MISS BIANCA BELLAFIORE

Biography

I am a PhD researcher at the University of Aberdeen.

My current research, Feel it in the Air investigates visitor experiences of museum atmospheres.  

Set within the context of Northeast Scotland, the project will draw comparisons between the exhibition design techniques and visitor responses at House of Dun, Montrose, UK. The project will have a significant impact on museums, creative industries, and public audiences..

I completed my Master's in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester in 2019.During this time I volunteered with Leicester City Council Arts and Museums, primarily working in documentation and collections. My time volunteering at the King Richard III Visitor Centre was rewarding professionally and personally. As a volunteer, I was responsible for providing interpretation with audiences through onsite talks and tours. In the summer of 2019 I interned as a Collections Management Assistant at Hampton Court Palace, London. I was a part of a small team responsible for cataloguing significant archaeological finds. 

Prior to coming to Aberdeen I worked as a museum education coordinator at Fosterfields Historical and Living Farm, NJ. I have worked in both US and UK based collections, primarily in database organisation and cataloguing.  

In my free time I enjoy reading history books and whodunnits, going on walks and embroidering!

Prizes and Awards

Erve Chambers Tourism and Heritage Student Paper Award, Runner-up. Society for Applied Anthropology, 2024. 

Research Overview

Feel it in the Air: An exploration of the visitor's experience of atmosphere at an historic house museum

Based at House of Dun, Montrose, Feel it in the Air, explores the production and consumption of museum atmospheres. Atmospheres are the emotional resonance to a place; when we walk into room we naturally perceive its atmosphere and describe it to ourselves in a vocabulary of emotions. 'This room is welcoming and warm.' Or, 'this rooms feels isolating.' Throughout the project I dissect the various 'generators' or qualities of House of Dun's experiential atmosphere - the curation and interpretation of the house, interpretation and encounters with objects, light and sound design, costumed interpretation, and the display of rural, agricultural items - the Angus Folk Collection.

By exploring each generator on its own, the research delves into the decision making process around atmosphere and asks, what is the intended atmosphere of this space? How does this generator contribute to this? How are visitors responding? And, how can the site's intention and the visitor responses align? 

Although set within the context of an historic house museum, a genre of museums which can take the form any former dwelling, the project takes inspiration from the disciplines of philosophy, anthropology, scenography and theatre design, performance studies and living history, heritage studies and material culture, and social history. 

The results of this study can impact the wider museum industry not only by revealing insights into the processes of generating atmosphere, which is often a collaborative design effort, seeing inputs from stakeholders and managers as well as independent contractors. The project also provides a deeper analysis of how atmospheres impact and enhance the visitor's experience allowing the visitor to use imagination, memory formation to create emotional connections between themselves and space.