Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection

This study uses the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda as an exemplar for interrogating the possibilities of digital curation in South Africa. It draws on a conceptual framework encompassing the digital humanities, museology, Baudrillard's notion of simulation, as well as contemporary research and similar s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schäfer, Sarah
Other Authors: Higgs, Richard
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship 2024
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613274084737024
access_status_str Open Access
author Schäfer, Sarah
author2 Higgs, Richard
author_browse Higgs, Richard
Schäfer, Sarah
author_facet Higgs, Richard
Schäfer, Sarah
author_sort Schäfer, Sarah
collection Thesis
description This study uses the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda as an exemplar for interrogating the possibilities of digital curation in South Africa. It draws on a conceptual framework encompassing the digital humanities, museology, Baudrillard's notion of simulation, as well as contemporary research and similar studies. Digital curation of a Visionary Environment, which falls into the ambit of Outsider Art, is a largely unprecedented practice, especially in the context of South Africa. This qualitative study is situated in a social constructivist paradigm and uses elements of a phenomenological approach. As an instance of qualitative research, at the heart of this study is an emphasis on understanding how people construct their realities and interpret their experiences. Interpreting and viewing digital artefacts outside of a museum are not the same as viewing them in real life. This inevitably changes the way that someone experiences and interprets a collection. The challenge of digitising a museum is thus to understand what this transformation process (physical to digital) does to the integrity of the original collection. Digitisation within museums offers so many possibilities, especially in the context of sitespecific museums that are largely inaccessible like the Owl House. A digitally curated collection of high quality digital media can allow for a museum like the Owl House to be visited digitally, and moreover, that visitors can interpret a museum experience that is rich and layered. The data for this study was collected from interviews with participants who engaged with a digitised sub-collection of the Owl House - The Long Bedroom Collection, and after an initial presentation and analysis of the data, emerging themes were discussed
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40425
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:31.121Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship
publisherStr Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40425 Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection Schäfer, Sarah Higgs, Richard Library and Information Studies This study uses the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda as an exemplar for interrogating the possibilities of digital curation in South Africa. It draws on a conceptual framework encompassing the digital humanities, museology, Baudrillard's notion of simulation, as well as contemporary research and similar studies. Digital curation of a Visionary Environment, which falls into the ambit of Outsider Art, is a largely unprecedented practice, especially in the context of South Africa. This qualitative study is situated in a social constructivist paradigm and uses elements of a phenomenological approach. As an instance of qualitative research, at the heart of this study is an emphasis on understanding how people construct their realities and interpret their experiences. Interpreting and viewing digital artefacts outside of a museum are not the same as viewing them in real life. This inevitably changes the way that someone experiences and interprets a collection. The challenge of digitising a museum is thus to understand what this transformation process (physical to digital) does to the integrity of the original collection. Digitisation within museums offers so many possibilities, especially in the context of sitespecific museums that are largely inaccessible like the Owl House. A digitally curated collection of high quality digital media can allow for a museum like the Owl House to be visited digitally, and moreover, that visitors can interpret a museum experience that is rich and layered. The data for this study was collected from interviews with participants who engaged with a digitised sub-collection of the Owl House - The Long Bedroom Collection, and after an initial presentation and analysis of the data, emerging themes were discussed 2024-07-23T06:57:57Z 2024-07-23T06:57:57Z 2017 2024-07-23T06:56:12Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40425 eng application/pdf Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Library and Information Studies
Schäfer, Sarah
Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
title_full Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
title_fullStr Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
title_short Perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental Outsider Art collection
title_sort perceptions and experiences of selected participants engaging with a digitally curated environmental outsider art collection
topic Library and Information Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40425
work_keys_str_mv AT schafersarah perceptionsandexperiencesofselectedparticipantsengagingwithadigitallycuratedenvironmentaloutsiderartcollection