Applied Music for Museums – A New Model of Museum Audience Development – Pilot Research
BELGRADE, December 16, 2021. Presentation of the results of the pioneering scientific and artistic project “Applied Music for Museums: The Case of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade” was held in front of an expert audience at the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade. The project was initiated by the Center for Applied Music – Belgrade, with the support of the Museum of Science and Technology – Belgrade and the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development, and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia. The panel presents unique applied music with three permanent compositions composed for three permanent exhibitions of the Museum, as well as the results of research into the impact of that music on the museum audience. A new model of museum audience development, important for the development of contemporary museology, applied music and communication, was presented. The panel was followed by a discussion with representatives of several domestic museums.
The panel was opened by Radovan Jokić, Assistant Minister of Culture and Information, in the Sector for Contemporary Creativity and Creative Industries, and a welcoming speech was given by Zoran Lević, Acting Director of the Museum of Science and Technology.
Aleksandar Vl. Spoke about composing and integrating applied music into the space of permanent exhibitions of the Museum of Science and Technology. Markovic, president of the Center for Applied Music, thanked all participants in this pioneering project, especially the Museum of Science and Technology, for recognizing and accepting the challenge of an innovative project, which is already being invited by authors in European academic circles. “This pioneering research has activated domestic and interested foreign experts and artists in order to examine a new model of audience development that corresponds to the current digital age, but also defines and creates a new environment for the consumption of art and museum exhibits.” Composing three permanently applied compositions and integrating them into permanent exhibitions brought new insights and relations between the exhibits, the space and the visitors. The compositions were written after careful research of the complete content of the settings and a special composition methodology for a new genre of applied music.
Biljana Jokić, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development and the Center for Applied Music, spoke about the pilot research of the aesthetic experiences of museum visitors. “A survey of MNT visitors was conducted before and after the introduction of music, as well as in-depth interviews with the aim of looking at the effects of applied music on aesthetic experiences and attitudes of visitors about the museum visit. This pilot study covered different age groups, including a special group of blind and partially sighted people. Preliminary results of the research showed that the general impressions about the effects of music in the museum are similar for all groups of visitors: music completes the experience in the museum, is perceived as part of the whole and in cooperation with exhibits and space enhances visitors’ impressions. The effects of music are reflected both emotionally (improving mood), and cognitively (memory, arousing curiosity, spreading knowledge) and behaviorally (moving to play and action).
Nikola Krstović, President of ICOM Serbia, also spoke at the panel; Dušan Đorđević, composer; with a video address by composers Miša Cvijović and Alsina Cortez from the NOVA University in Lisbon (Portugal), with which the Center for Applied Music is actively collaborating.
About the project:
The project “Applied Music for Museums: The Case of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade” deals with the development of the sub-genre of applied music for museums by composing original permanent applied music for the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade. as well as researching its impact on museum visitors and audience development. The original music for the three permanent exhibitions of the museum was composed by Aleksandar Vl. Markovic (Sinomuzika for the permanent exhibition “Man and Science” Aleksandar Vl. Markovic (54 min), art historian and author of applied music for numerous exhibitions, composer Miša Cvijović (Sinomuzika for the permanent exhibition “Toy Gallery” – Miša Cvijović (15 min) and young composer Dušan Đorđević (Synomusics for the permanent exhibition “Scientific Workshop” – Dušan Đorđević (15 min), who with their experience and application of the methodology of composing permanent music for museums and galleries, contributed to the further development of this sub-genre of applied music.
The research of the effects of applied music on museum visitors is designed as a pilot project that should measure the effects of applied music for museums on the development of museum audiences in the Museum of Science and Technology, which could contribute to creating a sustainable model of museum audience development. So far, only a few researches have been conducted in the world, and only about the influence of popular classical music, but composed for other purposes. The fact that a European consortium of 12 partners from 7 countries has already been formed, which wants to apply the concept of permanently applied museum music with testing, shows how innovative the idea is.