ABSTRACT

Museum Thresholds is a progressive, interdisciplinary volume and the first to explore the importance and potential of entrance spaces for visitor experience. Bringing together an international collection of writers from different disciplines, the chapters in this volume offer different theoretical perspectives on the nature of engagement, interaction and immersion in threshold spaces, and the factors which enable and inhibit those immersive possibilities.

Organised into themed sections, the book explores museum thresholds from three different perspectives. Considering them first as a problem space, the contributors then go on to explore thresholds through different media and, finally, draw upon other subjects and professions, including performance, gaming, retail and discourse studies, in order to examine them from an entirely new perspective. Drawing upon examples that span Asia, North America and Europe, the authors set the entrance space in its historical, social and architectural contexts. Together, the essays show how the challenges posed by the threshold can be rethought and reimagined from a variety of perspectives, each of which have much to bring to future thinking and design.

Combining both theory and practice, Museum Thresholds should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students working in museum studies, digital heritage, architecture, design studies, retail studies and media studies. It will also be of great interest to museum practitioners working in a wide variety of institutions around the globe.

chapter 1|9 pages

On a new threshold

ByRoss Parry, Ruth Page, Alex Moseley

part I|67 pages

Locating and defining the threshold

chapter 2|20 pages

Hysterical atria

ByKatherine Skellon, Ben Tunstall

chapter 3|21 pages

The complexity of welcome

Visitor experience at the museum threshold
ByColin Mulberg

chapter |4 pages

Conversation 1

The Royal Air Force Museum London
ByColin Mulberg

chapter 4|20 pages

Design-driven innovation for museum entrances

ByMarco Mason

part II|93 pages

Affordances and potential of the threshold

chapter 5|26 pages

Suspended

Art in the threshold
ByPeter Ride

chapter 6|12 pages

Curation at the threshold

Making museum meanings through new interfaces
ByAngelina Russo, Philip Pond

chapter |5 pages

Conversation 2

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
ByAngelina Russo, Philip Pond

chapter 8|19 pages

Difficult thresholds

Negotiating shared and embedded entrances
BySteven Kruse

part III|81 pages

The threshold rethought

chapter 9|14 pages

Games in the lobby

A playful approach
ByErik Kristiansen, Alex Moseley

chapter |3 pages

Conversation 3

The British Postal Museum and Archive
ByErik Kristiansen, Alex Moseley

chapter 10|19 pages

Retail perspectives on the threshold

ByTracy Harwood

chapter 11|17 pages

Setting the tone for the visit

Soundscape design
ByChristian Hviid Mortensen, Angus Deuchars

chapter |3 pages

Conversation 4

The Royal Shakespeare Company
ByChristian Hviid Mortensen, Angus Deuchars

chapter 12|23 pages

The visitor as evaluator

Using appraisal theory to understand ‘threshold fear’
ByRuth Page