Press Conference / Applied Music for Museums / The Case of The Museum of Science And Technology In Belgrade

Development of subgenre of applied music for museums and testing its influence on museum visitors and audience development

BELGRADE September 15, 2021,  Applied music for museums: The case of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade, is the name of a scientific and artistic project initiated by the Center for Applied Music – Belgrade, with the support of the Museum of Science and Technology – Belgrade and the Institute for Cultural Development, and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

The project deals with the development of the sub-genre of applied music by composing original permanent applied music for the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade, examining the integration of musical composition with space and exhibits, and researching its impact on museum visitors and audience development.

The conference was attended by Alexander Vl. Markovic, president of the Center for Applied Music, Rifat Kulenovic, director of the Museum of Science and Technology, and Marko Krstic, director of the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development, who signed a protocol on business and technical cooperation and introduced the present media representatives to innovative aspects of the project.

The research of the impact 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 in all museums. The research of the effects of music on the experience of the museum audience will be conducted before and after the introduction of music in the form of interviews and surveys in printed and digital form. The original music for the three permanent exhibitions of the museum will be composed by Aleksandar Vl. Markovic, art historian and author of applied music for numerous exhibitions, composer Misha Cvijovic and young composer Dusan Djordjevic, who will contribute to the further development of this sub-genre of applied music with his experience and application of the methodology of composing permanent music for museums and galleries.

The research project at the Museum of Science and Technology is unique in that it will, for the first time, investigate the impact of specially composed applied music on the content and exhibits of the museum. So far, a couple of researches have been conducted in the world, but only on the influence of popular classical music, already 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 while testing its impact on the audience in 5 European museums, also shows how innovative the idea is.

For the Museum of Science and Technology, 3 compositions will be composed for 3 spatially separated segments of the museum. Each composition will be composed of the average length of the tour of a certain segment and the permanent exhibition of the museum. The main permanent exhibition in the Aleksandar Despić Gallery, in the largest area of ​​the museum, will have the longest composition (about 45 minutes), the Toy Gallery exhibition for about 15 minutes, and the permanent exhibition Scientific Playroom for about 15 minutes.

The project in cooperation with the Museum of Science and Technology will enable the preparation and development of a new concept of applied music for museums that will be adequate for the presentation of the permanent exhibition of the museum. This project will musically present the Museum of Science and Technology as one of the first museums in the world to have its own permanent music and sound image which, like applied music for film or theater, has a role to influence the mood and feelings of visitors, but where the main focus is on connecting space, exhibits and visitors into a single synesthesia whole.

The innovativeness of the project “Applied music for museums: the case of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade” of the Center for Applied Music is reflected in a completely new sound of the museum in the form of permanent composite music. a new dimension of acting on the audience.

The project started on July 15 and ends in December when the results will be presented.