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Short abstract:

Museums are implementing collaborative methods, like involving users in the development of technologies. Such Co-design processes raise questions about the translation of IT specifics. Our contribution focuses on the challenges, limits, and potentials of our role as ethnographers in such processes.

Long abstract:

Museums as important mediators of knowledge are currently undergoing transformations towards implementing digital technologies in their work. In line with the formulated aim of new museology, museums aim at opening up and further democratizing their knowledge transfer (Fleming 2002, Benett 1995). In this process, digital technologies are intended to become a tool for broadening up and actively including audiences (Runnel & Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt 2014). Collaborative design methods, like involving users in the development of such technologies, for example, apps, are gaining popularity as forms of visitor participation, as our research suggests. Yet, the degree of collaboration can vary greatly and is often related to the willingness of institutions to share their interpretative power with the co-developers and audiences. Co-design processes also raise questions about the translation and communication of IT specifics. Can ethnographers in this context function as mediators between developers and users? What mutual learning processes arise from the co-laborative app development and digital transformation of museums? Drawing on experiences from two research projects, our contribution reflexively focuses on the challenges, limits, and potentials of our role. Whereas the project “Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe” (CHAPTER) co-develops an app that is more of an intervention within museums, the second case of the ARTifacts app by Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum involves school classes as actors. In both cases, different motives and demands of the actors involved meet, and we as ethnographers contribute to translation processes, experiencing mutual learning processes: as researchers, observers, and mediators.