This thesis investigates how museum companions organise their conduct regarding their engagement with the exhibition and their social interaction with each other in the course of a visit. The main objectives of the thesis are the empirical investigation of social conduct in casual group museum visits and the exploration and understanding of social conduct in real-time distributed museum visits through mobile mixed reality technology. A third area of interest is the application of qualitative methodology, based on ethnomethodology and ethnographic methods, for the fulfilment of the above objectives. In particular this thesis presents and discusses fieldwork of collocated casual group visits alongside video recording and interviews collected in distributed museum visits during trial sessions in the Mack Room mixed reality museum environment. Drawing on vignettes of activity among collocated and distributed participants, the thesis develops discussion around three themes: the collaborative exploration of museum artefacts, aspects of the collaborative management of shared museum visits and the constitution of the visiting ‘order’ in and through social conduct. Among others, issues of collaborative alignment, awareness, indication of engagement and disengagement and conflicting accountabilities are discussed. The contribution of this thesis in current research in museum studies, CSCW and social science is explored. Findings reported in this thesis extend current visitor studies research to include the study of social conduct in the management of collocated visits and the constitution of visiting order. They also suggest that studies of sociality among distributed visitors may open opportunities for museums to support mutually complementing local and distributed experiences. With regard to understanding asymmetries in mobile mixed reality environments, the thesis points out that asymmetries could be better understood with reference to the activity in context rather than the technological features themselves. This thesis also makes a contribution to social studies research with regard to exploring the changing character of talk in distributed collaborative settings. Future research with respect to mixed reality applications for museum visits is also outlined.

This thesis is the written result of a practice-based PhD. The thesis presents a 'located' model of curatorial practice that aims to actively benefit the cultural landscape of host regions. It challenges existing definitions of 'the curatorial', taking a multidisciplinary understanding of curatorial practice and evaluating curatorial methods in light of recent geo-political developments. Concerned with the effects of changes in European cultural policy, and the geopolitical position of the Mediterranean basin, this thesis evaluates contemporary curatorial practices in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership context and, through practice-based interventions, suggests ways to develop situated curatorial processes, appropriate to their geographical context. Specifically, I argue that the temporary, large-scale exhibition formats financially supported by EU policies, such as the European Regional Development Fund, are not necessarily the most appropriate or beneficial to the cultural development of their host regions. I therefore propose an alternative set of methods, tools and considerations for a self-reflexive model of curatorial practice. This proposal takes the form of a curatorial initiative 'Vessel'; a long-term practice-based research project that seeks models of practice that effectively enable local engagement in cultural production, allowing culture to flourish independently of larger hegemonies. Several of Vessel's experimental initiatives are presented here, and appraised in order to build a theoretical understanding of 'located' curatorial practices that can inform alternative approaches. This research is developed through case studies of Manifesta, Liminal Spaces, Matadero and Intermediae; all of them testing grounds for 'Vessel', a curatorial initiative based in Puglia, Italy. Puglia has been chosen as a site for this research because of its central role in the current Mediterranean situation. This thesis illustrates the theoretical, geographical and historical context of this investigative project, and documents the evolution and outcomes of the curatorial initiative attempted. This thesis represents the first practice-based study of contemporary curatorial practices in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED) context, which seeks primarily to develop situated curatorial processes appropriate to their geographical context. The thesis discusses aspects of human geography, cultural studies, social science and European studies, all filtered through practical implementation and reflective examination of the main discipline of interest: curatorial studies. This research acknowledges the role of the curator as a mediator between cultural producers and the political and bureaucratic conditions for cultural production. This role offers the opportunity to develop an awareness of the potential influence of those conditions on the artists, their work and their audiences. In other words, the curator is in a unique position to have an overview of the practices, interests and concerns of cultural producers, as well as those of policy makers and administrative bodies, and any potential conflicts of interest that may arise. Thus, curators are in a privileged position to operate as proactive agents, particularly when they observe that cultural policies are not achieving the aim of fostering cultural development. This thesis, therefore, invites curators to consider their responsibility to critically assess the long-term effects of their practice on cultural and epistemological development in Europe. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 presents the research questions, clarifying their terminology and broadly discussing their rationale, context and theoretical focus. The chapter questions current EU cultural and economic strategies and suggests that they may be misguided. In Chapter 2, the level of analysis shifts from the geo-political context to a more specific situation: the position of art practitioners involved in the above situation, and the outcomes produced. Since the exhibition format is popular and has been envisioned by the EU cultural agenda as one of the most effective instruments for creating a dialogue between different geographical areas, Chapter 2 challenges this understanding of the format and the ways of production embedded in it. Chapter 3 presents a series of alternative curatorial approaches coming from the South and related to the four theoretical pillars of the self-reflexive approach: geography, time, process and epistemology. Starting with the methods used to investigate the case studies, the chapter traces connections between theory and practice. The chapter moves through close readings of the alternative case studies and comparative analysis, to the use of self- reflexive practice. Chapter 4 is at the heart of the thesis: it presents the methodologies underpinning both the approach to case study analysis and the practical research. This involves the curatorial proposal put forward and practised through Vessel. Vessel is therefore presented, in Chapter 4, as a self-reflexive model of located curatorial practice that is appropriate for located curatorial engagement. The conclusion addresses the capacity of curatorial practices to cultivate local epistemologies. I propose the outcome of the Vessel research project, and associated case studies as a set of curatorial methods and considerations for a 'located' model of curatorial practice.

Cette recherche se donne pour objectif de questionner la circulation du patrimoine au cœur de l’espace social dans un contexte de développement des politiques locales du patrimoine. Le label Villes et pays d’art et d’histoire conçu il y a trente ans par le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication fait office d’analyseur ; la ville d’Annecy de terrain emblématique. Une poétique du patrimoine urbain est mise au jour, dépassant la forme traditionnelle du centre historique pour révéler trois régimes d’opérativité symbolique : l’unicum, le typicum et le totum. Chacun et ensemble, ils fabriquent la dimension patrimoniale de la ville : le premier mobilise le monument historique, le deuxième le centre historique, le troisième la ville patrimoniale. L’analyse de la circulation du patrimoine est ensuite mesurée comme polychrésique à partir des discours produits sur le patrimoine par des acteurs locaux considérés dans toutes leurs diversités (associations, secteurs touristique, culturel, patrimonial). Elle montre que le patrimoine constitue, pour chacun, l’argument d’un discours d’accompagnement spécifique justifiant leur place dans le réseau local : chaque acteur se caractérise par la mobilisation de différentes facettes du patrimoine pour légitimer son activité. L’interrogation des médiations prend pour point de départ l’objet patrimonial. Elle se concentre sur des stratégies communicationnelles distinctes : les centres d’interprétation de l’architecture et du patrimoine construisent le discours en l’absence d’objet patrimonial et l’espace urbain est mis en exposition à partir des objets patrimoniaux in situ. Leur analyse combinée révèle deux régimes de patrimonialisation : au régime de la trace qui convoque une relation indicielle de l’objet avec son monde d’origine s’adjoint un régime de la ressemblance exprimant une relation iconique. À un second niveau, une circulation de la figure de l’objet de musée apparaît, tant dans l’espace d’exposition par le développement d’une méta-communication, qu’en dehors de celui-ci à travers la mobilisation des caractéristiques habituelles de cette figure. Ces résultats nous permettent d’établir une dimension métamorphique du patrimoine apparaissant tant dans les parts polychrésiques de l’objet que par ses transformations successives au sein des médiations. / This thesis questions how the idea of heritage disseminates among the social space in a context of increasing heritage policies, with a focus on the policy of “Villes et pays d’art et d’histoire” and the city of Annecy (France). The preliminary analysis of urban heritage goes beyond the traditional form of the historic district and reveals three forms (unicum, typicum, totum). Each one of them uses different operators to build the heritage of the city: historical monument for the first, historic district for the second and the whole city as heritage for the third. The analysis of this dissemination reveals a “polychresic” heritage through the study of multiple local actors’ discourses (associations, touristic business, cultural and heritage fields, etc.). These discourses about heritage allow each group of actors to insure itself a significant spot in the local network. Each actor distinguishes himself from the others by using its own perception of heritage to improve and secure its activity. The last part of the thesis interrogates two communicational strategies about cultural heritage focusing on the role of objects. On one hand the interpretation centres for architecture and heritage set up a discourse about local heritage and urban space through a documentary exhibition but without object. On another hand, objects (such as monuments) are parts of an in situ exhibition. From the combined analysis of these strategies results two processes of “heritagisation”: object as a relic (index) connecting its present days to its original age, and resemblance as a visual connection (icon). The features of an exhibit finally disseminate in the exhibition venue by initiating a meta-communication and by transferring its characteristics to heritage objects in the urban space. These results allow us to notice a metamorphic dimension of heritage in the various ways it is seen, transformed and featured.

This thesis presents three main arguments. First, that curating in national museums is a process of meaning making and that the exhibitionary meaning is situated in and mediated by culture, thus, the products of curatorial work, i.e. the exhibitionary complexes are complex political and cultural constructions. Second, that the exhibitionary complexes final visual outcome, i.e. the exhibitionary complexes images and texts result in the presentation of mythological constructs of Byzantium as the only truth to their audiences. Third, that what is finally communicated through the presentation of mythological constructs of Byzantium is national identity and dominant cultural values. The latter is effected through the representation of the Byzantine Empire as part of the identity of the dominant cultural group of the country to which each national museum belongs. National identity is communicated through the exhibitionary complexes, either by suggesting historical continuity of the contemporary national identity of a country s dominant cultural group through Byzantium, as in the case of the Greek national museums, or by undermining the very idea that Byzantine history, European history and British history are so very different, as in the case of the British Museum. Both interpretations are culturally constructed realities . The above approaches are explained through the investigation of exhibitionary meaning around Byzantium, by identifying and analysing the nature and cultural functions of the presuppositions that are involved in each museum s curatorial practices. These presuppositions are the cultural ideas, values and beliefs of the involved dominant cultural groups on Byzantium and on their own identity. My identification and analysis of these presuppositions includes research on the historical, political and cultural context of each museum, the culturally accepted history and art history literature of each country on Byzantium, as well as research on museum archives. By explaining and using the curatorial concepts of democratisation and demystification , adopted and adapted to the practices of the museums under study, and by analysing the British and Greek interpretations of Byzantium, which make themselves apparent in the images and texts of the British and Greek exhibitionary complexes , I provide a cultural account of the making of exhibitionary meaning, explaining contemporary perceptions of Byzantium, its use in identity making and its relation to national politics. By doing this, I also explain the implications of those presuppositions to the making of exhibitionary meaning, and I provide an explanation of how and why the power system of the exhibitionary complex is still in play although we are shifting into the era of the Democratic museum (Fleming, 2008). The concluding remarks of the thesis include suggestions for the further development of the curatorial practices of democratisation and demystification.

Since the early 2000s, Social Media has become part of the everyday activity of billions of people. Museums and galleries are part of this major cultural change - the largest museums attract millions of Social Media 'friends' and 'followers', and museums now use Social Media channels for marketing and audience engagement activities. Social Media has also become a more heavily-used source of data with which to investigate human behaviour. Therefore, this research investigated the potential uses of Social Media information to aid activities such as exhibition planning and development, or fundraising, in museums. Potential opportunities provided by the new Social Media platforms include the ability to capture data at high volume and then analyse them computationally. For instance, the links between entities on a Social Media platform can be analysed. Who follows who? Who created the content related to a specific event, and when? How did communication flow between people and organisations? The computerised analysis techniques used to answer such questions can generate statistics for measuring concepts such as the 'reach' of a message across a network (often equated simply with the potential size of the a message's audience) or the degree of 'engagement' with content (often a simple count of the number of responses, or the number of instances of communication between correspondents). Other computational analysis opportunities related to Social Media rely upon various Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques; for example indexing content and counting term frequency, or using lexicons or online knowledge bases to relate content to concepts. Museums, galleries and other cultural organisations have known for some time, however, that simple quantifications of their audiences (the number of tickets sold for an exhibition, for example), while certainly providing indications of an event's success, do not tell the whole story. While it is important to know that thousands of people have visited an exhibition, it is also part of a museum's remit to inspire the audience, too. A budding world-class artist or ground-breaking engineer could have been one of the thousands in attendance, and the exhibition in question could have been key to the development of their artistic or technical ideas. It is potentially helpful to museums and galleries to know when they have inspired members of their audience, and to be able to tell convincing stories about instances of inspiration, if their full value to society is to be judged. This research, undertaken in participation with two museums, investigated the feasibility of using new data sources from Social Media to capture potential expressions of inspiration made by visitors. With a background in IT systems development, the researcher developed three prototype systems during three cycles of Action Research, and used them to collect and analyse data from the Twitter Social Media platform. This work had two outcomes: firstly, prototyping enabled investigation of the technical constraints of extracting data from a Social Media platform (Twitter), and the computing processes used to analyse that data. Secondly, and more importantly, the prototypes were used to assess potential changes to the work of museum staff information about events visited and experienced by visitors was synthesised, then investigated, discussed and evaluated with the collaborative partners, in order to assess the meaning and value of such information for them. Could the museums use the information in their event and exhibition planning? How might it fit in with event evaluation? Was it clear to the museum what the information meant? What were the risks of misinterpretation? The research made several contributions. Firstly, the research developed a definition of inspiration that resonated with museum staff. While this definition was similar to the definition of 'engagement' from the marketing literature, one difference was an emphasis upon creativity. The second set of contributions related to a deeper understanding of Social Media from museums' perspective, and included findings about how Social Media information could be used to segment current and potential audiences by 'special interest', and find potential expressions of creativity and innovation in the audience's responses to museum activities. These findings also considered some of the pitfalls of working with data from Social Media, in particular the tendency of museum staff to use the information to confirm positive biases, and the often hidden biases caused by the mediating effects of the platforms from which the data came. The final major contribution was a holistic analysis of the ways in which Social Media information could be integrated into the work of a museum, by helping to plan and evaluate audience development and engagement. This aspect of the research also highlighted some of the dangers of an over-dependency upon individual Social Media platforms which was previously absent from the museums literature.

Cette thèse propose d’examiner les façons dont l’expérience de visite peut être transformée dans le contexte d’une culture numérique qui touche les publics réels et les publics potentiels du musée. On s’interroge plus précisément sur les processus d’appropriation et de partage qu’entraine la pratique muséale à l’époque de la culture numérique. Pour explorer cet objet de recherche, nous construisons un appareil méthodologique interdisciplinaire ad hoc entre l’informatique et les sciences de l’information et de la communication. Il permet d’élaborer un cadre analytique susceptible de saisir des pratiques qui se partagent et se combinent entre un espace numérique et un espace physique. De la sorte, nous proposons des protocoles de recherches hybrides et exploratoires qui offrent la possibilité de saisir, par leur association, des pratiques multiples de l’expérience de visite dans la triple temporalité de l’avant, du pendant et de l’après visite du musée. À travers cette thèse nous mettons en évidence la façon dont le numérique intervient dans les pratiques de l’expérience de visite comme un objet technique spécifique et un système d’échange avec et dans lequel le visiteur et le visiteur potentiel reconfigurent leur relation à l’institution muséale, à sa collection, aux expositions et aux autres visiteurs et visiteurs potentiels. / In the context of a digital culture that affects the actual audiences and potential audiences of the museum, this thesis proposes to examine the ways in which the visitor’s experience can be transformed. We wonder specifically about the appropriation and sharing processes that induce the museum practice in the era of digital culture. To explore this research item, we build an interdisciplinary methodological device between IT and Communication Sciences. It helps us to develop an analytical framework able to capture practices that are divided and combined between cyberspace and physical space. In this way, we propose hybrid and exploratory research protocols that provide the ability to capture, through their association, multiple practices of the visitor’s experience in a triple temporality of the before, the during and the after visit of the museum. Through this thesis, we highlight how digital devices and culture play a part in the practices of the visitor’s experience as a specific technical object and an exchange system and in which the visitor and potential visitor reconfigure their relationship to museum, its collection, exhibitions and other visitors and potential visitors.

Museums can be productive sites for the study of society, because they are spaces where the constitution of knowledge about the past is made visible through public display. Playing an important role in the performance and legitimisation of national culture, museums in Scotland pay particular attention to the education of children. It is often claimed that children can gain an understanding of their history through physical engagement with museum collections. Both the ‘past’ and the ‘future’ are thus constituted within the museum. Through an exploration of children’s education at the National Museum of Scotland and The Lewis Chessmen: Unmasked touring exhibition, I argue that efforts by museums to exert control over ongoing processes through which subjects and objects, past and future, nations and heritage are constituted can be deeply challenged by children and museum objects, both of whose status remain inherently dynamic and unstable. Despite the museum’s claims to have “real things [objects] revealing stories”, objects rarely reveal narratives beyond those exerted upon them. They are, instead, materially and relationally constituted in particular places, at particular times. The same ‘instability’ applies to children visiting the museum. Children engage with the material stuff of the museum in surprising and unpredictable ways. This dynamic, multisensory interaction enables children to pursue personal projects, which do not necessarily adhere to the agendas of the museum. Yet, children often do go along with the museum’s narratives, commonly accepting what they are told by adults about the objects they are handling. They are also deeply concerned with the authenticity of these objects. Whether an objects is ‘real’ or not, however, is not necessarily judged by the same standards shared with the museum. Children’s awareness of a ‘real’ object’s metonymical presence not only enables an experiential encounter with the past, but also enables them to work out their own positions within the power structures of the museum; testing their own concerns relating to trust, truth, value and the process of becoming adults.

Communication network technologies have been evolving exponentially in the late decades. These innovations increase the network capabilities and open new horizons to creating novel and original services. The heterogeneity in equipment qualifications increases the level of complexity in the technological advancement. In such environment, service management has become an everyday challenge to service providers. Important efforts have been deployed to innovate in the exploitation of intelligent devices in the home and other private locations. In this Thesis, we propose a framework for self-configuration of devices within Hone Area Networks. We propose a device self-configuration architecture based on IBM Monitor-Analyze-Plan-Execute using Knowledge autonomic control loop. To prove the validity of our system architecture and support its applicability, we developed a prototype system that gives a general control loop implementation for device self-configuration using the CPE WAN Management Protocol. A video streaming scenario is implemented and used to evaluate validity our framework.

Lieu d'accès aux connaissances, le musée agricole véhicule l'image du patrimoine et des enjeux culturels et professionnels de l'agriculture. Le monde agricole a été progressivement mis en scène dans l'espace du musée, puis dans l'espace paysager, au moyen d'aménagements variés : équipements muséographiques, et enfin dans l'espace virtuel avec les musées en ligne. Les musées du monde agricole ont été voulus par les intermédiaires savants, les pouvoirs publics et « ceux qui font l'agriculture » : agriculteurs eux-mêmes, organisations professionnelles et industrielles. Ils se sont multipliés à l'image de la variété même des visages de l'agriculture. À travers la pluralité de leurs approches et de leurs collections, les musées d'agriculture ont répondu depuis 1920 à des enjeux circonstanciés, identitaires, culturels, territoriaux et symboliques, jusque dans le contexte nouveau du développement territorial de ce début de XXIe siècle. Ils véhiculent l'image de l'agriculture que veulent donner les acteurs et partenaires des mondes agricole et culturels : tradition et modernisme. Ce processus de patrimonialisation rend légitime l'intégration du monde agricole à l'histoire culturelle de la nation. Il est question des modes et moyens par lesquels le monde agricole est représenté de 1920 à 2014 dans les structures muséales et en particulier aux musées du Compa et de la Bertauge depuis les années 1970. Dans le cadre de l'histoire culturelle, il est montré que les musées du monde agricole se sont développés dans le creuset de l'éducation, du folklore et qu'ils entrent de manière diversifiée dans l'ère de la valorisation du patrimoine jusqu'à intégrer territoires et paysages. / The agriculture museum is a place of knowledge which conveys the image of the rural heritage, as well as its cultural and professional issues. The agricultural sector has been progressively staged within the museum space, then in the landscaped scenery, with the use of various facilities: museum equipment, and finally in the virtual space with online museum.Agriculture museums have been designed by scholar intermediaries, public authorities and "those who are agriculture» such as farmers themselves, business and industrial organizations. They multiplied the image of the same variety of faces of agriculture.Through the diversity of their approaches and their collections, agriculture museums have responded since 1920 to identity, cultural, territorial and symbolic issues into the new context of territorial development of the early twenty-first century. They convey a traditional and modernist image of agriculture in tune with the wishes of the different players and partners in the agricultural and cultural worlds. This process legitimizes the integration of the agricultural heritage to the cultural history of the nation.We examine the ways and means by which the agricultural world is shown from 1920 to 2014 in museum structures and in particular the Compa and Bertauge museums since the 1970s. Through cultural history, it is shown that agriculture museums have developed in the crucible of education and folklore; They developed in a diversified way in the era of the development of heritage to integrate territories and landscapes.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to create universal application able to visualize M2M data and allows remote management of smart sensors using TR-069 protocol. First part of this thesis contains comprehensive evaluation of TR-069 standard and OSGi platform. Next, extensive analysis of embedded databases with detailed description of SQLite platform is provided. Auto-configuration server genieacs and modus TR-069 client, two parts needed for the proper run of remote configuration, are described in more detail in following section. Practical part of this thesis contains description of all created OSGi bundles together with communication interfaces. Moreover, the description of designed database and developed user interface is given.