Talking in the dark

On Thursday, I was fortunate to get a chance to attend a special seminar led by Tammy Borman about dialogue in museums. She had us participate in dialogue, rather than just listen about it (instructors, take note!) and we all came to some interesting conclusions about what it means to dialogue in a museum. 

One thing that was brought up was having a space for dialogue in a museum. I have a great interest in how the physical space affects learning, and so I have been really thinking about this. If physical space is a barrier to cognitive learning, it must surely be a barrier to deeper levels of understanding that are generally brought about by dialogue.

So, when the comment was made that dialogue can happen anywhere, I had to have a think. In a very broad sense, yes, dialogue can happen anywhere. If people are comfortable with the idea of dialogue, then they can dialogue in a car, in an uncomfortable room, even over the phone or Internet. But for relative strangers, in a space that already brings about feelings of discomfort (as museums often do), physical discomfort can limit a willingness or even ability to unpack feelings and get deep.

I titled this post as I did, because the whole conversation brought to my mind a specific memory. My freshman year of college, I vividly recall having a "kiss and tell" session with my girlfriends. One of those "let's talk about sex" moments that all young adults have at some point. Some of us knew each other well, some of us were practically strangers, and the conversation was a bit embarrassing for most of us (we were shy and pretty damn naive). So, we turned out the lights. Suddenly, the comfort of not having to see the people you were addressing made it seem that much safer to share. It was a silly moment, but really helps me understand why I feel so strongly that physical comfort is important to dialogue. This isn't to say that I think dialogue is space-dependent, but I think that certain levels of comfort must exist, and that additional comforts make this sort of conversation much easier to have.

More on this later, I'm sure. But how about you? Do you think that dialogue can be affected by physical space?