Showing papers on "Exhibition published in 1970"

Social Media and Cultural Interactive Experiences in Museums

Abstract: Social media such as blogs, wikis and digital stories facilitate knowled- ge exchange through social networking. Such media create a new forum within which dispersed audiences - including youth, regional and rural communities - can engage with museums to actively debate notions of identity, and voice these re- flections online. Social media can impact on formal and informal learning within the museum and the effect that this may have on notions of cultural identity. This represents a shift in the ways in which museums: ● act as trusted cultural online networks; ● distribute community knowledge; and ● view their role as custodians of cultural content. Museum communication systems such as exhibitions, public programs, outreach and education seek to provide complex cultural interactive experiences. Social me- dia challenge existing communication models, and few museums have clear strate- gies for engaging communities in content creation. This paper will investigate some of the issues surrounding the use of social media in museum programs and will argue that there are strong epistemological reasons for using social media to add value to museum programs. Keywords: Social media, museum communication, web 2.0, museum learn- ing.

Jackson Pollock; psychoanalytic drawings

Abstract: Perhaps no aspect of Jackson Pollock's oeuvre--one of the most important American artists of the twentieth century--has been more misunderstood than the drawings Pollock created during Jungian psychoanalysis sessions from 1939-40. Presented to his psychotherapist, where they remained in private files for almost three decades until their publication in 1970, these drawings have been shrouded in both personal and art-historical controversy--from a lawsuit filed by Pollock's widow, Lee Krasner, to wide-ranging justifications of them as Jungian iconography or as "proof" of Pollock's supposed mental disorder.Published in conjunction with an exhibition touring the United States, this book draws together sixty-nine drawings and one gouache, beautifully reproduced in accurate color for the first time. The images reveal a range of styles, from highly refined and elaborate sketches to rapid and automatic improvisations, as well as a range of subjects, from human figures, animals, and cryptic figures to purely abstract forms. Together, they bear witness to Pollock's intense interest in the latest contemporary art as well as non-Western traditions.Art historian Claude Cernuschi's essay addresses key historical and interpretive questions surrounding these drawings: what was their intended purpose?; do they have particular psychoanalytic importance? what is the relationship between psychoanalysis and art? Ultimately, Cernuschi argues for the importance of reintegrating these works into their rightly held place in Pollock's oeurve. Remarkable for their beauty as well as spontaneity, these drawings reflect the conscious intellectual choice of an artist blazing new trails.

Viaje de ida y vuelta, al mito. La contribución del cine a la formación de la iconografía turística de Mallorca

Abstract: Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands, is a well-known summer holidays destination; an ideal place to relax and enjoy the sun and the sea. That tourist gaze reflected on postcards results from advertising campaigns, where cinema played an important role with documentaries and fiction films. The origins of that iconography started in the decades of the 1920’s and 1930’s, reflecting the so-called myth of the “island of calm”. On the other hand, the films of the 1950’s and 1960’s created new stereotypes related to the mass tourism boom. Busy beaches and the white bodies of tourists replaced white sandy beaches, mountains and landscapes shown up in the movies of the early decades of the 20th century. Besides, hotels and nightclubs also replaced monuments, rural landscapes and folk exhibitions. These tourist images mirror the social and spatial transformations of Mallorca, under standardization processes like other seaside mass tourist destinations. The identity was rebuilt on the foundations of "modernity". Although "balearization" has not ceased, nowadays filmmaking about Mallorca is advertising again a stereotype close to that one of the 1920s and 1930s, glorifying the myth of the "island of calm". This singular identity makes the island more profitable for capital that searches socio-spatial differentiation in post-fordist times.

The exhibition as theatre – on the staging of museum objects

Abstract: I would like to examine the role of the setting in exhibitions as it is seen in relation to the stage set in the theatre. Museographers have a great deal to learn from the techniques of stage setting in the theatre. Furthermore, many of the concepts and models which characterize a «theatrical» or «dramatic» approach to culturalphenomena can be useful at a theoretical level in order to arrive at a better understanding of the exhibition.

Challenges for the technological augmentation of open-air museums: bridging buildings, artefacts and activities

Abstract: This paper reports research and design work focused on enhancing visitor experience of an open-air museum, Bunratty Folk Park in County Clare (Ireland). We will discuss how existing work in the domain of museum technologies has so far dealt little with open-air sites. Our approach aimed at developing themes of participation and visitor contribution at a site that differs from indoor exhibitions on the grounds of size, structure and material on display. We will describe the background research and design research towards an interactive multi-device installation entitled “Reminisce” for Bunratty Folk Park, informed by a focus centred on visitor activities and their experience of place. We will then provide examples of visitors’ interactions with Reminisce in order to show how this approach can lead to successful design interventions.

Recombining ideas from art and cultural history museums in theory and practice

Abstract: This article is concerned with visual elements of exhibition design in cultural history museums and the way they produce meanings. The aim is to open up and analyze the process of constructing meanings from a visual point of view. Examples are chosen from the authors own artistic museum installations, which act as test spaces in the research. Cultural history museums can act as a treasure box for artistic work, and vice versa, contemporary art and design can give valuable tools for display habits in cultural history museums.

The role of the imagination in museum visits

Abstract: The imagination plays an important role in museums, today more than ever. Visitors use their repositories of imagination or repertoires to make sense of their encounters with objects and exhibits. In this article, I argue that this initial meaning making, rather than being the end goal of museum interpretation, should be thought of as the point of departure for further, more scientific meaning making. I present a framework developed by Colette Dufresne-Tasse et al. (2006) and show how it can be used to identify the variety of visitor repertoires at work in their imagination processes. I argue that becoming familiar with commonly occurring repertoires is necessary for exhibition designers in order for museums to continue to take their interpretive responsibility seriously, and I discuss how such a familiarisation may affect museum practice. I conclude with some perspectives on the implications of the framework for museum research.

Brave new world: Mobile phones, museums and learning - how and why to use Augmented Reality within museums

Abstract: This article deals with mobile technologies as tools for learning within museums. Using the presentation of EGO-TRAP – an exhibition which uses mo- bile technologies as the technical platform for creating an Augmented Reality – as my point of departure, I will discuss the advantages of using mobiles as tools for learning in museums. EGO-TRAP may be seen as a first modest step into a new museum paradigm. On the basis of a brief outline of the change of paradigms within museums I propose a new paradigm based on interactivity, narration and virtuality embedded in an Augmented Reality with an educational aim. This kind of Augmented Reality, I argue, seems to satisfy the demands of hands-on experiences, narrative structure and individual experiences, which I point out as being crucial for a beneficial learning experience at museums.

Museum pedagogy and the evocation of moments of responsibility

Abstract: In 2010–11, an exhibition entitled It’s not Your Fault! was on display at The Women’s Museum in Denmark. The museum aimed to contribute to the prevention of rape by giving young people, who were the target group, a sense of shared responsibility for the prevention of rape. In this article, the museum’s hopes regarding the prevention of rape are read as a hope of deepening of responsibility. The exhibition is approached as a conglomerate of didactic materials and contents that may encourage visitors to engage in educational relations with the museum regarding traumatic events of sexual violence. The potential of the design and dramaturgy of the exhibition to evoke moments of ethical responsibility is explored. Inspired by Emmanuel Levinas, the article discusses the joint emergence of learning and responsibility, and approaches ethical responsibility in the double sense of response and care. This particular point in grounding ethics in education is discussed in relation to central features of the exhibition. It is suggested that such features, like the poetic re-interpretations in the exhibition, have the potential of meeting and unsettling the visitor and lay the grounds for ethical responsibility and for critical re-thinking. However, it is also discussed how the exhibition represents controversial issues in regard to displaying the subject.

Re-entering the house. Scenographic and artistic interventions and interactions in the historic house museum

Abstract: Scenographic and artistic interventions and interactions have gained in significance within the fields of exhibition and museum design since the 1990s. This article specifically focuses on historic ...

The Dangerous Museum. Participatory practices and controversy in museums today

Abstract: Whereas museums shunned controversy in the past, this article argues that as museums embrace the new trend of audience participation some have also opted to introduce “hot topics” into museum exhibitions. Museum professionals who have adopted this particular form of museum practice predict that it has the potential to reform museums as we know them, and to turn museums into active agents for democratic change in society. In a bid to understand and scrutinize the implications of this development in museums, the article consults critiques raised by art critics writing about a related development in contemporary art, i.e. relational and participatory art forms.

When words of wisdom are not wise. A study of accessibility in museum exhibition texts

Abstract: This article presents a study of the linguistic accessibility of Danish museum exhibition texts. e point of departure is the well-established paradigm shift in the international museum field proclaiming that today’s museums should strive to give physical and intellectual access to all visitors regardless of their social, cultural and intellectual backgrounds. The study explores to what extent Danish museums provide broad linguistic accessibility in their exhibition texts through the analysis of 33 texts from ten Danish museums. The results show that in relation to some elements (e.g. text length, use of paragraphs and straightforward writing style), the museums write in an accessible manner. However, several other elements (e.g. excessive use of jargon, officialese and compounds and unnecessary use of passive voice) are of great detriment to the overall accessibility of these texts. The article concludes with a range of operative recommendations for museum professionals who wish to write accessible texts.

Without a trace? The Sámi in the Swedish History Museum

Abstract: Around 2005, the Swedish History Museum (SHM) in Stockholm reworked their Vikings exhibition, aiming to question simplistic and erroneous understandings of past group identities. In the process, all references to the Sami were removed from the exhibition texts. This decision has been criticised by experts on Sami pasts. In this article, it is argued that we can talk about a Sami ethnic identity from the Early Iron Age onwards. The removal of references to the Sami in the exhibition texts is discussed accordingly, as well as the implicit misrepresentations, stereotypes and majority attitudes that are conveyed through spatial distribution, choice of illustrations, lighting, colour schemes and the exhibition texts. Finally, some socio-political reasons for the avoidance of Sami issues in Sweden are suggested, including an enduring colonialist relation to this minority.

Eastbourne Health Congress and Exhibition 1970

Abstract: EPRESENTATIVES of Government Departments, local authorities, universities and other bodies, as well as a large number of the Society’s members, will be attending this year’s Health Congress, the 77th in the history of the Society and now firmly established as one of the most important annual events in the field of public health. Following the official opening at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, at 11.00 a.m. on Monday, 27 April, by Dr. George Nisbet, the Chairman of Council, Sir George Godber, K.c.B., HON.F.R.S.H., Chief Medical Oflicer of Health of the Department of Health and Social Security, will address the delegates on &dquo;The Safe Environment&dquo;. The Mayor of Eastbourne, Alderman Cecil F. Baker, J.P., will give a civic welcome. A wide range of papers will again be presented during the Congress, including: Training for the Developing Role of the Health Education Officer; The Place of Health Education in the Training of School Teachers; The Disruption of the Neighbourhood; In Place of Chaos; Public Health-The Present; Public Health-The Future; Hospital Care of the Elderly and Not-so-Elderly Long-stay Handicapped Patient; Care of the Long-stay Mentally Ill Patient; Residential Care of the Mentally Sub-normal Person; Toxicity and Naturally Occurring Chemicals in Food; Food Allergies; Mycotoxins; Papers on Teamwork of Community Care, from the point of view of a Health Visitor, a District Nurse, and a General Practitioner; The Working Mother-The Effect upon the Home and Family, Her Contribution to Industry, and Her Contribution to the Economy; People and Planning; The Rehabilitation of Houses; Environmental Improvement and Urban Renewal; The Housing Act 1969-The Financial Implications; Dental Health Through Water Fluoridation; Dietary Modifications as a Means of the Control of Dental Caries; Prevention in the Local Authority Service; Imaginative Teaching in Schools; Two papers on The Abuse of Drugs and its Prevention; Parents’ Choice; Language and Thinking in the Subnormal ; Genetic Counselling for Parents of Mentally Handicapped Children; Horses; Pets in Houses; Companionship to Humans; The Family Practitioner Services; The Hospital Services; The Local Health Authority Services; The Qualification Certificate; Rent Regulation; and The Abortion Act-The Advantages and Disadvantages ; The Social Aspects; Implications for the Family. A Plenary Session, on Friday afternoon, will close the Congress. Details of the programme of this Session will be announced later. A varied programme has been arranged for the wives of delegates, including a fashion show, a display of floral decorations, a demonstration by the Gas Council, and a talk on how to be slim and fit. The overseas delegates will again be entertained at a Reception to be given on Monday evening, and this will be followed by a general Congress Dance for all the delegates. The Mayor and Corporation of Eastbourne will entertain those attending the Congress at a Civic Reception and Dance on Tuesday, and after a special theatre show

Følelser på museum

Abstract: This article describes a series of experimental trials regarding the role of feelings in a museum context. These trials were carried out at Moesgard Museum in Denmark, and consisted of a series of additions to the museum’s permanent exhibitions. The trial set-ups were designed to provide visitors with the best possible opportunities for emotionally relating to the exhibits in question. Observations as well as qualitative interviews were used to study which effects the trial set-ups had, seen in relation to the permanent exhibition, and whether it was possible to trace any effect regarding how the visitors experienced the rest of the exhibition. The trials demonstrated that even very small efforts focused on creating an emotional response among visitors had the potential to create a greatly increased sense of relevance, empathy and interest in relation to the exhibits. It was also shown that space, and the sequential layout of space, also had significant potential for creating a sense of emotional empathy among visitors.

Portable technologies at the museum

Abstract: A topic of interest in contemporary museum studies is how digital technologies contribute to museum visitor experiences. Building on insights from media and technology studies that new media should be understood for how they overlap with old media, the article reports an ethnographic study of the intersections between the exhibition at a modern museum of natural history and three portable technologies – one of which is digital. Mobile phone cameras, exercise pamphlets and dress-up costumes link visitors with an exhibition, but they simultaneously shape this relation in their own specific directions. This is shown by drawing on the concept of mediation as it is developed by philosopher Michel Serres and philosopher of technology Bruno Latour. The article is based on the Ph.D. thesis entitled “Portable Objects at the Museum”, defended at Roskilde University on 22 September 2010.

Reconstruction as trope of cultural display. Rethinking the role of “living exhibitions”

Abstract: During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a new and particularly widespread type of exhibition practice occurred all over the Western World, namely “living exhibitions”. They were characterized by the display of indigenous and exotic-looking peoples in zoological gardens, circuses, amusement parks, various industrial expositions, and major international expositions where representatives of indigenous and foreign peoples from all over the globe performed their everyday life in reconstructed settings. Entire milieus were recreated by bringing along dwellings, animals, objects, etc. Eventually this would also become the dominant trope of display in folkloric exhibitions. Nevertheless, the living exhibitions have not been regarded as in uential to this development. Instead, the trope has most commonly been accredited to the Swedish folklorist Artur Hazelius. In this article, I stress the importance of situating his display techniques and museological ideals within a wider context, most importantly the living exhibitions. The emphasis will be on the display of Sami.

Controversial indigeneity. Museums representing non-officially recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan

Abstract: This article explores how museums in Taiwan represent a group, called Pingpu, whose indigenous status is highly contested. Pingpu specific cultural features have almost disappeared as a result of centuries of exchanges with Han Chinese settlers. As a consequence, Pingpu groups have not received official indigenous recognition by the Taiwanese government. Yet Pingpu groups are actively seeking recognition through public demonstrations and promoting public awareness of Pingpu concerns. The official recognition of Pingpu’s indigeneity is an ongoing, decades-long, controversial issue in Taiwan. Museums are one of the foci through which Pingpu issues are gaining visibility in Taiwan. But how are they dealing with this controversial issue? More broadly, what position can or should museums take in relation to contested indigenous claims to recognition? This article discusses recent exhibitions representing Pingpu at the light of the politics of representation of indigenous groups and the transformation of museums’ social roles in contemporary Taiwan.

Creating prehistory: Archeology museums and the discource of modernism

Abstract: In the 19th century a number of new scientific disciplines made their appearance in Europe. Among these was archaeology, a discipline concerned with mans very distant past. Archaeology unfolded in a space created by the collapse of the pre-modern, biblical conception of history . This breakdown had left a void which archaeology, along with several other evolutionary disciplines, were able successfully to fill. By the end of the 19th century a vast number of archaeological collections, exhibitions and museums had grown up throughout Europe and stood as material signifiers of the newly established time-depth of man.

Et sant og levende bilde av verden; Verdensutstillinger og museumshistorie

Abstract: A true and vividpicture of the world; world exhibitions and museum history Norwegian participarion in Internarional Exhibirions, World Fairs and Expositions Universelles in the last century and its potential relationship to museum history is the subject of this paper. It starts with a juxtaposition of EXP0'98 in Lisbon and the international exhibitions that were arranged in the last century. The juxtaposition highlights how the cultural effects of ideas are transmitted by international exhibitions and how the rationale for such events has changed since the 19th century. This comparison serves as a background for a discussion of the exhibitions of the last century in museological terms. It is argued that there are good reasons for a comparison and for viewing the international exhibitions in the light of the development of museums and museum practice.

Minority history in museums. Between ethnopolitics and museology

Abstract: From the 1980s, the ethnographic museums came under increased criticism for displaying indigenous peoples as people without history. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this critique of the exhibiting practices began to make an impact in museums, and the notion that they should exhibit oppressed and silenced groups in society, and thereby act as agents for social change, gradually gained momentum. This development also made its mark in Norway, where several museums began to exhibit the history and culture of ethnic minorities. With this turn, the political situation of the minorities became relevant. The article investigates how the museological and ethnopolitical changes in this period influenced the way museums exhibited minority history. Two exhibitions from this period are analysed: Latjo-Drom – The Romani/Travellers’ Culture and History at the Glomdal Museum and Sapmi – Becoming a Nation at Tromso University Museum. The article discusses how the historical representations presented in these exhibitions can be understood within the contemporary museological and ethnopolitical contexts.

Reviewing the museum or: The complexity of things

Abstract: The young historian, Anthony Maloney, Assistant Professor at the McGill University, Montreal is a specialist on the Victorian era. He spends a few days in California, where, in his motel room on the last weekend before his flight home, he has a dream. Outside his window, on a huge car-park, a complete exhibition on Victorian culture has appeared overnight. The exhibition is a hybrid of world exhibition, museum and annual fair, in which are combined every Victorian object Maloney has ever seen in a museum, with those he has only read about or seen illustrated. Others are virtually unknown to him, but their existence would indeed have been possible.