I wanted to share some of my reading on museum theory; maybe I can add something to the analysis or get some suggestions for my writings.
Summary and some questions posed towards pages 1-13 article.
- What/where/when is global?
- Who/what/where is excluded?
- Who benefits from their exclusion?
- Who are the organizers? What is the ‘elaborate infrastructure?’
- How do the organizers and museums benefit from keeping these tours from reaching less developed countries?
- Who built the infrastructure? When? How?
- Are less developed countries actually incapable of funding these exhibitions?
- Do developed countries have a responsibility to have the exhibitions tour all of the world?
- What are these funds? How much are these funds? Who supplies the funds?
- Why don’t organizers think funds would be supplied to less developed countries?
Reinstallation of permanent collection
Exhibitions as legitimacy
“The growing integration of new media into museum and heritage practice has resulted in a certain democratization of access, with collections and exhibitions available in virtual form in homes, school and elsewhere, and it has provided the basis for cooperative ventures among institutions. Yet it simultaneously creates new barriers defined by digital divides both within and among countries.” (pg 13)
The two main ideas:
- The internet and new media increases audience which automatically increased public controversy
- The internet and new media created barriers between those who could access the tech and who couldn’t which created controversy.
- “Yet it simultaneously”- What is ‘it’? Who responsible for ‘it’? Is ‘it’ simultaneous?
- Is there more controversy or is the controversy more public?
- Is the audience reached by the internet and new media different than that of old technology?
- If not, what is it about the method of the technology that creates controversy?
- If so, who is being excluded? Why?
- Does the audience reached by new media have different goals or expectations of museums than those who had access before?
- Is the cooperation beneficial? To whom? Is the cooperation open or a cabal?
A good reading on whether technology inherently changes what’s being transmitted, especially with digital technology.
How can this be applied to museum spaces and publications?