The Museum is Dreaming : Re-Imagining the Museum through Feminist Values and Data Practices in Design Fiction

Abstract

Museums and galleries are in a constant process to generate and maintain meaningful, long-lasting relationships with visitors. With the exponential increase of accessible and novel technologies, they are now understood as key mediators of this practice - particularly as the collection and utilisation of personal data re-conceptualises what visitor engagement might look like. However, this shift comes with its own challenges: Creating data is not a neutral undertaking: It is always at the risk of entrenching already existing marginalisation within cultural spaces, as well as creating new forms of oppression. This paper presents a design fiction that is 1) based on previous research conducted with museum staff and visitors, and 2) generated and evaluated through feminist values as a guiding framework. Through the combination of these approaches, data streams and methods, we outline the potential of technology to aid or inhibit the concepts of accessibility, power, and personal data in a museum. Finally, we outline Feminist Data Design Fiction as a potential approach and several design implications to make the museum a more pluralistic place - for data collection and beyond.