Dr. Mikel Mirena Asensio Brouard

My work focuses on museums and heritage. After research stays at U.S. universities and collaborations with American museums, we pioneered the introduction of visitor studies and exhibition assessment into Spanish-language museology. This perspective marks a substantial shift, introducing analysis from the standpoint of the person (rather than only from the standpoint of material culture or the disciplines involved). It adds, to the traditional semantics of the disciplines, the syntax and pragmatics of the exhibition. The reception of the curatorial message is approached as a two-way process with the public, in which the psychological subject processes the message and therefore needs an embedded scaffolding, always within a gregarious and social plane. This perspective entails an architecture and a visualisation designed for the user (user-design perspective). It is essential to understand the differences between user segments — hence the centrality of evaluation — and to provide mediation for the different levels of accessibility (cognitive, physical and emotional).

\n\nAfter years of evaluation work, we were progressively asked to take part in the design of museum master plans and in the design and development of public and educational programmes, moving from research and evaluation to applied work and intervention. We have designed and advised on museum projects and on public and educational programmes for ministries and regional and local administrations. Among the museums we have helped open: the National Library Museum, the Museum of Wine Sciences, the Museum of Human Evolution, the Hidalgo Museum, and museum projects such as the National Transport Museum in Málaga, the National Energy Museum, the National Health Museum and the Fine Arts Museum of Córdoba. We have carried out evaluation and planning studies for Cosmocaixa Barcelona, the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre, the Marítim Museum of Barcelona, the Museum of the History of Barcelona, the Army Museum, the National Roman Art Museum, the National Sculpture Museum and the National Museum of Decorative Arts. In the United States we have evaluated institutions such as the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Field Museum, MoMA in New York and the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. In Europe, at the Crypta Balbi and the Museum of the Imperial Forums in Rome, in museums in Syracuse, Pisa and the Aosta Valley, and in museums in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Recent evaluations are being carried out in British Columbia, Canada.

\n\nWithin two European projects we have studied virtual reality (V-Must) and augmented reality (ArtSense). More recently, we have developed several digital mobile-learning tools, including a tablet app on Columbus’s first voyage that provides supplementary information, guides visitors through the rooms, sets challenges and awards badges. We have also designed tablets for the Atlantic Centre of Modern Art and the Cueva Pintada Museum and Archaeological Park.

\n\nPersonally, I directed an ATP-classified Museum for six years and I have been a member of ICOM since 1993. Among other distinctions, I received the National Award for Scientific Research.

\n\nI am currently an advisor to the Culture and Education programme of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria. We are developing the visitor centre project for Timanfaya National Park and the Museum project for the Zonzamas Archaeological Park. We continue to run evaluations and audience studies at the Cueva Pintada Archaeological Park and Museum and at the Cerro de las Cabezas Archaeological Park in Castilla-La Mancha.