Rethinking participatory practice in a Web 2.0 world

In striving for greater participation, museums face a challenge: do they encourage open-ended participation or scaffold a more participatory model of facilitated visitor engagement.New modes of visitor participation challenge the traditional power relationships which have underpinned museums from the enlightenment to the present day. Appropriation, participa-tion and art did not begin with the internet: from Guttenberg’s printing press to Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans, what was once cop-ying is now art. The difference is that those doing the copying may now have a bigger online following than the museum which owns the original, which can create a power struggle between a museum and its visitors.