Rhiannon Lewis
PhD Student

Doctoral Research
Collections as networked images: the (re)use of the Science Museum Group collections in the forms of digital images through social media
Museums are moving decisively away from viewing visitors as passive consumers of content to seeing them as active participants in the creation of knowledge. This project will explore what that means for museums and their audiences in digital spaces, focusing on the (re)use online of images from the Science Museum Group collections. It will investigate how and why museum visitors share photographs of objects taken in-gallery, as well as the factors that motivate them to engage with digitised images made available through the Science Museum Group online collection, thereby gaining insight into the role of the digital in the development of the social museum.
Supervisors
Jane Winters, John Stack (Science Museum Group)