The Research Exhibition: context, interpretation and knowledge creation

In this paper, we set out to investigate the nature, role and purpose of the research exhibition. The idea of the research exhibition was put forward some time ago with a paper by Rust and Robertson (2003) who have considered it with regard to its potential as a means of communication for research. This seemed a promising approach, but remained at a stage of initial exploration. The problem has been little developed since, yet the desire for the use of the research exhibition persists. Furthermore the use of the exhibition within research brings with it certain problems that remain as yet unresolved. For example at present, it is not clear whether, and in which way, the research exhibition is different from an ordinary exhibition, what its essential contribution to research might be, and how that contribution is to be archived and disseminated. We use this paper to address some of these problems.