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RE: Interpretation or Interaction? On Exhibit Labels in a Labelless Age
This is really interesting, and I wonder if focus groups can't also play a role in creating object labels that better reflect the audience. Like if you brought in a group of people with diverse ages, backgrounds, etc and had them react to a bunch of objects, recorded their reactions, and used those to influence the questions and facts given in the label? (Or is that too creepy? Haha)
Great idea! I've been on projects that tried to use advisory committees in a similar capacity. The failure was that institutions would replace the perspectives of community members (often working-class POC) with scholars who "specialized" in said community members' experiences. In fact, one project used a non-local white male scholar in the place of the local elder community activist of color he interviewed! This definitely gets back to what PubComm's activist session was talking about - public historians get the spotlight and credentials while profiting off the intellectual and emotional labor of their "subjects."