Mvc - Museums

Front 1

4 points on museums up until 1800

Back 1

-Destruction of Library of Alexandria (3BC) emphasised need to protect artefacts

-In middle age, regalia and relics were protected; they anchored power and authority

-16-17th Century - cabinets of curiosity, of naturalia and artificalia (eg Ole Worm, Denmark, The Hapsbergs)

-French revolution involved the destruction of reglia, called vandalism. The Musee des monuments was created immediately after this

Front 2

Who created the word vandalism

Back 2

Henri Gregorie

Front 3

Museums 1800-1900 - 2 points

Back 3

-World fairs eg The Great Exhibition (London, 1851), and in Chicago (1893)

-Ethnography museums proliferated, eg the Berlin Ethnological Museum (1873), and the Budapest Ethongraphy Museum (1972)

Front 4

Museums 1900 onwards (5 points)

Back 4

-Picasso/Breton's work increased interest in 'the exotic'

-Pavillion des sessions opened in the Louvre, displaying 100 ethnographic pieces as art

- (1884) Pitt-Rivers Museum opened in Oxford, on the condition that the collection was displayed and unchanged (it was presented scientifically)

-dioramas abandoned in the American Museum of Natural History (2007)

-George Nuku, leader of London Maori community, gives talk upon opening of Torres Strait exhibition

Front 5

Herle, 2002 (5 points)

Back 5

-On 100 year anniversary exhibition on the Torres Strait

-Chairman of one Island thanked original explorer for 'collecting information that has spiritual value for us' & his 'extraordinary work'

-for Islander visitors, some objects sparked excited conversation, others, sadness about the impact of colonisation

-She consulted Islanders and revisted the TS

-Haddon refused to give Gisu back a stone charm when asked, showing his collecting instinct was greater than in sentiment

Front 6

Naumann, 2006 (5 points)

Back 6

-Contention areas: removing objects from other museums, perception of aesthetic presentation/presentation without cultural context

-almost against the universal museum/'representation for its own sake'

-Martin: 'there are not a thousand ways to display a sculpture...there is it, then explanation'. He wanted them naked, in a flowing room, with separate multimedia panels

-America/anglosaxan curators focus on story>collection, the French on purity

-public lectures on the history of colonisation>theory, Martin lamenting young French peoples' lack of knowledge, unlike a Maori artist presented

Front 7

Philips and Philips 2005 (5 points)

Back 7

-movement against decolonisation, included governments statement of regret, and withdrawal of white paper on Indian policy

-Boycott around 1988 exhibition as sponsor aided native life destruction (Task Force on Museums and First Peoples created)

-voice of native alongside voice of archaeologist

-presentation of more recent things - eg razor wire used by armed forces on natives during 1990 Oka crisis

-all a museum can do is encourage critical thinking and disrupt stereotypes

Front 8

Dialogic

Back 8

Bahktin, 1981: a situation in which the meaning comes through collaboration and dialogue between perspectives.

Front 9

Contact zone

Back 9

a space charged by the agency of the objects, emerged through the intersection interests of producers, collectors, islanders and curators.

Front 10

Jim Enote (2)

Back 10

-Zuni tribe member and heritage center director

-'why did science create ethno-sciences to explain native wisdom to themselves?'

-to Boast after description of contact zones - they sound clinical

Front 11

R, Boast (2011) (5)

Back 11

-Clifford's museums as contact zones now synonymous with inclusionist, collaborative curatorship/programs at museums

-eg Manchester Museum's film studio recording dialogues with source community experts (for 'Collective Conversations'), opened by ceremony by Yoruba chief

-idea flawed as they are ultimately sites in and for the centre

-contact zones are a 'clinical collaboration'

-Stanford Papuan sculpture park - 'both sides had culturally specific expectations that were not going to map onto each other very well'

Front 12

Mary Louise Pratt (2)

Back 12

-importance of autoethnography in contact zones (engaging with others' representations of oneself)

-contact zones: "wher cultures met, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power" (1991)

Front 13

Ortiz (1)

Back 13

-transculturation: a process whereby members of a subordinated/marginal group select/invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture

Front 14

Macdonald (3)

Back 14

-(2006) the new museology: education>research, engagement>doctrine, multivocality>connoisseurship

-assumes knowledge is realtive, social, and embodied in objects (and knowledge of them)

-TNM is neoliberal (it assumes open exchange of information), and postmodern (knowledge relativist, no knowledge absolute)

Front 15

Witcomb (1)

Back 15

-museums are unstable institutions attempting to come to grips with effects of colonial encounter, with positive and negative effects. They don't extend the view of the elite - they're too complex

Front 16

Shelton (2)

Back 16

-museums a microcosm, in which inter-ethinc relations are played out through a struggle over interpretation and control of cultural resources

-they aim to mediate the West and the Other, justifying their continuation and ownership of colonial items

Front 17

Bennett (2)

Back 17

-the museum as a contact zone is an extension of the museum as an instrument of governmentality, expressed as multiculturalism

-the museum doesn't try and extend messages of diversity/tolerance; the new partially bottom-up curatorship is a subterfuge

Front 18

Ashley

Back 18

-colonial traits of collection, exhibition, and education have been retained.

Front 19

-Clifford/Boast

Back 19

-museums should be decentralised

-resources should be let go of at times, for the benefit of communties/agendas beyond its knowledge and control

-contact zones as a 'clinical collaboration'