Friends or Foes? On old and new heroes of knowledge in museums

Transcription

1 Friends or Foes? On old and new heroes of knowledge in museums Hans Dam Christensen, Dean of Research, IVA/RSLIS Museernes forskningsbegreb i forandring Dansk Center for Museumsforskning, SDU, September 17, 2012

2 Portrait of Leo Swane, (1912), Director of the National Gallery, The National Gallery of Art in Copenhagen hit by a strike of the museum guards and closed for three months in 1987

3 Visitors, guests, public, spectators, audience etc. = USERS (the new experts?)

4 User participation in the museum Byskriveren (The Town Writer), Struer Museum

5 Conservators, information specialists and museum education experts Are these new research domains more apt to the future museum than the skills of the collection driven researcher? Does this have an impact on the concept of research in the museum?

6 The marginalization of the traditional museum scholar, or the old hero of knowledge A discussion of the roles of the new specialist domains Conservators Information Specialists Museum Education Experts Conclusions

7 The old hero of knowledge Jean-Francois Lyotard: La condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir, 1979 (The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, 1984, published as Les problèmes du savoir dans les sociétés industrielle les plus développées by the Gouvernement de Quebec) In contemporary society and culture, postmodern culture the question of the legitimation of knowledge is formulated in different terms. The grand narrative has lost its credibility, regardless of what mode of unification it uses, regardless of whether it is a speculative narrative or a narrative of emanicipation. / / The decline of narrative can be seen as an effect of the blossoming of techniques and technologies since Second World War, which has shifted emphasis from the ends of action to its means / / who decides what knowledge is, and who knows what needs to be decided?

8 Assassin s Creed, 2010 (video game), Renaissance and forward Robin Hood, 2010 (film), 13th century Troy, 2004 (film), 800 BC Still photo from Jorvik Viking Centre, York Gladiator, 2000 (film ), ca. 180 AD

9 The five pillars of the museum according to the Danish Museum Act (2001) Acquisition/Collecting Registration Conservation Research Education/Display

10 Collector, keeper, conservator, custodian and curator: The old hero of knowledge Ole Worm ( ) and Museum Wormianum, c1640s

11 The Conservator The art historian Just Mathias Thiele,

12 The Conservator The art historian Just Mathias Thiele, C.A. Jensen, J.P. Møller, Technical Art History The Artist-as-Conservator

13 The Conservator

14 The five pillars of the museum Acquisition/Collecting Registration Conservation Research Education/Display

15 The Information Specialist

16 The Information Specialist Archivist, registrator, cataloguer, inventorer The Danish Agency of Culture (Kulturstyrelsen): The new common data model must be flexible and adaptable to future needs, so that for example yet not exiting new arts and media forms could be recorded. Based on the data model must be developed a new joint database that holds all relevant data and that is used by all museums. This should be regardless of the applications used to register and access data and regardless of current registration practices. It is also crucial that the same object is registered or recorded in the same way, whoever is registering it.

17 The Information Specialist Text from an application to Marie Curie ITN, EU7: Static digital library architectures such as the one underlying the Europeana Portal Prototype were set up in funding schemes such as econtent+ and ICT PSP that explicitly excluded research and were deliberately limited to combining existing content and existing technology in a large scale engineering approach. In this respect the funding context for Europeana substantially differed from activities such as Digicult and other projects such as DELOS, BRICKS and TEL.

18 The five pillars of the museum Acquisition/Collecting Registration Conservation Research Education/Display

19 The Museum Education Specialist

20 The Museum Education Specialist There are programmes for schools, families, young people, adults, students and creative industry professionals, including digital and community events and activities. Learning Department staff also develop online learning content and other educational resources, / / The Learning Department also undertakes visitor research, develops interpretation from labels to computer interactive / / Staff from the Department also work across the Museum on cultural diversity, disability access, social inclusion and other equality issues. / / All of these activities are firmly rooted in, and inspired by, the V&A s collections and exhibitions.

21 Cultural Policy Account from the Minister of Culture to the Danish Parliament, 1969

22 From online databases to online exhibits Before After

23 From online databases to online exhibits Before After Zoom, Ordrupgaard (2001) The King's Kunstkammer, the National Museum (2001)

24 If