Steve Volk
Home phone: 0207-681-4800
Mobile: 0781-328-8462
[email protected]
Program office (Donna Vinter): 020-7419-1178 [99-103 Great Russell Street]
Meeting times: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-3:00
Meeting locations: we will either meet in the program offices on Great Russell Street (Room 24), Steve's flat in Chalk Farm, or at a museum to be determined.
Home phone: 0207-681-4800
Mobile: 0781-328-8462
[email protected]
Program office (Donna Vinter): 020-7419-1178 [99-103 Great Russell Street]
Meeting times: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-3:00
Meeting locations: we will either meet in the program offices on Great Russell Street (Room 24), Steve's flat in Chalk Farm, or at a museum to be determined.
Museum Narratives:
This course is designed to introduce students to the museum as a history-specific institution which arose in the late 18th and early 19th century in Western Europe before passing over to the United States. At the heart of our enquiry is a discussion of the museum as a particular set of practices and institutions which produce, organize, and structure knowledge through specific narrative techniques. The birth of the museum is entwined with the birth of the modern and its systems of organization and classification, i.e., with taxonomies. At the level of natural science, this begins with the Linnaean systems of classification, but it also carries over into ways of classifying humans, human societies, and nations and nationalisms. Museums help fashion the ways in which we, the visitors, understand history, geography, cultural difference, social hierarchy, dominance and subordinance. They can organize our memories, and tell us what is real and what false. Museums, by their systems of classification and categorization, will tell us what is art and what is ethnography, what is valuable and what is common.
The course is designed to help us understand some key aspects of museum life and practice:
This course is designed to introduce students to the museum as a history-specific institution which arose in the late 18th and early 19th century in Western Europe before passing over to the United States. At the heart of our enquiry is a discussion of the museum as a particular set of practices and institutions which produce, organize, and structure knowledge through specific narrative techniques. The birth of the museum is entwined with the birth of the modern and its systems of organization and classification, i.e., with taxonomies. At the level of natural science, this begins with the Linnaean systems of classification, but it also carries over into ways of classifying humans, human societies, and nations and nationalisms. Museums help fashion the ways in which we, the visitors, understand history, geography, cultural difference, social hierarchy, dominance and subordinance. They can organize our memories, and tell us what is real and what false. Museums, by their systems of classification and categorization, will tell us what is art and what is ethnography, what is valuable and what is common.
The course is designed to help us understand some key aspects of museum life and practice:
- Museums, Collecting and Display
- Museum Narratives and the Rhetoric of Display
- Museums and History
- Museums, the Nation, Colonialism
- Museums and their Publics
Course Objectives:
Meeting times:
The class will meet regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Most Tuesdays we will meet from 1:00-3:00 either at the program offices on Great Russell Street (Room 24), or at Steve’s flat (2B Bridge Approach; Chalk Farm Tube stop). I’ll develop a system so you will know exactly where we will be meeting. Sometimes we will also visit a museum directly after the Tuesday class. Most Thursdays will be devoted to museum visits, and the time and meeting point will be determined the week before and listed in the online syllabus. If you all have mobile phones, I will confirm by text message. A few museum visits can be scheduled for Fridays.
Course Requirements:
Attendance. As with any Oberlin seminar, this one requires your attendance. The basic point is that the class can’t work without you. Absences will figure into your grade. This is true both for the class meetings and the museum visits/field trips. PLEASE NOTE: The Tuesday classes begin at 1:00 pm. You’re now living in a big city and need to plan accordingly for Tube closures, traffic, horse parades, etc. Times and meeting locations will be announced for our Thursday meetings.
Reading. You are expected to do the reading, and to complete it in a timely manner (i.e., prior to the Tuesday class meeting). All readings are posted to Blackboard (look under the week the article is assigned).
Class Participation. Class participation is essential and will be reflected in your grade. I understand that not everyone finds it as easy to participate actively, but this is a small class with a lot of interesting things happening. I’m confident that you will all have wonderful things to contribute to the course. If you feel that something is preventing your full and eager participation in the course, please see me and we will try to sort it out.
Leading Discussion: Everyone will be expected to lead two discussions over the course of the semester (one in the first half and one in the second half). You will find the discussion facilitation "rota" (schedule) here: http://lond912s16.weebly.com/discussion-facilitation-schedule.html
Writing Assignments: You will need to turn in three assignments over the course of the semester, at least one before spring break.[Updated March 2] Each assignment will engage the readings with a specific museum visit (use the "Museum Visit Ethnography" available on Blackboard, under Readings ) and will focus on a specific topic. Among the topics are the following, or you can suggest an alternative topic:
-- The history of the museum (collecting, the notion of public space, etc.)
-- The narrative design of museums (internal display and organization)
-- The museum as a democratic space, or the idea of the “public”
-- The nation and the museum
-- Colonialism, imperialism, and museum practice
-- The artifact and the museum (authenticity, meaning, collecting, resources)
-- Curation and the museum
-- Museum workers: from docents, to guards, to curators, to directors
-- New museum practices/possibilities
Each paper will be approximately 3-5 pages long (double spaced). You will turn your papers in as email attachments to me. If you find you have any technical problems, let me know.
A final assignment will be due the last week of the semester: still to be determined, either a collective curation (my London semester) or a paper on the museum that had the greatest impact on your understanding.
Museum Journals: You will also be expected to keep a journal of your museum visits as a way to provide input to your papers and help record your visits. We will discuss format and what I’m looking at the start of the class. These will be turned in but not graded (even though they will count as part of your final grade). As you will see below, the most important aspect of the class is your participation. That is what will make a good class.
Final Grade:
Papers (5 in all @10% each) 50%
Museum Journal 10%
Participation 20%
Discussion facilitation (2 @ 10% each) 20%
Accommodations
As with any Oberlin class, please let me know if you need any special accommodations.
Readings: All the required readings are on Blackboard.
- To help students “read” museums as socially constructed texts;
- To understand the history of museums and museum practice;
- To view museum practice as shaped by multiple contexts, of which the historical is one important context;
- To appreciate the potential of the museum as a powerful institution in shaping how publics understand not just their world, but their past as well;
- To introduce students to work in the world of museums and public history sites;
- To gain a larger sense of who does what in a museum, from docents to directors.
Meeting times:
The class will meet regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Most Tuesdays we will meet from 1:00-3:00 either at the program offices on Great Russell Street (Room 24), or at Steve’s flat (2B Bridge Approach; Chalk Farm Tube stop). I’ll develop a system so you will know exactly where we will be meeting. Sometimes we will also visit a museum directly after the Tuesday class. Most Thursdays will be devoted to museum visits, and the time and meeting point will be determined the week before and listed in the online syllabus. If you all have mobile phones, I will confirm by text message. A few museum visits can be scheduled for Fridays.
Course Requirements:
Attendance. As with any Oberlin seminar, this one requires your attendance. The basic point is that the class can’t work without you. Absences will figure into your grade. This is true both for the class meetings and the museum visits/field trips. PLEASE NOTE: The Tuesday classes begin at 1:00 pm. You’re now living in a big city and need to plan accordingly for Tube closures, traffic, horse parades, etc. Times and meeting locations will be announced for our Thursday meetings.
Reading. You are expected to do the reading, and to complete it in a timely manner (i.e., prior to the Tuesday class meeting). All readings are posted to Blackboard (look under the week the article is assigned).
Class Participation. Class participation is essential and will be reflected in your grade. I understand that not everyone finds it as easy to participate actively, but this is a small class with a lot of interesting things happening. I’m confident that you will all have wonderful things to contribute to the course. If you feel that something is preventing your full and eager participation in the course, please see me and we will try to sort it out.
Leading Discussion: Everyone will be expected to lead two discussions over the course of the semester (one in the first half and one in the second half). You will find the discussion facilitation "rota" (schedule) here: http://lond912s16.weebly.com/discussion-facilitation-schedule.html
Writing Assignments: You will need to turn in three assignments over the course of the semester, at least one before spring break.[Updated March 2] Each assignment will engage the readings with a specific museum visit (use the "Museum Visit Ethnography" available on Blackboard, under Readings ) and will focus on a specific topic. Among the topics are the following, or you can suggest an alternative topic:
-- The history of the museum (collecting, the notion of public space, etc.)
-- The narrative design of museums (internal display and organization)
-- The museum as a democratic space, or the idea of the “public”
-- The nation and the museum
-- Colonialism, imperialism, and museum practice
-- The artifact and the museum (authenticity, meaning, collecting, resources)
-- Curation and the museum
-- Museum workers: from docents, to guards, to curators, to directors
-- New museum practices/possibilities
Each paper will be approximately 3-5 pages long (double spaced). You will turn your papers in as email attachments to me. If you find you have any technical problems, let me know.
A final assignment will be due the last week of the semester: still to be determined, either a collective curation (my London semester) or a paper on the museum that had the greatest impact on your understanding.
Museum Journals: You will also be expected to keep a journal of your museum visits as a way to provide input to your papers and help record your visits. We will discuss format and what I’m looking at the start of the class. These will be turned in but not graded (even though they will count as part of your final grade). As you will see below, the most important aspect of the class is your participation. That is what will make a good class.
Final Grade:
Papers (5 in all @10% each) 50%
Museum Journal 10%
Participation 20%
Discussion facilitation (2 @ 10% each) 20%
Accommodations
As with any Oberlin class, please let me know if you need any special accommodations.
Readings: All the required readings are on Blackboard.
Syllabus
A good listing of London Museums can be found at the following site. Each museum will have its own specific website with information about current exhibits, on-line exhibitions, directions, etc.
RECOMMENDED READING PRIOR TO THE START OF CLASS TO HELP YOU THINK ABOUT VISITING THE MUSEUM
Emily Stokes-Rees, “Methods for a Multi-Sited Study of New National Museums: A Fieldworker’s Experience,” Museological Review [Leicester, UK] 10 (2004): 67-73.
Margaret Lindauer, “The Critical Museum Visitor,” in Janet Marstine, ed., New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 203-225.
RECOMMENDED READING PRIOR TO THE START OF CLASS TO HELP YOU THINK ABOUT VISITING THE MUSEUM
Emily Stokes-Rees, “Methods for a Multi-Sited Study of New National Museums: A Fieldworker’s Experience,” Museological Review [Leicester, UK] 10 (2004): 67-73.
Margaret Lindauer, “The Critical Museum Visitor,” in Janet Marstine, ed., New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 203-225.
PART I: THE MUSEUM IN ITS CONTEXTS: COLLECTING, CONSUMING, DISPLAY
Feb. 2, 4: “The Primary Function of Any Museum Is…?
What is a museum? What is fitting to “put” in a museum? Why does one put things in a museum? Why does one go to museums? In this opening section, we will explore the idea of a museum via your experiences and some reading. Are the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, your collection of Nike ads, and a web site from the Exploratorium all “museum” exhibits? Are there differences between “collections” and “museums”? What have you liked about museums and what not? After all is said and done, what is the museum, and what is the museum experience? This is a question to which we’ll return at the end of class.
Feb. 2 – Discussion: What is a museum?
What is a museum? What is fitting to “put” in a museum? Why does one put things in a museum? Why does one go to museums? In this opening section, we will explore the idea of a museum via your experiences and some reading. Are the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, your collection of Nike ads, and a web site from the Exploratorium all “museum” exhibits? Are there differences between “collections” and “museums”? What have you liked about museums and what not? After all is said and done, what is the museum, and what is the museum experience? This is a question to which we’ll return at the end of class.
Feb. 2 – Discussion: What is a museum?
Feb. 4: Visit the Somerset House: Museum of
Innocence exhibition.
Readings:
“What is a Museum?,” entry at “Found History” blog.
Kenneth Hudson, “Attempts to Define ‘Museum,’” in
David Boswell and Jessica Evans, eds., Representing the
Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and Museums
(London and NY: Routledge, 1999), pp. 371-379.
James A. Boon, “Why Museums Make Me Sad,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 255-277. [NOTE: In its style, almost more than in its content, it mimics the museum and the process of museum going. Read it first, without stopping to “figure everything out.” You might want to return to this article at the end of the course and see what you make of it then.]
Sharon Macdonald, “Introduction,” in Theorizing Museums. Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, ed. Sharon Macdonald and Gordon Fyfe (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), pp. 1-18.
Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), pp. 7-20.
Optional:
Paula Findlen, “The Museum: Its Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 23-50.
Innocence exhibition.
Readings:
“What is a Museum?,” entry at “Found History” blog.
Kenneth Hudson, “Attempts to Define ‘Museum,’” in
David Boswell and Jessica Evans, eds., Representing the
Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and Museums
(London and NY: Routledge, 1999), pp. 371-379.
James A. Boon, “Why Museums Make Me Sad,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 255-277. [NOTE: In its style, almost more than in its content, it mimics the museum and the process of museum going. Read it first, without stopping to “figure everything out.” You might want to return to this article at the end of the course and see what you make of it then.]
Sharon Macdonald, “Introduction,” in Theorizing Museums. Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, ed. Sharon Macdonald and Gordon Fyfe (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), pp. 1-18.
Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), pp. 7-20.
Optional:
Paula Findlen, “The Museum: Its Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 23-50.
Feb. 9, 11: Collecting in a Consumer Society
Collecting is a culturally driven practice. Here we will be discussing the nature of collecting in the “West,” i.e., in consumerist, market-oriented cultures. The primary question is: Why do we collect? What does collecting tell us about the societies in which we live, and why do the practices of collecting change over time. What do we do with our collections? How do we think about them?
Feb. 9 – Why collect? Discussion of readings (NOTE: afternoon visit to the “Medicine Man” exhibit at the Wellcome Collection.
Feb. 11 – Meet at 2:00 at the Freud House and Museum [Booked]
Readings:
Susan M. Pearce, “Collecting: Shaping the World,” in Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 68-88.
Susan M. Pearce, “Collecting as Medium and Message,” in Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, ed., Museum, Media, Message (NY and London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 15-23.
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 7-24.
Russell W. Belk, “A Brief History of Collecting,” in Collecting in a Consuming Society (London and NY: Routledge, 1994), 22-64.
Readings on the Freud Museum:
Barbara J. Black, “Coda: In Freud’s Study,” in On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000), pp 186-196.
Optional:
John Forrester, “ ‘Mille e tre’: Freud and Collecting,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., The Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge: Harvard, 1994), pp. 224-251.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking), 1972.
Stephen Greenblatt, “Resonance and Wonder,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), Ch. 51 (pp. 541-555).
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett “Objects of Ethnography” in Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp 386-443.
Philipp Blom, To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin), 2002.
Collecting is a culturally driven practice. Here we will be discussing the nature of collecting in the “West,” i.e., in consumerist, market-oriented cultures. The primary question is: Why do we collect? What does collecting tell us about the societies in which we live, and why do the practices of collecting change over time. What do we do with our collections? How do we think about them?
Feb. 9 – Why collect? Discussion of readings (NOTE: afternoon visit to the “Medicine Man” exhibit at the Wellcome Collection.
Feb. 11 – Meet at 2:00 at the Freud House and Museum [Booked]
Readings:
Susan M. Pearce, “Collecting: Shaping the World,” in Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 68-88.
Susan M. Pearce, “Collecting as Medium and Message,” in Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, ed., Museum, Media, Message (NY and London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 15-23.
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 7-24.
Russell W. Belk, “A Brief History of Collecting,” in Collecting in a Consuming Society (London and NY: Routledge, 1994), 22-64.
Readings on the Freud Museum:
Barbara J. Black, “Coda: In Freud’s Study,” in On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000), pp 186-196.
Optional:
John Forrester, “ ‘Mille e tre’: Freud and Collecting,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., The Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge: Harvard, 1994), pp. 224-251.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking), 1972.
Stephen Greenblatt, “Resonance and Wonder,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), Ch. 51 (pp. 541-555).
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett “Objects of Ethnography” in Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp 386-443.
Philipp Blom, To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin), 2002.
Feb. 16, 18: Modernity and the Museum
In this section we will explore the relationship of the museum to modernity - in particular we want to explore the relationship of museums to the notion of public space, both its historical creation and its specific location in the late-18th and early 19th century. We will move from the practices of aristocratic collecting (the princely cabinets of curiosity, the Kunstkammer, the studiolo) to focus on institutions which help create the notion of the modern: consumption, circulation, reproduction. We will consider department stores, the press, fairs, and circuses as institutions which develop along with the museum. We also want to examine the political promise of museums as related to their location in modernity, that of democratic representation (both in the museum and in terms of museum goers).
In this section we will explore the relationship of the museum to modernity - in particular we want to explore the relationship of museums to the notion of public space, both its historical creation and its specific location in the late-18th and early 19th century. We will move from the practices of aristocratic collecting (the princely cabinets of curiosity, the Kunstkammer, the studiolo) to focus on institutions which help create the notion of the modern: consumption, circulation, reproduction. We will consider department stores, the press, fairs, and circuses as institutions which develop along with the museum. We also want to examine the political promise of museums as related to their location in modernity, that of democratic representation (both in the museum and in terms of museum goers).
Sometime before class this week visit a grand old department store – Harrods is the best, particularly the Egyptian Room and the Food Court – and think about this quote from Miles Orvell: “At the center of the web of consumption, especially for the growing urban population, were the department stores, their majestic interiors, modeled on palaces and temples and cathedrals, giving to the act of buying a sacred character” (The Real Thing, p. 41).
Feb. 16: Sir John Soane’s Museum. Exhibition: "Death and Memory: Soane and the Architecture of Legacy" (13 Lincoln's Inn Fields; nearest Tube stop: Holborn)
Feb. 18: Museums and Their History - Modernity and the notion of a public. Discussion (NOTE: Following class we will visit the "Enlightenment" room at the British Museum.
NOTE: You are invited to virtually visit two different museum exhibitions as they appeared in 1796 (the "Shakespeare Gallery") and in 1813 (the "British Institution"). The exhibitions were meticulously recreated by Professor Janine Barchas (Dept. of English, University of Texas-Austin). The two are part of her website, "What Jane Saw," which she introduces in the following fashion: "You are invited to time travel to two art exhibitions witnessed by Jane Austen: the Sir Joshua Reynolds retrospective in 1813 or the Shakespeare Gallery as it looked in 1796. These two Georgian blockbusters took place, years apart, in the same London exhibition space at 52 Pall Mall (it no longer exists). When Austen visited in 1813, the building housed the British Institution, an organization promoting native artists. On her earlier London visit in 1796, it was the first-ever museum dedicated to William Shakespeare." To see a still-existing gallery hung in the late 18th century fashion, please visit the Wallace Collection.
Readings:
Tony Bennett, “The Formation of the Museum,” in The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (Routledge, 1995), Chapter 1 (pp. 17-58).
Carol Duncan, “From the Princely Gallery to the Public Art Museum. The Louvre Museum and the National Gallery, London,” in Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), pp. 21-47.
Jordanna Bailkin, “Picturing Feminism, Selling Liberalism: The Case of the Disappearing Holbein,” Gender and History 11:1 (April 1999): 145-63.
OPTIONAL: Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere – An Encyclopedia Article,” in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 102-107 [changed 2/12/16]
Readings on the Sir John Soane’s Museum:
John Elsner, “A Collector’s Model of Desire: The House and Museum of Sir John Soane,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., The Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 155-176.
Philipp Blom, “Mr. Soane is Not at Home,” in To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin, 2002), pp. 220-231.
Optional:
Alexandra Stara, The Museum of French Monuments 1795–1816: ‘Killing art to make history’ (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2013).
Museum of the False
Feb. 16: Sir John Soane’s Museum. Exhibition: "Death and Memory: Soane and the Architecture of Legacy" (13 Lincoln's Inn Fields; nearest Tube stop: Holborn)
Feb. 18: Museums and Their History - Modernity and the notion of a public. Discussion (NOTE: Following class we will visit the "Enlightenment" room at the British Museum.
NOTE: You are invited to virtually visit two different museum exhibitions as they appeared in 1796 (the "Shakespeare Gallery") and in 1813 (the "British Institution"). The exhibitions were meticulously recreated by Professor Janine Barchas (Dept. of English, University of Texas-Austin). The two are part of her website, "What Jane Saw," which she introduces in the following fashion: "You are invited to time travel to two art exhibitions witnessed by Jane Austen: the Sir Joshua Reynolds retrospective in 1813 or the Shakespeare Gallery as it looked in 1796. These two Georgian blockbusters took place, years apart, in the same London exhibition space at 52 Pall Mall (it no longer exists). When Austen visited in 1813, the building housed the British Institution, an organization promoting native artists. On her earlier London visit in 1796, it was the first-ever museum dedicated to William Shakespeare." To see a still-existing gallery hung in the late 18th century fashion, please visit the Wallace Collection.
Readings:
Tony Bennett, “The Formation of the Museum,” in The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (Routledge, 1995), Chapter 1 (pp. 17-58).
Carol Duncan, “From the Princely Gallery to the Public Art Museum. The Louvre Museum and the National Gallery, London,” in Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), pp. 21-47.
Jordanna Bailkin, “Picturing Feminism, Selling Liberalism: The Case of the Disappearing Holbein,” Gender and History 11:1 (April 1999): 145-63.
OPTIONAL: Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere – An Encyclopedia Article,” in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 102-107 [changed 2/12/16]
Readings on the Sir John Soane’s Museum:
John Elsner, “A Collector’s Model of Desire: The House and Museum of Sir John Soane,” in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds., The Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 155-176.
Philipp Blom, “Mr. Soane is Not at Home,” in To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin, 2002), pp. 220-231.
Optional:
Alexandra Stara, The Museum of French Monuments 1795–1816: ‘Killing art to make history’ (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2013).
Museum of the False
PART II: THE DISCURSIVE POWER OF MUSEUM NARRATIVES
February 23, 25: Museum Design - Ways of Narrating, Ways of Seeing. The Rhetoric of Space
Two main issues need to be discussed in this section, both of which build on the idea of the museum as a product of modernity: (1) The museum as a narrative structure (Roberts): much like the novel (arguably a 19th century artifact), the museum is designed around a narrative structure which is fundamentally implicated in interpretation. (2) The design and space of the (modern) museum is bound up with its existence as a public space (Bennett). In that sense it is expected to be open to publics (i.e. to serve a public function) at the same time that those who control museums are concerned with how the publics will behave in, demand control over, and use museums. In other words, and quite importantly, the museum is by design a fundamentally democratic space which is most often employed largely elite or upscale cultural consumption. We will explore these issues in terms of the design of the interior museum space (rather than its external architecture), and as relates to the transmission of certain “privileged” forms of knowledge, e.g., science (Macdonald). We will continue to think of how to use museum spaces to enhance (rather than stifle) democracy throughout the course.
Two main issues need to be discussed in this section, both of which build on the idea of the museum as a product of modernity: (1) The museum as a narrative structure (Roberts): much like the novel (arguably a 19th century artifact), the museum is designed around a narrative structure which is fundamentally implicated in interpretation. (2) The design and space of the (modern) museum is bound up with its existence as a public space (Bennett). In that sense it is expected to be open to publics (i.e. to serve a public function) at the same time that those who control museums are concerned with how the publics will behave in, demand control over, and use museums. In other words, and quite importantly, the museum is by design a fundamentally democratic space which is most often employed largely elite or upscale cultural consumption. We will explore these issues in terms of the design of the interior museum space (rather than its external architecture), and as relates to the transmission of certain “privileged” forms of knowledge, e.g., science (Macdonald). We will continue to think of how to use museum spaces to enhance (rather than stifle) democracy throughout the course.
Feb. 23: Discussion.
Feb. 25: South Kensington complex (Science Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A).
Readings:
Svetlana Alpers, “The Museum as a Way of Seeing,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D.Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 25-32. [Consider in relation to the Sir John Soanes Museum]
Lisa C. Roberts, From Knowledge to Narrative. Educators and the Changing Museum (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), selections from pages 56-67 and 131-150.
Susan M. Pearce, “Meaningful Exhibition: Knowledge Displayed,” in Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 136-143.
Michael Baxandall, “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 33-41.
Optional:
Tony Bennett, “Museums and Progress. Narrative, Ideology, Performance,” in The Birth of the Museum. History, Theory, Politics (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), Ch. 7 (pp. 177-209).
Seth Koven, “The Whitechapel Picture Exhibitions and the Politics of Seeing,” in Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, eds., Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles (London: Routledge, 1994) pp. 22-48.
Camilla Mordhorst, “The Exhibition Narrative in Flux,” Museological Review [Leicester, UK], 8 (2002): 1-20.
Carla Yanni, Victorian Science and the Architecture of Display (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), Introduction, Chapters 1 and 5.
Philipp Blom, “This Curious Old Gentleman,” in To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin, 2002), 77-91.
Feb. 25: South Kensington complex (Science Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A).
Readings:
Svetlana Alpers, “The Museum as a Way of Seeing,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D.Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 25-32. [Consider in relation to the Sir John Soanes Museum]
Lisa C. Roberts, From Knowledge to Narrative. Educators and the Changing Museum (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), selections from pages 56-67 and 131-150.
Susan M. Pearce, “Meaningful Exhibition: Knowledge Displayed,” in Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 136-143.
Michael Baxandall, “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 33-41.
Optional:
Tony Bennett, “Museums and Progress. Narrative, Ideology, Performance,” in The Birth of the Museum. History, Theory, Politics (London and NY: Routledge, 1995), Ch. 7 (pp. 177-209).
Seth Koven, “The Whitechapel Picture Exhibitions and the Politics of Seeing,” in Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, eds., Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles (London: Routledge, 1994) pp. 22-48.
Camilla Mordhorst, “The Exhibition Narrative in Flux,” Museological Review [Leicester, UK], 8 (2002): 1-20.
Carla Yanni, Victorian Science and the Architecture of Display (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), Introduction, Chapters 1 and 5.
Philipp Blom, “This Curious Old Gentleman,” in To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (NY: Penguin, 2002), 77-91.
March 1, 3: Locating Authenticity in the Museum: Objects, Narratives, Experiences
In general, the objects preserved in most museums are both solid (i.e., three dimensional) and originate in the past, so that the observer experiencing them in three-dimensional space must somehow also bridge a time gap. In this sense alone, then, museums are not the same as, say, illustrated books. A particular modernist assumption is that museums, by providing their visitors with the artifact, present them not just with “the real thing,” but with the “truth”: the museum is about “truthful” objects and “accurate” messages. Authenticity quickly comes to be at the heart of these questions: what is “real,” what is “authentic” (we can also be dealing with art and the question of forgeries), and how do we relate to material objects? Do objects have meaning sui generis?
For contemporary museological theorists, the essence of the “authentic” is not the artifact, but the museum experience itself, and the use of replicas, simulations, performances, and electronic media intertwined with real objects – techniques in which theme parks excel – help recreate, reconstruct, or re-represent near-authentic experiences. According to Macdonald museums should give more attention to presenting real experiences with the assistance of people from those cultures being represented. The readings all involve objects (artifacts) and their meanings – the relationship between artifact and meaning, how meanings are shaped by history and, within the museum context, by where they are situated.
In general, the objects preserved in most museums are both solid (i.e., three dimensional) and originate in the past, so that the observer experiencing them in three-dimensional space must somehow also bridge a time gap. In this sense alone, then, museums are not the same as, say, illustrated books. A particular modernist assumption is that museums, by providing their visitors with the artifact, present them not just with “the real thing,” but with the “truth”: the museum is about “truthful” objects and “accurate” messages. Authenticity quickly comes to be at the heart of these questions: what is “real,” what is “authentic” (we can also be dealing with art and the question of forgeries), and how do we relate to material objects? Do objects have meaning sui generis?
For contemporary museological theorists, the essence of the “authentic” is not the artifact, but the museum experience itself, and the use of replicas, simulations, performances, and electronic media intertwined with real objects – techniques in which theme parks excel – help recreate, reconstruct, or re-represent near-authentic experiences. According to Macdonald museums should give more attention to presenting real experiences with the assistance of people from those cultures being represented. The readings all involve objects (artifacts) and their meanings – the relationship between artifact and meaning, how meanings are shaped by history and, within the museum context, by where they are situated.
March 1: Discussion.
March 3: Imperial War Museum [Nearest Tubes: Lambeth North (Bakerloo Line); Waterloo (Bakerloo, Northern, Jubilee Line); Southwark (Jubilee Line); Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo, Northern Line)].
Reading:
Spencer R. Crew and James E. Sims, “Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 159-175.
Hilda Hein, “Museums: From Object to Experience,” in Carolyn Korsmeyer, ed., Aesthetics: The Big Questions (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998): 103-115.
Sean Kingston, “The Essential Attitude: Authenticity in Primitive Art, Ethnographic Performances, and Museums,” Journal of Material Culture 4 (1999): 338-351.
Joseph H. Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Museums and Authenticity,” Museum News (May-June 2007).
Optional:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 48-70.
Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology (NY: Vintage), 1996.
Alan Radley, “Boredom, Fascination and Mortality: Reflections Upon the Experience of Museum Visiting,” in Gaynor Kavanagh, ed., Museum Languages: Objects and Texts (Leicester, London and NY: Leicester University Press, 1991), pp. 65-82.
J. Trant, “When all You’ve Got is “The Real Thing”: Museums and Authenticity in the Networked World,” Archives and Museum Informatics 12 (1998): pp. 107-125.
William Lindsay, “Ethics and authenticity in natural history exhibits: The public wants what the public gets,” unpublished paper (head of Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum Conservation).
March 3: Imperial War Museum [Nearest Tubes: Lambeth North (Bakerloo Line); Waterloo (Bakerloo, Northern, Jubilee Line); Southwark (Jubilee Line); Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo, Northern Line)].
Reading:
Spencer R. Crew and James E. Sims, “Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 159-175.
Hilda Hein, “Museums: From Object to Experience,” in Carolyn Korsmeyer, ed., Aesthetics: The Big Questions (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998): 103-115.
Sean Kingston, “The Essential Attitude: Authenticity in Primitive Art, Ethnographic Performances, and Museums,” Journal of Material Culture 4 (1999): 338-351.
Joseph H. Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Museums and Authenticity,” Museum News (May-June 2007).
Optional:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 48-70.
Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology (NY: Vintage), 1996.
Alan Radley, “Boredom, Fascination and Mortality: Reflections Upon the Experience of Museum Visiting,” in Gaynor Kavanagh, ed., Museum Languages: Objects and Texts (Leicester, London and NY: Leicester University Press, 1991), pp. 65-82.
J. Trant, “When all You’ve Got is “The Real Thing”: Museums and Authenticity in the Networked World,” Archives and Museum Informatics 12 (1998): pp. 107-125.
William Lindsay, “Ethics and authenticity in natural history exhibits: The public wants what the public gets,” unpublished paper (head of Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum Conservation).
Part III: The Culture and Politics of Museums - shaping histories, identities, perceptions
March 8, 10: Museums and National Identity
Since the late in the 18th century, museums have served as an important way of defining the nation, both in the sense of displaying its treasures and in terms of mapping it off from the (colonial) Other. We can see this in the formation of the vast art collections that come to be known as “universal survey museums” (e.g., the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, etc.), as well as in natural history museums, heritage sites, etc. Probably the most impressive national display in this regard was the Great Exhibition of 1851, an exhibition which would later give rise to the South Kensington museum complex, specifically the Victoria and Albert Museum.
March 8: Discussion (Class will meet at Steve's flat in Chalk Farm. The after-class visit to the British Galleries at Tate Britain will be optional.
March 10: NO CLASS
Readings:
Kylie Message and Ewan Johnston, “The World within the City: The Great Exhibition, Race, Class and Social Reform,” in Jeffrey A. Auerbach and Peter H. Hoffenberg, eds., Britain, the Empire and the world at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pubs., 2008), pp. 27-46.
Since the late in the 18th century, museums have served as an important way of defining the nation, both in the sense of displaying its treasures and in terms of mapping it off from the (colonial) Other. We can see this in the formation of the vast art collections that come to be known as “universal survey museums” (e.g., the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, etc.), as well as in natural history museums, heritage sites, etc. Probably the most impressive national display in this regard was the Great Exhibition of 1851, an exhibition which would later give rise to the South Kensington museum complex, specifically the Victoria and Albert Museum.
March 8: Discussion (Class will meet at Steve's flat in Chalk Farm. The after-class visit to the British Galleries at Tate Britain will be optional.
March 10: NO CLASS
Readings:
Kylie Message and Ewan Johnston, “The World within the City: The Great Exhibition, Race, Class and Social Reform,” in Jeffrey A. Auerbach and Peter H. Hoffenberg, eds., Britain, the Empire and the world at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pubs., 2008), pp. 27-46.
Richard D. Altick, “National Monuments,” Representing the Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and Museums (New York and London: Routledge, 1999), 240-257.
Annie E. Coombes, “Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identities,” in The Oxford Art Journal 11:2 (1988): Focus on Section I, skim Secitons II & III, pp. 57-68.
OPTIONAL: Donald Preziosi, “Narrativity and the Museological Myths of Nationality,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies, 2nd ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), Ch. 6, pp. 82-91.
March 15, 17: Spring Break
Annie E. Coombes, “Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identities,” in The Oxford Art Journal 11:2 (1988): Focus on Section I, skim Secitons II & III, pp. 57-68.
OPTIONAL: Donald Preziosi, “Narrativity and the Museological Myths of Nationality,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies, 2nd ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), Ch. 6, pp. 82-91.
March 15, 17: Spring Break
March 22, 24: Temples of Empire
Last week we looked at the way the nation is narrated in its museum practices. This week we will look at how it marks off and defines its colonial Other. Indeed, the museum in general (and British museums in particular) is a primary institution through which both scholarly and popular discourses make explicit the distance between the nation and its colonial Others. Taxonomies which helped scientists catalog the world’s flora and fauna are similarly employed to chart the “evolutionary” chain from “savage” to “civilized.” Museums become a location through which local populations can see the value of and need for the colonial enterprise. Not surprisingly, there are a considerable number of British museums which brought the empire home for “scientific” classification and popular consumption.
The question to be examined is how a particular artifact/people/culture/time becomes available to a population which is unfamiliar with them. The exoticizing of the unfamiliar (i.e., its separation from a presumed familiar) is often mediated by specific ideological institutions among which museums are central. We will first approach this issue through an uncommon route, an examination of the way in which “Assyria” was made available to the mid-19th century British via a series of institutions: the British Museum, the Illustrated London News, and popular theater. In the words of Bohrer, we will be “tracking a sign through the inflection of its signifiers.” This can give an appreciation both for the locations of “exoticness” (temporal as well as spatial difference), the ways in which a public can contest elite aesthetic notions, and the specific role of the museum in introducing the “other” into a presumed homogeneous British public.
While Bohrer traces this creation of difference via artifacts, Coombes examines this process with people and cultures. At the same time that the British are mounting major efforts in the construction of international fairs and exhibitions, they are grappling mounting some of their most important ethnographic museum collections, particularly the famous Pitt River collection in Oxford, the Horniman Museum, and others. These collections and others will help forge a “national” subject by insist on the relationship between race and culture, and stressing their educational role among the masses.
Last week we looked at the way the nation is narrated in its museum practices. This week we will look at how it marks off and defines its colonial Other. Indeed, the museum in general (and British museums in particular) is a primary institution through which both scholarly and popular discourses make explicit the distance between the nation and its colonial Others. Taxonomies which helped scientists catalog the world’s flora and fauna are similarly employed to chart the “evolutionary” chain from “savage” to “civilized.” Museums become a location through which local populations can see the value of and need for the colonial enterprise. Not surprisingly, there are a considerable number of British museums which brought the empire home for “scientific” classification and popular consumption.
The question to be examined is how a particular artifact/people/culture/time becomes available to a population which is unfamiliar with them. The exoticizing of the unfamiliar (i.e., its separation from a presumed familiar) is often mediated by specific ideological institutions among which museums are central. We will first approach this issue through an uncommon route, an examination of the way in which “Assyria” was made available to the mid-19th century British via a series of institutions: the British Museum, the Illustrated London News, and popular theater. In the words of Bohrer, we will be “tracking a sign through the inflection of its signifiers.” This can give an appreciation both for the locations of “exoticness” (temporal as well as spatial difference), the ways in which a public can contest elite aesthetic notions, and the specific role of the museum in introducing the “other” into a presumed homogeneous British public.
While Bohrer traces this creation of difference via artifacts, Coombes examines this process with people and cultures. At the same time that the British are mounting major efforts in the construction of international fairs and exhibitions, they are grappling mounting some of their most important ethnographic museum collections, particularly the famous Pitt River collection in Oxford, the Horniman Museum, and others. These collections and others will help forge a “national” subject by insist on the relationship between race and culture, and stressing their educational role among the masses.
March 22: Discussion.
March 24: British Museum (Elgin Marbles, Assyrian sculptures, Rosetta stone, etc.)
Readings:
Gyan Prakash, “Museum Matters,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), Ch. 19, pp. 208-215. (In conjunction, see “Museum Matters” on Pinterest.)
Frederick H. Bohrer, “The Times and Spaces of History: Representation, Assyria, and the British Museum,” in Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, eds., Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 197-222.
Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus,’” History of Science 42:2 (2004): 233-257.
Optional:
Craig Clunas, “China in Britain. The Imperial Collections,” in Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn, eds., Colonialism and the Object. Empire, Material Culture, and the Museum (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 41-51.
Barbara J. Black, “An Empire’s Great Expectations: Museums in Imperialist Boy Fiction,” in On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2000), pp. 148-166.
March 24: British Museum (Elgin Marbles, Assyrian sculptures, Rosetta stone, etc.)
Readings:
Gyan Prakash, “Museum Matters,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), Ch. 19, pp. 208-215. (In conjunction, see “Museum Matters” on Pinterest.)
Frederick H. Bohrer, “The Times and Spaces of History: Representation, Assyria, and the British Museum,” in Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, eds., Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 197-222.
Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus,’” History of Science 42:2 (2004): 233-257.
Optional:
Craig Clunas, “China in Britain. The Imperial Collections,” in Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn, eds., Colonialism and the Object. Empire, Material Culture, and the Museum (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 41-51.
Barbara J. Black, “An Empire’s Great Expectations: Museums in Imperialist Boy Fiction,” in On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2000), pp. 148-166.
March 29, 31: Collecting the Empire
While Bohrer traces this creation of difference between Britain and its colonial other via artifacts, Coombes examines this process with people and cultures. At the same time that the British are mounting major efforts in the construction of international fairs and exhibitions, they are grappling mounting some of their most important ethnographic museum collections, particularly the famous Pitt River collection in Oxford, the Horniman Museum, and others. These collections and others will help forge a “national” subject by insist on the relationship between race and culture, and stressing their educational role among the masses.
March 29: Discussion.
March 31: "Tipu's Tiger" at the V&A
Friday, April 1: Day trip to Oxford (Pitt Rivers, Ashmolean).
While Bohrer traces this creation of difference between Britain and its colonial other via artifacts, Coombes examines this process with people and cultures. At the same time that the British are mounting major efforts in the construction of international fairs and exhibitions, they are grappling mounting some of their most important ethnographic museum collections, particularly the famous Pitt River collection in Oxford, the Horniman Museum, and others. These collections and others will help forge a “national” subject by insist on the relationship between race and culture, and stressing their educational role among the masses.
March 29: Discussion.
March 31: "Tipu's Tiger" at the V&A
Friday, April 1: Day trip to Oxford (Pitt Rivers, Ashmolean).
Readings:
Fabrice Grognet, “Ethnology: A Science on Display,” Museum International 53:1 (Jan-March 2001): 51-56.
Annie E. Coombes, “Temples of Empire: The Museum and its Publics,” and “Containing the Continent: Ethnographies on Display,” in Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994): 109-160.
James Fenton, “The Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004), Ch. 30, pp 307-309.
Frances Larson, “Anthropological landscaping: General Pitt Rivers, the Ashmolean, the University Museum and the Shaping of an Oxford Discipline,” Journal of the History of Collections 20:1 (Oct. 2007), 85-100.
Fabrice Grognet, “Ethnology: A Science on Display,” Museum International 53:1 (Jan-March 2001): 51-56.
Annie E. Coombes, “Temples of Empire: The Museum and its Publics,” and “Containing the Continent: Ethnographies on Display,” in Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994): 109-160.
James Fenton, “The Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004), Ch. 30, pp 307-309.
Frances Larson, “Anthropological landscaping: General Pitt Rivers, the Ashmolean, the University Museum and the Shaping of an Oxford Discipline,” Journal of the History of Collections 20:1 (Oct. 2007), 85-100.
April 5, 7: Museums, Memory and History: Locating
History and Memory in the Museum
“… every history museum must resolve such issues as how to define and explain the past; to what purposes the past should be put; how the past and present are related; and in what material contexts these synergistic relationships should be explored and illuminated. Dealing with these problems, and doing so in a coherent fashion, is – or should be – central to an institution’s creation and mission.” [Jackie R. Donath, “The Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum: The Problem of an Authentic Western Mystique,” American Quarterly 43:1 (March 1991): 82-102; p. 82.]
April 5: Discussion.
April 7: “London Sugar and Slavery” exhibit at Museum of London-Docklands
Readings:
Susan A. Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History in the Museum,” History and Theory 36:4 (1997): 44-63.
Thomas J. Schlereth, “Collecting Ideas and Artifacts: Common Problems of History Museums and History Texts,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2004): 335-347.
John Urry, “How Societies Remember the Past,” in Theorizing Museums. Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, Macdonald and Fyfe, eds., pp.45-65.
Optional:
Gaynor Kavanagh, “Remembering Ourselves in the Work of Museums: Trauma and the Place of the Personal in the Public,” in Richard Sandell, ed., Museums, Society, Inequality (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 110-122.
Stephen Small, “Slavery, Colonialism and Museums Representations in Great Britain: Old and New Circuits of Migration,” Human Architecture 9:4 (Oct 2011), p. 117.
April 7: “London Sugar and Slavery” exhibit at Museum of London-Docklands
Readings:
Susan A. Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History in the Museum,” History and Theory 36:4 (1997): 44-63.
Thomas J. Schlereth, “Collecting Ideas and Artifacts: Common Problems of History Museums and History Texts,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2004): 335-347.
John Urry, “How Societies Remember the Past,” in Theorizing Museums. Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, Macdonald and Fyfe, eds., pp.45-65.
Optional:
Gaynor Kavanagh, “Remembering Ourselves in the Work of Museums: Trauma and the Place of the Personal in the Public,” in Richard Sandell, ed., Museums, Society, Inequality (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 110-122.
Stephen Small, “Slavery, Colonialism and Museums Representations in Great Britain: Old and New Circuits of Migration,” Human Architecture 9:4 (Oct 2011), p. 117.
April 12, 14: Memory and Memorial: Conflict Museums and Trauma in the Museum
Museums are all about memory since they collect pieces of the past. Whenever we enter the museum, we are entering a space of memory even if the works in them are relatively of recent vintage. While examining the way in which museums work with and through memory, we also understand that the exploration of the past can open pathways to exploring particularly traumatic or conflictual times. Museums that confront criminal histories confront a set of difficult choices when coming to terms with their objectives.
April 12: Discussion
April 14: Visit Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens: (7 July Memorial, Holocaust Memorial, Albert Memorial, Memorial to Princess Diana).
Museums are all about memory since they collect pieces of the past. Whenever we enter the museum, we are entering a space of memory even if the works in them are relatively of recent vintage. While examining the way in which museums work with and through memory, we also understand that the exploration of the past can open pathways to exploring particularly traumatic or conflictual times. Museums that confront criminal histories confront a set of difficult choices when coming to terms with their objectives.
April 12: Discussion
April 14: Visit Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens: (7 July Memorial, Holocaust Memorial, Albert Memorial, Memorial to Princess Diana).
Readings:
Paul Williams, “The Memorial Museum Identity Complex: Victimhood, Culpability, and Responsibility,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, 2nd. ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), Ch. 8 (pp. 97-115).
Julia Rose, “Commemorative Museum Pedagogy: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Engaging Visitors in Exhibits with Difficult Knowledge,” in Brenda Trofanenko and Avner Segall, eds., Beyond Pedagogy: Reconsidering the Public Purpose of Museums (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2014), pp. 115-133.
Brandon Hamber, “Conflict Museums, Nostalgia, and Dreaming of Never Again,” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 18:3 (2012): 268-281.
Alice Friman, “At the Holocaust Museum,” in Carbonell, ed., MS, Ch. 9 (pp. 116).
Nicolai Ouroussoff, “A Forest of Pillars, Recalling the Unimaginable,” New York Times, May 9, 2005.
Paul Williams, “The Memorial Museum Identity Complex: Victimhood, Culpability, and Responsibility,” in Bettina Messias Carbonell, ed., Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, 2nd. ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), Ch. 8 (pp. 97-115).
Julia Rose, “Commemorative Museum Pedagogy: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Engaging Visitors in Exhibits with Difficult Knowledge,” in Brenda Trofanenko and Avner Segall, eds., Beyond Pedagogy: Reconsidering the Public Purpose of Museums (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2014), pp. 115-133.
Brandon Hamber, “Conflict Museums, Nostalgia, and Dreaming of Never Again,” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 18:3 (2012): 268-281.
Alice Friman, “At the Holocaust Museum,” in Carbonell, ed., MS, Ch. 9 (pp. 116).
Nicolai Ouroussoff, “A Forest of Pillars, Recalling the Unimaginable,” New York Times, May 9, 2005.
PART IV: WHOSE MUSEUM?
April 19, 21: New Museums, New Communities
We have focused much attention on the historic museum, particularly in the 19th century, the moment of its greatest impact and importance. At one level, it is not hard to critique museums and museum practices in the way in which they solidify discourses about difference, hierarchy, and power. But the museum (particularly in its largest sense as museum or exhibition or fair or theme park or heritage site, etc.) remains an important, even vibrant, institution which can offer its visitors new insights and which can destabilize the discourses that museums have created in the past. The articles this week offer suggestions, from the curators’ viewpoint, as to how this can be accomplished. Gurian wonders how best to design exhibits that can help people learn and realizes that curators must work against the discipline that has taught them what “appropriate behavior” in museums is. Vogel argues that museums always “recontextualize and interpret objects,” and one should not apologize for this. Rather, by discussing specific exhibits, she suggests how curators must be “self-aware and open about the degree of subjectivity” in their collections. Jones suggests how exhibitionary practices can rework the British colonial legacy, Simpson furthers the discussion of re-working the museum to represent a pluralistic perspective, and Fleming, the director of the National Museums in Liverpool, will argue for the importance of making emotion a pluralizing aspect of the museum space.
We have focused much attention on the historic museum, particularly in the 19th century, the moment of its greatest impact and importance. At one level, it is not hard to critique museums and museum practices in the way in which they solidify discourses about difference, hierarchy, and power. But the museum (particularly in its largest sense as museum or exhibition or fair or theme park or heritage site, etc.) remains an important, even vibrant, institution which can offer its visitors new insights and which can destabilize the discourses that museums have created in the past. The articles this week offer suggestions, from the curators’ viewpoint, as to how this can be accomplished. Gurian wonders how best to design exhibits that can help people learn and realizes that curators must work against the discipline that has taught them what “appropriate behavior” in museums is. Vogel argues that museums always “recontextualize and interpret objects,” and one should not apologize for this. Rather, by discussing specific exhibits, she suggests how curators must be “self-aware and open about the degree of subjectivity” in their collections. Jones suggests how exhibitionary practices can rework the British colonial legacy, Simpson furthers the discussion of re-working the museum to represent a pluralistic perspective, and Fleming, the director of the National Museums in Liverpool, will argue for the importance of making emotion a pluralizing aspect of the museum space.
NOTE: We will determine an extra time to discuss the readings and both meetings.
April 19: Whitechapel Gallery.
April 21: Museum of London.
Readings:
Elaine Heumann Gurian, “Noodling Around with Exhibition Opportunities,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 176-190.
Susan Vogel, “Always True to the Object, in Our Fashion,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 191-204.
Jane Peirson Jones, “The Colonial Legacy and the Community: The Gallery 33 Project,” in Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Museums and Communities. The Politics of Public Culture (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), pp. 221-241.
Moira G. Simpson, “Voices of Authorship,” in Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 51-69.
OPTIONAL
David Fleming, “The Emotional Museum – The Case of the National Museums Liverpool,” in Jenny Kidd, Sam Cairns, and Alex Drago, eds., Challenging History in the Museum : International Perspectives (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group, 2014), 20-31.
Staying Power: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/s/staying-power/ (Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is a project to increase the number of black British photographers and images of black Britain in the V&A collection. It aims to raise awareness of the contribution of black Britons to British culture and society, as well as to the art of photography.)
April 19: Whitechapel Gallery.
April 21: Museum of London.
Readings:
Elaine Heumann Gurian, “Noodling Around with Exhibition Opportunities,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 176-190.
Susan Vogel, “Always True to the Object, in Our Fashion,” in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1991), pp. 191-204.
Jane Peirson Jones, “The Colonial Legacy and the Community: The Gallery 33 Project,” in Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine, eds., Museums and Communities. The Politics of Public Culture (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), pp. 221-241.
Moira G. Simpson, “Voices of Authorship,” in Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 51-69.
OPTIONAL
David Fleming, “The Emotional Museum – The Case of the National Museums Liverpool,” in Jenny Kidd, Sam Cairns, and Alex Drago, eds., Challenging History in the Museum : International Perspectives (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group, 2014), 20-31.
Staying Power: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/s/staying-power/ (Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is a project to increase the number of black British photographers and images of black Britain in the V&A collection. It aims to raise awareness of the contribution of black Britons to British culture and society, as well as to the art of photography.)
April 26, 28: Do Museums Matter?
In this final week, we will circle back to a consideration of the museum and its purpose, focusing primarily on the museum as a space in which art is displayed and values are communicated. In the first week of class, I raised the question: "After all is said and done, what is the museum, and what is the museum experience?" and promised that "This is a question to which we’ll return at the end of class." Well, here we are. The main text for this week is not a "reading" but a video of a debate posing the hypothesis: Museums are bad at telling us why art matters. While we have not focused on art, specifically, the museum is, of course, the central (public) space in which art is curated and presented to a public. What public? Who's listening? Who's curating? What are its narratives? These are questions which this debate (approximately 1 hr and 26 minutes long) and two other (short) readings will consider.
In this final week, we will circle back to a consideration of the museum and its purpose, focusing primarily on the museum as a space in which art is displayed and values are communicated. In the first week of class, I raised the question: "After all is said and done, what is the museum, and what is the museum experience?" and promised that "This is a question to which we’ll return at the end of class." Well, here we are. The main text for this week is not a "reading" but a video of a debate posing the hypothesis: Museums are bad at telling us why art matters. While we have not focused on art, specifically, the museum is, of course, the central (public) space in which art is curated and presented to a public. What public? Who's listening? Who's curating? What are its narratives? These are questions which this debate (approximately 1 hr and 26 minutes long) and two other (short) readings will consider.
April 25 (Monday): Visit "Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers" curated by Martin Parr at the Barbican. (We'll leave the Centre after the joint class; tickets are booked for 4:00 PM.)
April 26: Discussion
April 28: Set up final project in Classroom 5. Following full installation we'll all go out to celebrate.
April 29: Students from the other class can visit to installation.
Readings:
"Museums are bad at telling us why art matters" (Intelligence Squared debate, June 21, 2011). Presented as a YouTube video [embedded below] or a podcast on iTunes.
Maurice Davies and Lucy Shaw, “The ethnic diversity of the museum workforce,” unpublished paper.
Scott Thorp, “Alfredo Jaar: A Model of Thinking,” Artpulse Magazine: (Skip down to the last project described, “Music (Everything I Know I Learned the Day My Son was Born,” just above the notes.)
April 26: Discussion
April 28: Set up final project in Classroom 5. Following full installation we'll all go out to celebrate.
April 29: Students from the other class can visit to installation.
Readings:
"Museums are bad at telling us why art matters" (Intelligence Squared debate, June 21, 2011). Presented as a YouTube video [embedded below] or a podcast on iTunes.
Maurice Davies and Lucy Shaw, “The ethnic diversity of the museum workforce,” unpublished paper.
Scott Thorp, “Alfredo Jaar: A Model of Thinking,” Artpulse Magazine: (Skip down to the last project described, “Music (Everything I Know I Learned the Day My Son was Born,” just above the notes.)
NOTE: All work for the course must be turned in by Sunday, May 1.