
The interactional organisation of museum visits 65
Dirk vom Lehn
Withdrawing from exhibits:
The interactional organisation of museum visits
1. Introduction
Museum visiting is an activity, organised in and through social action and
interaction. People walk slowly from exhibit to exhibit, examine some
objects whilst walking past others, without bumping into one another or
crossing each other’s line of sight. The social organisation that facilitates the
exploration of exhibitions largely without disturbing each other’s involve-
ment with the works of art is often ascribed to “museum discipline” (Hirsch-
auer 2006); “visitors’ bodies [being] controlled by ...