The CHAPTER project explores how populist narratives affect European museums. Through ethnographic research and digital innovation, the team seeks to enhance visitors’ critical thinking and invite collaborative reflection and dialogue.
The project Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe: The Role of Museums in a Digital ‘Post-Truth’ European Society (CHAPTER) is an international endeavor, bringing together PhD students and researchers from Germany, Poland and the UK. The goal is to analyze the impact of populist truth-making on European museums by conducting ethnographic research in the researchers’ countries. They focus on the emotional experience of visitors and the role of digital media in shaping critical thinking about truth. In addition, a museum app is also being developed in collaboration with partners to strengthen critical citizenship skills and counter populist narratives. Marlena Nikody is researching the impact of populism on Polish museums. She is a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of Humanities at Jagiellonian University, and the CHAPTER project is part of her PhD.
New beginnings
Before starting the CHAPTER project, Marlena worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK and was a PhD student at the Jagiellonian University, but it was difficult for her to combine her PhD with a full-time job. She then decided to change direction – she started doctoral school and wrote her own research plan. That’s when she came across CHAPTER, recruited for the doctoral school and became a doctoral student within this project. She received funding from a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation, which is the founder of the CHAPTER project. She talks about the idea of combining the project with the doctoral school:
“As the person in charge of research in Poland, I thought that I needed to find a research area that would be small enough for me to include in my doctoral project, but also representative enough to fit well into the project.”
She decided to focus on museum education in historical museums, for which her previous experience working at MOCAK gave her the tools she needed to pursue the project. The hypothesis of Marlena’s dissertation is that museum education can have a reparative dimension:
“That is, in some sense, remedial, in an affirmative context. Not that something is broken and needs to be fixed, but that museum education contributes to preventing potential social or cultural ‘damage.’ This is part of affirmative thinking in the humanities,” she explains.
This approach is particularly important because it goes a step further from just naming problems by pointing out concrete ways to solve a situation.
“I think this is the role of scientists. Proposing solutions to problems, not just naming them,”
She stresses that just naming problems is also important, but there also needs to be a focus on productive action. The potential for trying to understand and tame populism, Marlena sees precisely in museum education.
Ethnographic research and small actions
“These are not big projects that will save the world and fix everything,”
More often than not, it’s a one-on-one encounter when visitors come to the museum and interact with art. It’s also dealing with smaller areas that later translate into larger solutions, such as inviting schools to exhibitions. As part of her ethnographic research during her doctorate, Marlena works closely with Oskar Schindler’s Emalia Factory in Krakow, Poland, and in the CHAPTER project she is responsible for conducting research throughout Poland, not just in historical museums. During her research, she interviews employees, at various levels. She says this has given her a basis for understanding what populism is in the context of museums and the forms it can take. She also investigated what the difference is between the emphasis on historical museums and those dealing with other areas. She adds that she was motivated to conduct the research by what she saw every day in her work.
An application that encourages reflection
In addition to the empirical research, an important part of the CHAPTER project is the development of an interactive app that is intended to be a kind of guide to the exhibitions. The app will focus on three museums – Schindler’s Factory in Poland, the Berlin Global exhibition at the Humboldt Forum in Germany, and the Museum of London, in England. In the app, visitors will find challenges they take on when entering a particular museum. Then, following the narrative in the exhibition and using the information in the app, their goal will be to solve certain problems. Schindler’s Factory in Krakow played a big role in preparing the app. Marlena speaks of the invaluable input that this museum gave her. The staff talked about how their exhibition affects visitors, what elements of the exhibition are most relevant from their point of view, and which objects on display might be controversial. The first tests of the app took place precisely in the Schindler Factory. A conference in Berlin, summarizing the project, is planned for October, where the official launch of the app will take place. Interestingly, the scientists behind the CHAPTER project, engaged young adults to co-create and test the app.
“It was important for us to test the app in an active way. So that young people are not just testers, but also have real input, suggest what they see as relevant to include,”
says Marlena, about the collaborative design.
Thanks to this collaboration, some of the text in the test version of the app was shortened, and in places where academic jargon could not be avoided, the doctoral students and scientists decided to add a glossary explaining key terms. The Schindler Factory is interested in using the app for its permanent exhibitions.
“This is a great impetus for action. What we academics are doing has an impact on the work of museum professionals,”
Challenges in cultural institutions
Speaking about the findings so far during the project, Marlena notes how broad a topic the post-truth phenomenon is:
“This is a never-ending discussion. And I hope that it will indeed never end. This is what a rational approach to this phenomenon is all about. It is necessary to constantly reflect on the role of cultural institutions in Poland and abroad. To think about how they should face the post-truth phenomena and how to verify information.”
She says institutions face the same problems as Internet users or observers of public life. In the same way, they have to face increasing misinformation and the difficulty of distinguishing between true and misrepresented information.
“This should be embedded in the substantive activities of employees. This constant consideration of where a piece of information came from,” Marlena assesses.
She also stresses the role of cooperation between institutions and representatives of communities, academics or specialists in certain fields. She says that if a museum is dealing with something that goes beyond the specialized knowledge of its staff, it is worth tapping into the resources of people who spend their lives researching a particular topic.
“This is a sure answer for how to deal with the phenomenon of different truths that are available. Not just saying ‘there are many truths, we have chosen this one and will stick to it and represent it.’ Instead, one should take part in the discussion,”
She warns against a utopian pluralization in which anyone can say anything. On the one hand, everyone should be allowed to speak, but then there is the dilemma of what to do with dangerous voices that promote hate speech or threaten the ethical or moral order, Marlena notes. She wonders whether such voices should be cut off or, on the contrary, if it’s better to sit down with these people and have a conversation.
“This is a process. And I hope it will not end unequivocally. Then we would be dealing with a sort of authoritarian thinking and imposing a certain vision,” she says. She also adds, “Institutions should watch over the quality of this debate. They have a moderating role.”
Self-censorship
One of the key findings from the research for the CHAPTER project is the strong self-censorship in museums. It paralyzes museum professionals and museums from engaging in debates. They don’t risk including controversial voices in public debates, and withdraw to avoid facing consequences from local or ministerial authorities, Marlena says. She notes that these are legitimate fears, because the institution could then be cut off from funding.
“It is paradoxical that self-censorship makes this certain restriction arise. It comes out of goodwill, but because of it discussion in the public space does not happen. The message is softened and seemingly apolitical and neutral,”
Self-censorship applies not only to areas related to populism, but also to other difficult topics. Marlena’s research is anonymous, and she does not reveal the names of the institutions where she conducted her research. However, she adds, there are some institutions that boldly take up topics, collaborate with different communities and invite people to discuss them. One such museum organized a series of meetings on books dealing with relevant political topics. A political debate was established, and the meetings themselves were tantamount to a kind of stepping outside of the comfort zone. Invited experts, from various fields, discussed with people who came to the meetings.
“These were lively discussions. It wasn’t that everyone nodded to each other and agreed,” emphasizes Marlena, who followed the discussions. She talks about the dynamic conversation on usually hermetic topics, which often allow only one version.
“Going beyond the bubble is insanely important. This can be realized on many levels”.
Non-spectacular yet important actions
Another way in which Marlena sees change happening is through meetings in smaller groups, often one-on-one or in collaboration with schools. Inspired by a statement made by one of her interlocutors during her research, she calls these “non-spectacular” activities, which she assesses in her PhD as very important in museum work. These small-scale events, for example, are meetings with excluded groups, to whom certain information does not reach because they are not in the model profile of a museum visitor. These may also be people who are financially excluded or those who do not spend their free time in the museum on a daily basis, for example, because of other interests. Another important group is schools, with a diverse profile of students. Marlena emphasizes how important it is to work with pupils.
“The school doesn’t cover all topics, it has a certain scheme of action. And museums are those institutions that can go beyond a certain framework,”
She suggests organizing workshops, meetings, based on selected works, and organizing discussions on what audiences can currently see in public institutions.
Future of the project
A publication on the impact of populism, written by the doctoral students and scientists behind the CHAPTER project, is due out soon. Then, the aforementioned interactive museum app will be premiered. The findings so far and details about the project can be found on the Project Chapter website, where tabs include information about the facets of populism, events organized by CHAPTER and valuable publications.
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