Curating Performance Installations

In this paper we will examine the use of the digital screen display as a primary form of accessing information within the museum context. We will argue that this mode of dissemination, achieved primarily through a Graphic User Interface (GUI) though highly efficient in providing contextual support, can be detrimental to a wider sense of social interaction and engagement between visitors, both of which are recognised as key aspects of how we experience and learn within the museum. By using the Edward Gordon Craig: Space & Light exhibition held at the V&A Museum as a case study, we will explore the potential of a more performative mode of digital interactivity, whereby through notions of the re-enactment, a material reality can be constructed, based not on interpretation or objecthood, but oscillation and trajectory. As such, new perspectives and understandings can emerge through the activation and experience of the visitor within the museum, creating a more embodied sense of learning.