By Amber
Lucero-Criswell, Director of Education and Public Programs, Museum of Photographic Arts
This particular session was of immediate
interest to me because the internet has drastically changed the weight and
validity of the “authoritative voice.” Official opinions that were once held in
the domain of specialists are now being decided by the arena of online
consensus. For example, whereas once we solicited the distinct opinions of food
and movie critics, today we are more likely to place value on the everyday
consumer reviews found on websites like Yelp! and Fandango. This user-generated
content has changed the way we value the experiences of our world, and
dramatically changed the role of “experts.”
So, what implications does this have for the
museum field? Big ones, in my opinion, and this was evidenced in the
presentations at this session which showed how user-generated content has
helped steer scholarship, provided multiple voices of interpretation, and
developed museum projects. For me, I am specifically interested in how the
authority of the museum curatorial voice might lose its power, in exciting
ways, and give way to more active engagement and participation by museum and
online visitors.
This last idea is one that we are exploring at
MoPA through plans for a crowdsourced exhibition that would be curated online
by visitors to our newly developed website. Their selections from our permanent
collection, ratings, and commentaries would drive the development of an
exhibition at MoPA, turning online visitors into curators and curators into
visitors. We hope that such innovative use of user-generated content will help
museums evolve with the changing attitudes, interests, and learning styles of
our public.