With the memoralisation of the First World War as a welcome starting point, the military history museum aims to use new exhibition strategies to position itself as a forum for discussion and take on current geopolitical challenges. Central to these new strategies is the proverbial scale of war: in an innovative way, a form of representation believed to be outdated - the diorama - is being rediscovered, as in combination with multimedia elements and large exhibits it offers an affective space for experience that favours discussion and reflection, but is no longer aimed solely at reconstructing the experience of war. At the same time, these museums are under political pressure and can only implement a change of paradigm gradually and over the long term. However, how visitors perceive the attempts to update the diorama - in particular the use of new technologies - and new exhibition strategies for large exhibits has not yet been the subject of either visitor research or museum studies. Nor is it clear what role the motivation of curators and modellers plays behind the scenes. However, the success or failure of this exhibition strategy cannot be assessed without a better understanding of all those involved. There is a danger that visitors will fall into traditional patterns of perception and fail to reflect, or that the producers of an exhibition will consciously or subconsciously pursue outdated ideas of pseudo-realism. This is where 'The Tamed War' comes in: Through qualitative visitor research, the project aims to compare the perception, impact and affective potential of this current form of military history exhibition on a transnational level. At the same time, curators, designers and modellers will be involved in the study: This approach has so far only been pursued sporadically in the field of museum studies and visitor research in relation to military history museums. In order to identify patterns of visitor perception, ten military history museums of national and regional significance in Germany, England and New Zealand that use dioramas, models/miniatures and large exhibits in their exhibitions will be analysed. In contrast to other museum studies, innovative and enriching non-verbal methods of visitor research will be a central component of the research design: Personal Meaning Mapping, participatory simulation games and Lego Serious Play will be used in addition to conventional methods (narrative individual interviews, focus groups). This should enable a multi-perspective approach to the musealisation of war as well as a deeper understanding of museum visitors and the actors behind the scenes.

Source: Internal page of the German Research Foundation (DFG) - "The 'tamed' war - On current exhibition strategies and patterns of perception of visitors in military history museums".
Available online at: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/426340978?context=projekt&task=showDetail&id=426340978& [Accessed: 08/02/2023]