Contribution short abstract:

This presentation examines the emotions found in museums and the challenges they pose for research. It focuses on recognizing emotions expressed through observing people's actions and interviews, and moreover considers the feelings that came up during the research process.

Contribution long abstract:

Emotions, feelings, and affects are complex concepts that pose significant challenges in both research and practical contexts. Understanding and recognizing emotions as they occur can be particularly difficult, especially when relying on nonverbal gestures and actions. As posited by Wetherell et al. (2018), emotions are inherently action-oriented, appearing both consciously and unconsciously, and affecting interactions in different ways. The research project "Touching Collections: Museums as Emotional Arenas" examines the collection work as emotional labor from the point of view of both museum professionals and museum audiences. In the fall semester of 2024, twenty bachelor students in the Cultural Studies program at the University of Helsinki conducted fieldwork among museum audiences and professionals, as part of the research project. Students either observed museum visitors during their experiences or engaged with museum professionals in their work settings. In addition, they developed question frames for interviewing both target groups. This presentation poses the question is it possible to recognize and identify these kinds of emotions by observing people´s actions or interpreting in interviews, where emotions have not been directly asked about? Furthermore, it reflects upon the emotions that emerged during the fieldwork itself and evaluates the employed methods for exploring emotional dimensions within this context of museums.

Contribution short abstract:

The EURO2024 was a significant moment for Romanian immigrants in Germany. Through affective practices and collective memory one mundane object acquired by German Football Museum in Dortmund could help explaining how the Romanian minority is perceived in Germany and how curatorial agendas evolve.

Contribution long abstract:

Museums are par excellence spaces that are attentively designed depending on curatorial agendas. Allowing emotional encounters is not a trivial matter, since curators need to have the knowledge to conceive them (Varutti, 2021). There is valuable research investigating emotions in museums’ contexts (Smith et al., 2018; Price et al., 2021), but this field is still far from being thoroughly analysed in the scientific literature. This paper aims to investigate how German Football Museum in Dortmund seeks to create emotional encounters and the ways in which football evokes emotions and collective memory of the Romanian immigrants in Germany. The starting point is the letter left by the Romanian men’s national football team in the locker room of the Allianz Arena after their last match at EURO 2024 that was acquired by the museum immediately after the end of the tournament. Using affordances theory, I will explore what museum space and its material objects are affording to visitors (Bareither et al., 2021), trying to comprehend the curatorial agenda that guided the acquisition process of the letter and its impact on the Romanian minority within Germany. The attribution of value to football artefacts is a complex interplay of factors including, amongst others, emotional effect (Greenblatt, 2004). Through in-depth interviews with curators from the German Football Museum in Dortmund and Romanian immigrants and content analysis I intend to bring to the fore the narratives that became salient after the 2024 European Football Championship in regard to how the Romanian minority is perceived in Germany.

Contribution short abstract:

Edinburgh University’s Skull Room provokes strong emotional reactions and calls for redress. Proactive repatriation efforts show how ancestors become powerful agents with affective demands. Witnessing care practices humanises ancestors and 'moves' institutional actors to care about their futures.

Contribution long abstract:

Edinburgh University’s Anatomical Museum's ‘Skull Room’ holds the cranial remains of nearly 1800 people, in floor-to-ceiling glass cabinets, stolen by 19th-century naturalists and anthropologists. Despite being rarely accessed, the room elicits strong emotional reactions; sometimes moving individuals to seek action and redress. This paper examines the emotional landscapes inherent in repatriation processes of ancestral remains by reflecting on the museum’s first proactive repatriation to descendants in Turtle Island/Canada. The paper argues that ancestors remains are not inert ‘objects’, but lively agents with affective power that demand changes in their conditions. As powerful subjects, they elicit mourning, distress, fear and joy when treated as 'matters of concern'.

Using ethnographic data, interviews with institutional custodians, and personal reflections, I show how this agency is particularly ignited through the care work that 'humanises' ancestors, honours their individuality and spiritual power. After centuries of neglect, reunification with descendants allowed spiritual and non-physical needs of ancestors to be met. Bearing witness to embodied care practices underscores the gravity of these encounters and moves institutional actors to care about ancestors and their descendants. Scholars have further ethical responsibilities in activist-oriented projects, including reflecting on what they stand to gain and the limits of their knowing. The project highlights the emotional, human, and vulnerable aspects of curatorial and academic work, fostering transformative moments that connect descendants, ancestors, curators, researchers, and university administrators (who have the capacity to fund further proactive work). I examine how affective experiences mobilize various 'political emotions' to drive reparative futures for displaced ancestors.

Contribution short abstract:

Drawing upon theory related to workers’ emotions and care, we discuss how staff from the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (Lisboa) cared for relationships with visitors, non-visitors, co-workers, and science researchers, and created civic and social commitments amidst the pandemic.

Contribution long abstract:

Jackson (2014) invites us to practice broken world thinking and actively consider how the orders and structures of contemporary societies are cracking and coming apart. In the museum world, Janes (2022) calls on museum communities to confront the spectre of social and environmental collapse. Both perspectives highlight the fragility of the worlds we inhabit – fragilities that the pandemic exacerbated. Scholarly literature and international reports about museums and COVID-19 (e.g., ICOM, 2020; Raved & Yahel, 2022) reveal directions that guided museum work in coping with the crisis. Although the most visible impacts of the pandemic were the interruption of educational activities and the decrease in revenue, responses to this unforeseen event led to renewed social commitments (Morse, 2021) and an awakening to civic life (ICOM, 2020). Moved by these reflections, we wondered how (science) museums responded to this unprecedented crisis and what directions and values guided their work and practice. In this proposal, we focus on a qualitative case study of the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (MNHNC; Lisboa, Portugal) and, specifically, on museum professional voices, and documents and artifacts shared by them. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives related to museum workers’ emotions (Morse, 2021; Robinson, 2021) and the notion of care (Morse, 2020; Tronto, 1996; Silverman, 2010) we discuss how MNHNC staff cared for relationships with visitors, non-visitors, co-workers, and science researchers, and created civic and social commitments during and after the pandemic.

Contribution short abstract:

Although museum professionals are expected to approach collections with objectivity, emotions elicited by the collections are acknowledged. What sort of "feeling rules" apply to those working with museum collections: what kinds of emotions are they allowed to experience in their professional role?

Contribution long abstract:

Arlie Russell Hochschild's research in the 1980s on the production and presentation of emotions among flight attendants and debt collectors introduced the concept of "emotional labor." Hochschild demonstrated how her subjects' emotions were managed through professional norms, known as "feeling rules" (Hochschild 1983). As noted by Jennie Morgan and Anna Woodham (2024), applying this concept to the museum context raises questions about the specific feeling rules that different professional groups within the museum sector follow. In my paper, I focus on the feeling rules of those working with museum objects and documentation: what kinds of emotions are they expected or permitted to experience in their professional roles? Which feelings are not allowed to surface?

Although museum professionals are expected to approach collections with objectivity, emotions elicited by museum collections are both recognized and acknowledged within the institution. These emotions can be triggered by the objects themselves, the in-depth research and prolonged contact with them, internal practices and discourses within the museum field, and societal changes. Furthermore, understanding the cultural significance of the collections can instill a profound sense of responsibility in individuals for their work.

However, the professional norms and feeling rules governing museum collection work restrict how feelings and emotions are expressed. Museum work can be perceived as both intellectual and emotional labor, where certain feelings are seen as more professional. How is the balance between different kinds of feelings and emotions managed?

Contribution short abstract:

Queer history is not necessarily preserved in museum collections or in the form of objects. Through displaying mundane fragments and applying creative means lost queer cultural heritage can be brought to life and the contemporary museum visitor invited to engage with the affective queer past.

Contribution long abstract:

Queer cultural heritage has been described as fragmented and affective. In this presentation I ask what queer cultural heritage is, and what strategies were applied to present and engage with queer history in a recent museum exhibition. According to gender studies scholar Ann Cvetkovich (2003) a queer archive is a “repository of feelings”. Since there often is a lack of objects representing queer, exhibitions may display objects as symbols for those feelings, and typically tend to involve a lot of text. Same can be of course said of many contemporary phenomena. With queer, however, there is a “queer desire for history” resulting from queer being stigmatised, vilified, and illegal throughout history, as well as the loss of queer elders during the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Cultural heritage can be considered an active process of expressing values and engaging with past. How can this be achieved in the absence of existing material: How might one exhibit queer pasts that no longer exist? In the exhibition “M/S Baltic Queers: Experiences of LGBTQAI+ Migration” at the Helsinki City Museum the issue of queer migration in the Baltic Sea region during 1950s–1990s was addressed. The exhibition comprised of related fragments, including travel documents, correspondence, and photographic material, as well as artworks created specifically for the exhibition. Through these affective fragments and creative means the exhibition managed to bring lost queer cultural heritage to life and invite the contemporary museum visitor to engage with the affective queer past.

Contribution short abstract:

A proposal based on the permanent exhibition Wo ist Afrika? Storytelling a European Collection (Linden-Museum, 2019). Its main thread are human relations activated by museum objects. The curator is also part of the exhibition mise-en-scene and emotions integrated in the “cultural” public discourse.

Contribution long abstract:

This proposal is based on the vision and concept of the permanent exhibition Wo ist Afrika? Storytelling a European Collection (Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, 2019), whose main thread are past and present human relationships activated by collection, research, and exhibition-making processes. Such relationships are put on display through the exhibition installations and texts, as a way to inscribe the emotions of the ever-dynamic and mutually transformative human encounters and exchanges that are also at the heart of anthropological fieldwork within the institutional “cultural” or “scientific” public discourse. The author would present and discuss some specific cases of objects/installations (one of which is built around a fragment of a quite “intimate” item belonging to the curator: a healing tool that was given to her during research) as a way to interrogate the potential of similar strategies as a way towards the “re-humanization” of the s(o)bjects of “ethnological collections on display” and the creation of anthropological museum spaces within which the publics’ relationships among themselves may also (re)acquire the depth and collective agency potential of those that the historical objects on display once activated.

Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores emotional implications of virtual witnessing and how using AI transforms it. Examining interactions with virtual witnesses and the affective atmospheres created, the paper offers insights on the entanglement of institutions, technology and political discourse in Holocaust memory.

Contribution long abstract:

As the last Holocaust survivors pass away, memory institutions face the challenge of preserving a significant component of Holocaust commemoration, and a personal and emotional access to history. The USC Shoah Foundation’s project Dimensions in Testimony addresses this through AI-based virtual representations of survivors, enabling interactive encounters with their testimonies. These representations, created via an extensive interview and production process, are showcased in exhibitions like “Just Ask!” in Frankfurt, Germany, which forms the basis of this ethnographic research.

Ethnographic fieldwork on the experiences of visitors and the dynamics of engagement with the technology shows how established practices and narratives are both upheld and challenged during the interactions with the virtual witnesses. On one hand, the museum setting and staff’s guidance structure an emotional environment for engaging with the testimonies. On the other, the use of technology introduces moments of friction and creates spaces for discussions and reflections about the interactions that give way to transformed emotional practices. While such discussions often revolve around the functionality and implementation of technology in the context of commemoration, they also point to tensions and disputes that are rooted in current political debates about memory culture. The ethnographic data shows how the role of Holocaust survivors is being redefined, fostering new forms of engagement and affective resonance and ultimately transforming practices of virtual witnessing.

Contribution short abstract:

The Museo Pitrè in Palermo preserves Sicily's intangible heritage, including the Sicilian "pupi" and their stories. Through storytelling and theatrical performances, the museum transforms "unwritten" traditions into a living experience that emotionally engages visitors.

Contribution long abstract:

The Museo Pitrè in Palermo is a custodian of Sicilian traditions and memories, where objects, stories, and values transcend the written word to create an emotional connection with visitors. Its collections, including the "Pupi" and panels dedicated to Orlando Furioso, exemplify how the museum intertwines tangible and intangible elements, creating a cultural legacy that not only preserves the past but brings it to life in the present. Once tools for moral education and entertainment for an often illiterate audience, the "Pupi" conveyed values such as courage and honor, strengthening collective identity. The theatrical performances, occasionally organized within the museum, enhance the dialogue between past and present, transforming the museum into a space of emotional experience that engages visitors of all ages and fosters a deep sense of participation. The Museo Pitrè does not simply preserve Sicilian cultural heritage but breathes life into it, turning what is "unwritten" into a visible and accessible legacy. Objects and stories, not merely testimonies of the past, evoke emotions, intertwining gestures and narratives with the personal memories of the visitors. Thus, both material and immaterial heritage become a living experience, reinterpreted and lived in the present. This approach transforms the museum into an emotional and engaging storyteller, where tradition is not only preserved but revived as a source of inspiration. It stimulates a continuous dialogue between the past and the future, creating an emotional and cultural landscape that reflects complex affective practices and transmitted traditions in an ongoing interaction between history, memory, and individual experience.

Contribution short abstract:

This presentation discusses the public debates that took place during the autumn of 2024 concerning the closure of three notable Finnish museums due to government cuts, analyzed from the perspective of affective practices.

Contribution long abstract:

In August 2024, the Finnish Heritage Agency announced that negotiations were to begin in response to changing circumstances: due to a permanent deficit in funding and a new budget cut for 2025 as part of the government's saving program. The negotiations were expected to result in layoffs and other budget cuts within the Agency. Two months later, the results of the negotiations were made public, and one of the consequences was the closure of three museums for the year 2025: Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, Hvitträsk, the studio home of architects Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen, and Louhisaari Manor, the birthplace of Marshal of Finland C. G. E. Mannerheim.

The plans to close museums, particularly those considered to represent the core of Finnish heritage, caused astonishment among the public and politicians. Some interpreted the decision to close the museums as the Heritage Agency lobbying against the government saving plans – both positively and negatively. Others saw the decision as a final cry for help from the heritage sector. Understandably, the public discussion was also intertwined with party politics.

In my presentation, I analyze the public discourse that arose from the negotiations and closure decision within newspapers and social media. These public opinions reveal how affective practices relate to the meaning-making processes of heritage and heritage politics (Wetherell, Smith & Campbell, 2018). The cuts created a specific situation in which the value of heritage was re-evaluated.