“What is art?”, probably a question that you have been interrogating in the past, or right now. How about “What is an art museum?” or “What is an art exhibition”? Have you ever thought of these questions before?

  As a museum lover, I have visited lots of different types of museums in the world. One thing that probably can be seen in every museum is, people with their smartphones. They love to stick to it, even though the smell of art is floating in the air. They prefer see artworks from the screen of cell phone (because of capturing by camera), rather than stepping forwards and observe with their eyes. Photos of people posing in front of artworks are commonly and easily found under #artmuseum. This new situation is not only constructed by the visitor, but also the media who reports cultural events, that emphasize spots where are photo-worthy and Instagram-able, but not the exhibition itself. Is it the main purpose of being in an art museum or an art exhibition nowadays? Shall we accept or object this phenomenon due to the screen era? What and how is an art museum or exhibition? How may we think of an art museum or exhibition?

  In order to answer these questions that I have addressed. I have visited several museums in different countries, at the same time, observed how the visitors inside behaved and took photos as a way of documentation. Besides, I also prepared questionnaires, so as to study that perhaps people from different countries and background may have different opinions of and behaviors in an art museum. I discussed with them face-to-face and recorded down their thoughts.

  On the other hands, I think it would be interesting to compare the ideas from ordinary visitors and professionals in curatorial practice. Luckily I have got chances to interview different curators and artists about their points of view on the same issue.

  To wrap up of the result I have got and research I have done, I choose to use a conceptual way to present my work. I believe texts and photos are two elements that can compose strong meaning. Also, it is the way how I made my documentation of the project from the beginning till now. Thereby, making contrast between texts and photos can even enrich my work and achieve my objective, to attract audiences’ glances and to make them think about the issue together, also by reviewing others’ opinions. Perhaps, they can also give me feedback or their own thought on the issue by replying after viewing my work.

  Here is an open platform, where there is no right or wrong answer. By making this work, I hope it can question who are reading this text now, and help you to find out an answer for a question that you probably have really seldom thought of, “what is an art museum or exhibition?”.

During the field visits, I have taken some pictures inside every museum and I have selected some of them that can be viewed below:

---

At the end, I have decided to make an artwork that composed by texts and photos. The texts are taken from the transcript of the interviews with professionals and questionnaire from the visitors. The photos were taken by me when I was visiting those museums.

There are 8 sets of photos and descriptions, with a cross that combined by words and half white half grey background.

The photo set is planned to make with a photo and a description, related or opposed to the photo’s content. For instance, a description written, “museum is a place to learn.”, next to a photo that a security guard is tying her shoelaces.

The cross is composed by the keywords that mentioned by all the interviewees, including both professionals and visitors.

• 

• 

I don’t want to make my artwork seems too complicated so I prefer to combine those things in a simple and clear composition. On the other hands, there are small details that consist of some meanings, which I can elaborate in the oral presentation.

After finished field trips in different museums, I have collected 30 pieces of questionnaires in total which addressing the topic of “museum and you”, with the sample questions listed below.

---

1. What is your name?
2. What is your nationality?
3. What is your age group?
4. What is your education background?
5. What is your occupation?
6. Can you name 3 keywords that would appear in your mind when mentioning “art museum”
7. What is your favourite art museum and why?
8. What does art museum mean to you?
9. What is your expectation every time when you visit art museum?
10. What is your criteria on choosing a museum to visit?
11. Do you have any good/bad memorable experiences while visiting museum?
12. What is the role of art museum towards the society?
13. What is your opinion on the museum you are visiting?

---

Due to time limit, sometimes I couldn’t finish asking all of the questions mentioned above, so I have to pick few of them to ask. In general, the answers that I have got are positive and useful for my study.

To sum up the background that I have got from visitors, I have received questionnaires from people from 9 different countries, mostly from Russia and Hong Kong. The age group is focused in the range of 17-25 years old (43.3%), though I have got samples from all the age group. The interviewees are mainly tertiary educated (86.7%) and among all the interviewees, almost half of them are currently still studying (46.7%).

The keywords that I have got from the interviewees can be divided into 4 main categories.

• A lot of them used the words related appreciation or praise to describe art museum, for example, “beauty”, “worship”, “historical” and “elegance”.
• Some of them provided words that are related to artists, artworks or name of art museums, like “Monet”, “Mona Lisa” and “Hermitage”.
• Some of them also mentioned words that are directly related to art, for instance, “paintings”, “artist”, “masterpieces” and “art”.
• Few of them has suggested words that is about the architecture and interior of an art museum, like, “beautiful ceiling”, “old” and “window”.

When dealing to question of the meaning of museum, the interviewees believed that art museum is mainly a place that you can spend quality time in, where you can relax, study and look at old stuff. By visiting, you can widen your view, improve and reflect yourself. The descriptions are all positive.

The interviewees expected that art museums should present the theme well, perhaps by well-designed and –explained caption. They expected the exhibition can inspire, surprise and impress them. They also expected that they can do or see something that is not usual in their daily life. When they have to choose a museum to go, most of them are depend on specific circumstance, for instance, on time, on topic, on mood, on scale of exhibition, on interest or on peers’ opinion. Few of them has no preferences at all too.

The interviewees suggested the role of art museum is actually an authority of history and an institute towards the society, that they are responsible to present history and at the same time, educate and cultivate general public. Apart from preserve the past, museum also should keep recording the present. One of them mentioned that the role of art museum has been shifted from an education institute to a commercialized product, which is a quite interesting thought that can be discussed in the theoretical text.

Before the end of the interview, they have given different opinions on the museum they were visiting at that time. Some of them are praises and some of them are suggestions towards the museum. For instance, the visitors in Hermitage museum are happy and satisfied with the museum. A visitor mentioned that she is proud of being a Russian because of the museum, which I can assume museum is a way for self-identity and national identity. For the visitor in HKU Museum, they expect more to the exhibition, like, they would like to see wider diversity of exhibits, and have more facilities for them to understand works inside the museum. However, in conclusion, most of them still found their museum visits interesting.

Since my method of presentation is being more concrete and has updated, which is in the field of conceptual art. I would like to do another round of research on relevant artists and artworks.

---

Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth is an American conceptual artist who has several of well-known and creative works. The work that I want to refer to is “One and Three Chairs” which is done by Joseph Kosuth in 1965. The artwork is combined by three elements which is a chair, a photo of a chair and a text description stated the definition of a chair. He has done several works with similar method in his career. What makes it interesting is that they are all related to a chair but in different dimensions and ways of presentation.

What I can apply from this work is, my project is framed by the idea of museum and visitors’ behavior. What I have done is that, I have collected different thoughts from people who are related to museum, who has visited in an art museum, and also pictures of art museums. Therefore, it is possible for me to use these three results to combine a work too, that can help to construct an idea of “what is an art museum”, with similar method that has done by Joseph Kosuth.

---

Robert Barry

Robert Barry is also an American artist, who has works featured typography. In his work, “Red Cross” created in 2009. He used different keywords to combine a cross and put them on a wall. The work looks so simple but because of that, it makes me curious on how he wants to present like this and how the way it presents matters to the concept.

During the interview with professionals and questionnaire to visitors, I have asked them a question of naming keywords regarding to art museum. I have thought of presenting those keywords by selecting some of them and put them into a infographic, or on the wall, in order to give an idea of how people think of art museum. Thereby, I think Robert Barry’s artwork can be one of my reference at this point, to present keywords and perhaps construct a new meaning of the keywords by new composition.

---

Don Ritter

Don Ritter has made a set of animations and signage, with the name of the project, “Sustained Signage” in 2016. It is a work that concerns about the problem of sustainability. The way that he used is hilarious, sometimes nonsense at the beginning but quite make sense at the end in the animations, also clear stating the problem that he wants to address towards sustainability.

I have considered that my work can include, apart from photography and text, also infographics, since it is a strong way to present idea with clear layout and full information. I have an idea to make several signs that present my idea on how to visit a museum, maybe in a mocking way. For example, making a sign with the title, “Please take pictures as much as you want and put them on Instagram #artismylife”, which in my opinion, I oppose people who only go to take pictures in an art exhibition and upload them on social media, rather than taking a look on the artwork itself. Therefore, I think Don Ritter’s work can also be my reference in enriching my work.

I have applied for a space next to staircase of M7105, which is empty and quiet. Due to the staircase, echo can be made inside the space. The environment created a similar condition of being in a museum, with white 4 walls surrounded. Therefore, I believe it is a good space to display my work there.

I also applied for a space in 7/F Gallery, in case if I fail on the application of displaying inside the staircase.

At the end, I have assigned a space on 6/F floor, where is near M6075. I can use the wall to display and hang my work, at the same time lightening by the spotlight.

Due to the renewal of Art Museum of Hong Kong, I have chosen another location for field visit, which is the HKU Museum.

Thanks to the help of Dr. Knothe, I have communicated with the staff from HKU Museum. They have prepared me a name badge, which allows me to carry any interviews and photo shootings inside the museum, authorized by the museum. Also, they allow me to do interview and questionnaire with the visitors, or even the participants of their guided tours and workshops.

I have visited HKU Museum in the afternoon on 27^th March. Due to weekdays, the number of visitors is not as much as I thought. However, I still have done some nice talks with visitors there. Most of my interviewees are non-local, which they came by because of visiting HKU in general, they are from China, Japan and US. I have collected 9 samples during my visit. Since I may need more samples, I have planned to visit the museum once more during weekend.

After asking for permission from the staff of HKU Museum, they allowed to distribute my questionnaire in the paper-tearing workshop that held on 31th March. The workshop participants are family mainly, therefore, my questionnaire may be a bit hard for children to fill in, since they are open-end questions. Therefore, mostly their parents helped them to fill in the questionnaire. I also asked some of the visitors inside the museum to fill in my questionnaire on the day of the workshop.  

At the end of my two visits, I have collected 14 questionnaires which contain different thoughts from different nationalities. I am satisfied with the result since it is hard to ask people to fill in questionnaire, especially Hong Kong people which has been told by my previous experiences.

• 

Since my work is research based, I decided to present my research in a conceptual way. The data that I have got so far are mostly text based and photographs, so I will try to use a combination of typography and photography as the medium on work presentation.

I have done some research on different related artists, for instance, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Barry, Marcel Broodthaers and Gerhard Merz, I have come up an idea of putting both photo and text into one frame.

I have drafted different version of presentation. First one is a combination of photos and transcripts of the interview. I put both of them inside a frame, and plan to make different copies with different photos and transcripts. I also think of maybe it is possible to try to put more meanings into it, for example, the content of the transcript and the photo are not synced to each other, which is like, the transcript is about cell phone is forbidden inside the museum, but the photo is about visitor taking picture. Then a set of 15 or more frames is made so as to fulfil the whole display area of mine.

Second one is to make a small scale of exhibition, with not only one medium. In the draft I have thought of making infographics and also portrait. The idea is making an exhibition (with different medium of works) concerning the topic of museum or exhibition, so it is an exhibition exhibits the meaning of exhibition. The infographic’s content is constructed by the content of the interviews, for example, the 3 keywords of “museum” or “visitor”. I also have thought of making an instruction board with the title of “How to visit an art museum?”, which I may use a funny or mocking way to present the idea of visiting an art museum. The portrait is the photo that I have taken with the people that I have interviewed with.

Third one is about playing with the concept of exhibit display. I try to do it with exchanging the position of work and description board. The enlarged description board may consist of the interview’s transcript, while the work is either the portrait or museum photo that I have made while visit. The concept is exhibition has no certain way on displaying, but can do it in a lot of ways. In such way, I believe I can attract the glance of the visitor to look into my work.

After visiting several museums in other countries, I started to do research in Hong Kong. I have taken photos and interviewed with ordinary visitors inside those museums. I thought of perhaps I can interview professionals also in order to enrich my data of the project. With the help of my advisor, Harald, I can luckily arrange 6 interviews in total, with both local and foreign professionals in curation. Interviewees are listed below:

• Dr. Florian Knothe, Director of HKU Museum
• Dr. Isaac Leung, Chairperson of Videotage
• Mr. Tobias Berger, Head of Arts in Tai Kwun Contemporary
• Ms. Stella Fong, Lead Curator of Learning and Interpretation in M+
• Mr. Enoch Cheng, Founder of Art Collective Interlocutor
• Mr. Kyle Chung, Senior Research Associate of Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media

The interview is supposed to be within 20 minutes. Questions are framed within 4 different categories related to curatorial practice, visitors, personal experience and museum. Proposed questions are as followed:

---

1. Curation Strategies
   • How to curate a show that attract people?
   • What is the trend of curatorial strategies in the recent year?
   • How can you, as a curator, help visitors to get to know the content of exhibition when they are lack of professional knowledge?
2. Visitors’ Behaviour
   • 3 Keywords that would pop up in your mind when mentioning “visitor”
   • How would you comment on the behavior of visitors nowadays and in the past?
   • Would you mind if visitors only come to the exhibition for taking pictures only? Why?
   • Do you think the nowadays technology affects the behavior of visitors? How is the change? Any comment?
3. Experience
   • Can you share a good/bad experience you have when visiting art museums?
   • What is art museum meant to you?
   • What is your expectation when you visit other museums?
     
   • What is your criteria on choosing a museum to visit?
4. Museum and Future
   • What will be the role of art museum towards the society in the future?
   • How will the changed (participative) role of visitor influence the art museum in the future?
     
   • How will the curatorial strategies change in the future?
     
   • What will be the role / impact/ influence of media technology for the museum in the future?
     
   • Can museum be digitalized and exist as a virtual museum only, when people mostly rely on digital devices nowadays?

---

The interviews are successfully carried during late February to the mid of March. However, due to the limited time, not every question on the list has been mentioned during the interview. Some add-on questions have been added during the interview according to the individuals’ background and experience.

Full transcript of the interviews can be viewed on request, since I have promised the interviewers that the content of the interview would not be published online and keeps confidential. Beside, analysis and comparison of the result will be included in the coming theoretical text.

I have started working on the project from last year. By visiting museums in Europe, I can collect data of both the museum and the visitor, by observation and interview.

Later on, I did interviews with some of the professionals in curation, to learn and study the topic of museum and visitors’ behavior by the point of view of experts. I also paid a visit to the HKU Museum as a local reference for the project.

My plan is to finished presentation framing by the mid of April. Then, install my work by the end of April.