Post-museum experiences: structured methods for audience engagement

The modernist program underpinned the formation of our civic cultural institutions profoundly affecting the ways in which museums, libraries and art galleries collected artefacts and displayed them to their audiences. In the 'post-institution' context, museums and libraries are forming new ways of working with their audiences to create meaningful interactive experiences. The internet offers a new medium through which 'meaning making' and interaction can be explored to produce diverse cultural programs. While the modernist program relied on curators to mediate knowledge and information to further the institutional agenda, the post institution can play a proactive role in the development of audience experience and meaning by engaging in representative curatorial practices which enable individuals and communities to partner with communities in the preservation of cultural identity and the creation of community content. This opportunity will be realised through structured design methods where cultural institutions work with their audiences to create new experiences. This paper describes a structured method for cultural interactive experience design (CIED) and places it within an historic and political context in order to explore how curators and designers can move from collection focussed to audience focussed interactive experiences.