Welcome

Name: Stefania Zardini Lacedelli

PhD:  Museum Studies

Thesis Title:   The museum as a platform for sound culture

Thesis Description:

The purpose of my research is to explore the museum as a platform for sound culture. I investigate the role that sound culture could have in the transformation of museum conceptualization in the post-digital age, a moment when digitality is becoming increasingly assimilated as an integral part of some organizational structures and development. In particular, I assume that sound culture and the contemporary sonic practices can be a catalyst for the adoption of a new platform model that is acting on museums as both metaphor, organizational structure and business model. This investigation addresses two main different challenges that contemporary museums are facing: (1) the embrace of sound culture, a broad concept that include sonic elements in the collection and in the design of cultural experiences, and that has always been underrepresented in a predominantly visual and material system; (2) the evolution of museum conceptualization, that started to change with the digital revolution and the emergence of the participatory turn and, in a post-digital context, is ready to mature into a new paradigm around the model of ‘platform’. Both issues require the museum to change not only at practical level – introducing new spaces, practices, processes of cultural production – but also at ontological level – introducing a rethinking of what museums are, why they exist and how they conceive heritage. The traditional museum conceptualization - a physical institution devoted to the collection and display of objects of material culture – struggles both to accomodate sound culture and to embrace the post-digital age. The aim of the research is to demonstrate how platform can be not only the new paradigm of the 21^st century museum, but also the form by which it can evolve in a place for sound – and not only visual - culture. 

Supervisors and Institution(s):

First supervisor:  Dr Ross Parry, University of Leicester

Second supervisor:  Dr Giasemi Vavoula, University of Leicester

Third supervisor:  Dr Sheila Watson, University of Leicester

Publications:

• Digital education as a catalyst for museum transformation: the case of the ‘Museums and New Digital Cultures’ course (Zardini Lacedelli S., Tamma M., Fazzi F.). In European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy (Volume 9, Issue 2, 2019).
• Digital platforms ‘without a cause’: why the impact on a museums’ organization should not be taken for granted (Tamma M. Zardini Lacedelli S., Carolo S.M.). Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Working Paper No. 6/2019. Available at SSRN. 
• Social innovation and participation in cultural production. DOLOM.IT: a case study in the museum field (Zanetti C., Zardini Lacedelli S., Pascolini M.). In Lattarulo P., Palermo F., Provenzano V., Streifeneder T. (ed.), 2019, The regions of Europe between local identities, new communities and territorial disparities, FrancoAngeli, Milano (pp. 271-294).
• The Platform-Museum: conceptual revolutions and practical implications. Museological Review, University of Leicester. Issue 22, 2018 (pp. 30-42)

Awards

In 2019 I received the M3C Cultural Engagement Award that recognised the impact of my research on the Italian museum sector. 

Scholarly / Public Engagement Activities:

year: 2019

year: 2018

• Researcher Collaborator at the University of Venice: I was selected for a 6-months research project (January-June 2018) coordinated by the Department of Management of the University of Venice, aimed to develop a digital and network strategy for the Civic Museums in Treviso. Within this project, I founded the 'Ambassadors' community: a group of students, researchers, young volunteers of the museums that, through the use of digital platforms, open new virtual doors to interact with museums' collection.

• Teaching Coordinator of the Course “Museums and new digital cultures”: I designed and coordinated the course and the elearning platform. The course - organized by the Accredited Training Institution Apindustria Servizi - was composed by 250 training hours directed at 120 museum professionals coming from 34 different cultural institutions of the Veneto Region. The aim of the course was to guide cultural institutions in the adoption of new digital practices and in the development of digital skills and digital thinking throughout all levels of the organization: from top management and curatorial teams to communication and educational departments. Throughout the course, I guided museum professionals in creating five new multimedia tours on the izi.TRAVEL app, a theatrical radioguide in collaboration with the Theatre Production Center La Piccionaia, virtual exhibitions and online collections.
  

year: 2017

• Leading Pedagogical Sessions at the Museum Studies Master Course and AMAGS Master Course: I co-lead Pedagogical Sessions and Reading Groups aimed to train students’ critical reading skills around a chosen academic piece of written work.
• SMG Research Conference in Bradford: My presentation ‘Sound Culture: New Challenges for Museums in the Post-Digital Age’, explored the concept of Sound Culture and the challenges museums face in both fields of Sound Heritage and Sound Design. 
• Researching Digital Cultural Heritage Conference in Manchester: I presented the research poster ‘Sonic Thinking in the Platform Museum’, highlighting how sonic thinking can guide museums in developing their presence in the digital world. 

• Crafts, Expertise and Places, Villa Manin (Udine, Italy). I gave a lesson on the promotion and co-creation of intangible heritage in the digital world during a workshop for museum professionals organized by the Regional institution for cultural heritage in Friuli Venezia Giulia
• M3C Research Festival Planning Team. I participated in the Festival as member of the planning group of digital stories and I created the digital story “A Sound Journey in the Museum”
• Ambassador of Invasioni Digitali. I was nominated the Dolomites ambassador of Invasioni Digitali, a cultural movement aimed to promote the digital involvement of public and the development of new participatory forms of cultural narratives all over the world. In this role, I have been the consultant of a group of museums and cultural institution in the ideation of digital participatory activities in the Dolomites area (the events are described and collected on the website of the Virtual Museum of Dolomites)
• The new professions of cultural heritage. I gave a talk on the new professions in digital era at the research centre “City of Foligno” and I conducted a digital design workshop for a group of high school students.
• The Creative Network, GARR Conference in Florence. Speaker in the talk “From Landscape to Cities. The digital co-creation of cultural heritage in Visualizing Venice and DOLOM.IT” together with Dr Victoria Szabo (Duke University) and Giacomo Pompanin

year: 2016

• Steering the school towards active citizenship and a new definition of intangible and immaterial heritage in the digital era. I co-organized the public consultation in terms of safeguarding and enhancement of intangible heritage belonging to the European cultures, promoted by the DiCultHer network, by managing the involvement of European students and educational professionals (Questionnaire). The DiCultHer network is composed by over sixty Italian cultural organizations, including 26 Universities, cultural Institutions, Research bodies and enterprises.

• A music-sharing model for platform museums. Speaker in the seminar for museum professionals, Civic Museums, Venice, July 2016. I gave a talk on how can a museum enhance the involvement of virtual public through digital participatory activity.

• MQUADRO: a platform model for museums. Lesson on digital sharing practices to the Master students in the course of Creative Development at the Ca' Foscari University, Venice (July 2016)

• DOLOM.IT: the new virtual co-created museum, Spring 2016. Co-founder of the virtual museum dedicated to the Dolomites landscape (www.museodolom.it) co-created by students along with other cultural institutions of the Belluno district.

• MQUADRO: a platform model for cultural heritage. Speaker in the panel Digital Cultural Heritage as Public Humanities Collaboration at 104th CAA Annual Conference, Washington (February 2016)

• A music-sharing model of crowdsourcing in museums. Speaker in Open Knowledge and Open Arts Workshop at the University of Catania (February 27th, 2016)

year: 2015

• I was selected to develop a digital research project at the digital visualization workshop Visualizing Venice, Venice International University (June 2015)
• I gave lessons on Digital Heritage and digital storytelling to students of High School of Art in Belluno and Cortina, Italy (Spring 2015)

year: 2014

• The birth of the MQUADRO platform,Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum, Cortina. I presented publicly the multimedia platform that I developed through a research project in collaboration with Venice International University and Duke University (NC). The project is mentioned as a case study in Lanzoni, Kristin Huffman; Mark James-Vrooman Olson; and Victoria E. Szabo, Wired! and Visualizing Venice: Scaling up Digital Art History. Artl@s Bulletin 4, no. 1 (2015)
• Visiting scholar at the Department of Media Arts and Sciences, Duke University (NC) thanks to a scolarship won through the Globalization Program of Venice International University (March-June 2014). Under the supervision of Dr Victoria Szabo, Program Director of the Information Science + Information Studies Lab, I investigated theoretical and practical issues of designing technology for communities in museums and find ways to support informal learning by enhancing social interaction through the use of social media.

Other Research Interests:

• Digital culture
• Digital born and virtual Museums
• Heritage communities and co-creation processes in the cultural field