Galleries in institute of higher learning (IHL) are often established in various forms of space primarily to venue the work of students and academicians. While the majority of medium and small sized institutions still rely on their physical or traditional content, it has been observed a pre-disposition usually by major, recently founded or contemporary art institutions to display net-based projects, (Buiani, 2001). He further added that institutions such as Walker Art, Museum of Moving Images (MoMA) and Guggenheim dedicated part of their online space to permanently displaying, as in collection, net art projects which otherwise would have disappeared, substituted by other more recent artworks. This progress of changing of exhibition content and ‘interfaces’ has penetrated in many Asian galleries especially in the IHL to meet the fast grow information and communication technology (ICT). Considering this change, many schools in fact are trying to re-position and present in such a way that it can be easily changed and adapted to host multimedia, Internet, interactive and computer-based content.

Like most galleries, the key exhibition space is becoming multi-functional (Wu et. al, 2004) that often used as a promotion and presentation centre, an exhibition of work, data (content) centre, a part of research centres and discussion venue for teaching and learning. Facilities, expertise and content preparation of such gallery become more critical and complex with the emergence of new computing facilities, multimedia and other convergence of technologies. This funded research project investigates the functions of gallery in IHL in Malaysia. A triangulated study was conducted to understand the potentials and issues faced by galleries in public and private universities focusing on design schools that include art and design, and architecture. This research starts with the understanding of gallery design theories. It is then followed by a qualitative method survey to all galleries in the IHL covering five areas namely (1) background information, (2) space and function, (3) exhibition tools and multimedia devices, (4) gallery content and (5) human interaction. This empirical analysis also involved personal interviews with curators and observations based on Mathews (1991) design methods. This research continues with an in depth study and a survey on Electronic Gallery (e-Gallery), Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM), Multimedia University (MMU) to understand between the theories and design ideas. A set of questionnaires was developed based on Mathews (1991) and Stewart’s (2002) principles and guidelines on research methods and distributed to visitors throughout a period of time consisting of open-ended, close-ended, Likert Summated Rating Scale and Multiple-choice. This involved a controlled group of visitors comprises students and staff of the faculty. The results of these studies recommend a good multimedia-based gallery design for Institute of Higher Learning.

References

Buiani, R. (2001). Virtual exhibitions: How to put the gallery online? International Conference on Generative Art, GA2001, Milan, Italy

Matthews, G. (1991). Museum and Art Galleries, Butterworth Architecture

Stewart, T. D. (2002). Principles of research communication, Allyn and Bacon

Wu Y.L, Liu,Y.T Huang, Y.S., Wu, P., Wong, C.H. Wang, T.H.,  Gao, W., and Shih, W.L. (2004). New Interaction of Digital Exhibition - Figures and Spaces, Proceedings of the 9th CAADRIA International Conference, Seoul Korea 28-30 April 2004, pp. 731-740 


Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the financial support (grant) and research facilities given by Multimedia University and participation by all universities in Malaysia.
