The Objects of Experience: Transforming Visitor-Object Encounters in Museums

What if museums could harness the emotional and intellectual connections people have to personal and everyday objects to create richer visitor experiences? In this book, Elizabeth Wood and Kiersten Latham present the Object Knowledge Framework, a tool for using objects to connect museum visitors to themselves, to others, and to their world. They discuss the key concepts underpinning our lived experience of objects and how museums can learn from them. Then they walk readers through concrete methods for transforming visitor-object experiences, including exercises and strategies for teams developing exhibit themes, messages, and content, and participatory experiences.

Elizabeth (Elee) Wood is an associate professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) with joint appointments in the Museum Studies program, IU School of Liberal Arts, and Education, IU School of Education. In addition, she serves as the public scholar of museums, families, and learning in a joint appointment at the internationally renowned Children s Museum of Indianapolis. Her research interests include object-based learning, informal learning in community settings, and critical museum pedagogies. Wood has published widely and presented internationally on the concepts of object knowledge and biographical objects.
Kiersten F. Latham is an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, where she has built and teaches in the museum studies specialization within the Masters program. In addition to academic work, she has practiced in museums in various positions for over 20 years. Her research focuses on the meaning of museum objects, especially with respect to emotion, perception, sensation, and spirituality. Presently, she is studying the meaning of materiality to museum users. She has done research on numinous experiences with museum objects, phenomenological touch, and conceptual ramifications of museum object as document.＂