PhD researcher
Qian Xiao is a PhD researcher in the School of Art and Creative Industries at London South Bank University. She holds a BA (Hons.) in Communication from University of Communication in China, MA in History of Art from University of Birmingham, UK. She has worked for China National Ministry of Culture as a research and curation assistant, and as a column writer for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with interest in art, museum and social relationship.
Qian’s research interests generally in cross field of museum studies, new media theory and audiences studies. Her topic focusses on the transformation of museum texts under the influence of new media innovation, investigating the production and reproduction of knowledge by using different delivery methods, such as traditional one-way system, multi-media interaction systems and the mix of the two. The audience’s experience inside and outside of the art institution with multi-media texts are both concerns for this project. She is also particularly interested in national-based museums and art institution’s network culture in Britain and China in the present. A comparison of these two countries — with their very different cultural backgrounds, museum operation principles, and level of developing networks with cutting-edge technology — is a way to see how the museum maintains its role as guardian of national cultural value in the context of a fast-transforming society.