts discussed in this dissertation about affect, relational affect and their corresponding transformative experiences are illustrated in this section through the example of LTLYM. The relational art project consisted in a series of assignments or tasks published periodically and offered freely to the general

48

public. These assignments included things such as Take a picture of strangers holding hands, Make a paper replica of your bed, or Write your life story in less than a day (Fletcher and July, 2002). People were given short instructions for each task, invited to complete these assignments and submit the consequent photographs, audio, video files, or texts to the website. The artists function was primarily the invention of every assignment and secondly a sort of filtering task when publishing the reports, submitted by the public, in the web. Therefore, the role of the artist as a designer of a framework for people interactions is quite clear in this case.
Figure 13. Learning to Love You More. By Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.
Photographs taken from projects official website (http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com) (18/04/11)

The fact that the format chosen for the project is a website permits to highlight more easily the features aimed for examining, as due to its intangible peculiarity, the affective aspects remain isolated from material influence and so clearer for

49

analysis. Therefore, among the types of affect described in the first chapter, this project brings up those concerning the subject and the relations. Albeit the contents and, consequently, the artwork itself are generated by peoples contributions, the role of the artist is remarkably significant as the very first aesthetic quality is visible in the headings of the assignments: lovely and inspiring frameworks that engage people since the beginning. Interestingly, in this example the separateness and peculiarities of every group, curators, artists and audiences, are very clear. Artists are those who design the framework where later audiences will participate through sending contents and fulfilling assignments. But then curators will have to select the material sent. As Cook and Graham point out regarding this project and comparing it with similar open forms such as YouTube, in LTLYM there are levels of control within these models concerning whether the open submissions are selected, filtered, or curated in any way (2010: 113). Actually, the artists invited people to curate their own online exhibitions by selecting their favourite reports (Fletcher and July, 2002) and additionally, after the period in which the project was running, from 2002 to 2009, it has been displayed, apart from the web, in a series of exhibitions in museums, galleries, schools, senior citizens centers (Fletcher and July, 2002), etc. Finally, the role of the audience is visiting other peoples report and adding contents and answer to the proposed tasks. The layout of the website results very illustrative for this set of functions (Figure 13), three columns separate the assignments established by the artists, the list of reports sent by the public and the selected piece of work from those reports.

50

Figure 14. LTLYM. A selection of assignments and reports by diverse authors.

Photographs taken from the projects official website (http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com) (18/04/11)

Considering the affect that this art project might evoke, it seems evident that the absolute-relational affect will emerge after people read the assignments and decide to undertake them. Sometimes the assignments give a chance to further interactions due to their own nature, such as #59 Interview someone who has experienced war (Fletcher and July, 2002), but in general they always will foster an interaction between people and the artwork-framework. However, on the other hand, is the subjective-relational affect that arises in everyone just when loading the website and watching other peoples interactions in the form of the reports sent. Thus, the combination of both types of affect in one person is what might suppose the integral affective experience and eventually the consequent transformative experience. This would happen when some person participates of an assignment and also watches other peoples reports, no matter the order.

51

In regard of the relation with the everyday life, it is quite clear. As Cook and Graham stresses,
[b]y using the term assignments, the artists are explicitly referring to the familiarity of school homework assignments and playing with the domestic context of Internet use participants are often carrying out their assignments in their homes (2010: 121)

Interestingly, the nature of the assignments implies a new way to approach the individuals everyday life. This is, actually, the key point to make people reflect on their daily life. Through these assignments, they learn a new way to behave and to face their everyday lives and the result is, to some extent, a re-framing of themselves in their quotidian contexts. These isolated and tiny reflections inspire people producing probably not big changes, but, as the quote at the beginning states, they are breathtaking and wonderful moments.

Personal Change for Social Change These small changes in the individuals everyday life suppose what Nicolas Bourriaud referred to as micro-utopias, in opposition to the more general and traditional concept of social utopias. For him, [s]ocial utopias and revolutionary hopes have given way to everyday micro-utopias and imitative strategies (1995: 31). With the same sense, Bourriaud states that [t]hese days, utopia is being lived on a subjective, everyday basis, in the real time of concrete and intentionally fragmentary experiments (1995: 45). However, what has been most criticised by some scholars (Bishop, 2004 and Svetlichnaja, 2005) regarding the concept of social change in Bourriauds observations of contemporary art is the unclearness and incoherence of such changes and their lack of political purpose. Especially Svetlichnaja, in Relational Paradise as a Delusional Democracy (2005), strongly criticises Bourriauds theory stating that

52

it appear[s] promoting the core ideology of the third spirit capitalism (2005: 19). According to her, Bourriauds idea of the self as a network implies that any judgement is dissolved in random subjectivity of all (2005: 19). Likewise, Bourriauds statement of focusing on the present rather than on futures promises is interpreted by Svetlichnaja as an anxiety associated with the difficulty of identifying the origin of the problem and impossibility of projecting oneself into the futures possibilities (2005: 20). In short, what Svetlichnaja remarks in relational aesthetics is an effect contrary to any democratic attempt. Similarly but with different approach, Bishop addresses relational aesthetic as a set of ambitious and selective semifunctional [sic.] art works that ultimately seek to enhance the status of the curator (Bishop, 2004), meaning a group of few favourite curators such as Tiravanija and Gillick (Bishop, 2004). She critically claims the lack of a clear political agenda of relational art, and associates its contradictory beliefs with the term antagonism extracted from Laclau and Mouffe, by which, senses of identity and of the self are diminished into the whole temporal community (Bishop, 2004: 65), According to Bishop, albeit it is true that relational aesthetics promotes networking and interactions among the participants, there is not a clear end and a long-term change in the experience. The problem with both critiques is that, although they point out some wellargued issues of relational art, they do not consider the possibilities of a longterm effect as a result of certain changes in the individual. What this paper defends is that a relational transformative experience would foster a slight change in the individual, grounded in the everyday life of the subject, which eventually would have a larger impact in scope and time, from personal change to social change. The real social change would consequently derive from these microutopian transformations in every individual. In LTLYM, people get involved in small tasks, but these, somehow, make them approach their life and their 53

surrounding people in a different way and create a break in the routine. When Bourriaud claims an attention to the present and instead of constructing new worlds, learning to inhabit our in a better way (Bourriaud, 2002), this fact does not mean that relational aesthetics does not have an effect in the future. They do not have a purpose of future, but certainly the idea of peoples change based on social interactions and reflections on their everyday life will probably result to some extent in a different, if not utopian, conception of the future.

Learning to Love You More in the Museum: The Relational Museum The question after analysing the range of experiences, circumstances and consequences of affect and relational practices seems to be: what is the role of the museum or institution in such context? With projects such as LTLYM the role is quite clear, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired the work in 2010 and they keep it exhibited in their fifth floor, accessed in their records as one work more. In experimental museums and galleries such as the Palais de Tokio, Whitechapel, FACT and INIVA (Bishop, 2004; Doherty, 2004), the role is also evident, working as studios or laboratories of contemporary art (Bishop, 2004). But, it is possible to think in extrapolating relational practices to a sciences or history museum? The answer lies in what Doherty calls new institutionalism applied to museums and the performative practices of curators (Doherty, 2004). All these practices and methodologies are being applied since more than ten years in regard to contemporary art, but they are also being gradually introduced in all kind of museums, and this might be the future of a really improved experience for visitors, a relational museum. The incorporation of relational affect into the institutions beyond artistic practices is embodied in this new institutionalism, a sociological theory applied to institutions, which in the case of museums, classifies effectively a field of

54

curatorial practice, institutional reform and critical debate concerned the transformation of art institutions from within (Doherty, 2004: 1). Quoting Charles Esche (Director of Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven) when he re-launched the Malm institution in 2001 suggested:
Now, the term 'art' might be starting to describe that space in society for experimentation, questioning and discovery that religion, science and

philosophy have occupied sporadically in former times. It has become an active space rather than one of passive observation. Therefore the institutions to foster it have to be part-community centre, part-laboratory and part-academy, with less need for the established showroom function (Doherty, 2004: 2).

Obviously, apart from changes within the institution, programmes and curatorial practices, the relational museum demands shifts in visitor behaviour back and forth between reception and participation (Doherty, 2004: 2). The new Darwin Centre in the Natural History Museum of London7 is an example of a state-ofthe-art exhibition based on relational practices, which are founded

simultaneously on offline and online interactions. People are invited to intermingle with scientists and discuss about the collection, scientific methods and other issues but at the same time they are given a called NaturePlus card8 in the entrance that allows them to select contents of the exhibition and share them in an online platform with other users, discussing about them and interpreting them. These interactions happening during the exhibition and, at the same time, allowing them the opportunity to bring the experience back home and re-interpret it there creates a powerful connection with their daily life, making the personalised museum experience to transcend upon their homes.

Darwin Centre Website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/darwin-centre-visitors/index.html 8 NaturePlus Cards Website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/darwin-centre-visitors/natureplus-visitors/index.html

55

Another example, very simple and effective, of relational practices embedded in the museum experience, is the Liverpool Tate Gallery. Artists and curators from the museum recorded videos of groups of people giving opinions, debating and commenting the artworks, interacting with the artists and curators and between them. Up to here, there is nothing really original in that. But the actual inclusion in the exhibition of the video, besides the artwork being commented, is what completes the relational experience making people bridging the gap between their world and contemporary art, which has traditionally been isolated and separated of the real world. The subjective-relational affect, emerging when a visitor watches what other non-expert people comment about the artwork, makes him/her to assume a more open disposition to approach the work and to an enhanced experience. Consequently, although relational affect is evidently manifested when considering relational artistic practices, what this dissertation advocates is the broadening of the field of application of those relational practices beyond the artworld in which they were conceived. This does not necessarily mean to exhibit artefacts in museum as if they were contemporary art, which is something positive, as discussed by Marshall on his article (2005). Conversely, here is being claimed the use of the mechanisms intrinsic in relational aesthetics and their extrapolation to enhance museum exhibitions and visitors experiences. Once those mechanisms and circumstances, constituted by different triggers, agents, and connections with the everyday life, are understood, the museum might mirrors them and improve the experiences of its visitors and consequently the long-term impact of the institution. To some extent, obviously, the relational affect has always been produced in museums by different means. Traditionally, comments books and interactions between people in the venue have existed. According to McAuliffe when referring to art museums,

56

[t]his shift in the workings of the contemporary art museum continues the work of institutional critique initiated in the 60s and 70s but instead of working from outside it is coming from within the actual structure of the institution (McAuliffe, 2010).

More recently, with the incorporation of high tech devices and the Internet, people can enjoy of new platforms and environments where they can easily share knowledge and exchange opinions. However, a museum dedicated to relational transformative experiences goes beyond mere interactions and digital phenomena and focus on the aspects explored along this dissertation: affective systems fostering people-generated contents linked with their everyday life. The relational museum, no matter its contents nature, should create frameworks that engage people and allow them to contribute in some way, producing a cloud of knowledge and feelings that will be later accessible to next visitors. Greenberg, who finds in contemporary theatre a referent for museums, states that even though a theatre audience is not a museum audience, a museum space is primarily a performance space (2005: 228). Similarly, when McAuliffe refers to performative curating, she points out that it is not the content of the exhibitions that is being greatly debated but the mode in which they are produced (2010).

57

5. Conclusion

The attention to affect is gradually becoming a constant in the scholarship and work dedicated to museums practices. The work developed by companies such as Metaphor, leaded by Stephen Greenberg (Greenberg, 2005), is already mostly focused on the affective elements of the exhibition, and so their work on projects such as the Holocaust Exhibition in the Imperial War Museum in London are primarily based on a collection of affective reactions and its management. However, despite the fact that affect is concerning an important part of the academic world, finding specific definitions and explorations of its effects, consequences and typologies applied to museums, is still a hard task. This dissertation pretended to establish, to some extent, a theoretical basis where different theories and studies related to the affect were gathered and combined in order to eventually successfully delimit better the fascinating world of affect. On the other hand, it seems appropriate to link closely any study about affect with contemporary artistic practices. Although the museums sector consists in a 58

world largely beyond art, it is necessary, when thinking about aesthetics and affect, to focus with especial attention on art. It is evident, that among every type of museum, the art gallery is the only one that does not necessarily need to transmit any specific knowledge for the sake of its contents. Thus, it might be argued that the art museum or gallery is primarily focused on the aesthetic experience and the affective responses. Christopher Marshall critically compares in his article (2005) the way museums and art galleries can learn from each other to improve their displays and visitors experiences. The example of the Primates Gallery of the Natural History Museum in London is very illustrative as it calls the attention on how objects are exhibited as contemporary art creating an eye-catching and evocative effect (Marshall, 2005: 172). Consequently, it seemed evident that the state-of-the-art in affective work would be enclosed in some form of contemporary art. This dissertation has chosen the range of practices described by Bourriaud (2002) in Relational Aesthetics as the tip of the iceberg of the affective world. This is mainly the reason because this dissertation dedicated a chapter to analyse those contemporary artistic practices that are highly charged with affect, specifically with relational affect. Once the sense of this affect, inherent in artistic practices, is clarified and understood, it would be feasible to isolate it and apply it in every kind of museum. Therefore, the relational museum would be the result of embedding relational affective stimuli and practices in any kind of museum in order to improve its exhibitions. The relational museum would foster their visitors to generate some kind of content attached to the exhibition and, at the same time, bring some link to their everyday life, what eventually would make them feel closer to the exhibition and to the museum. It is evident that many relational practices, such as the project Learning to Love You More (Fletcher and July, 2002), are being based on the Internet and social networks, as these are paradigms of the relational world today. Artists and

59

curators, reluctant to the traditional role of the museum, seek in the Internet a new medium to develop their works and avoid the traditional separation of white-cube style venues. Nevertheless, as demonstrated with LTLYM, museums might perfectly integrate their practices within the web with the purpose of eventually empower their visitors interactions. On the other hand, museums must be aware of these conversions and open their galleries to the people, allowing them to interact within and better connect with their contents. Albeit museums are changing today from object-oriented to people-oriented (see Sandell, 2002), perhaps a step beyond is already needed. It is evident the remarkable stress that has been pointed at pedagogical theories and learning purposes in museums in order to fulfil the political agendas of governments, which ultimately seek to make of museums useful tools for the general public. The problem is that if museums do not depend on their objects anymore and have as their primary purpose the education of people, then they are at the risk of becoming a sort of public learning centres, where what was understood at the beginning as informal learning becomes some kind of non-official but regular and tedious learning. Far from suggesting a separation between museums and a learning purpose, what this dissertation advocates is bringing together people and museums, through experiencing affect, and bringing any desired transformative experience, even those based on learning, to the ground of their everyday life. Therefore, the work on affect construction in museums should be a constant supplement to the institutional strategies, no matter which one was the mission of the museum. According to this dissertation, apparently, those transformations based on relational affect are likely to produce the most intense effects and a real influence on people, rooted on their daily life and with a longterm impact. If the museum has a pedagogical purpose, it is worth considering attracting visitors attention through affect and then focusing, more effectively, on their learning. Furthermore, besides the effectiveness of those experiences,

60

museums would be eventually considered as even more familiar places, and more importantly, not only the museums but also their contents. However, according to Haapalas work (2005), it has been deduced that what triggers the relational affect is the combination of a sense of strangeness, and consequent awareness, present in museums, and the connection of the contents and experiences with visitors daily lives. Paradoxically, to recreate these relational transformative experiences it is needed a separation and isolation of the museum to maintain this image of strangeness, in other words, the emergence of an effective relational affect requests an unfamiliar place. But, at the same time it is being promoted a reconciliation of people and museums and galleries. Thus, it seems that this rapprochement of museums and people would remove an important part of the equation and make gradually more difficult for them to experiment those relational transformative experiences. But the essential point is that perhaps the relational affect is then not required anymore. Perhaps the relational affect, as dependent of the museums strangeness, is just a means, and not an end itself, and maybe after all relational aesthetics and the relational museum would be uniquely a mere step toward achieving a museum completely merged with peoples daily lives.

61

Appendix 1
Triggers for Transformational Experiences (Soren, 2009)

62

63

Bibliography

Bergson, H. (1912) An Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by Hulme, T.E. London and New York: G.P. Putnams sons. Bishop, C. (2004) Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, October 110, Fall, pp. 51-79. Bourriaud, N. (2002) Relational Aesthetics. Paris: Les Presses du Rel. Bourriaud, N. (1995) Correspondence: Nicolas Bourriaud/Philippe Parreno, Paletten 4/95, No. 223, Vol. 56. Cook, S. and Graham, B. (2010) Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press. Crary, J. (2001) Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle and Modern Culture. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press. Dewey, J. (1980) Art as Experience. New York: Perigee Books. Doherty, C. (2004) The Institution is dead! Long Live the Institution! Contemporary Art and New Institutionalism, Engage. Issue 15, Summer. (06/07/2011). Farquharson, A. (2003) Curator and Artist. Art Monthly. Issue 270, October: 136, pp. 13-16. 64 http://www.situations.org.uk/media/files/Engage.pdf

Fisher, J. (2006) Exhibitionary Affect in N.paradoxa: International Feminist Art Journal, pp. 27-33. Fletcher, H. and July, M., (2002) 'Learning to Love You More'

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/ (accessed 15/05/2011). Freud, S. (1961). Civilization and its discontents. Translated by Strachey, J. New York: W. W. Norton. Greenberg, S. (2005) The vital museum in MacLeod, S. (ed.) (2005) Reshaping Museum Space: architecture, design, exhibitions. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 226-237 Haaning, J. (2003) Hello, My Name is Jen Haaning. Paris: Les Presses du Rel. Haapala, A. (2005) On the Aesthetics of the Everyday: Familiarity, Strangeness and the Meaning of Place in Light, A and Smith, J.M. (ed) The Aesthetics of Everyday Life. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 40-55. Henning, M. (2006) Museums, Media and Cultural Theory. London and New York: Open University Press. Hooper-Greenhill, E. (2007) Museums and Educations: Purpose, pedagogy, performance. London: Routledge. Jacob, M. J. (2005) Reciprocal Generosity in Purves, T. (2005) What We Want Is Free: Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art. New York: University of New York Press. July, M. (2010), Miranda July Website, http://www.mirandajuly.com (Accessed 24/06/2011). Langdon, H. (1999) Caravaggio: a Life. London: Pimlico.

65

Marshall, C. R. (2005) When worlds collide: The contemporary museum as art gallery in MacLeod, S. (ed.) (2005) Reshaping Museum Space: architecture, design, exhibitions. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 170-184. Massumi, B. (2002) Parables for the Virtual: movement, affect, sensation. Durham and London: Duke University Press. McAuliffe, A. (2010) Relational Aesthetics and New Institutionalism, Paper for Master research, Art History and Education Department, College of Fine Arts of Sydney, Australia.

http://artandpeople.wordpress.com/masters-research/ra-and-ni/ (12/06/2011). Novitz, D. (2001) The boundaries of Art, Christchurch: Cybereditions Corporation. Powell, W. W. and DiMaggio, P. J. (1991) The New Institutionalism in the Organizational Analysis. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Quintarelli, E. (2005). Folksonomies: power to the people. ISKO Italy-UniMIB meeting: Milan. June 24, 2005. http://www(Accessed:

dimat.unipv.it/biblio/isko/doc/folksonomies.htm 27/06/2011).

Sandell, R. (2002) Museums, Society, Inequality. London and New York: Routledge. Soren, B. J. (2009) Museum experiences that change visitors, Museum Management and Curatorship, 24:3, 233 251.

66

Svetlichnaja, J. (2005) Relational Paradise as a Delusional Democracy a Critical Response to a Temporary Contemporary Relational

Aesthetics, Paper for the Art and Politics panel, BISA Conference, December. University of St. Andrews. Obtained from

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/docs/jvs_relationalparadise.doc (Accessed: 22/06/2011). Tomkins, S. (2008) Affect Imagery Consciousness: The Complete Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Trant, J. (2006) 'With the Participants in the Steve.Museum Project. 2006. Exploring the Potential for Social Tagging and Folksonomy in Art Museums: Proof of Concept', New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 12 (1), 83105. Troncy, E. (1992) London Calling, Flash Art, Summer. Tuomi-Grhn, T. (2008) Everyday Life as a Challenging Sphere of Research: An Introduction in Reinventing Art of Everyday Making, Tuomi-Grhn, T. (ed), 724. Witcomb, A. (2010) Remembering the dead by affecting the living: the case of a miniature model of Trebinka in Dudley, S. H. (ed.) (2010) Museum Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretations. New York: Routledge, 39-52.

67

68