Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 19th Aug 2026, 21:30:13 EET
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06 SES 06 B: Physical Learning Environments, Musemus, and Historical Spaces
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06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Paper Distancing and Embracing: Capturing Affective Encounters in a History Museum Using Eye Tracking and Self-Reports 1: University of Turku, Finland; 2: University of Eastern Finland, Finland; 3: University of Oulu, Finland Presenting Author:Visitors enter museums and heritage sites not only to learn; they also visit these places in order to feel (Smith, 2014). Museums have started to respond to this, according to Varutti (2023), through what they describe as affective curatorship, a practice that specifically aims at affecting visitors emotionally. Often this may involve the aim of leading the visitor to a specific direction in moral engagement (Savenije & de Bruin, 2017). Such visitor responses can be highly individual, however, which poses a challenge in the systematic and research-based development of affective curatorship. Especially in exhibiting topics associated with negative affects, like war or other kinds of human suffering, the question emerges as to how visitors come to choose to interact with exhibitions about distressing topics, or even gain positive emotions from the full experience afterwards? This multi-method study aims at capturing affective encounters with WWII propaganda photographs in a cultural-history science centre. These encounters are approached from the perspective of the Distancing-Embracing model of art reception (Menninghaus, et al., 2017a; 2017b) that offers a way of considering the different factors at play when encountering emotionally (negatively) laden topics in the history museum. The Distancing-Embracing model includes the interplay of two factors. First, the Distancing Factor consists of three cognitive schemata: the art, representation and fiction schemata. Applying these schemata provides the viewer the well-known effect of psychological distancing from the object. This is the key for allowing the second, Embracing Factor, to introduce “mechanisms that allow art recipients not only to tolerate, but even to ‘embrace’ negative emotions” (Menninghaus, et al., 2017b, 5). This interplay allows the experience to benefit from the powerful grip of negative emotions on attentional resources and their persistence without negativity taking over. The Embracing Factor of the model presents conceptual tools for addressing museum visitors’ engagement with an exhibit from multiple perspectives. The factor consists of the components of (1) the interplay of positive and negative emotions in the visitor, and (2) the use of visitors’ mixed emotions as mediators of negative emotions. It also includes the occasionally needed components of (3) aesthetic virtues of the representation, (4) meaning construction and (5) emotion regulation through genre scripts. Further, the model acknowledges (though vaguely) the social, cultural and situational variables of (art) reception, and the individual differences between recipients as underlying factors that impact the distancing-embracing process. In the attempt to capture affective encounters with exhibits, this study employs both mobile eye tracking (MET) and self-reports as study methods. MET, or head-mounted, glasses-like devices, are an adaptation of eye-tracking technology and allow capturing what was looked at, for how long, and in which order, on a level of detail a visitor themselves could not report. This tool allows for examining if and how visual attention was paid to an exhibited object (e.g. Reitstätter, et al., 2020; 2022; Di Giovanni, 2020). Notably, however, MET does not inform about the quality of the engagement. Visitors also differ in their expectations and entrance narratives (Kirchberg & Tröndle, 2012; Mason, et al., 2018), and in what they find intriguing in an exhibition. Thus, self-reports (e.g., Smith, 2014; Mason, et al., 2018; Hoare, 2020; Innes & Sharp, 2021), are needed to capture these kinds of individual perceptions. Applying the above-mentioned theoretical framework and methods, the study first explores the effect of situational factors on viewing time of WWII propaganda photographs. Second, it studies the interplay of negative and positive emotions in the participants, and their associations with time spent on viewing the photographs. Third, it examines viewers’ self-reported topics of interest toward the photographs, and their associations with viewing time. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study was conducted at Muisti [Memory] Centre of War and Peace in Finland. 22 volunteers (age range from 17 to 63; 10 male, 12 female) gave their informed consent to take part. Three four-image series of Finnish WWII propaganda photographs were created for the experiment. The Joyous Soldiers series presented smiling soldiers interacting with each other and civilians. The Victims of Destruction series depicted serious-looking people among, e.g., burning buildings (the images were carefully selected so that they were not overly distressing). The Hardworking Civilians series showed solemn-looking civilians in their everyday activities. When presenting each series, the photographs were presented each on their own floor-standing monitor. Three presentations conditions were applied: Normal, Dark with only the monitors providing light in the room, and Timed Dark where the photographs came visible one after another for 16 seconds in the darkened room. In the experiment, the participant wore the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 mobile eye tracker. They first viewed one series in one of the conditions. They then described in writing (a) the mood in the series (in three words), (b) the emotions the series aroused in themselves (in three words), (c) their interest toward the series on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very interesting), and (d) what in the series they found interesting (if anything; an open-ended question). Written responses and background questionnaires were answered on a laptop using the REDcap survey web application. The same procedure was then repeated for the two other series and conditions. The order of presenting the series in the three conditions was randomized between participants. The view time of a photograph was defined based on manual annotating of the MET data. Participants’ emotion descriptions regarding the mood of a series and their own emotions were analyzed qualitatively. Building on the Scherer (2005) model of emotions, the descriptions were categorized as either positive or negative, and either highly aroused, somewhat aroused, somewhat not aroused or not aroused. The topics of interests were analyzed by creating data-driven main and subthemes. The main themes were: (1) manifest content, (2) inferences that go beyond the manifest content, and (3) the photographs as a construction. Each main theme contained three more specific subthemes. Statistical analysis of MET data and, when appropriate, categorized qualitative data, was performed with R statistical software, selecting a fitting mixed modeling technique for a specific analysis. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings To begin, the photographs were viewed longer without a time restriction. This brings forth the challenge of balancing between guiding a museum visitor with rotated presentations, while allowing each enough time to engage with the exhibit. Emotions depicted by the photographs and those aroused in participants themselves differed for the Victims of Destruction series; the high arousal and negative emotions in the photographs was responded to with less aroused and even positive emotions. These photographs were also associated with longer viewing times. In the case of the Joyous Soldiers series, the participants reported sharing the positive emotions depicted in the photographs. Interpretations of the Hardworking Civilians series were more varied. The range of topics of interest demonstrated the variety of individual approaches to the same visual material. Critical stances toward the propaganda photographs were, however, rarely expressed, and more often something about the manifest content was reported as interesting. In the case of the Joyous Soldiers series, the emotions and human interaction depicted in them aroused interest, whereas the two other series, associated with more varied or negative emotions, were considered interesting in terms of activities and places, not people. Higher interest ratings were associated with longer viewing times, but this finding should be interpreted cautiously, as the sample size did not allow for reliable modeling of all potentially relevant interactions. Put together, the findings can be seen as evidence of some tension between distancing from and embracing wartime imagery in the history-museum context. The combined use of MET and self-reports resulted in a more complete picture of the affective encounters than one method alone could have provided. History museums need to capture visitors’ affective encounters in order to face their diversity and support them better, and the theoretical and methodological tools presented here are a step toward this goal. References Di Giovanni, Elena. 2020. “Eye Tracking and the Museum Experience in Italy.” Altre Modernità, 24: 10–24. Hoare, Jessica. 2020. “The Practice and Potential of Heritage Emotion Research: An Experimental Mixed-Methods Approach to Investigating Affect and Emotion in a Historic House.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 26 (10): 955–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2020.1714696. Innes, Melanie, and Heather Sharp. 2021. “Historical Empathy and Museum Culture.” Journal of Museum Education 46 (3): 307–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2021.1954771. Kirchberg, Volker, and Martin Tröndle. 2012. “Experiencing Exhibitions: A Review of Studies on Visitor Experiences in Museums.” Curator 55 (4): 435–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2012.00167.x. Mason, Rhiannon, Areti Galani, Katherine Lloyd, and Joanne Sayner. 2018. “Experiencing Mixed Emotions in the Museum: Empathy, Affect, and Memory in Visitors’ Responses to Histories of Migration.” In Emotion, Affective Practices, and the Past in the Present, 1st ed., edited by Laurajane Smith, Margaret Wetherell, and Gary Campbell, vol. 1. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351250962-8. Menninghaus, Winfried, Valentin Wagner, Julian Hanich, Eugen Wassiliwizky, Thomas Jacobsen, and Stefan Koelsch. 2017a. “The Distancing-Embracing Model of the Enjoyment of Negative Emotions in Art Reception.” The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40: e347. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17000309. Menninghaus, Winfried, Valentin Wagner, Julian Hanich, Eugen Wassiliwizky, Thomas Jacobsen, and Stefan Koelsch. 2017b. “Negative Emotions in Art Reception: Refining Theoretical Assumptions and Adding Variables to the Distancing-Embracing Model.” The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40: e380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17001947. Reitstätter, Luise, Hanna Brinkmann, Thiago Santini, et al. 2020. “The Display Makes a Difference: A Mobile Eye Tracking Study on the Perception of Art before and after a Museum’s Rearrangement.” Journal of Eye Movement Research 13 (2): 6. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.13.2.6. Reitstätter, Luise, Karolin Galter, and Flora Bakondi. 2022. “Looking to Read: How Visitors Use Exhibit Labels in the Art Museum.” Visitor Studies 25 (2): 127–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2021.2018251. Savenije, Geerte M, and Pieter de Bruijn. 2017. “Historical Empathy in a Museum: Uniting Contextualisation and Emotional Engagement.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23 (9): 832–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1339108. Scherer, Klaus R. 2005. “What Are Emotions? And How Can They Be Measured?” Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales 44 (4): 695–729. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018405058216. Smith, Laurajane. 2014. “Visitor Emotion, Affect and Registers of Engagement at Museums and Heritage Sites.” Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage 14 (2): 125–31. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1973-9494/5447. Varutti, Marzia. 2023. “The Affective Turn in Museums and the Rise of Affective Curatorship.” Museum Management and Curatorship 38 (1): 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2022.2132993. 06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Paper From “Enchantment” to “Rule of Law”: The Crisis of Museum Authority as Digital Public Pedagogy East China Normal University, China, People's Republic of Presenting Author:Traditionally, museums have relied on closed expert systems to maintain their epistemic authority, functioning as “temples” of culture. However, in the era of digital media empowerment, this authority is facing a profound legitimacy crisis. This research addresses a critical question: How does a reputation crisis in a cultural institution transform into a moment of civic education? Using the Nanjing Museum public opinion incident (2025-2026) as a case study, this research reframes the crisis not merely as a management failure, but as a practice of Public Pedagogy aimed at the “disenchantment” of knowledge power. The study explores how digital public spheres allow citizens to seize the initiative in educational discourse, effectively reversing the teacher-student power dynamic between the institution and the public. The study is grounded in the theory of Public Pedagogy, viewing the online public opinion field as an informal educational site. It integrates Weber’s concept of “Disenchantment” to analyze the collapse of the museum's mysterious aura. We conceptualize the interaction as “Conflictual Pedagogy”, where the public acts as the “educator” through critique and inquiry, forcing the institution to reveal its administrative logic. While focused on a Chinese case, this study resonates deeply with the European discourse on the New Museology and the Crisis of Expertise. European museums are currently grappling with demands for decolonization, transparency, and participatory governance. By analyzing how digital platforms facilitate a shift from reverence to scrutiny, this research offers a non-Western model of Digital Civic Engagement that contributes to the global debate on the changing definition of the museum. It challenges the traditional view of arts education as aesthetic appreciation, proposing instead a model of arts education as civic accountability. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This study adopts a Computational Social Science approach, utilizing a mixed-methods framework based on big data text mining to capture the scale and evolution of digital public opinion. Full-volume data was harvested from Sina Weibo (China’s equivalent to X/Twitter), covering the entire lifecycle of the public opinion incident from September 2025 to January 2026. This dataset includes original posts, comments, and repost chains, ensuring a comprehensive representation of the public discourse. The analysis was conducted using a Python-based pipeline integrating three specific algorithms to examine the data diachronically: 1. LDA Topic Modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation): Used to trace the macroscopic evolution of public agendas. We calculated the topic intensity and coherence to visualize how the discussion focus shifted over time. 2. Word2Vec Semantic Network Analysis: Employed to reconstruct the micro-semantic structure. By training word vector models on the corpus, we mapped the changing semantic distance between key concepts to reveal how the definitions of these terms were reconstructed by the public. 3. SnowNLP Sentiment Analysis: Used to quantify the emotional trajectory of the discourse, correlating sentiment polarity with specific administrative responses to identify turning points in public trust. This methodological combination allows for a rigorous, quantitative reconstruction of how a “digital crowd” organizes itself into a cohesive “pedagogical force”. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The research yields three critical findings regarding the transformation of museum governance and public pedagogy. 1. Agenda Convergence: The LDA results show a forced convergence of public agenda. The discourse rapidly shifted from divergent themes of aesthetic consumption and cultural experience to highly focused themes of administrative accountability and legal scrutiny. This indicates that the public successfully hijacked the narrative, forcing the institution onto a political-legal terrain. 2. Semantic Reconstruction: Word2Vec analysis reveals a semantic alienation of the core concept Museum. It evolved from a sensory cultural space to an administrative entity bound by law. Simultaneously, the interaction mode reversed from a unidirectional gaze of worship to adversarial rational inquiry. 3. The Nature of the Crisis: The study concludes that this incident was essentially a “Conflictual Pedagogy” led by the public. When the museum's administrative logic was exposed due to ethical misconduct, the public utilized digital platforms to carve out a temporary Critical Public Sphere. Relying on concepts of procedural justice, they reshaped the social consensus on public trust. Final Implication: This marks a historic transition for museum governance: moving from a stage of “Enchantment” (based on mystery and authority) to a stage of “Rule of Law” (based on transparency and public supervision). For arts education, this suggests that the future of museum literacy lies not just in appreciating artifacts, but in understanding the institutional ethics behind them. References [1]Ahmad Farid Abd Jalal, Ibrahim Majdi Mohamad Kamil& Rahimin Affandi Abdul Rahim(2025).Reclaiming Epistemic Authority: The Role of Muslim Museum Curators in Shaping Historical and Cultural Narratives Internasional Journal of Islamic Products and Malay Civilization, 4(2), 19-32. [2]Bennett, T. (1988). The Exhibitionary Complex. New Formations, (4), 73-102. [3]Fleming, T. (2024). Adult learning and experience of crises: Interrogating critical theory, democracy, and citizenship education., Volume: In Tsiboukli, A. et al. Proceedings of the First International Conference Lifelong Learning and Education Adults in the Age of Uncertainty (pp. 28-37). [4]Giroux, H. A. (2004). Cultural studies, public pedagogy, and the responsibility of intellectuals. Communication and critical/cultural studies, 1(1), 59-79. [5]Hausmann, A. (2012). The importance of word of mouth for museums: An analytical framework. International Journal of Arts Management, 14(3), 32. [6]Smeds, K. (2012). On the Meaning of Exhibitions: Exhibition èpistèmes in a historical perspective. Designs for Learning, 5(1-2): 50-72. [7]Wonderful Museums. (2025, August 6). Museums Are Not Neutral: Unveiling Hidden Biases and Reshaping Public Narratives. https://www.wonderfulmuseums.com/museum/museums-are-not-neutral-74/ 06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Paper “The Freak wants to go to the Museum”- The Appropriation of Animated Film by Pupils in an Art Based Educational Project University of Göttingen, Germany Presenting Author:Educational Ecosystems (EEs) are networks of different learning locations in which young people learn in a more creative and interest-driven way (Smitsman et al. 2020, Hannon et al. 2019, Ito et al. 2020).They are characterised by the cooperation of different educational spaces like schools, libraries, museums, youth centres, associations or maker spaces. In contrast to school education, which still relies on the traditional formula of class based learning, fixed school hours, roles of teacher and learners, classroom layouts and learning content decided by a curriculum and the teacher, young people in educational ecosystems are offered open, team-based, participative learning opportunities based around research and their own interest. In these projects students have access to new out-of-school learning locations, like maker spaces or museums and can develop their own ideas, build working teams, organise their own work processes and finally present their project results to an audience. Digital tools for making and coding games, music or film and a comprehensive range of crafting materials are provided as the building blocks for bringing their ideas to life. Using the example of a project based on the collaboration between a museum and two partner schools (one class from a primary and one from a secondary school) in Germany, I want to present insights into the research and art-based learning projects. In one part of the scheme, the project leaders worked with a local organisation which provides a digital platform and software for creating self-drawn animated films incorporating digital stop-motion techniques as well as mobile services for teaching children how to make animated films. After being instructed by the supervisor, the secondary school students were asked to use the medium of animated film to visualise their project ideas, which dealt with how the services of the museum could be extended or transformed. In the case of the primary pupils, the task was just to create a film from earlier developed stories about animals. The paper aims to give insights into the possibilities and challenges of the medium, into the contrast between free/creative vs framed/organised learning within the project and into how the children utilised the previously unknown medium of self-drawn animated film for their individual aims. Key questions are: How was the medium of animated film taught to the pupils and what boundaries and rules were set? How much participation and freedom to create was left to the students? And how did they use it? What were the achievements and the challenges and barriers for the students during the workshop? How did they utilise the medium of animated film for their ideas? What do the completed short films tell us about their ideas, motivation, influences and worldview and how did they visualise and discuss the learning spaces?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The main method for research on the projects and events of the Educational Ecosystems was participant observation (Musante 2015) as applied to media anthropology (Coman 2005). The researcher (here the author) took part in the workshops, observed and sometimes actively took part in the activities. During her observation, the researcher took field notes about participants, activities and communication and used drawings and sketches to illustrate the spatial arrangements and organisation of the project work in the museum or in the school. Additionally photography and video was used to capture their work or during their presentations and interviews. During students’ activities, the researcher went around the tables and sat down with the different working teams to observe their work as well as to talk to them about what they were doing and why, their choice of ideas, mise-en-scène, story boards and characters for the animated films. On the day of their presentations in the museum, the researcher interviewed the children again about the process in retrospect as well as about the finished films. The author also took part in regular work meetings of the project leaders and talked to the project leaders and the film educator individually about the projects. Analysing the film workshops as “media constellations” enabled me to examine the interplay between materialities, knowledge and practices, subject positions and content (Weich 2020, 2023). The final films were analysed using film analysis (Ryan/Lenos 2012, Korte 2010, Hickethier 2007, Fischer/Petro ed. 2012) to decipher the mise-en-scène, story, plot, characters, perspective and editing. Moreover approaches to film education (Bachmann/Zahn 2018, Rajpopat 2023) and theories on stop-motion animation (Kim/Kim 2006) and its use as pedagogical tools (Farrokhnia 2020, Thomas/Tufano 2010) were used to contextualise the students’ films in the frame of educational projects. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The paper aims to show how the medium of animated film is used for learning within educational cooperations between schools and extracurricular learning venues. Although conceptualised as free, open and participatory learning, the frame, tasks, time plan and media were still set by the project leaders. By looking at these projects as media constellations, I want to show how subjects’ positions are transformed and shifted, materialities appropriated, knowledge retrieved, practices developed and content created. Although the children have grown up in a digitalised environment, the medium and techniques of storytelling and self-drawn animated film might not be familiar to them. The results show how pupils are frustrated, amazed or struggle with the techniques and medium. Finally they managed to utilise animated film making for their own aims. Humour and comedy played a central role in the work process as well as in the films. The students were able to complete the tasks in their own novel ways while still having fun. The films present deep insights into their ideas, inspirations, motivations, story building abilities and techniques and what they would convey as messages or moralities to the viewers. The stories are not only visualisations of their ideas about the world and themselves but also their attitudes towards the new ways to be educated, to learning spaces and to how these could be transformed in the future. The findings aim to contribute to academic debates and to the development of theories on educational ecosystems, the role of arts, media and film in education. The case studies and user stories provide rich ethnographic content which could also inspire future practices in education. Results from the study can provide recommendations for the use of film in education and for the creation and management of educational ecosystems. References Bachmann, A., & Zahn, M. (2018). Film Education as a Multiplicity of Practices: A Media-Ecological Perspective. Film Education Journal, 1(1), 78-89. Coman, M. (2005). Media anthropology: An overview. http://www. media-anthropology. net/coman_maoverview. pdf Easterling, K. (2021). Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World. Verso. Farrokhnia, M., Meulenbroeks, R. F., & van Joolingen, W. R. (2020). Student-generated stop-motion animation in science classes: A systematic literature review. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 29(6), 797-812. Fischer, L., & Petro, P. Ed. (2012). Teaching film. New York: MLA. Kim, S. N., & Kim, S. G. (2006). A Study on the Essential Elements for Animation using Stop-Motion. International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 1(2), 6-9. Korte, H. (2010). Einführung in die Systematische Filmanalyse. Berlin: ESV. Hannon, V., Thomas, L., Ward, S., & Beresford, T. (2019). Local Learning Ecosystems: Emerging Models. https://www.wise-qatar.org/2019-wise-research-learning-ecosystems-innovation-unit/ Hickethier, K. (2007) Film- und Fernsehanalyse. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. Ito, M., Arum, R., Conley, D., Gutiérrez, K., Kirshner, B., Livingstone, S., Michalchik, V., Penuel, W., Peppler, K., Pinkard, N., Jean Rhodes, K., Tekinbaş, S., Schor, J., Sefton-Green, J., & Watkins, S. C. (2020). The Connected Learning Research Network. Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship. Connected Learning Alliance. https://clalliance.org/publications/theconnected-learning-research-network-reflections-on-a-decade-of-engaged-scholarship/ Musante, K. (2015). Participant observation. In H. R. Bernard and C. C. Gravlee (Eds.) Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology, 251-292. Rajpopat, V. (2023). Use of film as a Teaching Resource: A literature review. International Journal of Emerging Knowledge Studies, 2(9), 225-233. Ryan, M., & Lenos, M. (2012). An introduction to film analysis: Technique and meaning in narrative film. New York, London: Continuum. Smitsman, A., Laszlo, A., & Luksha, P. (2020). Evolutionary learning ecosystems for thrivable futures: Crafting and curating the conditions for future-fit education. World Futures, 76(4), 214-239. Thomas, A., & Tufano, N. (2010). Stop motion animation. In Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear (Eds.): DIY media: Creating, sharing, and learning with new technologies, 161-184. Weich, A. (2020). Hervorbringung von Medienkonstellationen statt Nutzung didaktischer Werkzeuge. Versuch einer medienkulturwissenschaftlichen Didaktik der Bildungsmedien am Beispiel von Videokonferenzen als Unterrichtsform. Medienimpulse, 58(02), 1-32. Weich, A. (2023). Medienkonstellationsanalyse. In L. Niebling, F. Raczkowski, & S.Stollfuß (Eds.): Handbuch digitale Medien und Methoden. Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36629-2_28-1 | ||