Imprints in the Museum: Social Navigation Technology for Participatory Expression.

The introduction of communication technology in public spaces both supports existing conversations in new ways and creates opportunities for new conversations to occur. This interplay between technology and communicative acts has been examined extensively in the classroom and the workplace and continues to extend from the desktop to the surroundings of everyday experience. This same phenomenon is also unfolding in the public space of art museums. We will look at how attribution of value and use of social presence information emerges amongst three different populations: museum experts/staff, museum aficionados (i.e. frequent museum visitors), and general museum visitors. From these three populations, we will examine how these groups construct meaning around new uses of technology in the public space of the museum. Will these new uses of technology, which make the attribution of value and use more salient to participants in the communicative acts, change the existing conversations and roles in museums? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]