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Mobile technologies are transforming the ways in which we experience arts and heritage sites, and galleries and museums are facing increased pressure to provide stimulating, alternative technology-based solutions for enriching visitor experiences. Focusing on the opportunities afforded by augmented reality (AR), this paper critiques the role this technology plays in providing visitors the opportunity to experience art and exhibitions through a series of dynamic, small-scale micro-mobilities. We propose that AR creates curated spaces of mobility in galleries and museums and in doing so, visitors become empowered through spaces of agency, autonomy and dwelling as they negotiate these spaces and encounter art through technology-mediated forms of wayfinding, interpretation and personal curation. Through negotiated agencies of human and non-human, visitors become emancipated, active agents in a process of co-production. Such positioning is further critiqued as the paper investigates the opportunities afforded by augmented reality to create alternative spaces of connection and interpretation through conceptualisations of dwelling and we suggest technology holds the potential to facilitate an enriched, deeper and more personal connection to that experienced in art gallery and exhibition spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phrase 'back of house' often refers to art gallery processes that are rarely seen by visitors. These include the processes of acquisition, cataloging, conservation, the development and production of exhibitions, and the planning of related public programs. This paper proposes that a psychoanalytic consideration of 'back of house' art gallery processes can provide important insights into the nature of trauma that is manifested through creative efforts. It explores some of the psychoanalytic aspects of a unique project concerning the art by survivors of the Holocaust. It highlights transgenerational trauma and how a thoughtful process of acquisition and exhibition can facilitate the working through of a collectively painful experience in a traumatized community. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the value of a task-based approach to engaging with original works of art and focuses in particular upon the experiences of a group of PGCE Art and Design trainees when they visited an exhibition entitled, Air Guitar: Art Reconsidering Rock Music, to carry out given tasks. The extent to which a task-based approach might creatively disrupt trainee teachers' thinking and the nature and significance of such thinking within an educational context is considered, as is the impact of the tasks on their developing understanding of the need for a diversity of approaches to critical engagement. It draws extensively upon selected responses to the tasks and the trainees' subsequent reflections on the experience. Comparisons are made between trainees' responses to particular works and references to these works that are detailed in the exhibition catalogue. This is undertaken with the intention of examining the interrelationship between understanding and knowledge when reading and responding to works of art in the gallery context. A further concern is to generate debate and challenge assumptions regarding the nature and dynamics of gallery based activities and contribute to a process of development and innovation in which all participants can play an active part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]