Description

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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.

About the Author

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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.

Praise For…

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“A delight to read. In laying out the theoretical foundations, the Object Knowledge Framework, and the practical strategies, Wood and Latham have given us something brand new to cogitate in the field. I love the blend of scholarship and practical application. The authors have taken some difficult concepts and made them easy to understand. This book could be extremely useful for curators to think about the ways that visitors think about the objects in an easy and intriguing way.”

—Donna R. Braden, Curator of Public Life, The Henry Ford


“In this insightful and delightful volume, Wood and Latham present a well-researched and clearly written argument for the importance of the object to the purpose of museums. The authors’ multi-disciplinary study is both theoretical and practical, beginning with their phenomenological approach to studying human experience and their resulting Object Knowledge Framework, which is a groundbreaking evaluation of how humans interact with objects. The authors offer excellent explanations of the application of the Object Knowledge Framework to museum practice that will ensure that visitors fully benefit from their encounter with objects.”

—John Simmons, Museologica


“Wood and Latham move beyond defending or bemoaning the place of objects in our museums to exploring how objects are the nexus for what both museums and museum-goers care about most: human connections. Shifting easily between broad theory and practical exercises, The Objects of Experience will be the centerpiece for many useful conversations among museum staffs looking to move forward together.”

—Benjamin Filene, Director of Public History, UNC Greensboro