CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES 1

LECTURE 7: MUSEUMS

Museums are a rich source for discussions around cultural studies.
This lecture will introduce you to some of the ways in which we can talk about Museums.

MUSEUMS AS COLLECTIONS OF OBJECTS.

As a place in which we find collections of objects Clifford asks us what it means when we go about placing objects within Museums.

For example when we place an object in a museum of ART we are saying something about that object.

1) Possibly that the object is UNIQUE.

2) That the author of the work is somehow important

3) That the work has some of inherent value

4) That the work form part of a particular Genre

Now these elements are not mutually exclusive, nor are they fixed. They can and they do move.

Unique objects can become copies, authors works can appear as misattribute or be revealed as fakes, works forming parts of a particular Genre can be reassigned.

Objects can become Art and Art can become objects.

What this points to is that the position an object occupies is a socially constructed one.

For some the issue is much less problematic.

ARE GREAT THINGS IN MUSEUMS OR THINGS IN MUSEUMS GREAT ?

Here we can locate the work of Leavis and Arnold, the collections held in museums are the best.

We can think about the rows that have ensured over the placing of certain objects within museums, for example the Beatles lyrics housed in the British Museum. Pop music is not high culture therefore not fit for a museum.

Thus we can see museums as the confers of status.

MUSEUMS AS THE TELLERS OF STORIES ABOUT OBJECTS.

Williams alerts us the partial nature of the stories about objects.

Some objects survive and others do not

How do the objects arrive in the museum, what has had to happen for them to be there, and how much of that story is available to the viewer of the object.

How are the objects presented.

By investigating objects in this way it is possible to construct very different accounts of the objects available for viewing within the British Museum.

Why, because the history of how this collection came to be is inextricably linked to Britain's Imperialist history.

A history which gave British explorers exclusive rights to acquire land and to remove objects . Recently the Elgin Marbles have been once again requested for return again to Greece. Chris Smith refused on the basis that it would open a `Pandora's Box`.

However other objects can be returned, The Stone of Scoone was returned to Scotland from England.

Even Locally we can construct an interesting story, two of East Anglia's greatest collections are held in the British Museum, the Mildenhall and Sutton Hoo treasures.

THIS ABILITY TO CONSTRUCT AND RECONSTRUCT STORIES ALLOWS US TO TALK ABOUT MUSEUMS IDEOLOGICALLY.

How?

Clearly museums are placing a value on some things rather than others. If the stories they tell us are about the unique rather than the mass then it is likely that both working class and imperialist history is being effaced. Great men and Great works are the stories told. In which case you could argue that museums have a strong ideological function.

IS THIS ADDRESSED BY THE WAY OF LIFE, EXPERIENCE MUSEUMS.

These museums may be seen as addressing Williams argument that culture is a way of life and that objects can best be understood in the context in which they were developed.

The big problem is one of AUTHENTICITY. Given that only those who were actually there at the time can experience the lived culture can people really have an `anglo saxon experience? `

WHAT ABOUT THE VISITORS? Are we experiencing experience. Or are we Consuming experience?

MUSEUMS AND SHOPPING CENTRES.

In some ways the two are little different.

Museums designed in such a way that you cannot get in or out without going through the shop.

Collections become commodities and are put together in new ways. Recipe books, Jigsaw puzzles.

The ways in which individuals, groups congregate and use the museums, to revel in the displays

The way in which visitors have become customers.

Rob Kurta © 1977 University Collegiate Simulacra