Introduction
When looking to the past in an effort to quantify a metamorphoses in exhibition design, it is noted that the space itself exists under the veil of intellectualism. The viewer is understood to be an educated individual with an interest in a particular point in history. Moving forward, it is remarkable to discover how the display space itself has been reconsidered. This is due to advancements in media and our methods of communication. No longer is there a great divide between artifact and audience. Object and participant commingle in an energized space of synergistic union. Ultimately, this is a reflection of our exploding media culture. As technology advances and media continually reforms, exhibition design must reflect these newly anointed curators.
Predictable Experiences
Surveying the history of exhibition design requires an understanding of the contextual ramifications. By controlling an object on display, the historical museum acquires social authority (Karp, Kreamer, and Lavine 149). Value is awarded to this artifact by its very placement within the chosen space. By removing the object from its cultural and economic milieu, museums effectively turn these materials into objets d’art. This premeditated creation is often used in order to guide the viewer to reflect upon the curator’s intended message.
When analyzing the museum of the past, one must consider all facets including the surrounding artifacts, the enclosure, lighting, color, and the space itself. It is also important to understand the connection between these elements, as well as, the relationship of these displayed objects with the viewer. There has always been a tendency to afford such a space with a formal relevance. It is humankind’s innate cu...
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...logy is a critical tool that will help us create the next generation of museums and afford visitors the freedom to connect with objects, art and ideas on their own terms.
Conclusion
Museums constructed as formal places for the display of authentic artifacts and a focus on cultural preservation are no longer the future ideal. Exhibitions designed for today’s audience have to compete in a constantly transforming market encircled by an exploding media culture. Consequently, the way in which the contemporary exhibition is created must accommodate this shift. Historical institutions, previously thought of as indifferent, are embracing technologies and strategies more often associated with cinematography and commercialism. Exhibition design is now synonymous with striking image-making, compelling message-making, and the creation of an extraordinary connective experience.
History plays a very important role in the development of art and architecture. Over time people, events, and religion, have contributed to the evolution of art. Christianity has become a very common and well established religion, however, in the past it was hidden and a few people would worship this religion secretly. Gradually, Christianity became a growing religion and it attracted many converts from different social statuses. Christian art was highly influenced by the Greco-Romans, but it was immensely impacted by the establishment of the Edict of Milan in the year 313 AD. The Edict of Milan was so significant that scholars divide Christian art into two time periods, time before and after the Edict of Milan of 313.
In “Sacrality and Aura in the Museum: Mute Objects and Articulate Space,” Joan R. Branham argues about the experiences art viewers have in museums based on their surroundings. Her points include how a person is to completely understand and feel a ritual object if it is taken out of its natural context or how someone is able to fully appreciate of work of art if they can’t see it where it truly belongs.
Crooked Beak of Heaven Mask is a big bird-figure mask from late nineteenth century made by Kwakwaka’wakw tribe. Black is a broad color over the entire mask. Red and white are used partially around its eyes, mouth, nose, and beak. Its beak and mouth are made to be opened, and this leads us to the important fact in both formal analysis and historical or cultural understanding: Transformation theme. Keeping that in mind, I would like to state formal analysis that I concluded from the artwork itself without connecting to cultural background. Then I would go further analysis relating artistic features to social, historical, and cultural background and figure out what this art meant to those people.
Baxandall, Michael. "Exhibiting intention: Some preconditions of the visual display of culturally purposeful objects." Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display (1991): 33-41.
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
The Metropolitan Museum of Art came about as an idea from Jon Jay in Paris, France in 1866 with the idea of “national institution gallery of art” within the United States. Once this idea was proposed, it was immediately moved forward with his return to the United States. With the help of the Union League Club in NY they began to acquire civic leaders, businessmen, artists, and collectors who aided in the creation of the museum. For over 140 years, the visitors who go here have received everything the mission of the institution states.
The “superstar” museum gained this status by considering every important detail during its establishment and initial phases of conversion from royal palace to museum (Gombault, 2002). As the purpose of the building changed, each room addressed new functions with new requirements. Although the function of the Louvre is different from the building’s original intention, the building is still appears dignified and important enough to display priceless artifacts and painting (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998). This consideration was applied in designing the Met. The Met looked towards the South Kensington Museum (Victoria and Albert) and the “ideal role model” due to its extensive collections and international reputation (Heckscher, 1995). The Met found itself in a similar situation to the South Kensington, because it did not have a building or a collection to start with (Heckscher, 1995). When designing museums, architects strived to create monuments that “prepare and educate the mind of the visitor (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998).” Education is an essential function of a museum. Acquiring, preserving, and properly displaying materials, permits a museum to fulfill this duty (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998). For instance, lighting is a factor that affects the manner in which artwork is viewed and can be properly appreciated. When determining the proper lighting for the Louvre, Comte d’Angiviller, strongly believed that natural, overhead lighting was the most effective solution (McClellan, 1994, p. 72). The same determination impacted the decision to add skylights at the Met. During the initial phase, architects Vaux and Mould, added skylights to the upper floor, and windows to the lower floor that provided a natural light solution (Heckscher, 1995). Additionally, glass-roofed courtyards provided “unimpeded light” for displaying
...f structure, a museum. The one contradiction in the contemporary design theory that Libeskind dares to fight is that to work in the upcoming century means to work with reduced means. His works pose optimism in the sense that architecture, if filled with a satisfactory amount of reasoning, and justification with the help of the advancement in material technology, and the foremost, creativity, will be able to address the profound of any project seeking for poetic embodiment. While modern architects have tried hard to eradicate the traces of history from the forms, postmodern architects like Liberskind would embody the traces of history in between the forms. In Lisbeskind’s Jewish Museum, the invisibility, the implication, and the embodiment come first, then the advancement of material methodology assists the build of the visibility, and the physical infrastructure.
Professor LaFleur in lecture on November 11 mentioned, “Museums were extremely powerful in shaping the way people saw the world” (Lecture 007). This same reasoning is why Fusco and Pena embark on this ethnographic journey. By displaying “A Savage Performance”, we see that they are subverting the past notions of ethnography. Ethnographic museums as the ones Sara Baartman was displayed in served a purpose and created a certain kind of discourse. “Discourse do not simply reflect reality, or innocently designate objects; rather they constitute them in specific contexts according to particular relations of power” (Lidchi, p. 185). Lidchi goes on to say that ethnography was created by the dominant culture in the imperial c...
New museology is the modernisation of museums. New museums are made to be more interactive and more interesting for the visitors. Displays in the museums are no longer covered in glass and people are encouraged to look more closely and interact with displays. The museums are brighter are the displays...
We visited the Museo Nacional De Antropologa in Madrid, and were assigned to analyse the Asian Room, which is focused particularly on the Philippine Islands because of their historical colonisation with Spain. The display of things in a museum are things that we look at as something that is outside of normal. In contrast to the movie or movies, where scenes substantially show how the person felt and dealt with situations and tools from their own perspective, with their own knowledge and experience and through different means such as real images, sounds, language and others produces a different knowledge on the racial discourse. When looking at exhibitions in museums the other culture is unknown, and almost uncomfortable to us, but in movies we can be standing in their shoes.
‘Savage Beauty’ was an exhibition that pushed the boundaries of museology, in its artistic, social and critical undertakings. The questions brought to bear by the exhibition of contemporary art and culture in various situations is something I am interested in researching further with a degree in curating.
...torian Norman Bryson he present us how the way we perceive art could be affected by is environment. In his article titled The Viewer Speaks he said, “Talking to Pictures” showed that, the alleged birth of the viewer notwithstanding, it is still museum that has the last word in deciding the ways ordinary viewers are expected voluntary to repress what may be their truest and deepest responses to art.” A museum could hinder the relationship between the viewer and the image.
...ad. They change opinions and perspectives and cause people to think in ways they normally would not just because of the sheer power of the exhibits around them. They are a necessity in society because it betters and cultures the population, making the world greater as a whole. I am thankful that museums are taking the initiative to becoming more modernized, adding twenty first century touches to the exhibits as well as creating virtual tours. Even though they do not compare to being there in person, it is a step in the right direction. We need museums more than most know, anything they can do to ensure they do not become a thing of the past, they should. I am glad I got to experience this class this semester, it changed my warped views on museums and caused me to appreciate them more. I am thankful to have learned more about myself through these remarkable museums.
Personally, my culture did not play a big role when I was in the midst