ABSTRACT
In this chapter the concept of participatory design shall be examined as interrelated with the concept of participation and as an endeavor to redefine the museum as public institution. The argument is that concepts matter, that conceptual work is essential to the experimental museum and that participatory design as a today globally accepted concept needs to be thoroughly scrutinised and made into a contextualised platform for museum experimentation. The argument is pursued through a conceptual mapping, informed by the travelling concept approach, to be followed by an adaptation of a model for normative analysis in design practice. Finally, the model is applied in an explorative case study of a current initiative at the Workers Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, to test the relevance of the suggested model. The initiative have three ‘legs’: The Exhibition Activist!, the partnership with young Museum Rebels and the Protest Workshop, the latter an installation and learning centre created during the exhibition. As these titles suggest, the case touches upon another, but connected matter of concern in to-days experimental museology: the activist museum.
