tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82588637533926346982024-03-13T05:10:12.330-07:00MnemosophiaTomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-65359652147541114212013-02-11T08:14:00.001-08:002013-02-11T08:14:12.657-08:00Fighting the evil with a new mind <b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Summary</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Illicit traffic of heritage objects is the consequence of complex problems. It is due to the colonial conquest as well as the later wars, plunder and looting. The chaos and poverty wherever they happen immediately cause the heavy losses of cultural substance. The crime chain usually starts with the deprived and poor and ends with big and rich be them dealers or, in some cases, museums. The problem is that occupations concerned with heritage failed in performing their task in a prevention and in coordinated action.<br /><br />Some budgetary redistribution of financial means that would imperceptibly diminuate military expense, would be a solution to the problem as most of the plunderers and traders could be either encouraged to earn on legal excavations or would be prevented from performing their crime. Further investment would provide documentation and safe storage as well as training for the professionals. <br /><br />Besides plain return (dubious hope for the important expatriated cultural heritage) there are possibilities of loans, exchanges and cooperation. Since museums without objects are possible and do exist, some solutions could make up for the massive losses for cultures of origin. Their specific right makes the use of secondary material (copies, facsimiles, replicas, models or media presentations) more of a solution for them than for the others. If done creatively and backed with international cooperation those creative solutions could turn some of the problem into advantage. Many museums nowadays do not exist merely to present their collection. Based upon scientific expertise, they thrive on communication, explaining the concepts and values important for the life of the given community. <br /><br />Acknowledging the problem, the article is an effort to offer a combined wisdom of a professional and the lay person, a sort of practical view of on a problem of restitution of cultural objects to the country of origin with some suggestions for solutions. Otherwise, the matter seemingly grows more complex the more it is discussed by curators, academics, lawyers and politicians. <br /><br /><b>Key words: </b><br /><br />looting of cultural heritage, illicit traffic, illegal excavations, redistribution of resources, professionalism, museums without objects, repatriation, common sense, expertise, fascination, ICT, Internet, new mind</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><b>1. The specific source of the problem: culture is not a priority choice</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />I am sure, the experts on looting of cultural heritage, illicit traffic and the deficit of honesty in returning to the rightful owners (what has been unlawfully estranged from them) - will describe this problem better then a theoretician on heritage. So, my intention is only to contribute some simple thoughts on the sources of the problem and possible solutions to it.<br /><br />My heart is with tombarolli , if I have to choose between them and the rich art dealers in Geneva or New York. Besides, most of them would be perfectly happy with a daylight job for the same wage if the state decided to make culture its priority. Now, culture is expensive and we cannot afford it, - I hear some say. But, is it not just a question of policy or the quality of the societal project? If there would be a decision of buying one Mirage or Phantom fighter plane less a year, per country in question, there would be enough money to turn all the secret excavations into legal ones . These planes that are discarded into junk after a few hundred of hours of usless flying cost between 25 and 70 million Euros and the Stealth bomber may reach 3.1 billion dollars , while a Trident submarine costs only 1.4 billion. In brief, we are forced to solve problems that stem from the lack of logic in priorities. I believe, no millitary eagle would even notice this skratch at the millitary budget nor it would result in the loss of their power. Of course, this is naive. But so is love. So is honesty, and so is culture itself... Is the simplicity of it a problem? Alas, in terms of immediate profit, wars stay more lucrative than culture and prove so convenient for unrestrained plunder of any property, the cultural included, - so beneficial for the art market. <br /> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">2. The task for a mega profession</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b></b><br />The problem of illegal excavation, plunder and illicit trade is deeply social and will be getting worse. All problems are manipulated into solutions that serve best the particular interests of the rich. The de-ideologized world offers no support for the rightful claims so that fragmented society can only produce harmless corrective or counter-active actions, allowed and tolerated to provide the illusion of democracy. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">If the country X is drowning in poverty, the exports of illegally excavated archaeological sites or looted museums will bring rocketing profits for the well perfumed and respected gentlemen who will be growingly different from the stinking poor devils digging in the darkness and risking their lives for the few dollars it brings. If the country falls victim of warfare, that is even better opportunity for smashing profits. The equation more-despair means-more-evil, - is the mathematics of hell. In 1993 the illicit trade was worth 39,3 billion dollars and in 2003 it was already 60 billion; the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to mention only the big scenes, were only the good news for the art market. <br /><br />The solution is simple like some Greek allegory: a goddess of Expertise standing on a pedestal of common sense. In brief, the entire domain of heritage, be it museums, archives, hybrid heritage institutions, and galleries has to be professionalized in such a depth and extent that they finally represent a power in the society. We still do not have an organized profession but disorganized number of occupations without unifying philosophy and coordinated methods. The mega profession of heritage care and communication will come into being and will be able to generate a heritage movement, like the one that was in the seventies crated for the values of environment and now represents the only chance of our survival. <br /><br />So the real solution, besides diminuating despair that comes through poverty and wars, - is: education of professionals dealing with heritage, more money for documentation, more money for excavations, and media campaign denouncing the protagonists of the shameful plunder. By preventing big museums to take part as promising buyers, a considerable demotivation of trade would take place. Only a profession united and composed of otherwise scattered occupations would be capable of dealing with the problem: both in negotiations among institutions as well as in prevention of the problem. A real profession will be able to create all form of cultural or heritage action in order to raise the awareness and make political and public space for the professional solutions. One could sincerely doubt that certain big returns of cultural property to the countries of origin would meet the necessary public support. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>3. The reverse effectiveness of law</b><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We have law and order that are partly effective with the desperate plunderers but hardly ever touch the big figures of the trade. The latter are, well, the crème of the occidental societies. They are simply rich and famous, socially and often culturally, the elite of their respective countries. One day, many of them will also become big donors, bequsting their collections to the society, figuring as philanthropists and persons of respect: to honour these qualities and provide place for their collection, tax payers will pay for the expensive buildings named in their eternal memory. Christie's and Sotheby's will continue frowning at us when we bother them with ethics: do we want to harm an important branch of country's business? They are just doing "their job". The last time merchants were opposed in a society on the ground of ethical implications of their trade, was in the middle ages, when they were not given the status of an estate. Times changed and merchants now make much of the occidental economy. So, it is the public tacit consent and the lack of evidence that makes us all the accomplices of their sad and harmful affair. The law reaches the protagonists only occasionally and recuperates what has been stolen only sporadically. The figures of losses remain frightening: less than a half of 14 000 objects looted from the Baghdad museum have been found. Apulian heritage is, some experts claim, 95 % excavated by pillagers who looted about 130 000 thombs. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>4. The paradox of expenses</b><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The naive expectation of spending a fighter plane or two a year to cure this growing illness will surely fail. But, If we calculate the time and money we spend on tracking the illicit trade, on protecting the sites, on international investigations, on search and control, on cultural diplomacy trying to rectify the injustice, on conferences and gatherings, - we will arrive at very substantial sums. But, say, we decide to invest much of this expenditure in advance to discourage the plunder and illicit traffic by financing excavations, by offering professional education, by improving documenting, launching media campaigns... This would also comprise special storages and some new strategy but might bring good results. Poor countries require less for the expenses and are most vulnerable to the problem. They need solidarity and assistance, otherwise we are but part of a vicious circle. Only 65 countries have their version or translation of the museum legislation. To donate them to the rest is a little expense for the international community. <br /><br />It is a burning problem that many countries suffer from. ICOM Arab claims that only from 1983 until 1999, Algiers has been plundered of 50 300 objects. The plunder continued. Not many Arab museums would have sufficient documentation of their collections to issue a legal search at all. The astonishing 95% of African heritage objects has been lost for national and local cultures by constant export. Their soul has been taken away from them. That is a shameful consequence of the advantage of the prosperous world taken of the helpless part of the Planet. There can be no excuse for this crime. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>5. The paradigmatic case on injustice, the bad fate and some chances</b> <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Though I was always an easy prey to British charm, - in the case of "Elgin marbles, I am a Greek. I do believe my top professional friend from England who said: "nobody tells British museum what to do". Splendid, I almost hasted to exclaim. What if my colleagues there are not disputed because they are the epitome of the same possessiveness that created the former hard pride and recklessness of the big nation? If there would be a vision in them, they would negotiate a fair deal with the future: some sort of mixed ownership and use. Elgin marbles look best and say most where they come from. Yet, not all them, and certainly not all the time need they be at the either place. If visiting the part exposed in British Museum one would profit from having a real time video link to the rest in Athens, including the context lacking in London. There could also be in some adjoining space an on line communication channel for the public or expert comments. In supporting the deal, Greece could contribute a regular exclusive exhibitions on the ancient Greek treasures they and the British could also send other rare Greek objects to be temporarily exposed in Greece. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>6. An additional practical solution</b><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The best way to make sure one is not part of the problem is to become a part of the solution. Theory of heritage is in its adolescence and makes brave claims that practice can learn from. Unlike before, the new theory is not ashamed of giving ideas for practical solutions. <br /><br />Museums without objects are possible and do exist, and so do even museums on concepts and intangible heritage. The ICT and Internet made possible the digitally born objects, and institutions alike. The world has changed and will continue to do so. The best one can do is to understand it and manage it towards the usable future. A museum may possess three-dimensional, palpable objects, but that is not the ultimate condition for an institution to be considered a museum. Museum consists (also) of intention, capacity, ability and right, to pass on (both in space and time) the values recognized, researched and communicated, - found to be of vital importance in maintaining coherence of a certain identity. Museums are not about protecting the past but about protecting the (quality of the) future. The past is just the part of means to that aim. <br /><br />Modern Greece has a specific role of the privileged inheritor of an enormous cultural patrimony. Due to the historic circumstances, this patrimony has been dispersed throughout the world, often in the circumstances that would be found questionable or very unacceptable today. <br /><br />Yet, the harsh reality prevents major corrections to this historical development for a long time to come. Dealing solely with the problem of repatriation of cultural heritage Greece is not enough. There is also the right to certain procedures, the right of legitimate inheritor. When the original alley of kuros on Samos is replaced by impeccable copies (while originals are in museums), - it is a perfectly correct procedure, specific to the genius loci and provides legitimacy of substitutes there. Establishing, erecting the same alley done with substitutes in Essex would certainly be ridiculous. Doing the alley even with then originals would be impossible. However, Samos and the original context make the right. <br /><br />Greece should create a specific heritage institution that would deal with the widest possible scope of the problem, turning it into advantage and creating itself still another attraction for visitors. It would be a quasi-museal institution, showing representations, substitutes, of illegally exported or stolen treasures of its culture. It would be easy to obtain the replicas and/or audio-visual and other representations of Greek exhibits from all over the world for the sake of showing them in such a specific institution. Refusal would create so much media space for the central theme of final reclaim that, I believe, most would consent instantly.<br /><br />To avoid the image of "unsympathetic" institution that implicitly accuses all of theft or casts suspicion upon them, the concept should be enlarged and turned into a story. There can be exposed the representations of Classical Greek artefacts scattered all around the world; not any and not all, of course, but those that deserve to be shown cumulatively as a giant demonstration of Greek importance for the entire world, - how the fascination with ancient Greece continues throughout the last two millennia. The exhibition should, namely, show the spread and examples of values in architecture, design, ideas and terminology inspired by Greek heritage. Its virtual version would be a heavily visited web site: both of them a truly global Greek museum (a "Fascination Greece"?).<br /><br />This would be a relevant, modern, attractive and even avant-garde institution, - a museum by all its functions and yet a unique international cultural centre to the extent of global tourist MUST. Such an example could be followed, I believe, by many other museum institutions internationally who would document the presence of their cultural artefacts elsewhere in the world. The times when museums existed to explain their collections has expired. Now they increasingly see and use their collections to tell the story of the identity they stand for. Neither the academic research nor the scientific contents of their messages suffer any lowering of standards. Museums are based upon scientific expertise, but live on communication. The language of communication is not that of scientists but the one of life, - told by the words and syntax we, the taxpayers, - all understand. <br /> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Conclusion</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Maybe things are simple as they seem to be. When about naivete, - anything worth our beliefs or trust, be it love or faith, is naive, specially if compared with the harsh reality. But that is also the power. There are many practical moves and improvements that many experts will bring into this matter, but ultimately, the decisive solution lies with the big changes we await: those of governance of law, of professionalism, justice, fairness in the division of wealth...- the improvement in the governing value system forming a new mind in many matters. We seem to realize that culture may well be the gravity centre of the social project, and yet to redistribute favourably even a particle of percent of the state budget (or, indeed, military budget) seems such an impossible task. Curious and quite a dangerous world! <br /></span>Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-74263178911240451262012-12-20T08:05:00.003-08:002012-12-20T09:05:00.313-08:00Can theory of heritage help peace ?<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The best that most of museums can do for peace, and all can, is to affirm, promote, generate political literacy; politically litterate are unlikely to become manipulated mass, - the matter of warfare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />What does theory do? </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Practice is always a description of reality and its obvious potentials. Theory is about positions and conditions we want to achieve. When understood properly, its departure is practice and its goal is practice. While practice moves through stages of perfection, theory navigates it by reading the context, setting its nature and purpose. Without theory, practice is reduced to learning by tries and mistakes. The moment the practice gets reflective quality, an ability of abstraction and generalisation,quality of projecting, - it is more than practice. Peace is just one of the innumerable positive, constructive phenomena that heritage institutions, museums included, can serve. As powerful accumulation of evidence, information and knowledge, heritage institutions are meaningful only if they use their potential for the benefit of common good. As tools of selected, collective memory, they can go as far as producing wisdom instead of mere information and knowledge. Their immense power of unbiased communication can, therefore become decisive means of democracy. True peace is the consequence of ennobled mind, but to become such, the mind needs arguments and advice. No public institutions than those of heritage are better equipped to provide help to troubled and bewildered citizens of the present world when about the quality of their lives. Peace is the basic one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The general theory of heritage, heritology, to make it simple, has the purpose in becoming the philosophy of the heritage profession(s), in providing critique of theory and practice, sets the content and methodology of transfer of the professional experience, foresees and projects professional future and establishes the relation of heritage professions towards the development. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The peace and its nature </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">In the socio-political chemistry what we strive for is the harmonious stability of divergent elements in which violent reactions would simply have no chance. Agreements, treatises of alliance, ceasefires and laws are not enough. <br /><br />Peace depends upon conditions provided. The first condition is the honest prosperity based on the fair division of common wealth. Obscene wealth should be a social sin as its worst effect is constant production of inequality and conflict. It cultivates Greed and provides growing legitimacy to it. Existence of injustice and dominance deny the very possibility of peace. <br /><br />Most of the world will experience no wars in the usual, historical way. The state of "munus omnia contra omnes" - the fight of all against all. Our streets are becoming the fighting filed all too often and the "war" of the groups against others are frequent. We see that minorities of radical orientation be it about fur-coats or diet can truly molest the majority. The clashes will be increasing very much by the growing accumulation of despair, loneliness and aggression in individuals. Those will surely form the dangerous falangues and produce unrest. In brief, war is becoming the daily reality: less dramatic because dispersed, but ruining the quality of life nonetheless. <br /><br />Peace is one of the pillars of democracy. It is the outer form of natural and human rights exercised. It can flourish only upon the, responsible choices in development, civil insight and transparency of societal, developmental and political processes, unbiased information, rich cultural life and unbiased information. Democracy is utopian and does not exist. Only tries to have it do. So peace as quality of living is a precondition to democracy and prosperity. The scared and suffering are an easy prey to dictatorship and enslavement of all sorts. <br /><br />Peace is the way of thinking, a quality of human condition. The culture of peace is founded upon the system of values in which the constructive, creative and emphatic qualities of human genius are part of the matter of reason and common sense. Being different and of different attitude should be aberrant and deficient, as nothing that produces despair, discomfort, conflict and poverty can be regarded as humanly acceptable. So, peace is possible in the the world where it oresents the priority and true aim. But, peace is not the priority of the world we live in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Wars are for the poor devils</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">When about richness distributed, almost all of it goes to the rich. When misery and wars are distributed globally, the poor get all of it. Classical wars will be exported/or implanted in the third world where resources have to be conquered for the ever more avaricious and greedy corporations. Therefore we live in the world where peace needs to be defended daily and where peacemakers are constant losers. Wars are everywhere. The troubled history will take time to settle and correct what needs to be corrected. Wars are politics gone mad. Anything can be an excuse for war. If there isn't any, - well it can be created. War is an export product easy to sell: there's always somebody to embrace the project and many to take part in the feast. <br />Museums and other institutions of collective memory could be of some use for peace. They are already. <br />If terrorism is an excuse, - so much the better Otherwise the world we have inherited would have no basis for the repression: a picture of an impossible world!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The unpeaceful world we have</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">By the nature of the world we shall be inclined to CONQUER as much and as far as we can reach. Saying "we", is rather inaccurate, as most humans are not interested to interfere with anything which is beyond our immediate life environment or, in the other extreme, beyond the stratosphere. (Why would anybody spend billions on space research while we have so much to do and spend on the world so badly in the need). So, who are "them"? Preponderant forces of the society, world leaders, the NSC (when about the accumulation of power ), IMF, WTO, multinational corporations... Another paranoia? Not really, because their own documents clearly assume the responsibility and ambition: they do want to lead the international community and they feel responsible for it. The only difference is that they want us to say how happy we are with this fact and how democratic all this is. If one has difficulties to utter that, one is either anarchist or communist, as it suits their moment. <br /><br />We, the citizens of the world are deceived. The century old doctrine that saw peace as the result of balance of power was useless when it was there (Francis B. Sayre). Why are we tortured again by the remaining imbalance? <br /><br />They wars can be subtly manipulated business that hardly ever appears in history textbooks and museums. If not directly, an invasion can always be done from within the country: like English did in Sudan by using Egyptian soldiers and French money, or Russians in Poland, or indeed, America in so many places that they cannot remember them any more. Direct exports of war as mere conquest is an endless sequence of evil that constitute the world of today. Curiously, the most powerful countries are the greatest sinners in their past and these stories are "little else than a long succession of useless cruelties" (Voltaire about History). <br /><br />In the world in which military investment is hundred times bigger than that for culture and noble causes like arts, - we only have what we invest in: lot of wars and proportionally more destruction and misery and. No God of ours that we pray to, approve that, - and we all know it. But most of the wars are fought in gods' name and with priests' blessings. We live in the greatest era of hypocrisy in human history. UN has become alibi provider for those in it who are powerful enough to put vetos on undeniable, or manipulate decisions by financial blackmailing. Of course, there is nothing new about it: Might makes right. Anything positive is always more demanding. Aristotle said "It is more difficult to organize peace than to win a war". And, as ever, the responsibility is always with power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Homo homini lupus, or how are we manipulated to chaos</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Greed as the only remaining ideology is proposed and praised: the public hoola balloo in the meantime drumms incessantly about human rights, all sorts of rights, making us all live at daggers drawn.... Individuals are given the illusion of importance by suggested total freedom of individual claims. But, try the substantials! Tied to the working place, reduced to working skill on the market, scared by insecurity, robbed by the banks and brainwashed by the media, contemporary person is a destitute serf in modern feudalism. Those who refuse the exausting daily toil in total insecurity and deny happy consumerism will end up in hospitals and asylums, with destroyed marriages, destructed families, broken friendships... Thus individuals become separated by interestes and find themselves completely alone. From there on, - the Great Greed Force has another lump of clay to build its instrumentalized Golem, - the Machine as Lewis Mumford would put it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Behind the democratic scenery, there is a mastodontal global project of creating the billions of scared, lonley individuals that will willingly find the shelter in the parades of collective ego and become the happy inhabitants of the Planet Hollywood, - a vision common to any totalitarian scheme. "Democracy" is one of the most frequently used words of today: the first proof it does not exist. The citizen is turned into a shopper of dreams and illusions. He/she is stuffed and grind by media with daily portions of Somma, kept busy buy insecure existence and incessant competition, entangled by loan sharks (who, in Europe at least, used to the banks in service of community)... <br /><br />The expectation of the creators of it is that we will not notice what is happening as danger seemingly died away by the fall of the Berlin wall. And, they just might be right. So you will neither notice the planetary shame of legal trade with the right to polute; or, - that the multinationals of the first democracy in the world caused the last two dozens of wars on the very same and only Planet. <br /><br />When you start believing that smoking is the worst problem of mankind and that lives of white mice are question for to be or not to be, then you are part of the mass. <br />The only possibility is the organised citizen. But the citizen must be educated enough and informed enough not only to look but to SEE. Will our institutions help? Will professions stay faithful to their plot against laity, a temptation Bernard Shaw signalled so long ago? <br /><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">What can heritage institutions do for peace?<br />Military, war and museums alike, for the most and still quite horrifying and disgusting places, sort of manipulated reconstructions of crime scenes. Their scientific background may be correctly done but who made the choice? What if "events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter (W.R. Inge). What if generalized history is indeed "a branch of speculation, connected (often rather arbitrarily and uneasily) with certain facts about the past" as Aldous Huxley claimed? <br /><br />Tens of thousands ambitious, scientific and expensive museums glorify the warriors, generals or imperators. We passed through a long succession of "useless cruelties" (Voltaire about history) and hardly any museum admits any guilt. Servile to their bosses and and autistic in their community, they show but glorious, rightful armies and their wicked enemies. We glorify generals, murderers and plunderers, but hardly any of the peace makers: it seems our museums tacitly consider them traitors. <br /><br />Taken as a whole, museums hardly record the human epopee of suffering, and if they do it is often one side of the story. They rather praise conquest and victories as triumphs of the national strength. <br /><br />Who caused then such a terrible suffering on this Planet? Who made it a place of continuous slaughter? Can each nation and each community finally take up their blame and, being purged by the truth, continue by being better? In museums? Hardly. Disturbing memories might cause unwanted effects . Elsewhere? Not probable. When politicians, priests and educators talk the language of intolerance and hatred, the country will know no peace; anybody different or any difference will be the good enough enemy. But, maybe, finally, there would be the time for the red line and different continuation? Museums will not change the world but may help in making this change possible.<br /><br />"Peace is not the elimination of the causes of war. Rather it is a mastery of great human forces and creation of an environment in which human aims may be pursued constructively". (James H. Case, Jr. ) It "is not absence of war, it is virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice (baruch Spinoza)<br /><br />Telling stories of importance of peace is dull and uninteresting. But presenting the eternal values of justice, freedom and prosperity that constitute the peace, can be quite intriguing. It is values that make the peace possible as the one that comes out of mere war exhaustion is neither timely nor enduring. Museums cannot change the world but they can help towards making it better by sowing the love in place of hatred, pardon instead of injury, union instead discord, faith instead of doubt, hope instead of despair, light instead of darkness, joy where sadness is (paraphrase of St. Francis of Assisi). One should question the use of history museums as a whole, at least to find out the positive examples and praise them as the way onwards. There are more and more of them, to tell the encouraging news………………………<br /><br />The heritage institutions have to propose attractive ways of explaining that the sure way to hell is the growing apotheosis of egotism. Peace is not the set of rules and agreements. It is quality of culture and a state of mind. If heritage institutions cannot teach qualities that mean peace or set ground for it, then they are dead capital, - misused and buried. The mere knowledge amassed in the immense quantity of evidence they keep in their vaults or expose in their galleries is impressive enough for that. If taken as material for wisdom, this collective memory is worth the effort. It becomes truly meaningful. Why on Earth should the collections exist if they cannot remind us, teach us that 90 billion people died so far on the Planet and that most of them knew what was wrong and disgraceful in human existence: the incessant killings and destruction instead of love, compassion, comfort and prosperity?<br /><br />Peace themes are dull and uninteresting: tautological, patronizing, disciplined, educational, unattractive... But, tell the interesting story! In some foreseeable future, when we build up a strong profession of heritage communicators and carers, we shall probably still have enough public money to demonstrate that we are not just passive scribes to the masters of the history, but also partakers in it, - those who use knowledge to provide the usable answers to our fellow beings. Internet is the apotheosis of knowledge. But as mountains of knowledge grow endlessly, as we drown in the ocean of the useless information, - we seem to have less and less wisdom. Can curators tolerate it infinitely? Can intellectuals be calmed forever? We shall be loosing our public jobs and having walls build around us only if we are just few, if we do not represent a profession. We do not want to become a political party. We do not want to offer the sole and only truth. We do not require the privilege of obedience. What we do have to offer is the entire truth, all sides of it, timely, useful, ethical and responsible, - referring to the obvious problems of our taxpayers and users. <br /><br />In the panopticum of illusions and deceit, we, ordinary people are puzzled and frightened. What is what and who is who, indeed? We are attacked by the armies of scoundrels of all sorts, no matter what title or position they disguise themselves in. All of them fight either for our mind or valet or both, indeed and use an array of techniques to swindle our minds and our perceptions. The reasons are always the same: power and gold in all shapes, colours and alloys.<br /><br />Heritage institutions should be like grandfathers, old uncles, wise grandmothers, - knowledgeable and experienced friends who help us re-gain control of our mind and senses. They would tell us stories of the experiences stored into their vaults, stories about the human nature and its temptations, about traps and enemies, about ways to freedom and harmony. They have to teach us what is true and what is false, what is beautiful and why, - in brief how to recognize virtues, how to posses them and how to enjoy their blessing. We do not need them as hermetic philosophers but as simple wise men, able to guide us through our own world: our schools, our shopping malls, our jobs, living ambiences, natural environment, politics, media, places of interest... All these places and activities need to be interpreted to be fully and correctly understood. Schools can do much, but we need a genuine learning environment, - that what we so eagerly and idealistically expected from television. 28 hours of TV programme that an average American consumes a week, is rarely more than bubbles in the Coke: the nothing that became new epitome of reality. Freedom is being able to live and think autonomously and decide for one self. Individualism is the future cut to measure of any human being, and not the horror of total loneliness as it is daily projected. The Great Greed turns humans into insecure addicts who fly from freedom and fall prey of collective hysteria. <br /> </span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Anatole France thought, like many, that universal peace will be realized because it will be imposed by "new order ot things, a new science, new economic necessities". The future is likely to become a constant denial of peace qualities. Wars will be rare as the resources all over the world become either conquered or privatized and re-sold to corporations. But the unrest, conflict, and terrorism will be the daily practice of a war as social and political state. The Great Greed Forces will take it as a further excuse to limit the the freedom. <br /><br />Once the daring and adventurous human spirit is orientated towards the inner explorations, of which art is the best example, - the mankind may count with chances of survival, both in the sense of upgrading of human nature and that of harmonious, sustainable development. That, however, is a distant and rather improbable variant as human nature will remain an easy prey to its fatal enemies. Petrarch counted five of them: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride. <br /><br />We look forward to the time when Power of Love will replace the Love for Power. <br />(William E. Gladstone). Losers or winners, we have no choice but to build our edifice of virtue as societal project. I am a convinced pessimist but humankind has survived so far just because we never learned to give up. This terrible shortcoming is also our chance.<br /></span>Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-30620797401964661282012-12-12T07:08:00.002-08:002012-12-12T07:08:16.486-08:00Community - basic element of the territorial museum<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">... or: How can museums serve
community best</span></span></span>
</h3>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The departure point: Territory</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR"></span></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Territory is another name for identity. It is always
established through the recognition of some evident coherence. The span of that
phenomenon covers an enormous richness: from the creation of God to the
creation of Man, from geography (as the most natural circumstance) to language
(as the most artificial addition). Its “final” version is the result of
constant exposure to variety of forces: from natural elements (as, again, the
most natural circumstance) to wars (as the meanest betrayal of the Divine). Any
territorial museum is <span style="font-size: small;">necessarily</span> a complex, multidisciplinary museum.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The identity is the system of values that is best expressed
in the notion of culture; or, to paraphrase A. Devalees</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">, <i>the</i> territory of the museum is the one where certain cultural
identification makes sense. This infinitely complex whole encompasses thus
entire environment. It is understood that humans are at its fullest sense a
biological kind and “would find little ultimate meaning detached from the rest
of the life”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">. Traditional museum,
namely, is a materialisation of an <span style="font-size: small;">anthropocentric</span> <i>weltanschaung, </i>false in its humanist deviation. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The complexity of territory is at the same time the subject
and the object of the museum institution. It is an ideal projection of
all-inclusive, total collection in one sense, and the entity the museum
services, in another.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Well understood this fallen barrier “does not mean that
everybody has to consider themselves a museum object, but rather one of the
guardians and one of the creators of a certain heritage permanently renewed, <span style="font-size: small;">permanently</span> recommenced”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">. When about curators who
tend to understand things too literally, there is “a risk of putting the
population in the cage in a way it is done in a ZOO, and a risk of manipulating
that population”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">. Of course, what we are
after is not the territory itself, nor only “the relations of man to that
territory”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR"> (as that would be too
simple), but the furthest possible number and intricacy of interrelations
within the community, of community to <span style="font-size: small;">territory</span>, of nature to humans those
between humans etc.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The entire building of ecomuseums’ <span style="font-size: small;">innovation</span> stands upon
the invention of the territory as basis of their endeavour: “When about the
notion of territory, it is issuing directly from the new concept of collections
as proposed in Le Creusot”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[7]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">, that is, the invention
of ecomuseums in the late 60s opened this avenue to quality museum service. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The territory may not be only the one assigned to one
museum only. In case of ecomuseums, the museum service may take the form of <span style="font-size: small;">antenna</span>, -the network of smaller museums or simple outposts. In other cases,
where the approach is <span style="font-size: small;">equally</span> based upon the clear notion of territory (as the
term denoting the complex identity), there may be several museums sharing the
common conviction that they work together upon the same case: “570 square <span style="font-size: small;">kilometres</span> is our common territory”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[8]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Of course, it helps to classify and <span style="font-size: small;">systematise</span>. SAMDOK’s
pragmatic simplicity when dealing with complexity of identity is next to
perfect. Their <span style="font-size: small;">systematisation</span> was meant for the contemporary documentation
problem, and when adapted </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[9]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR"> for museum use showed the
same quality: agriculture, nutrition, industry, trade, services, culture, arts,
education, communications, organisation of the society. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">The territory is thus a true starting logic of an useful
museum, and an approach which makes “territorial” museum, in whichever form
done, a protagonists of true museum mission. That of of continuity and survival
under the criteria of quality living. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The means: collections</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[10]</span></span></span></span></a></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The limits of quantitative logic
and further definition of social role of museums, have been present long ago in
the minds of museum professionals (Dana, 1920)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[11]</span></span></span></span></a>.
Territorial museums are <i>on the spot: </i>there<i> </i>where the social role is matter of a
honest sharing of whatever constitutes the life of the community. The museums
find themselves finally in the era of quality, at the turning point when
heritage concerned institutions have to re-define their mission through this
long neglected optic. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are more and more museums
that derive their collections from participation of the community they serve:
people bring them objects. Many among eco-museums did so, but also museums
which do not have such a specific profile. Museum of Romanian Peasant in
Bucharest (EMYA Award for 1997) has obtained objects from peasants arranging
for them a visit to the museum and certificate that made the cooperation more
dignified. Finnish Forest Museum, started "ex nihilo", assembled the
entire collection from gifts offering in return a certificate, year free
entrance, and the name in the book at the entrance. Regional Museum at Spittal
am Drau, Austria, never bought (and never will) any object for their
collection: their principle is well respected in community; the Director claims
with perfect <span style="font-size: small;">common sense</span>, that making an exception would put donors in an
awkward position. The reason may look financial in nature and consequence, but
is much more than that, as it is explained well in the example of the Workers'
Museum in Copenhagen: "Exhibitions were based on the material people had
given us, that is to say, on those very objects which they perceived as their
history"<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[12]</span></span></span></span></a>.
Museums like these accumulate little more than they expose, or if they do the
collection is dispersed where it can do some good. The indecent greed, inbuilt
in the logic of many conventional museums fills their reserves so much that
they expose the usual 10 to 20 percent of their collections in their permanent
exhibitions. The quality difference lies in the motives for collectioning: for
the science (user comprised), or for the user (science comprised). In the former
case it is the avarice born out of the quantitative perfection, and in the
latter the reaction to the need of mirroring the complexity of the territory
and the innate need for self knowing. The specific complexity, of course, -
because some museums decline, as a matter of principle, any possibility to <span style="font-size: small;">posses</span> or expose objects which are not pertinent to their territory. Again,
some <span style="font-size: small;">curators</span> reading this would say “we have seen that”, like when refusing to
admit the novelty of ecomuseums on the ground of resemblances to regional
museums. Local spirit of the collection does happen indeed, but usually as a
consequence of the scientific limitations imposed upon the collection or as a
consequence of relative poverty. But this here is the ethically founded responsibility,
a new way of thinking, a conviction we recognize in ecomuseums.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The complex identity can best be
presented on its own ground and it is fundamentally ethically correct to do so.
The museum is good enough as interpretation and orientation centre. Keeping and
caring for the values pertaining to that identity, gives museums the
opportunity to participate fully in life: visually, functionally, <span style="font-size: small;">symbolically</span>.... After the life gives them enough reason, the values may also
(assisted by museum action), return to some use, thus retaining at least the
essential qualities of the certain identity alive. Guided by this logic, any
territorial museum, be it small regional museum in the province or the city
museum in the capital, will have to regard its territory a display in the need
of constant interpretation and care. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The complexity, of course, may mean
literally anything, including, as it was already said, even the people
themselves. The stage of the museum is theirs, anyhow: In the (territorially
enormous) Ecomuseum Haute-Beauce, Canada, almost every familly wrote its own <span style="font-size: small;">chronicle</span>, which is a testimony valuable as any other museum object. In this
pulsating and constantly changing whole, every individual is creator of however
tiny part of the local history, and with every departing member, the particular
life experience is reduced to some “collectable” contribution. In most cases,
that experience, even in its physical part will stay in use as an
underlying<span> </span>yet <span style="font-size: small;">unrecognised</span> part of
certain reality (say of a family, group or <span style="font-size: small;">community</span>). The museum may
recognize that individual contribution and, being a sort of collective ego,
preserve it and let it eventually sediment in live collective memory. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The success of a reformed
territorial museum corresponds to the measure of becoming the underlying
structure of the living identity, a sort of omnipresent, (almost) invisible
sage, a carer of the well kept though changing values. A reformed territorial
museum is founded upon conviction that all objects are “born” equal, i.e. that
museum is not a the glory account of the people it incidentally belongs to or
depends upon, but of the lives of all the sharers of the same identity. It is
not based upon the collection of superlatives, but is a collection which talks <span style="font-size: small;">equally</span> about drawbacks (which instruct best) and highlights (which inspire
most). The quality of collection will<span> </span>be
expressed in high objectives and creative use of it; it may include the capital
items and the masterpieces of any sort if they happen, but it will contain a
richness of <i>quotidiana </i>and<i> efemera</i> – at least by the measures of
conventional elitist museums. The other aspect of quality would be, of course,
the ends to which the collection is used. If it helps to maintain the diversity
and richness alive and functional in everyday life, - museum does a good job.
Of course, there are other tasks which fall into the universal categories of
advancement of human nature, like its creative exposure to and instruction in
the divine matter of beauty. The aims can be set “lowly”, - as enhancing the
daily life, say by making a good choice of wall paper, or resisting some
consumerist folly.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The approach whose ambition is <b>the useful museum,</b> changes the
character of the collection (partly) into the interpretive inventory. That is,
of course, the Troyan horse which we started to fill long ago with the so
called "secondary museum material". With the hyper media inside, it
is apt to challenge any museum tradition. But, there are no surprises, it has
been already wheeled in long ago: we always lived with alternative but there
was time when it could be ignored. The information technology<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[13]</span></span></span></span></a> makes
possible: (a) the transparency of the museum working process, (b) opening up
the entire collection to the users (c) effective museum networking or,
indeed,working together; it enables and favours interdisciplinary and
trans-sectorial cooperation as well as such products and is inherently
participatory. It is the logic of the information technology that will give the
decisive momentum to creation of a heritage care&communication
mega-profession, the one that would both theoretically and in practice (from
social contract to common information network) present firm partner to the
ruling forces of the society<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[14]</span></span></span></span></a>. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">The alternative practices (visible
collections, loan service, participation in conservation, etc.) favour
identification of users with the museum medium: the sense of involvement, of
museum as shared possession, the pride of partaking in establishing and running
an institution, - that is the fertile ground for an useful museum. Only in this
way, the museum can become part of living, like a football match or a pop
concert. There is a subtle art of assuring the respectable professional
standard while <i>giving over</i> (what is
otherwise hidden and fragmented) and <i>stepping
down</i> (from scientific, <span style="font-size: small;">intellectual</span> and class pedestals). This is the core
matter of the campaign for quality we have to launch finally in our profession
if we want to avoid becoming “endangered species” ourselves<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[15]</span></span></span></span></a>. That is
an attitude based upon the double cult: of extreme <span style="font-size: small;">professionalism</span> and of
humble service to the common welfare, - a challenge any good priest would know.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">Any collection is but the means
towards the set of objectives aimed at material and spiritual prosperity <i>of the people</i>, - not the science, not
the profession, not the ruling class of money owners, decision and opinion
makers, not anyone but the community as it is.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">A collection is physical substance
of the museum’s intended role and mission, good inasmuch as it proves to be
quality matter in the subtle process of recording, caring, preserving,
amplifying, and <span style="font-size: small;">transferring</span> the identity it helps to live. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR" style="line-height: 150%;">The purpose: Community</span></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Community, that is the individuals who share the common set
of values that constitute them as a whole, - represent the starting and the
final objective of museum. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Territorial museum is supposed to respond to their wishes
and their needs. Whereas there might exist an elitist museum in some particular
situations, like in cultural capitals and big universities, - territorial
museums are democratic institutions serving the common welfare. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Being a public institution par excellence, museums
correspond to the definition of the humanist value system. The needs are
therefore described as the values of that system that have to be attained or
maintained. As the value system changes, the needs change and so should the
museum. But, museums lag behind.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">We may be in a syntagm of <span style="font-size: small;">post-modern</span>, post-humanist, age of
synthesis, but (just because) we are experiencing the growing attraction to
utopian visions like R. Owen’s New Harmony (of some two centuries ago). No
wonder as we are again experiencing still deeper immersion into the egoistical
reality of self-benefit and profit defined society. (The dream of freedom to
infinite purchasing and endless possessioning is becoming widely nurtured and
offered as the substitute for democracy). The new crave for The Paradise lost,
for the true ideals, brings people back to religions, as science (and its
museums) offered only knowledge. They never said that knowledge is but a raw
material and by itself offers no final value of any sort. Museums must go
further and offer that first spirituality of might, love and wisdom (all <span style="font-size: small;">attributes</span> of God himself<span> </span>according to T.
Campanella). For a community, might is knowledge, love is empathy, compassion
and understanding; wisdom is all that together, meant to help any individual as
well as entire community to make viable, quality decisions.<span> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Wisdom is the essential orientation on the life values: for
the continuation of identities, successful and effective (quality) survival, -
spiritual, first of all, but not separated from the biology and economy. It is
knowledge where no particular interest prevails, the one that starts with “Why”s,
-<span> </span>hermeneutics and epistemology,
receiving the form of common reasoning. Wisdom grows from morality and should
strive to achieve creative freedom, contentment, health and affluence under the
condition of equal chances and within the society ruled by justice. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">To any pretentious “<span style="font-size: small;">practitioner</span>”, this will seem as
irresponsible enumeration of utopian ideals and <span style="font-size: small;">useless</span> avoidance of true
problems. Those are, as they claim, all of scientific, managerial and
technological level. It is correct to claim that all that is important, but
only once we know why would any community need a museum. The set of old answers
is as wrong as it is simple. The truth is different. To do our job well, be it
in a tiny museum or the huge institution, we have to master four areas of
expertise: (a) knowing well the nature of the world in which museums operate
and our users live, (b) having a clear philosophy of the profession as a total
understanding of the museum and heritage ideas (c) perfectly knowing our users
(d) knowing well the set of techniques, methods and procedures which we call
the museum working process. Only the fourth expertise can be learned on the
job, although it is not advisable: too long and expensive.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Only by these three + one, areas of expertise, professionals
be able to face the real problems: those of <span style="font-size: small;">running</span> the institution effectively,
and of making/offering the good product.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">What concerns us here is obviously the product. It is <span style="font-size: small;">any</span>
corrective input into community that helps to restore the (permanently
endangered) balance. The long story of “cybernetic”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[16]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR"> museum is just another
try to assert that museum belongs to the societal forces of adaptation and
correction, - counterbalancing the aggressive change which has become so
dangerously imposed that the human destiny may well be already out of hand. It
is this fear, that created the utopian outcry for sustainable development. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">If you feel your community or part of it feels fear, give
them some hope, by showing that their predecessors also felt it. If they need
hope, offer it by comparing their state with situations where hope was fruitful
and justified in spite of the gloom. If they oppose the ruthless destruction of
their natural environment, join them (cautiously) by arguments they would be
unable to gather themselves. If they do not react to the merciless devastation
of architectural heritage by real-estate <span style="font-size: small;">speculators</span>, offer them an insight
into the quality of it and consequences for the cultural, tourist image....If
they suffer from illiteracy in art and crafts, becoming easy victims to
consumerist tricks, instruct them into the matters of beauty and style. If some
support the new nuclear power-plant and others refuse, offer them an overview
of arguments for both variants with consequences they have to accept. If they
are manipulated by politicians into developmental strategies which are
short-sighted, making quick profit for some favoured business, try to suggest <span style="font-size: small;">different</span> approaches and solutions by using the examples from the past of the
same community, by drawing parallels, by using <span style="font-size: small;">outside</span> experts etc, etc....</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Of course, all that would be too much to expect, some of it
practically impossible, but one thing is for sure: if we have that tremendous
amount of knowledge, well selected and filtered from the past experiences of
generations of our ancestors, we, therefore, have a chance for wisdom; and if
we have a community with its needs knocking on the doors of our conciousness
(they still don’t expect much from us, do they?), we have a a matrix of our professional
philosophy: our community is the boss, and their needs are our programme. All
the rest is hardly more than a technique. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">This simplicity is the core of the problem. It requires
insight, understanding, ethical commitment and a hard work. The most obvious
“reward” may easily be refusal of <span style="font-size: small;">finances</span> to the museum, or as we know well,
suspension of the director</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[17]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">. The paradox is that,
when this starts to happen, you may well know we’re doing what we are supposed
to do. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">But, to sooth down the scared traditionalists, you may also
do the job just by pretending you’re doing something important for your
community. You give them what is expected from you: a splendid permanent
display and a row of temporary exhibitions and events that are conventional cocktails <span style="font-size: small;">consisting</span> of <span style="font-size: small;">prestigious</span> but meaningless components of sciences and arts.
When about identity and its history, you avoid any possible link with the
present and future, deducing only passeist prestige and nostalgia. The mind of
the ruling (as you are on that side of the community) will tell you well that
when giving, you will do well by offering poor devils the glittering, useless
things...Pannem et circenses! Or if, obviously, you offer the utter excellence,
do it in a way to fascinate and add a touch of disdain for the crowd. They are
well accustomed to be despised by politicians and might appreciate more what
they cannot grasp but feel the importance of. This is why the international
blockbuster exhibition will be the best solution. Talk to senses, not mind.
Some, specially in the art world, even pretend talking to the mind: they make
things so <span style="font-size: small;">avant-guard</span> that only the decadent or the sophisticated few enjoy
while their <span style="font-size: small;">snobbish</span> followers only pretend to enjoy. If museologically
uninitiated, no traditional curator will feel guilty. Administration supports
him, media love him, public hurls into the museum...Reasonably or even well
educated, the public (different from visitors and users</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[18]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">) is perfectly conditioned
to support the museum part of the Mega Machine (L.Mumford) working the way it
does. Why should you worry then about the 75%<span>
</span>of our community who never set their foot in the museum? It never
crosses their mind, anyhow, that the museum is supported from their pockets.
So, the museological dilemma is only a part of the bigger one, and there, like
in the very living lies your <span style="font-size: small;">preferred</span> solution. It is always our frailty or our <span style="font-size: small;">strengthen</span> that take the chance. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">Museum institution needs relevance, respectability,
guarantee of <span style="font-size: small;">successful</span> functioning. What any community member needs is sense
of importance, self respect, (not any but) usable knowledge, security,
well-being and, - the immortality; of course, not the one pretended in museums,
but the immortality, to <span style="font-size: small;">paraphrase</span> Rolland Barth, of the human kind, of those
values and qualities that link it to Gods forever. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="HR">If it wasn’t clear enough how can museums serve their
community best, it remains to try a brief version: Museums can bring us closer
to meaningful existence by being a reliable, friendly place, doing what any
respectable, old, wise friend would do. The shortest definition of a
museologist, which explains what the <span style="font-size: small;">institution</span> itself might be, is:
Museologist is a curator <span style="font-size: small;">w</span>ith the mind of visitor</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[19]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="HR">, so the good territorial
museum is the one with the community on its mind. Science remains the basis and
collections the means, but the job is theatre; a specific one though.<span> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br clear="all" /></span></span>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Šola, Tomislav. Essays on Museums and Their Theory/ Towards the cybernetic
museum. The Finnish Association of Museums, Helsinki, 1997 (pp. 68-<span> </span>) p. 295</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Desvalees, Andre in discussion, at the occasion of the ICOFOM symposium
“Originals or substitutes”, Zagreb, 1983.</span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Wilson, Edward O.Pregled, Zagreb, p.233</span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
Collin, G. L’ecomusee du Mont-Lozere. A paper at the symposium “Museum,
territory, society”, London, 1983. pp. 5</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
Desvalees, Andre. L’esprit et la lettre de l’ecomusee. p 54; In: Ecomusees en
France. Actes de premiers recontres nationales des ecomusees, L’Isle d’Abeau,
1986. pp 267ECO, 702,Desv.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a>
Veillard, Jean Ives. Le musee d’histoire, muse de combat. A paper at the
symposium “Museum, territory, society”, London, 1983.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[7]</span></span></span></span></a>
Hubert, Francois. Pays de Rennes, un ecomusee de la fin des annes
quatre-vingts. In: Ecomusees en France. Actes de premiers recontres nationales
des ecomusees, L’Isle d’Abeau, 1986. pp 267</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[8]</span></span></span></span></a>
the words of ......, director of<span> </span>Isle of
Man Museum when presenting the museum for the European Museum of the Year
Award.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">9</span>
“Slovenianum”, Heritage orientation and information centre, Ljubljana (project
by T.Šola, unrelised)</span></span></div>
</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[10]</span></span></span></span></a><span> </span>More about the theme in: Šola. Tomislav.
Redefining Collecting. In: Knell, Simon J. (ed) 1999. Museums and the Future of
Collecting,. Asgate, Aldershot.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[11]</span></span></span></span></a><span> Dana, John Cotton. 1920. A plan for a New Museum, Elm
Tree Press, Vermont</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn12">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[12]</span></span></span></span></a><span> Ludvigsen, Peter. 1995. A Workers' Museum in
Copenhagen. Museum International, 188, vol 47, No 4, p.41</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[13]</span></span></span></span></a><span> Šola, Tomislav. 1995. How Museology perceives
information technology. Commet Conference, Swansea/Barcelona, 1995.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[14]</span></span></span></span></a>
Introduction to the cybernetic museum. in “Essays on Museums and Ther Theory”,
Finnish Association of Museums, </span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[15]</span></span></span></span></a>
Šola, Tomislav. Museum Curators – The endangered Species. In: Boylan Patrick
(ed.) Museums for the 2000. Routledge, 19....., London. ( A paper at the
conference of the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of Museums Association, UK)</span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[16]</span></span></span></span></a>
a few chapters in the book: Šola, Tomislav. Essays on Museums and Their
Theory/Towards the cybernetic museum. Finnish Association of Museums, Helsinki,
1997. pp. 295</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[17]</span></span></span></span></a>
Zolberg, Vera. Museums as contested sites of remembrance: the Enola Gay affair.
In the book: Macdonald Sharon; Fyfe Gordon (editors). Theorizing Museums.
Blackwell Publishers. 1998.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn18">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[18]</span></span></span></span></a>
Šola, Tomislav. From visitors to users. Informatica Museologica. No 3-4,
Zagreb,1997.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue;">[19]</span></span></span></span></a>
Šola, Tomislav, scattered in texts and lectures ever since 1987.</span></span></div>
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Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-91895710614008650272012-11-26T06:23:00.002-08:002012-11-26T06:23:33.223-08:00The critique and the future of collecting<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">At the beginning was the idea, concept, a need. Collection
followed. First museum-like establishments were but visitable collections. A
modern museum institution developed in the last two hundred years is lagrely
circumstantial and reflecting its immediate protagonists: that tradition does
not oblige us to take the museum institution as the final and only answer to
the set of needs that created it. Moreover, those needs are severely changed and
extremely complex, implying the drama of the post-historical society. Yet, we
are witnessing the unprecedented flourishing of museums and their deepest
conceptual crisis, at the same time which is, obviously paradoxical. Why would
that be the case? As the needs for protective mechanisms against the
degradation of life become more dramatic, more museums are created to serve the
purpose. Yet, what the profession(s) creating them can offer is very much
inadequate and burdened<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with the
seemingly unavoidable tradition. The "tough" part of the problem is
easily seen in collections as they increasingly demonstrate two major
inconveniences: the increasing cost of acquisition, care and maintenance and
their physical growth. There are significant developments, dilemma, and rising
questions which dramatize the theme beyond strict professional concerns. Many
feel that we ought to face ultimate questions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">"Growth is an inherent part of the mission of most
museums"(Wilcox, 1995)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
It is still unquestioned starting point of the discussion. But, it will be shattered soon. Ten or more years ago the limits of the physical growth of
collections were not so obvious to majority of museum professionals. Museology
as set of headlights on the profession's vehicle was supposed to help: if we
don't have this device we seem to be driving in the dark, seeing ahead only
what we bump into. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The first "irregularity" in museum reaction was
the establishment of reserve collections. It witnessed the acquisitiveness and
the birth of museum communication: not all could be shown any more. But, this
led to the series of problems we have to deal with now and in the future. In
the dramatically changed world, nothing can be like it was any more: in the
first half of the last century when museums started to grow, the world was
populated by a billion of people and was guided by very different hopes. If
public institution of museum appeared as a response to someone's needs, we know
that museum must have changed its entire nature to fit new circumstances. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It seemed that museums could continue as expression of
inherent acquisitiveness, but they cannot. It looked like they could limit
themselves to the function of credible three-dimensional collective memory, but
this becomes inconceivable: we have touched the ceiling of growth, both
physically and financially. They do make sense, however, as a picturesque
scientific theatre part of the mega-brain that we, as civilization, are trying
to make. But their mission, accordingly, is not defined by memory which happens
to be only one function of a brain.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
It is neither defined by science nor by education. The traditional idea of
knowledge that museums were supposed to serve does not comprise selectiveness,
value judgements, creativity, participation, concern for the individual...
Museums have thus forgotten to define themselves in terms of quality<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
i.e. responsibility and wisdom (which themselves include ethics and love as the
basis of the museum mission). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Problems and paradoxes</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Much of what we have in our museum collections is subjective
and haphazardous in nature, or at least, collected by different ambitions and
hardly adjustable to contemporary needs. Treasures of art were used to finance
wars (Thomson, 199?)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
quite a few were formed as a war loot, some partly restituted and others
irreversibly damaged. The collected material remnants of history in constant
making, can rarely claim continuity and coherence any science likes to see in
'its' museum. The rich amateurs from 16 century onwards, up until the present tycoons
shape ruthlessly what should otherwise be set of collective values. When not
motivated by deep fascination, it is sort of a socialized possessiveness and
greed for power. There is no financial or political might able to resist, once
consolidated, the temptation of dominating also the spiritual values. But there
are also expressions of collective conquest in which scientists and army
leaders were and are equally zealous. Museums contain the evidence of our
conquests and seem not to expose what we have not yet conquered (Mendis, 1980)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
The science has limited collections within the frames of obvious and factual.
The systems made possible museum as their PR mechanism: thus the ever
"objective" science, itself but a servant, presents a different
world's history in every national museum. All cherish the representation of
life by the measures of the official excellence and perfection. This may tell a
lot about aspirations but little about the richness and variety of life and
living itself. First museums have been living witnesses of dying traditional
societies, seeing the whole fine structure collapse and degenerate. They
appeared on the scene as fetishist souvenir hunters. It is like doing one's
best to save the hat of a drowning man. Museum "collectibles" rarely
suggested the slowly appearing museum mission of serving the development of the
society, let alone the sustainable one. 'Sustainable' is another word for
harmonious and continuous, i.e. using the past as a source of survival wisdom.
Relatively early in their history, the majority of museums and the appearing
professionals served the institution and its owners, museum object being the
ultimate value. 'But, objects do not make a "museum", they merely
form a collection'(Dana, 1920)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
The lack of everyday objects eliminated life from museums and the true sense of
museum existence remained quite blurred for many to come.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The perverted sense of quality appeared as giantism, a
quantitative monster always there when responsibility is scarce. Hudson's law
in Museology says: large collections, bad conservation<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
If true as it seems, this opens up the Pandora's box of consequences. The
growth is the universal problem into which museums fit only too well: 'Growth
cannot continue indefinitely. The world is, therefore, facing a breakdown of
the same type that has occurred frequently in the past. A good example is the
failure of the Roman Empire' (Wilson, 1978)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[8]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Museums present no empire, and it might not be the total failure that they
face. Mildly named it is a deep conceptual crisis endangering their mission in
the society. Never having succeeded to form a profession, museum people might
be "endangered species" themselves (Sola, 198?)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
This obviously give right to some professionals when talking about "dying
museums" (Jaoul, 1995)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[10]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
The proposal is that they die when they stop adding to their collection or when
they have no reserve collection policy. But, that's the physical death easily
comprehended (although quite late) through new questions of hard practice: the
claim is that only 10% of our collections can be preserved (well)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[11]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
although the 60% of budget in most museums is spent on keeping the reserves in
good condition (MacDonald, 198?)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[12]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Since very recently, nobody ever asked what is "the cost of
collecting" (Lord, 198?)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[13]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
If some museum vehicles are moving at the growth rate of 7%<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[14]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
they would double their collections in ten years' time (!): acquire now, think
later. But dying of boulimia or anorexia is not the problem of added or lost
physical substance. It is the deficiency of mind and its functions. Why should
it be different in museums? Museology means transfer of professional
experience, self-analysis, self-criticism, devising policies and building the
responsible and autonomous profession, with clear mission. Collections are
neither curse nor ultimate blessing of museums. What matters is to know the
ends the collections and the institutions above them should serve. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Professional insufficieny</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Anything said could be easily assigned to professional
inaptitude, but it would not be all. The contemporary dilemma between fetishism
of originals and the virtual world that proposes only illusion is false
inasmuch as it puts aside true questions of quintessence of objects and ideas.
Older literature is full of evidence of how "all important" (Heath,
1977)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[15]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
collection is in museums, and how it is "the predominant reason for many a
museum's existence" (Alexander, 1979)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[16]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Highest officials of the profession<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were
ready to draw our attention to the fact that "museums have to concentrate
upon collections" (and not only to produce knowledge)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[17]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Not many were able to discern the true problems. It must be the inescapable
divine request of Eunomia, one of the Horae, deity of Order, that museums came
down with aritmomania: an addiction to quantitative dimension of the reality,
a sick urge to constant counting of everything. Or is it with the Muse Mneme,
that the misunderstanding of her gift was cause to Hypermnesia, astonishing
memorizing of the most insignificant details around: more and more about less
and less. It certainly did not mean the trivial "quotidiana" in spite
of the timely, sane voices which urged "conservation of everyday<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>life artifacts, rather than great monuments
of antiquity" (Marsh, 1864)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[18]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
In the scientific perfection, curators often purged the spirit of passion and
personal touch of great collectioners from their collections, by adding,
filling the gaps, making the discourse "objective", or even by
deaccessioning. Demonstrating such a disregard for the life of collection and
the story it tells by its very composition, zeals and mischiefs that formed it,
they were ignoring the life itself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The obsession with the three-dimensional object is an
ultimate proof of difficulties in understanding the proper nature of museum
action. Museum object, collected, researched, exposed and interpreted is not
the final product of its working process. If eternity was possible, it would
not be achieved by physical substance of museum objects. Material culture may
be instructive, but it still remains the means for understanding of
non-material culture. The later, as the aggregate of values, mores, norms etc.,
of a society is more an ideational structure of culture than its physical
appearance; it explains and makes us aware of values and meanings, and thus
provides arguments for continuation and survival, when appropriate and
possible, where, otherwise, the preservation of physical form would suffice.
The capacity of mental/spiritual excel by far the offer through physical.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Contributing to the re-definition of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>museums</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The meaning of museums is not to study the past but our
relation to it (It necessarily means knowledge about past, but also the
knowledge of ourselves). Traditional museum slowly became the mediator between
users and the past. The new museum should be a relay, an amplifier and decoder;
it stimulates, assists, and serves as corrective mechanism. Museum is
established when there's a dying heart of an identity. As museum is not a
'generator of culture" it is neither the replacement for the identity
lost. It is neither the heart itself, nor the machine to stand in its place,
but a pace-maker to help it function.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">If we want to divide the museum development in three phases,
the first would have collectioning as the central problem and research as the
context. The second phase is the invention of labor division and three clear
tasks: collectioning, research and presentation. The third phase would have the
community the museum is supposed to serve in the focus of these three basic
professional tasks. It implies communication, which in itself is possible only
as willing exchange of information upon the common goal of quality living i.e.
harmonious development. Only exceptionally, museums could exist as
"collection-based type" i.e. due to the fact that some museums
themselves present part of "collectable" cultural tradition. New
museums should be new, and it would be hard to imagine any more strictly
specialized museums should come into existence. Any museum object is poly-semic
and when classified and interpreted from this discriminative point of view it
gives away a misleading information and misses its rich interpretive capacity.
Our users should not care for the frustrations of the individual sciences when
forced to re-construct the former whole. Users did not invent them and they do
not need the isolated, specialist, de-contextualized knowledge they offer. The
method should not claim the status of the product.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The museum hypermnesia is fighting the invented enemy: the
natural process of forgetting, the natural oblivion as filtered, selected
knowledge. Any human being performs this natural process constantly, as perfect
recall would transform us all into neurotics. And, curiously, this is exactly
to what aim the beautiful new technology is being used. Oblivion is as natural
and as important as memory. To forget is to make the hierachization and
classification by importance, need and use in regard to future. To filter and
extract the wisdom needed to move, develop and continue, the traditional
cultures (that we keep the physical remnants of in our dark storages) used
ritual, myth and art: the product of abstraction and sublimation was able to
transcend the factual structure of the former reality. It would be probably
rather naive to compare cultures to coral reef that myriad of generations build
up from the bottom of the sea. Their common memory serves the obvious goal: to
reach the light and give birth to the exuberant life of the atoll. What we
require from this enormous machine with immense reservoirs of knowledge (in
museum collections and elsewhere) is the little product of simple, common
wisdom. We cannot deduce it any more amidst the roar of the
"mega-machine" (Mumford, 1986)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[19]</span></span></span></span></span></a>and
the ghosts that cheat our senses and create our needs. This mythos seems to be
alive only in pop music. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Preservation of cultures, of nature or any identity
comprised collectioning but never meant collectioning. Nobody can preserve
tigers by killing them and putting them stuffed into the glass cases. (More
human way is to keep them on life sentence in the ZOO). No traditional culture
is preserved that way either. So, preservation can happen only there where the
danger of deterioration, degeneration and decadence is taking place. This could
be the true version of the field work. this could lead to the true collection
which, again, is there where existing things and values face the extinction. If
the disease is acculturation or "desertification" of cultures (due to
the internationalization), one would imagine that the enemy should be
neutralized where it performs its crime. The same with the nature that suffers
from still another head of the same insatiable monster of greed. The reality is
our primary collection. All else should be different means to deal with the
problem of preserving the richness and variety so that we constantly push
upwards towards some Light, whatever that might be. One of the means is museum
collection: like a gland in the body museum should help the society function
and grow harmoniously. Anything that restitutes balance and fights the forces
of pauperization of the world is legitimate and good. So, collections have to
go back where they come from. This return, whichever way it may be done, is the
true sense of collecting. Of course, the profession (still in "status
nascendi") will react to the "physical" obstacles first, doing
physical moves to ameliorate its state. The problem is, however, quite
conceptual in its essence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Very recent professional testimonies provide us with lot to
think about: 'The lifeblood of museums is in their collections (...)The museum,
if it is not a collection, is nothing'(Cossons, 1991)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[20]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Quite acceptable, indeed, if we re-define what a collection is and consequently
what is a museum. The wide but only reasonable denomination of the (true) museum
collection is that it is the reality itself, - past, present and future. But,
since the map at the scale of one to one is not presentable, we have to reduce
it, to concentrate it to make a choice of indispensable while still keeping the
credibility. A museum institution is an artificial mechanism of preservation of
developmental codes whose existence is endangered by the dramatic entropy.
Museum is strategic and tactical reaction to the impoverishment of the totality
of the natural and spiritual environment. This is why we shall have to speak
about heritage media in order to encompass entire variety of institutional and
non-institutional reaction. As for the latter, museum professionals like to
forget that the un-structured, un-official and non-institutional museums that
any individual and any group or community creates, possess (though sometimes
curious) an immense collection. It contains less quality as defined by the
standards of science but represents the life itself. What else can be the ideal
of museums?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dislocated reserves </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It required no specific<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
</b>museological intuition to know some ten odd years ago that growing reserves
will fill up all the available space on the museum premises<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[21]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Some where already in existence, but little was known about their existence and
the future problems. Perfectionism was again ending up in opportunistic
quantitativeness instead of quality. This postponed solution is bad and good at
the same time. The bad thing is that it does not deal with the essence of the
problem: hyper-acquisitiveness as musealization of the world. The good thing
about it is higher standard of care, and in some cases, stronger collaboration
upon a common case among different museums. Some museums, like those of
Oxfordshire will discover that professional ripening, indeed growing up,
happens as will and ability of working together (Ferriot, 1995)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[22]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Pity if it all stays on the most obvious, as sharing the common reserve. The
bright and revolutionary example of Swedish SAMDOK, as cooperation in the very
process of collectioning is little exploited and feebly praised. We are looking
for signs of unity which announces an accomplished profession able to propose
itself as a strong, relevant partner to the System.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new reserves of Musee National des
Techniques in Paris at Saint Denis, or Museum of London's dislocated storage,
or Smithsonian Institution's futuristic new reserves in Maryland, - will not
solve the problem but give it some more time to grow without the museological
drudgery and nuisance. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The accepted alternative</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The limits of quantitative logic and further definition of
social role of museums have been present long ago in the minds of museum
professionals (Dana, 1920)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[23]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
We are right now in the era of quality, the turning point when heritage
concerned institutions have to re-define their mission through this long
neglected optic. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There are more and more museums that derive their
collections from participation of the community they serve. Many among
eco-museums did so, but also museums which do not have such an exact profile.
Museum of Romanian Peasant in Bucharest has obtained objects from peasants
arranging for them a visit to the museum and certificate that made the
cooperation more dignified. Finnish Forest Museum, started "ex
nihilo", assembled the entire collection from gifts offering in return a
certificate, year free entrance, and the name in the book at the entrance. The
reason may look financial in nature and consequence, but is much more than
that, as it is explained well in the example of the Workers' Museum in
Copenhagen: "Exhibitions were based on the material people had given us,
that is to say, on those very objects which they perceived as their
history" (Ludvigsen,1995)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[24]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
There is hardly a chance that museums like these would accumulate in their
reserves so much as to expose the usual 10 to 20 percent in their permanent
exhibitions. The quality difference lies in the motives for collectioning: for
the science (user comprised), or for the user (science comprised). This later
approach which ambition is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the useful
museum,</b> changes the character of the collection (partly) into the
interpretive inventory. That is, of course, the Troyan horse which we started
to fill long ago with the so called "secondary museum material". With
the hyper media inside, it is apt to challenge any museum tradition. But, there
are no surprises, it has been already wheeled in long ago: we always lived with
alternative but there was time when it could be ignored. The information
technology<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[25]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
makes possible: (a) the transparency of the museum working process, (b) opening
up the entire collection to the users (c) effective networking and, indeed,
working together; it enables and favours interdisciplinary and trans-sectorial
cooperation as well as such products and is inherently participatory. It is the
logic of the information technology that will give the decisive momentum to
creation of a heritage care&communication mega-profession, the one that
would both theoretically and in practice (from social contract to common
information network) present firm partner to the ruling forces of the society. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Creating visitable reserve collections is slipping again
into the museum quantitative giantism: the guilt feeling about the community is
turned into the further insight of the more specialized knowledge which,
presumably, is not indeed what the users need. Most of the museums that did the
dislocation of reserves presumed the best would be to open them to public,
creating thus the second museum and all the problems that go with it (Deutsches
Museum, Musee des Techniques, Museum of London etc.). The curious thing is that
functional link between these museums and their outposts is based upon Internet
and CD ROM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">On the contrary, the genuine innovation was loan services
which, presumably, date back to the beginning of the century only to develop in
the 60s and 70s. This happened mainly in the art museums in North America where
the tax benefits in purchasing the works of art for non profit organizations
obliged its public use. There was the specific American responsibility towards
the taxpayers which also inspired putting the art on public disposal. But
European examples were as early as in 50's, as in the case of National Museum
and Gallery of Wales. Art rental was the typical example of a structured try to
make art accessible to as many people as possible. In Canada, Gallery of Art in
Ontario had this service since 1965. "Art Bank Canada", in existence
since 1972. worked well in distributing contemporary Canadian art to any
interested party. Their reserve was a virtual museum and in early 80's 60% of
the collection was always on loan, an example that bears symbolic as well as
practical implications for the world of museums. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The participation in conservation is also possible as the
example of British National Library shows: some ten years ago, it launched a
campaign offering the books in the need of conservation for adoption. The
contribution over 200 Lbs entitled the benefactor to putting the name in the
book to mark the credit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The alternative practices favour any identification of users
with the museum medium: the sense of involvement, of museum as shared
possession, the pride of partaking in establishing and running an institution,
- that is the fertile ground for a useful museum. Thus only, the museum can
become part of living, like football match or pop concert. But the subtle art
of assuring the reasonable professional standard while giving over and stepping
down is the matter of the campaign for quality we have to launch finally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The future as it is and as it might happen</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Having "the privilege of speaking the language of the
époque" (Pirlot, 1972)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[26]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
namely the language of image, museums are entitled to profit immensely from the
upsurge of hyper-media. Properly used, it will provide for the three areas of
museum concern: extensive collecting (by adding pictorial information in
unprecedented affluence), interpretation (by providing contextual integrated
information, participation (by leaving open channels of exchange with whoever
wishes to join in). The usual collection may appropriate the compatible shape
to these new possibilities: the collections should become smaller and cheaper.
The three-dimensional, original object thus becomes a sort of golden reserve
guarantee for the value of the communicational currency issued by museum. But,
the currency can be issued elsewhere and be valid: we know that a museum can
exist without an obvious collection under its vaults. In the case of The Museum
of Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv, the collection is scattered all over the world
and will, happily enough, stay there without discrediting the museum. The
museum exposes practically no original objects at all, but the information is
original and genuine, composed to tell the story which is both attractive and
convincing. So, what matters indeed, is that museum preserves the values it was
created for. It can do it by hoarding the mass of physical remnants of some
past or by assuring that credible messages are created. When appropriated by
the majority, and integrated into their changed behaviour, they assure the
continuation and survival of the identity museum has to protect. This is the
only true cause of collecting. This all may mean that the Malraux' vision of
imaginary museum becomes possible as hyper-museum, cyber-museum or virtual
museum. The powerful vision of this honorary museologist was based on the
fascination generated by printed reproduction and its distribution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Conceptualization of collections</span></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The traditional collection claims to be the identity itself:
it stands for it and in its place. It is composed of "originals"
whereas the original is only the complex whole the individual objects made part
of. What we deal with are the bits and pieces of some former, lost reality.
Realizing that, we shall regard all possible scattered elements of the former
reality, in whatever shape they might be, as further advancement towards the
lost entity. Thus, the care we assign to a collection stored in a museum, will
gradually spread to cover things even non-existent in the physical sense,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or things which are not and will not be in
the possession of the museum. Leopold Senghor said that with any old man who dies
in Africa, an entire library passes away. This could be easily adapted to refer
to a museum lost. Any person is a rich museum of memories and filtered
experiences assembled as consequence of one's life and one's needs. Besides,
all the people literally though unconsciously set up a sort of museum of their
own. The museum idea living in any individual, as a responsible and delicate
relationship with his/hers environment, is the ideal projection of museum
mission. The hyper-media make it possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Museums and kindred institutions are created to care for the
heritage. The primary aim is not the survival of collections but the survival
of identity upon which the collection has been created. If this is so, than it
must be that more heritage is still outside museums than within them.
Therefore,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>museum collection should,
ideally, encompass everything concerning the given identity. Of course this was
and remains physically impossible. What about hyper-media? Museologically
treated, this vast configuration of objects and evidence of any sort would help
to build a virtual reserve collection of immense size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The future collecting will run along the same logic as a
good kitchen in a restaurant: a process indispensable and all-important but
behind-the-scene, - basis for the social and cultural act of food consuming.
Any good restaurant is sort of cybernetic mechanism, the corrective impulses to
the kitchen come from the happy waiters and their immediate customers. Both,
restaurant and museum offer a kind of catharsis if good enough: one to the
palate, tongue and nose, but both (specially the later) to the senses,
intellect and emotions. Yet, as victuals do not make good neither the kitchen
nor the restaurant, so the objects in the collection do not make a good museum.</span></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Creating the hyper-museum</span></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Hyper-museum vastly multiplies the ways in which information
from different fields and records can be combined and manipulated. Information
there can be retrieved or visited both as hierarchical and non-hierarchical,
sequential and non-sequential, diachronic and synchonic, pre-designed but
allowing also free flow and free-form. The interactive media, computer
manipulation of the digitalized image and creation of virtual environment,
create new possibilities in communication but also in collecting. Holography was
finally married to computer and this offers multiple chances. The latest
example of using the synthetic image is 'reconstruction' of the cave Cosquer in
France<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[27]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Most of the material from archives and museums can be transformed into numeric
memory. The hyper-museum is a flexible stage where virtual reality, human
performance and three-dimensional objects form and information space, - a
scientific theatre.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">This will not happen without new curators, artists and
engineers, - all of whom will combine their expertise with common sense and
belief in the better world. Naive as it may sound it is a claim for simple
wisdom of survival which has to fight against the fatal greed of the "mega
machine" (L.Mumford). As kitchen in a good catering, collections will have
to be adapted to very specific uses; the best ones will always be able to serve
even the individual customer to satisfy his/hers specific requirements. The
flexibility of hyper-museum might be the direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its logic, if transferred into the usual
museum practice may change the entire working process and finally help in
creating the distinctive profession.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Distribution of collections</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is no reason to believe that collectioning will cease
or slow down. The pressure of quantitative perfection is still too strong. If
it does slow down it may do so in relative terms: most of the western countries
witness the birth of two new museum mushrooms a week, a trend not likely to
stop soon. So there will be a parallel reaction of finding out alternative storage
or getting rid of the excessive mass of objects. Good intellectual engineering
would help in later dilemma, but since it would lead to de-accessioning, it is
not likely to happen. Instead of opening space for fatal mistakes and
corruption, as in the case of some American art museums, the preference will be
in "distributing" the collections while still able to control their
destiny and keeping them within reach when necessary. </span></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Re-distribution can only become possible provided the
concerned profession is united and mature. The possessive particularism has
declared complete self-sufficiency of individual institutions and sacredness of
integrity of their collections. This is defensive act deriving from feebleness
and inaptitude. It is quite possibly tre that most of the museums could reduce
their collections to the minimal size without seriously harming their value
(Glusberg, 1986)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[28]</span></span></span></span></span></a>.
Re-distrubuting the collections does not necessarily mean loosing them or
loosing their trace. The heritage is meaningful only if integrated and treated
accordingly. The museum division is unnatural and will be overcome once the
related occupation becomes the true profession. Such a profession will be able
to redistribute, to quite an extent, what is a result of occurrence and haphazardous
development. This will rationalize the acquisition policy and help both sides
of the transaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There have been and are now museums which keep part of their
collections in other institutions. The latest example of the practice one could
have learned from Match stick Museum in Jonkoping, Sweden. Much material is
placed in local schools and enjoys care the museum cannot afford. It is there
also as a token of companionship. Within the variety of public and private
institutions, there will always be willing partners to join in the effort to
preserve while profiting from prestige and utility the collections provide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Another way is inherent to the networking, sort of
solidarity in which permanent loan or exchange could ameliorate collections of
individual institutions while easing the burden of excessive collections.
Organization and tracing of such transactions may not necessarily mean
economizing in financial terms, but would spare space and bring new quality.
This exchange may overcome even the sectorial frontiers: a museum lending part
of the collection to an archive and vice versa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">An informatic retrieval and control of dispersed collections
could easily calm the fear of losses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">A heresy would even have it further along the proposed
logic: would it be, indeed, inconceivable to involve also private persons
willing to adopt and care for certain number of museum objects. The choices and
the risks could be graded successfully. The psychological and ethical value of
this would be immense and would, in spite of risks, affiliate people to museum
with all the good effects it may bring. No thinking or risk is wrong which aims
at giving back to life what we have taken from it. One has to bear in mind that
the alternative to this thinking is very uncertain future of museums suffocated
by the mass of objects, decay of collections and, at best, their infinite
imprisonment in the darkness of storages. Of course, museum profession has to
get rid of its perfectionism (which wasn't ever that perfect as claimed), be it
conservation or risk. The proclaimed perfectionism is barrier to corruption,
but it also keeps away the life logic and lot of common sense waiting for too
long in front of the doors of museums and conservation laboratories. </span></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Collections for the evidence in cybernetic heritage action</span></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Many museums will turn into corrective mechanism of the
contemporary society<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn29;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[29]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
as one of the means for fighting the rising entropy. The term of sustained
development, already spent by pretenders on all sides, is an old new call for
wisdom in producing change and exploiting the resources. The level of
aggression is such that we need to employ existing institutions and create
others to take over some responsibility for corrective action. We need a
reaction aimed at achieving the balance and harmony so much present in any
sane, healthy organism. This is a rather naive hope, but there is practically
no way for museums and similar institutions to escape from their
responsibility. What museums have in their storages is not only a powerful
resource of knowledge but, taken as it should be, a filtered, selected human
experience which has to reach the quality of wisdom. Any other position will be
most difficult to defend. Producers of knowledge today are many and more
powerful than museums, but wisdom in a communicational medium like museums is
rare and precious. Any sound reasoning would suggest that understanding becomes
possible when connected to abstracting and subliming and is slowed or barred by
over-accumulation: "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain
wisdom, remove things every day" (Lao Tse). </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">In constant research of past experience, museums can furnish
perfect examples of material evidence in almost any dilemma that we face today.
Museum must be a forum and a tool of democratic dialogue. Museums ought to
participate in the everyday battle for sane solutions against the ongoing
devastation of the social, cultural, civilizational or natural environment. To
do differently and claim a distinctive role in society would be a mere
demagogy. The estimate is that a thousand living species disappear every year.
If systems like ISIS register these changes and establish data and blood banks
to keep trace of the disappearing variety, we need an action to slow down the
process. The same process is on in the cultural sphere where the loss of
languages, customs, oral traditions, and richness of other differences is
catastrophic. In both cases, museums should establish collections that would
reflect the drama. In the particular sense of evidence, museum collection must
be formed to anticipate the communicational usage which aims at stirring up the
minds of many and creating upsurge of public opinion. Unless the taxpayers of
tomorrow see such an obvious use of the collecting and actions that follow,
they will divert their support to more awarding gain. In the tightening space,
- financial, informatic, social, - the traditional museum arguments lose
ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Pulsation of the heritage sector</span></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There are three basic functions of museum: Collectioning,
Research, Communication. These three parts are subject to the consequences of
excessive growth. Once important enough, they have a natural tendency to
separate and form an independent existence. This was quite obvious some ten
years ago. But even before the tendency was there: dislocated storages,
exhibition centres and different institutes and centres that take over the
research. Increase of stored objects and decrease of those exposed in galleries
created the frustrative giantism and ataxia: it is centrifugal tendency that is
permanently there and will produce further separated institutions. But there is
also the centripetal tendency which is trying to keep the liaison among the
parts, sort of virtual museum, or hyper-museum if it attains the effectiveness.
This force is based upon the same logic which kept museums together before,
helped nowadays by the mighty integrative nature of informatics. This
informatic gravity will help to create the future, - heritage care profession.
Both tendencies are simultaneous as centralization is good if it is matched by
de-centralization and vice-versa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Recycling of objects<span> </span>- one among the
possibilities</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is this minor, rarely mentioned possibility as well as
practice<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn30;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[30]</span></span></span></span></span></a>,
which is related to collectioning through preservation, care and informatic
processing. There is a slight chance any institution could fight the aggressive
commodization and consumerism. We dispose off with objects (and ideas, by the
way) that are not given a chance, that were not fully used, exploited to their
implied maximum. Museums of the future should offer active help in repairing
objects for the prolonged use. Not any, but those which count and make sense as
material substance of continuation. Helping to save objects in use is the
wonderful paradigm of basic frustration that created, first collections and
then museums. The workshop, as one form of it, is true occasion of "I do
and (then) I understand", a perfect meeting point of the expert and
laymen, a departure point of a venture which produces an interested, reliable
visitor, not an obedient cultural snob.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It is often one thing to impress the fellow professionals
and quite another to impress that far more important jury, - the customer. One
starts to wonder, though, how long will it take before our customers start
telling us about how really bad (or maybe just useless) we are. Or will they
just walk away?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br clear="all" /></span>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Wilcox, U.Vincent. 1995. Detached storage: the Smithsonian Institution's museum
support centre, Museum International, 188 (vol.47, No. 4), p. 22</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
"A great memory does not make<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature", Cardinal John
Henry Newman</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
[ola, Tomislav. Beyond the sharing of knowledge; an introduction to quality in
museums. A paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Museum Association
of Canada: Sharing the knowledge, 1995.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Thomson, John(ed). 199?. Manual of Curatorship. A guide to museum
practice,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Butterworths.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Mendis, Eustache. Museums and the bew technology. Proceedings of Annual
Conference of Museums Association of Australia, Sydney, Oct. 1980.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Dana, John Cotton. A Plan for a New Museum. The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock,
Vermont, 1920.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Kenneth Hudson often said that when lecturing to international audiences; of
course neither him nor me could take any "laws" seriously, but this
theses seems the nearest to one.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[8]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wilson, J.Tuzo, in: Whitman, John. More
Buttons Buzzers and Bells. Museum News, Washington, Sept/Oct 1978. p. 47</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sola, Tomislav. ..................... in:
Museums 2000, Museums Association, UK, 198?</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn10" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[10]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Jaoul, Martine. 1995. Why reserve collections? Museum International, 188,
vol.47, No.4</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[11]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>words of the president of the Conservation
Committee at the occassion of the !5. General Conference of ICOM, The Hague,
Netherlands, 1989.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn12" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[12]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
MacDonald, George F. L' avenir des musees dans le village global. 198? Museum,
No 155, p.214</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[13]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Lord, Barry; Dexter, Gail; Nicks, John. 1989. The Cost of Collecting;
Collection Management in UK Museums</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[14]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
idem</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[15]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Heath, Alison M. 1977. The training of Education Officers; in: Museum education
training. A conference of the Museum Education Association of Australia, Sidney,
Australia, pp. 5 - 9 </span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[16]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Alexander, Edward P. 1979. Museums in Motion. An introduction to history and
functions of museums. AASHL, Nashwille. p.119</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[17]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Lewis, Geoffrey, from his lecture at the Commonwealth Institute, International
seminar "Museums in Education", 1982.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn18" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[18]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Marsh, Georg Perkins. Man and Nature, 1864</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[19]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Mumford, Lewis. 1986. Mit o ma{ini. Zagreb</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn20" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[20]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Cossons, Neil., 1991. The Museums Profession. edited by Gaynor Kavanagh,
Leicester University Press. p. 24</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn21" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[21]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Sola, Tomislav, lecture "Museum centres - corner stones of ...
Rikstutstalningar, Stockholm</span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
initiative for "central storage" for the museums of Zagreb, first
proposed in 1982. </span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"Slovenianum" the project of a new, central slovenian museum
institution, .... Ljubljana........</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn22" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[22]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Ferriot, Dominique. 1995. Museum Reserve Collections. Museum International, 188
vol.47. No 4/728/35</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn23" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[23]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Dana, John Cotton. 1920. A plan for a New Museum, Elm Tree Press, Vermont</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn24" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[24]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Ludvigsen, Peter. 1995. A Workers' Museum in Copenhagen. Museum International,
188, vol 47, No 4, p.41</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn25" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[25]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Sola, Tomislav. 1995. How Museology perceives information technology. Commet
Conference, Swansea/Barcelona, 1995.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn26" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[26]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Pirlot, Constantine (ed.). 1972. Musee, Film, Television. ICOM, Paris. p.13</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn27" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[27]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
The project was presented at the manifestation Imagina 1996.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn28" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[28]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Glusberg, Jorge. Hladni i vru}i muzej, Zagreb, 1986. p.36</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn29" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn29;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[29]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Sola, Tomislav. The prologue to the cybernetic museum, a paper presented at the
conference: Museums and the sustainable development 199?.....</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn30" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8258863753392634698#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn30;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">[30]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
Sola, Tomislav. Slovenianum, Ljubljana; a project for an alternative national
museum;</span></div>
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Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-10110777969982995462012-11-22T06:30:00.000-08:002012-11-22T06:31:41.270-08:00The impact of globalisation on museum communications<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Introduction</b><br /><br />There is one part of marketing that will always be some theory of heritage, - not museology, by the way. Heritology, maybe. It will have to help in defining the changing nature of our job so that we always know in which business we are in. It will be crucial in defining the changing nature of our product, or indeed, teach us the complexity of our product. One thing which no theory of ours will be able to ignore, is knowing the world we live in and we have to serve: the context will always be decisive for our functioning. I therefore think that understanding the globalisation is the must. Marketing is by definition an exchange, and communication is two way process, - therefore the same exchange, if we talk about the heritage care. <br /><br />Well, we are not. The advanced architectural and technological disguise, helped to create the impression we all know how to act in the changed circumstances. How many among us understand globalisation? Do not judge the profession by own self. In brief, not many. <br /><br />The eighties were talking about entropy as deterioration and disappearance of richness by reducing variety and creating the loss expressed in the amount of chaos. That is globalisation also. But globalisation is not what McLuhan predicted as «global village» Unlike his «village», this structure is hierarchical though multi-centred. The great change again struck us, but as recognition of the continuous process it represents.<br /><br />Globalisation is pulsating change in constant fragmentation and uniformity. The reality we used to know is being transcended, overcome and conceptualised. Globalisation is, some say rightfully (Schaerer), the process we have been exposed for at least 500 years. Discovery of America or that of the passage to East Indies was some of many examples of the shrinking world. Yet, the globalisation as recognisable omnivorous process, as «simultaneous happening» (McLuhan), everywhere and all the time, is the new state of this managed world. Having got to the stage, globalisation became a challenge to anything local and separate, a challenge of creating the global identity. Heritage institutions were always about something specific and particular. In a sense, they are so to say, natural enemies to globalising processes. And that, taken as ultimate position, would be rather short-sighted as globalized world is reality. So, we shall have to function in the context where some mechanisms will analyse, promote, affirm and propose, even aggressively, the values of the unified world. Like in anything, there are good and bad things about this new state. <br /><br /><b>Good about the globalisation</b><br /><br />...or at least what might be the outcome of it. One world should mean no wars fought, and yet, we know that unilateral world brought wars of a very mean nature: those proposed and promoted by the profit mongers.<br /><br />Globalisation should also mean the perfect communication. True, we have amazing tools for it at our disposal. Be it electronic or traffic, we are advanced but it seems neither efficient nor fast enough for the new needs created by globalising world. The new means didn't, surprisingly, bring the better understanding neither of the world nor among people. It actually revealed that quality, like in museum job, lies elsewhere. <br /><br />It may be true that globalisation brings better opportunity for planning. Yet it does not against the odds. It should guarantee the stability of systems, but we seem to be shaken all the time. <br /><br />The truth may be that we manage standardization magnificently and we circulate better than ever. Yet, standardization is the sad side of any mass production and certainly an illness when applied in the fields traditionally coloured by cultural specificity. The circulation concerns the goods and capital, not so much the people, especially some people. Their frontiers are opened only one way for them but let the capital gains flow out easier then ever. <br /><br />When globalisation brings cosmopolitan flavour to the culture, it is god, but when it brings non-culture, then it is a pest. The first is building bridges, always in dialogue with the local while the second is making it all even like a steam roller. <br /><br />The businesses became very soft and omnipresent so we may recognise their new role of generating culture. This is not culture, - it is an imitation, - standardized, prêt-a-porter, changeable and measurable, with price tag and code bar. Only living culture can «reproduce», or an art can produce it, or even museums can, though to only an extent and not all of them. <br /><br />One of the buzzwords of the present is freedom. The buzz-word is usually misunderstood or represents some hidden intentions. Deregulation is often taken as the synonym of freedom, but most often it is simple absence of (stable) rules. The freedom of choice, so much praised nowadays, is seemingly the choice of goods in the «global supermarket» (Bar/914/120) than life in the options: the choice of the same at the same price, similar gaudy packaging of presumably same quality (or lack of it). <br />On the other hand, people were given the seeming responsibility about the consequences. Socializing the responsibility, the profit only became bigger. Usually, these responsibilities were largely taken up by the institutions of common welfare. With the weakening state and institutions fighting for survival, the people are left alone. Scared. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Deregulation brings insecurity and unstableness. Unprepared for responsibility, left helpless by their institutions and welfare state, the ordinary people are easily manipulated. What they always need is easily known: security (of the group or the system), final answers, and clear definitions. Frightened and politically illiterate, they easily grant the mandate to business, politics, religious institutions or self organized groups.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><b>The Greed as credo</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Globalisation is not about America, it is about corporations in spite the fact that most are in the States. Any corporation is about greed and will extend as far as it can reach. The world is being changed to suit their goals. Their Boards are the new global structure of power bringing the unknown totalitarian rule. So, in fact, the mightiest state of the world is itself their puppet. <br />The ways are subtle and many. Local agents are always the handy tool: they know the fortress from within and hand out the key. They help in an effective corruption.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Politicians, especially in the poorer part of the Planet the natural pray of any bribery and easy to project false perspectives, illusory investments, or manipulated statistics. <br />There is also the greed in almost any human being, which, if under control, can be perfectly exploited for business purposes. Curiously enough this greedy dream is called «American dream» which is a cynical fact when we think of so many, hard-working Americans of modest wealth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The egalitarian philosophy of the «free World» forbidding the politically or the racially incorrect joke is covering the rude reality in which the only inequality that is rising is that one between the rich and the poor: what was difference before now became the drama of starvation. What the poor produce of quality be it raw materials or final products, is extracted from them through the blackmail of they poverty and provoked needs, so that they can obtain genetically manipulated food, overpriced pharmaceutical products or other consumerist goods of doubtful quality and price.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />In some imaginable circumstances of an honest world, globalisation might have been he name for the global brotherhood, even competitive one, but not the one where one can purchase the right to pollution or attack other country because of the market potential. Instead, it became the looting campaign.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The Orwellian prediction might have come to reality: thought crime is possible through the Internet surveillance, Thought police can be created by anyone powerful enough to assure the access, and Ministries of Truth are the new media empires. <br />There's one problem more: there seems no chance that young generations can attach themselves to any obvious idealist challenge. The ultimate egocentrism wrapped in the colours of the winning team seems to be the only way, and the hatred towards all the others the motivation mood guaranteeing the victory. We re witnessing the appearance of the loosing winner generations: winners by aggressive mentality and the losers by the vanity of their futile egocentrism. This is why family or compassion represents no values to them. <br /><br /><b>Why are we fighting for survival instead for our societal mission?</b><br /><br />The fearful world is the world of manipulation. Enemies are everywhere. If there are no enemies they have to be created. The world without them would be all citizens' initiative and kindergarten atmosphere. Therefore, as Chomsky claims, one half of every tax dollar goes into the military budget. Once there, we loose trace for which purpose it is used. What proportion of it goes into crating or supporting the enemies? The simple mechanism of this impoverishment is done simply by the excessive privatization. Not far from now the natural resources always comprised as common inheritance will be privatized and on sale. Ultimately, the air we breath. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The modern state became the hostage to the corporative world masters. The weak state is also less glory of governing, less importance in history, less and less motives to stand against the insatiable private greed.....The state become a milking cow for socializing the consequences of mismanagement, losses at the market, or for assuring disguised extra profits. The state thus stops being the frame of societal welfare but becomes the extended hand of corporations inserted into the pockets of the innumerable taxpayers. Thus the state takes part in the logic opposite to what is the logic of citizens' state: privatized economy and privatized resources care only about the profit no matter at what price provided that it is paid by the citizens.<br />The state is finally dying out, though not to make place to the non-hierarchical community of free association based upon interest for common good, to enhance creativity and the freedom, - but to make still more place for the dangerous oligarchies. The weak state, able to care for itself and function as the interface between the interests of corporative business and the needy citizens is the caricature of whatever the welfare state was supposed to be. The endless interchange of the politicians and parties of no power and no creed seems to be the fate o the globalized societies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Heritage institutions are directed towards the market to save their vitality and to earn their living. The state may provide the seed money but the societal project is the matter of past. Humanist cybernetics as a chance to enter culture into the developmental decision making is further than before. Simply, it costs money and the poor state is having less and less. It lacks its own resources. So, we need sponsor and patrons and they extend their help only as the soft form of trade: an exchange in which those with money dictate the terms.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Marketing is pointed out as the magical technology of management able to provide shortcuts. It is usually understood as a shrewd skill, devilish ability for selling, as an art of contacts which when right and high enough, pour in money in successful fundraising. Marketing is all but that. Understood correctly it is only the ability to create quality product, and the technique of proposing it to the users. So, where is the problem? The mission driven activity is not the first choice of the corporative sponsors. Only the state concerned with the common good can see the interest in financing what may be interesting and fruitful only in the long run. Besides, the programme of such cultural institutions may harm the interests of the corporative business and the corrupt politicians so the result is poverty and compromise. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />When losing the patience, the business is creating its own cultural institutions. The, alas, look very similar to the «real» ones, only they use their activity to promote the interests of the owner. The time of Great Penitents when robber barons were squeezing out of themselves the humanist need for philanthropy (this time, however, trading it for the ticket for eternity) are gone by. The pretension is left to the diminishing class of politicians. By the way, others must have perceived the fact that the world is not allowed to have any statesmen anymore: they are not allowed. Instead, we are granted the privilege to choose the grotesque clowns and poor actors to represent us. This is called free, democratic elections. If any one makes way through the barriers he is simply killed. Made historical waste, the person can be re-used for the creation of more conflicts and enemies as the death is planned to produce the side effects so handy to blur the vision o the voters. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The illusion of the freedom to chose is called democracy and to make it possible, the proliferation of the Orwellian «newspeak» and cynical calls for human rights, rights of animals and environment protection is made everyday media theatre. This shallow illusionist stage is there to cover the real happening. Ha! Another plot theory! Whichever way one may call it, the show goes on legitimizing the rule and turning the attention from the real happening. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Now, of course, on asks what kind of Museology is that? None, to tell the truth. It is probably the Heritology, as a theory that could teach us what to do to make our past teach us wisdom of survival. It may remind us of the general ambition of all religions that we want to resemble the Absolute Good, the Supreme Being, or simply approach the Perfection as far as we can get. Why on Earth would we amass such a quantity of evidence about our environment about our predecessors and past experiences if not for some higher goal than the mere knowledge? Knowledge as the proclaimed goal got us where we are: facing the extinction. Knowledge needs noble purpose to be usable and effective.<br /> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The barbarisation of the world</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The obsessive determination with aims and goals, with achievements and accomplishments transformed the western people into power machines. It is the prevalence of force and aggression as acceptable behaviour evaluated as positive if the set objectives are achieved. Nothing is left to nature voluntarily: the managed world becomes total engineering, from the cell structure and conception of human beings to other interventions into natural order. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The ultimate goal of frivolous human nature has always been achieving the eternal life, - and idea futile as ever and yet seemingly closer than ever. Immersed into their science, knowledge production and education, museums did not perceive that they were an exposed outpost of this ambition. Too much in them was done towards self........... , prestige and strive for eternity. They missed the true chance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The world of today and tomorrow seems to be determined by lack of freedom (as mankind is transformed into the mass of anonymous voting spenders), by the great uncertainty and anxiety (as nothing will remain stable and secure), of false affluence and abundance (with miserable quality of life and products) and of instant, custom produced «culture». </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The globalized world turns education into business so it devalues the public schooling: it is ruining the business. The same happens with public health institutions. What remains of both is beyond description and is used by the socially ruined poverty stricken groups and individuals. One may wander, why it was that museums as still another institution of common good has been spared. Part of the answer would be that we are not that obvious prey, but it could also be another question. Are you really sure we are not already suffocating in the embrace of our business sponsors, while the hug is euphemistically perceived as entrepreneurial idile?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Deprived of security and idealist quality education, the population is turned into the global «community of consumers» with no differences between them (Daniel Boorstin), betrayed by the intellectuals, politicians, and religious institutions, and abandoned by the social institutions, - people are turning into the «civilization of the unrestrained» (Claude Levi Strauss). The spirit of the globalised world gives them legitimacy and the selfish attitude of no obligation to anybody or anything but oneself, spreads like a plague. The space is lit by neon and decorated by plastic and lights, but outside this public illusion is the gloom. The life becomes shorter by becoming longer (Qui habet tempus habet vitam), and the forced happiness become psychotic frustration. With so much on disposal, modern man lacks content more than ever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The post-modern slogan «anything goes» probably meant as freedom of expression (so creatively used by the modern avant-gardes in arts) actually gave legitimacy to dilettantes, it raised the risk, and deteriorated culture beyond recover. Culture has always been a set of rules and discipline, certain specific coherence of relation among the sharers of the same pattern, their relation to others and to the environment. No culture can exist without main ingredients of wisdom: moral, modesty, compassion, need for beauty, and respect for nature and living beings and responsibility for posterity. The later is expressed in the eternal dream of leaving behind oneself the better world, one that was earned by intentional strive for it. <br />Once that living quality is shattered or lost, all we could do is to mourn it in our museums or specialised media broadcasts, or we can just turn its remains into the goods and produce the plastics casts engineered to suit the taste of our customers or our new market formula. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The life of no rules my well be perceived as correct if we take that globalist posture: yet, good behaviour, as part of individual or group culture was a way of making distinctions and evaluating: language and manners would tell much in any contact. Without criteria we merge into relativism and voluntarism that make all things and persons the same: anything goes! The States seem to be the natural departure point of this global trend: itself a composition where only the common denominator guaranteed peaceful cohabitation of previous difference. The States were also the first polygon of globalising forces so its huge territory was the best rehearsal for the global show. This protrusion of culture-sphere that happened there much like the ozone holes appeared later on, started to spread all over the world. This disculturation of the world is not the fault of American people, though any mention of The States in this context is usually channelled into this imposed/supposed intolerance. <br />Displaced and delocalized beings are a natural prey for depersonalisation and manipulation. Ironically, the today's society is often called «the cultural society» but the only way it could justify the name is by understanding culture generically: as something cultivated, raised and made for the time and circumstances: the made up culture. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Making profit in cultural industries is necessarily dealing with customized, standardized and measurable product for the biggest possible public. Profit also spends the products and years for the innovation: hence the proliferation of «creators» and styles, of fashions and trends... Profit spends the culture it exploits like intensive fishing deserts the sea. Often irreversibly so that culture never recovers. The cultivated Maecenas and aristocracy of taste are gone and the welfare state is disappearing too. The cultivated public is rare and has little power to stop the disintegrative processes. The traditional culture and its coherent changes are thus devalued and depreciated, often as not sufficiently attractive for the spoiled market. The genuine individual creativity is suppressed to make place for «information jugglers» (Jean Claire) who create following the orders of gallerists, editors, cultural managers and media experts. The obsessive innovation must end in pretension, shock and excess. Even serious art experts, many of them knowledgeable curators are forced to support the atrocities sold as art, - of which only the most illustrative example is the exhibition of Guenther von Hagen «Body Worlds». He overdid it, it seems, by exposing taxidermized dead human bodies, but many others shock us by similar exhibitions of morbid or necrophile art products. The machine for production of human excrements, exposed first in NY ..........Gallery, was a good example. The elitist culture of today is like genuine cultural tradition: in books, museums, rare connoisseur circles or rare remaining oasis. What is playing the role of elitism, as proposed by media and other business, is little more than crazy cocktail of fancy ingredients. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Paradoxically, the Right (in defending its totalitarian position) is often taking strong stand on these matters and getting more attention than it would deserve by its general attitude. It is sad that nationalism and chauvinism are often making a clearer protest than the others. It is curious how non-culture state is s sort of totalitarian concept. The slavery today is not expressed in shackles, but with a strive of the power holders to move into the heads of their customers; this way they have it all: money, votes, social obedience, political sluggishness... Therefore, the traces of individual or collective personality can only be an obstacle. Yet, one has to make clear: the culture that resembles the tradition, or that plays its role continues to exist as folklore: again so much adjusted to the needs of market, specially of the tourism industry, that it can be realively well exploited. It is a sort of manipulated musealisation. The culture that is not lived is simply a dead culture and not culture at all. It is an evidence of its (former) existence. <br />Like no traffic is possible without the rules, so no culture can exist without, at least, referring to them. When all you have, all you can think and all you should imagine comes from TV and market mall, many start to dream their own dreams. The alternative culture or the culture of subgroups, the micro-cultures and even individual cultures are an obvious reaction to this process. An alternative cultural movement is playing by the rules, although is usually product of some protest or opposition. True, many of these are constructs, assemblages and compositions, but their creation is legitimate and driven by mere necessity for self expression and security that any distinctive personalisation brings. The mass is not the natural state of human nature, but this spontaneous protest is not neutralising the globalised non-culture state.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The business has the final word here too: appropriating the outer appearance of these cultures, devouring their individualism and originality by surrounding them with surrogates and fakes, by media misuse of their protagonists. Yet, the process is seemingly restarted with mutations and the culture, born out of trouble, is born anew. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Can heritage institutions do something to save the culture?<br />They should be able to do much. This is their primary role. Museum is not the house of objects but a house of ideas and concepts. Collections, scholarship and presentation are paramount but still only the means for the mission museums have to accomplish. That one is at the very end of the list of the long working process though, but can simply be described as continuation of values. What is recognised to be of value and need, will be documented, researched, protected, conserved and communicated, - in order to live on, in one way or another. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">2003</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-75665155558916534082012-11-16T04:34:00.003-08:002012-11-16T04:34:56.820-08:00From vanity and knowledge to wisdom<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>..or collecting for communication and development</b><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The modern state is driven to a state of ruthless tax-man financing the corporations who otherwise would not give to citizens the minimal care in what were once public institutions and services. The weak state is the end of non-profit sector able and willing to care for the common good. Corporations cannot and will not finance the non-profit initiatives of organised citizens. When doing so, their money is Troyan horse meant for destruction of the purpose. When the European model of de-etatization of museums turns curators more to the users, the museum teams will be those organised citizens. <br /><br />If museums are to suffer the privatization and weakening state, there will rest no curator brave or wise enough to chase the vanity out of his or her museum, no matter in what disguise it may be hidden in storage rooms and galleries. The interests other than scientifically supported solutions to the vanishing Quality of life would prevail. National myths, political manipulation, greed, stupidity, and unscrupulous ignorance for whatever is happening around would govern the institution of collective memory. The beauty and values would then be shown as dead fossils, not meant to feed the everyday reality of the population with their beneficial effects.<br /><br />The possession of past, like that of might (the former is part of the later, isn't it?) makes the political Right and the right to power so much more the possibility. Using our collections for that is a manipulation clad in the prestige of the never achieved profession. The bursting storages need to be emptied and the lies and manipulation purged to conform with facts and feelings we have. Globalized world is using museums again against internationalism. The rightist fragmentation finds its expression in museums. Instead of building the solidary mankind of equals, be it in chances or the value of their cultures and identities, museums become false bastions of local or national identity: exclusive and segregationist. This corrupted mind is then naturally turned into the hands of Corporative masters. Collecting, always regarded as the basic function of museums (and heritage institutions) needs to be questioned and re-defined.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Vanity</b><br /><br />Popes, prelats, emperors, dukes, princes, barrons (the usual and the robber ones), rich eccentrics in the scientific disguise, all of them created collections as the extension of their ego. They wanted to augment their importance, real or fake, and insisted that the collections bear their names and become protected by the authority of state and its official institutions. Thus their ego was incrusted in the collective ego and memory and secured for them a tombstone in most cases the very same state erected in the physicality of a museum to house their collections. A good deal before death ar after death assuring the life in the collective memory. Thus the museums washed their biographies stained with blood and sweat of others (who, as taxpayers paid for the edifices of their museums. Rare and precious exceptions were those who denied their name to be used or those who even donated means to build the premises for the collections. Many others, little known to us as their sin of vanity was smaller and who had less money and power repented by turning their vanity into the public good and shared their wealth at least when they were gone. <br /><br />Many a collection is more a portrait of the collectioner or its social and ideological context than of some scientific picture of the world and its facets. Most of the collections or agglomerations of collections as found in some museums are entirely haphazardous. The resulting museums were museums of collections. Therefore, when a museum curator today says that his task is to present a collection, in most cases it is exactly the contrary of of the job to be done. A regional museum should simply tell the story of the identity of the region and contribute in all possible ways to self knowing, sel-esteem of the community. The collection of such a museum can just be a picture of the institutional circumstances, indeed a collection of fragments that never fit to offer any usable picture let alone a story of the local identity.<br /><br />To believe that only physical substance can convey knowledge and ideas is little away from Swift's Grand Academy of Lagado where people are taught to "speak" only by showing objects for words . The empty shells, almost corpses of some bursting reality of past are a sad memento but not the memory itself: Museums must conceptualize: one obvious way is information technology and the other is that they become the houses of ideas and not of objects. The object is not a sin, it maybe a fetish, but at best it is means to an aim beyond.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Knowledge<br /><br />or, is the Knowledge society still the ideal? It may be the state we live in, but only self-concerned intellectuals claim that. Judged as whole we should have more right to claim that we live in Era of Greed, the non-ideological society of unipolar world, a global suparmarket or the new collonialism, or even the The Dictature of corporations. So the knowledge society is trying to say that some intelectuals believed shortightedly that the mere quantity of information composed into the masses of knowledge will save us. <br /><br /><b>The change…</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />The humanist cybernetics may clearly suggest that entire heritage sector is a part of regulative, steering mechanisms of processes in the society, a sort of guiding sub-system . Culture is some sort of conscience of science . If it does not assume the role of adaptive and corrective mechanism we shall end up barbarization. Excessive consumerism and commodification of the world will reduce culture to sets of patterns that can be manipulated (like faces on the computer screen) to suit the changing needs of the market. Therefore, the collections should be formed and used the way they can help us to accomplish our mission. <br /><br />Any system of guidance should invent the best possible answers to the challenges that change imposes. We must have the answers as otherwise we shall become the part of the problem instead of solution. <br /><br />Needless to say, the relevance is either obtained by manipulation or fear (when about the usurped Owners of the world) or by respect. Those who give consolation and offer solutions, uninterested by selfish motives, mission- driven not the profit driven, will have the influence and importance. That is the best receipt for the well visited museum. It is surely not only the sensational collection, let alone the sensational exhibition. The numbers they achieve are not quality supported. <br /><br />Change has imposed itself as the driving force of the contemporary society. Its reckless, ever increasing speed is the monster to which we have to sacrifice more and more of our dear privileges of Quality life. The living culture is being challenged as useless and unpracticall. In general terms, it is offered the role of a court jester or the cultural purveyor of by appointment to the Corporations: cultural or visitor attractions, cultural and heritage industry, and alike are the forerunners of the new era in which culture will be a decoration and package for the ruthless world of the uncontrolled Change. The Change is just another name for drama of it. Nobody dares to call it Progress any more. But, all seem to claim that the Change has got but a increasing speed and no brakes. I like to believe that, having been created by men it might have all we can decide upon it. The dictate of Change is the myth defended by Fear: if you oppose it you will lose the job and will not be able to pay your debts, your kids will not be able to attend the private school and will be deprived of luxury goods suggested as the must by the media Big Brother.<br /><br />Modern theory of heritage should offer answers in the sense of managing the Change so that the profession(s) should be able to adjust to it and to produce its own response in the name of the users.<br /><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>….and the culture</b><br /><br />Living culture being "somewhat a conscience of science" means that it is essential for survival. Yet, the post-modern sensibility helped to create a false conviction of "anything goes" which was, maybe, a most serious attack upon system of positive values as inherited from the traditions. To make this possible, The Society of Change created museums as a place to put culture in and then create it the way preferred. So, if all is possible and legitimate why bother to defend anything? Of course, one should be against "paseotropism" in concepts and in institutions, but culture was always set of rules and criteria. Even the betrayal depended upon knowing and respecting the importance of the criteria. The relativisation of moral, aesthetic and societal values is most dangerous process. If anything, museums are there to collect, document, research, care and communicate the patrimony of values sometimes for the sake of awareness and sometimes for the sake of direct continuation. Any of these starts with collecting.<br /><br />We often hear a syntagm of "Cultural society". Is it a proclaimed goal, wishful thinking or a reminder? We can only see the barbarisation of the worl through the excessive uglification. This is done by the commodification in which process Culture is seen as the only remaining continent to be conquered (there still one, but I would rather keep silent about it). Anyhow, the Greed is there to transform the culture into goods. Any good is standardized, packaged, "refined" in the process of branding and can be transferred, manipulated, changed, adjusted or simply thrown away. Like any other disposable goods. To be ideally manipulable, the culture is first anesthesied and then euthanized. Most of the conventional museums take part in that process. I believe unconsciously. And I believe I know why, at that. <br /><br />Some may feel that the traditional values fall but culture is still there. The value system is the very heart of a culture, so when economy and politics (has there ever been any difference between the two?) attack the value system, the culture becomes a ghost: an empty shell, a stuffed tiger in museum, an empty wire mannequin with traditional national costume on it. Of course, we cannot live like our fathers, but our development can stem from their positive values. The sensibility and awarness for whatever there is as the distinctive value system, must be known, estimated and shared. <br /><br />A living culture cannot destroy its environment and claim it is living and post-historical. We are apt to have learned all from the tradition and the mistakes committed. Only culture can protect us from the destructive effects of the forces of change. It is there to moderate change, to control it, correct it and contribute to the balanced, harmonious development. The sustainable one, the one we can handle without becoming its slaves or victims. Museums are one of the most effective cultural means to guide and steer any society. <br /><br /><b>Re-definitions of collectioning</b><br />Ever since "The cost of collecting" was published, the discussion about the innocence of collecting of which the responsibility was impenetrable in the sphere of science . The limits of physical growth and financial limits of the resources came too close. Therefore, the redefinition again had some more arguments to be undertaken. Yet, it goes slowly in the profession that is still in formation .<br /><br />We can redefine the notion of collection socially, as collections should not be conceived to reflect the value system solely of to the higher classes. It is redefined The political redefinition is done as collectioning becomes the tool with democratic implications. <br /><br />We re-define collectioning by its form as it may be physical or virtual, and we do not see it solely connected to the institutional world of museums. A collection can exist concentrated or dispersed as long as it is regarded as a whole. And also, a collection is hardly ever a value in itself, but a means and medium for goals outside its own physical existence. <br /><br />Re-defined conceptually, a collection may strive towards product or process; it may prefer object or concept beyond it. The process of conceptualisation is omnipresent, as a tendency of denying the primacy to the physical substance, be it in financial transactions or heritage protection and care. Collectioning may rely upon different understanding of what past, history or heritage is. It may comprise that past is distant or, as St. Augustin would understand it, anything that happened the very moment ago. It may suffer from "linearist" and causal understanding of history and try to appropriate structure that would illustrate this understanding. <br /><br />The notion of ownership is also changing as curators are now less convinced when saying "my collection". The fact of any public collection surpasses any individual commitment and significance: persons and organisational forms dealing with collections may change, hopefully only to support the effective use of collections as the public good. <br /><br />The documentary value of the collection entity now has to shift into the informatic sphere. There you can easily, cheply and briskly unite any whole you wish: the one that existed and the one that might have existed. We are still slaves to the former in our working environment whereas the tasks we are supposed to perform are defined but the world different to the one mirrored ny the character of the collection. It is hardly ever that we will present the collection for the sake of it. We may though. But, most of the others are there for the reasons beyond it or even above it: I mean beyond its immediate meaning and above its materiality. <br /><br />With rising education and wealth, at least in the prosperous West, there happens a certain "deprofessionalisation" of collecting. If public wealth in collections is estimated by the potential of network that can be established and that includes private collectors, the collecting acquires a new dimension. Imagine a quantity of agreements with private collectioners who would consent to lend their objects for any museum exhibition. In fact the huge system would consist of scattered quantity of small and not so small storages. Organised in such a way, this network would enable economies and would help the quality of potential for exhibiting. Many collections would be able to stay in situ, where they play certain importan local role. Therefore, a certain cultural action from the part of museums and other similar heritage institutions should be aimed at promoting collectioning and securing this resource. <br /><br />The idea of science as the underlying basis of any collection is stable but constantly coloured by the changing society and the changing museums. Science is understood as inevitable part of procedure in making or maintaining the collection, but is the means not objective of the collection. <br /><br />It would, maybe, serve good purpose (at least by provocation) to say that the best collection possible is the living one, in situ, - the one still used. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><b>Is collectioning a creative act?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />It was not considered as such. In transforming the reality of past into the reality of a museum the process of collecting seemed to the most exact one. It was the case until museum was perceived as communicational business. When scientific interest was the decisive illustrating the encyclopaedia by collected items was the way to perfection. Second to this was collecting as much as possible to reduce the risk. It is the fact of collections reaching the limits of physical growth and the suspicious auditors of the impoverished state, which create additional the pressure for change. When space and money are scarce, even pragmatists listen to "museological" advice. The solution is not very simple, but leads to redefinition of collecting: selection in function of the mission envisaged, plus solidarity of institutions, building of profession and education of the users. <br /><br />Collectioning is a creative act and therefore implies responsibility and ethical choice. Maybe we shall have to go back to primary inspiration and see where we made mistakes. Maybe the museums who never buy but receive gifts from their community are the ones that have retained this inspiration alive? <br /><br />The reformed museum, in which the two processes of musealisation and communication are equally important, should be understood as the creative business. We are in constant effort of shaping the collective memory to suit our needs. It works similarly to our individual brain. No decission or action is created before our past experiences are scanned: the lag is the space of our "collection" being inspected and checked. As still human beings, we create it according to our intellectual , emotional, social capacities and personal experiences. In some cases, the artistic or even geniously creative outcome in some sensitive individuals only demonstrates the state of us all. The only way a museum or heritage institution can wrap up its entire performance (the scientific responsibility understood) is by treating it as creative, para-artistic communication.<br /><br />Science and technology will always create change and will insist upon their aloof lack of interest in anything concerning application. What we have to demonstrate be it in our collectioning or in communication with our users is ethics of taking their side and aim to contribute to ennobling of the human nature. "Combative museum" may seem rather idealistic project, but if we fight for Quality or survival of Culture t<br />any idealism is justified. The "cybernetic museum", the one able and willing to take part in guiding the society is the one after harmony, homeostasis or simply, after responsible development. Any other solution is too easy to be credible and advisable. <br />Without living, productive culture, human society will soon enjoy the surrogate of canned and mass produced culture whose only aim cannot be but Manipulation. Only rare, suffering individuals in the future Brave New World are tortured by the loss of their human state. <br /><br />The conventional museum institution made almost any other collecting trivial. Many take it that art lives in museums and probably belongs there. The "superlativism" in collecting made it a privilge of rich among institutions and individuals. The collectioning has to be matter of any individual, poor or rich, in qualities and extents respective of the circumstances. All objects are created equal, not only people. The societal project has the dimension of care for the collective memory. In the ideal society, love for quality, understanding of material and the craft must result in the urge for preservation and care. So the museum project is about values recognised, cherished and retained symbolically by keeping objectst that embody this awareness. The possession of knowledge and taste, and the ability of refering to the "world of forms" make collectioners possible. Any collection formed out of this "poesis" of collective memory is a work of art: the best if it stays in situ where its potential makes most sense.<br /><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>The societal project</b><br /><br />Museums are part of it. I believe museums will not be the only to say what has to be retained and what do we take with us in our uncertain travel through the space and time. A whole lot of specialists or, still better, thinkers of specialisations (they stem from it but are not limited by it) will know better what memory and to what end do we need. As society as a whole tries to use its economic, political and other powers to project and secure the future, this process is usually done to serve some particular short term benefit whereas the quality societal project should strive to turn it into a vision of prosperous and ennobled life. Humanist visions were pushed by these very forces into the utopian daydreaming and were further compromised with the so called communist and socialist dictatures. The deregulated capitalism of today has demonstrated much more sophistication and subtlety in betrayal of societal ideals. The power of corrupted minds and souls could have taken any name but the substance was always the same: the loss of freedom and dignity to the ideals of obscene, massive richness and power concentrated in the hands of a few. Their rethorics is basically the same. Their art is the same: in one, the Committee on Culture in the Polit-bureau decided what art is, and in the other the Tacit Business consortium composed of the collectioneurs, publishers, art gallerists, media moguls, and, of course, museum directors and curators. Artists are jugllers of the information taken either from Party's bulletin or from glossy art magazines. Having lived both experiences, of course I see that the later are more sophisticated and smart. Their violence is more subtle. <br /><br />Most of the museums, many among them contemporary art museums stemming from this awkward nature of the world are rather a poor sight when envisaged as means to assist, resist or simply moderate the change. If museums are part of the improvement process of human state, then collections should be conceived so as to serve this set of ambitions the best. <br /><br />Unlike most of the schools, museums should be able to offer attractive educational opportunities for any target group in their community. It concerns mostly the basic, popular museum, say a regional or city museum,but also some specialist museums. What should they offer? Educational cultural action able to forge daily expertise for the consumer, new understanding for the mass voter in politics or feeling for the quality wherever it may be. When one appears in the market as a consumer or in politics as voter, he or she is only a pray to profit making: illiterate and deprived of common sense by manipulation, this individual is crushed and frustrated to become still a more ready prey to the same organised power. The plot against Quality is there, be it apples (sprayed with pesticides 15 times and coated in preservative poisonous wax to prevent dehydration), your furniture (to be throwed away next time you move) or your new microwave owen or democracy you live in…. Democracy is a mere plot if sources of information are manipulated. Are there any other available? Could museums be a different one with such a huge human experience amassed in its vaults? The way the collection are composed, they have a limited capacity to be usable and credible, but they rarely try. Why? Because, museum professionals still form an occupation and not a profession, and because they would be prevented to intervene as their stakeholders would not like it. It would harm their insterests. <br /><br />If museums do not take active part in societal project of open, civil society of organised interests, - it will become obsolete and hoplessly empty. The empty museums will be closed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><b>Re-distribution</b><br /><br />The "distribution" happened haphazardly and as the consequence of specific circumstances, often arbitrary and casual in their nature. The re-distribution should be a process wit full awareness of motives and implications. It should be done by museum occupation when it is ripe enough to induce the changes on its own self: to enhance the performance and to conquer decisive coherence of the (future) profession. <br /><br /><b>The first circle: heritage system as network </b><br /><br />Collections, if not private, are the common property. Museums are state or community owned and as such present only a part of common wealth. Therefore, the museum network in the sense of unity in common task, is in fact a one distributed, spread museum institution . Most of their collections suffer from all sorts of inadequacies and defects of content and quality, specially in comparison to the tasks to be performed by them. The collectioning policies are often bad or inadequate or simply impossible to realize. As the example of SAMDOK demonstrates, much can be ameliorated if museums start to function in pools within the well organised network. This changed conscience of professional unity and solidarity actually deserves to be the way of dealing with many problems of collectioning. Ridiculous examples of one altar being in two or three museums and none of them being able to expose it as the only true entity or of many other things belonging together are notorious. In brief, museums should enter a long process of re-distribution of their collections. Some, of course, will stay the way they are. But, before one starts to doubt, we could start the re-distribution of what we have in storages: the mainly dead substance of some former reality. Imagine it to be turning many museums in interesting places worth of visiting at no harm for the donors. <br /><br /><b>The second circle: giving on loan</b><br /><br />The second circle would be reaching the other public institutions. I have been lucky to see many museum storages and my feeling was that of sorrow. Imagine schools, institutes, public offices, administrative public premises etc., getting sculptures, graphics and paintings that can add creative and esthetic atmosphere to those often dull and cheap places. Of course, life is dangerous, but I am inclined to say that banality and aesthetic poverty encourage vandalism still more. Whatever is important is thus hidden from us in well protected museums suggesting that we are irresponsible and unworthy. Life risks were always the destiny of art as well as of people. <br /><br /><b>The third circle: giving back</b><br /><br />The third circle would be giving objects back where they belong, where they make sense, where they can inspire and where people truly understand them. Some of it is happening as forced pressure from ethnic groups like Indians, some happens as repatriation motivated by some legal issues and some should happen as the consequence of the new understanding of what a museum is: a benefactor, a starting point of a generous giving and sharing a proof of suppressed morality and ethical responsibility, - of cultured spirit that belongs to noble humans. A gesture of the sort would harm some banal expectations of tourist attractions but would establish museums as places of relevance and moral strength. Beauty would not be there incarcerated and hidden but would approach life, work with it and for its values. With this approach, one museums would become possible, - the return of heritage matter where it was taken from would have far reaching consequences. <br /><br />An example of a practice of the sort, not so radical though, can be found in Zagreb. A group consisting of a few curators and an architect, started , some twelve years ago "return" of the objects from their collections, in form of perfect copies though, but to the very place of their find. So Zagreb is now being dotted with Roman portrait head that found a niche in the façade of the building where it was excavated, Jurrasic whales' bones are in the lobby of Theatre of Drama (and the café was spontaneously nicknamed The Whale's), the Roman Stella is now in a village near Zagreb where a local people made a feast to celebrate its return…..Instead of only taking away, the museum started to give back and share. People love it (or should one really admit it?) <br /><br />The loan services as they exist show another possibility of distribution. Anybody with some will and money can borrow a painting otherwise too expensive to be bought. Living with art is what is raison d'etre of it. This can be done if museums offer the service, if users are educated and have the developed ethetic needs and if the service is not expensive, i.e. if it is non-profit. What about the poor? Well they can become the member of the Friends of the museum and acquire the right without paying. <br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br />The issuing quality would be a true marvel. Utopian? Isn't love such? Isn't honesty such? Maybe the world has gone beyond belief that Christianity or this sort of utopian sense of sharing, was ever truly meant. Priests certainly have forgotten it, but I am afraid curators never learned it at all. They were the result of the esthetized greed, when beauty and truth became the privilege of those with the past. The form of this never learned wisdom of giving was a rationalist scientifism. <br /><br />Many would argue that care for collections becomes impossible with re-distribution. Well, no library would lend their collection of rare and no museum should expose the irreplaceable treasure to any unnecessary risk. We should talk about the remaining 70 or 90 % of the collection. Or maybe 10% in some cases. Any good gesture will find its supporters: sponsor might like the opportunity to make part of this charming story and support it technically. <br /><br />The fabulous IT makes the registrars' task easier and the growing administration of a fluctuating collection is not a nightmare as it would have been some time ago. And, yes, the other risks: there is no profit without them. Art, to take one example, was always at risk and what we have inherited is what stays after the risks took away what they did. People die, so might some objects. But risks make profits possible and it would be always the professional decision how should they be balanced. Quality is working for us the best, when being part of the life itself. No religion is good enough if practised in the Temples only. <br /><br />There has been a rising discussion about the ways to deal with the excess of objects and lack of money in museums. It is a long and delicate subject that can be largely avoided if all the energy is channelled into the re-distribution. De-accessioning that ends up in sale, has to be the last and exceptional measure. The only way heritage can be useful and make sense is that institutions stay consequently non-profit in the sense of non-commercial and avoiding the temptations that the market can attractively propose. Whatever the benefit may be, in the long run it would be the end of the entire endeavour. The institution that clashes in the ideals will lose. <br /><br /><b>The Wisdom</b><br /><br />It is said that collections are in the "centre of debate about the role of museums at the start of 21st century" . They might well be. I would say rather that the big questions we have to answer comprise new understanding of collections and collectioning within the context of . Therefore, I would like to remind us of, obviously, some of these big questions.<br /><br />What business are we in? What is our product? In which way are we to deal with the changing world around us? Are we part of the change or the control mechanism of it? Do we solve problems or we may be considered part of them? Are we ready to deal with the challenges we face? Who are "WE"? Do we understand the the basics of our situation? Have we moved too far away from the primary motives that are embedded in the very existence of collective memory? <br /><br />The possible conclusion might be, coming back to collections, - that answers to these questions suggest a new understanding of collections. I believe those answers may do exactly that. <br /><br />Well, taken as simple and part of the ongoing discussion, the of "role of collections today" is continuously re-examined but rarely thoroughly. The impression to the declared pragmatists who hate the sound of "theorizing" is that we actually talk about the changing fashions. having grasped that, they simply wave their hand upon the pleads for the reform in heritage institutions. Back to object and collections is their dear hide from thundering armies of other professions passing by their doors. <br /><br />We live in the time in which we shall either sink into a quasi-professional mannerism or build a a new, grand profession of heritage care and communication. Marketing, correctly understood, was a last reminder that we have to define ourselves in terms of what business are we in, and what is our product . The rest is a mere management technique. Without answering the first two, marketing marvel becomes still another nightmare of a slowly ripening profession. So, heritage sector can partly musealize (where it became cultural value in itself) or can turn in three directions: scientia, euphoria, sapientia. The science orientation is what we have experienced; it was insufficient and brought us here. Euphoria, stands for the entertainment as created in heritage industry. That is not us, but the end of the story. <br /><br />Sapientia (Wisdom) is the difficult task of a heritage used for the common and individual good, like any sane memory. Wisdom is knowledge with dimensions of responsibility and ethics. Heritage for development is probably the chance of survival. Only through heritage (culture) can we (re-)introduce need and feeling for balance, as the central idea of any usable future. Wisdom is affective category as it has necessarily a set of quality objectives. Like love it is regarded non-scientific term but it is the transfer of wisdom that we should talk about when trying to understand the role of heritage. The way of expressing it possesses an artistic quality. A developed heritage communication reaches sort of para-artistic quality, - it becomes a certain new applied art , an expansion of performing arts. When compared to Art it demonstrates the same source of inspiration which is identity it tstems from, ot talks about and it cherishes. With art it shares the same capacity of creativeness as without is it lacks communicational potency. It uses interpretation as the same method and shares the same complex objective of communication. A collection policy that has this similarity in mind will have to be very "artistic" and would result in a collection bearing resemblance to a theatre, though a very special one. <br /><br />The new trends in museum and heritage communication show clearly the rising input of creative artists. Art itself expands from its narrow confines back to life and tries to serve its practical circumstances. The future of heritage communication will again belong to "shamans" if art will assume its forgotten role. If we envisage the decisive role of art and artists (applied to the specific matter of cultural transfer) their influence will be strongly felt in collectioning as well. Maybe, indeed, the future collection will be rightfully called "interpretive inventory", comprising, of course, the usual collections but going much future than that. An ideal exhibition designer working with the curator will look much like say Robert Le Page, the famous theatre director from Canada. <br /><br />Wisdom is necessary to build the set of values that one recognises as universal and own, in their specific forms taking the shape and meaning of particular identity. The total understanding of these values is the only usable starting point of any collection policy. Scientific framework in the meaning of knowledge, methodology and responsibility is self understandable condition. The problem is universal and as long as the world: Cum parva sapientia regitur mundus! (How little wisdom is used to govern the world!). Knowledge proved to be just another tool in which we were told to seek for solution: tools never offer it, as no computer made us more intelligent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">2004<br /></span>Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-74268063841190136922012-11-12T00:09:00.000-08:002012-11-12T00:09:14.501-08:00A contribution to understanding of museums <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<h4 class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR" style="line-height: 150%;">Or: w</span><span style="line-height: 150%;">hy would the museums count?</span><span></span></span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The experts should know how to
anticipate the questions that the users of museums, be it present ones or the
future ones, might pose. One should bear in mind that non-users are often in
the situation to decide upon the future of museum profession and priorities
among its aims. They can do it as taxpayers id different functions in the
society, or they can do it as the consumers of our products. Museums fail to
explain their role in the contemporary society to their respective communities
and, one might claim, have difficulty themselves to understand it. In the
situation of the speeding change and implosion of value systems, museums are
rarely successful to prove their "rentability". </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">As the part of an established
culture, museums are rarely the object of public questioning which allows them
in their functioning to rely upon (conservative) traditional public or on the
rather arbitrary estimates of what is needed from them. Of course, "the
needs" would refer to how they perceive their role in serving their
community. The feedback is often lacking or ignored. More often than is
thought, museum professionals are inapt to deliver the usable product. That is
the consequence of low understanding and motivation in their own profession.
Approaching relative autonomy that comprises market logic and competition,
museums find themselves in a vulnerable and delicate position. The almighty
state administration is a retreating boss. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">1. The
usual misconceptions of the professionals </span></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
scientific institutions</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The best, the biggest and the
greatest by their collections, experts and funds – are. The rest are not. But
those have, nevertheless, an obligation to follow the scientific standards and
be faithful to the unbiased truth. With the dynamic fluctuation of experts and
easy communication due to the new technologies and new channels of
collaboration, - the sole obstacle to museum scientific activity remains usual
lack of finances. But, to be very clear, museums as majority are
communicational institutions founded upon scientific standards.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
about past</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Yes, but only to bring it into the
present and future, with some sound reason.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">In fact, they are always about
present and how the present sees the past. The advanced museums speak about
present using the past. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Museums should stay away from the problems and dilemma of
today</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Just the contrary. The world of
today is burdened with problems, which are extremely dramatic and deal with the
issues of survival of human kind. There is no "historical distance as the
luxury of past functioning of museums. We take risks by getting insight into
the present and by comparing it to the inherited experience. But we do not give
in museums final answers nor we judge options: we only honestly talk about
them. One may apply to their position the modern saying: if you are not part of
the solution, you must be part of the problem (which indeed is the case, if the
museums affirm by their attitude the political and social passivity).</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
not political institutions</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Yes they are, if understood
properly. The role of social and political outsiders cannot be the position of
good (which is inherent in their invention) nor can it help their flourishing.
Excluded from social, cultural, economical and environmental strategies,
museums become irrelevant therefore unnecessary. The long-lived servitude of
museums to the dominant forces of any society is to be blamed for their relatively
low profile in the life of community where they exist.</span></span></div>
<h1 style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
about positive values</span></span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">If they want to be educational or
even be regarded as a source of relevant wisdom, they better be able to speak
about the dark side of their objects and themes too. Ignoring the existence of
evil, they deny it, and join those institutions and individuals in the society
whose main aim is manipulation of people's mind. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Museums are there to tell the
scientific truth</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">What is meant, usually, is to tell
the final and indisputable truth. Well, the name of the one is the Absolute,
and whatever that is, it does not live either in the museum or in school and,
almost as surely, not in the temples. To be more precise: museums are there to
pose questions disregarding whether they would endanger any power structure or
position. </span></span></div>
<h1 style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
the institutions of knowledge</span></span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Of course, the knowledge is an
ingredient of their rich complexity, but far from being their substance.
Knowing facts, truths and principles is an obligation of museums. Transferring
it is another business that of educating, whereas doing something with the
knowledge is still further from the passive knowledge producer. As to the
knowledge, museums cannot stand the comparison to any institution from the
knowledge industry. But, correctly understood, museums are, although knowledge
relevant, something else: the active knowledge. The abundance of knowledge does
no teach men to be wise, whereas the later should be the ultimate (however
seemingly imprecise) purpose of museums. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>2.<span> </span>The misconceptions of the laymen</span></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
money spenders</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The truth is that they earn it. Of
course, we talk about correctly conceived and well-run museum. Museums are
non-profit institutions which now means that any direct profit they make in
some of their activities must return to the museum working process itself, i.e.
must serve the quality of the museum output. Museums for the majority must
depend on the public money, as they contribute to the public well being and
prosperity. The are like any similar service industry: social and health
security, public transportation, obligatory education etc. In some cases of
very effective museums, the new econometric methods show that revenue they
indirectly create in the community exceeds the usual business effects. Some
measurements show that museums create almost double number of jobs around them
as the consequence of their activity. This public image of money spenders costs
museums dearly. The rising neo-liberalism sees tem as burden to the respective
society.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
there for old things</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">To be "for museum" means
in any western inspired culture to be outdated, outmoded, obsolete,
unnecessary, in brief, - useless. Therefore, in popular mind, museums are full
of things, which we keep out of nostalgia for the past times. The scientific
interest there is taken as a sort of curiosity of eccentric experts. The next
layer is the superlativist: because the things there are rare, the biggest, the
best, the most expensive, the most elaborated, the most beautiful, the
exceptional in any possible sense and so on.<span>
</span>Belonging to the past, all of them are old, i.e. the older the better.
But that notion is now lost in the best museums because "old" for
them is literally yesterday. We want to document our cultures and civilisation
so that at any moment we can study it for the different purposes. Marking the
change makes the future more obvious and less frightening, and, besides,
enables us to adapt and correct when we believe it does not correspond with what
we need. Of course, museums are learning the lesson, with difficulties though,
but they are becoming the institutions for today and about today, including its
reflections: one in the past and one in the future.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>Museums are
temples of national pride</span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">All too often they are, and not
much more than that. Pride is legitimate ingredient of self-esteem and knowing
one's own identity: pride of being different, rich of inherited experiences and
cultural practices; pride of quality. But, museums should have been able to
impose the realistic picture of the history, and explain it as experience upon
which one can learn how to improve human state and its natural dispositions.
This was rarely the case, so we have national museums, especially those of so
called big nations, as temples of vanity: only domination and superiority over
others and over nature: roughly speaking, - an illustrated 3-D encyclopaedia of
conquests. All too often, they are not only national but also nationalistic.
That is not the way to pave the secure path to national identity; right in
front of their museums the very national identity is crumbling under the
globalising processes. They watch scrupulously and do nothing and yet, almost
any member of the public would understand that museums are there to protect and
present the identity they stand for. Those museums jealously dust the picture
of past, but the majority of there employed curators know poorly the present. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">What is good in past should direct us today by its values. There is nothing
wrong in having the dead as guides if their messages are interpreted correctly
and according to our specific circumstances.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<h1 style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span>The true
nature of museums</span></span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Museum is many things and will
become still many more. For the moment being, the profession functions upon a definition,
which for a long time satisfies the majority of museum people.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">It is an important social function.This is why we have so<span> </span>many mediators and interpreters of the
inherited human experience: historians, archaeologists, ethnologists,
anthropologists, art historians, curators (all of them and still others if
working in a museum), philosophers, scientific researchers, clergymen,
politicians, oppinion-makers... </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">Museums have an advantage of being all of it at one time and in one place,
a sort of easy-to-recognize post-podern invention (if we forget their two odd
centuries of institutional experience). The truth is that not many have
recognized this potential, but those who have demonstrate an institutional
success. They have a major specific difference to all others by the fact of
their collections of original artefacts and not less original documentation
that accompanies them. We talk, obviously, about litteraly immense storages of
objects. It is a pure guess of experienced professional but I would say that
world's museums keep, care and, very partly, expose<span> </span>up to u billion of objects. That is the
materialized memory: a curious invention of our civilisation. The more we shall
ruin the balance by the virtualisation of our world, the more there would be
the same old need to keep the solid material traces behind. Collection of
fetishes? Yes, to quite an extent, but also the collection of encoded meanings
we like to keep for another mind to come to wonder, experience and research
with some new knowledge, some new technique, some new mind and some new needs
to guide their interests. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">The knowledge being available in such quantities from so many resources and
at such an ease (www), makes museums freer to recognize ther true nature: that
of communication.They are social institutions with multiple tasks so
communication should mean many things: </span></span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span><span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span><span lang="HR">social space;</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">information and orientation in past and
present values; </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">direct role in promotion and (scrupulous)
revival of identities they stand for; </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">developmental agency;</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">As a wise social device working to the<span>
</span>advatage of its community, it adapts the community to the changing
conditions in its surroundings and in itself, creating thus viable
preconditions for its prosperity. Envisaged as a cybernetic mechanism attached
to the community or society it is supposed to serve, it corrects what may be
judged as misleading and wrong helping thus harmony and the common well being.
It goes without saying that these functions so described are for the most practical
circumstances a mere wishful thinking. It would be also wrong to think that
museums are supernatural force able to solve the problems of the society that
finances it. Nearer to the truth would be to say that museums so conceived are
one of the institutions in modern societies which help them survive in the
circumstances of threat. What is at stake is not some nostalgic feature that
might disappear under the wheels of the globalisation. It is the variety that
makes the substance of the entire richness, active and inherited, that may
dramatically dissappear in front of our bewildered eyes. So, museums today have
the role to play which is very demanding. That role means participation in the
destiny of their community, but the participation of an elder which means
responsibility and moral commitment. Correctly understood, this role would also
give them new importance. The rich world we still know is in peril. Hence the
pressure to found ever new museums. (Part of the push comes from tourist
industry<span> </span>driven arguments and ever
present local chauvinism). The true impetus is the widespread feeling that we
live in a managed world where the viable balance must also be an outcome of our
own action. That might be evident in the man-made part of reality. But, that is
also true in the natural environment that is unable to re-gain balance without
serious effort of institutions we devise for the purpose. To illustrate the
point, natural parks and nature conservation policies are just one emanation of
the museum idea. Their numbers rise proportionally to the evidence of
degradation of the ienvironment. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">Evidently, museums<span> </span>are expected to
offer usable product that public mind is not able to decribe, but instinctively
feels that museums are important means of protecting the dissapearing values
(by which communities continue to be spiritually or even physically alive).
Dramatic tones forgotten, - there stays however enough arguments to claim that
museums were never different in their role of securing, augmenting, or returning
the dying quality of living only now their tasks became dramatically evident
and practical at the same time. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span lang="HR">That, of course, does not mean that museums should forget about collecting,
research, care for collections, presentation and education. Their role is only
expanding and being in their public part of functions enveloped by the
communicational capacity.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">To be continued by describing more
precisely the role of the cybernetic museum.</span></span></div>
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Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-66341751748273886262012-11-09T07:41:00.001-08:002012-11-09T07:41:35.779-08:00An introduction to Mnemosophy...<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>...As The General Theory of Heritage </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The crisis of Museology is long as its existence. This hundred years <sup>1</sup> of solitariness was spent in an ambiguous "status nascendi" <sup>2</sup> , a state of never being born. Yet, only in the last three decades, with a few exceptions though, we can read relevant theoretical testimonies about our profession. What we had before was historic factography with no attempt to offer a value judgement: museums were judged only by the quality of their collections and curators by their scientific capacity. The number of museum professionals able to give solid, critical and convincing account of their profession, analyzing its nature, its role in the society is steadily rising. Whether they consider(ed) themselves museologists or just concerned professionals matters little indeed, as Museology exists any time the critical and structured transfer of the professional experience happens, - the action aimed at the advancement of the profession and its service to the society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Why did Museology appear? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The hundred years of ill success of theoretical endeavour would not be enough to produce alone the long expected change. The decisive impulse came from the crisis of practice. The professions of heritage care and communication started to need the usable answers to the questions their tormented position imposed. Compared to anything they used to experience this was partly caused by too much success. This time the set of the questions the theory was supposed to answer were practical in the sense that they were referent to the changing position of museums in the society. Anything that would explain and justify that position of museums (re-defining their social role) is bound to appropriate, in some latter instance, a shape of sound theory and cause radical conceptual consequences. For a quarter of century, this reflective critique of practice is producing a gradual change of the whole configuration of heritage concerned professions <sup>3</sup>. On that way, the reflection appropriates structure, standards, criteria and vocabulary which signal the coherence needed for any distinctive discipline. What we live through is the biggest re-conceptualization of (dealing with) the past that ever happened, a matter too important to be left solely to practice. This discipline is born any time the collective experience of profession(s) is used, supplemented or transferred to others. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>The basis of change</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Museology was perceived as theory of the museum institution whereas it had to be concept based if counting upon any endurable coherence. The appearing concept was heritage in its totality, from dinosaur to Andy Warhol. This common-denominator-notion still did not reach its full, fruitful legitimacy in the museum world: only ten years ago the discussions whether the term heritage refers solely to cultural heritage were still vivid even in the trans-disciplinary international body like the International Committee of Museology (ICOFOM, ICOM). The world's museum organization (ICOM), trans-disciplinary by the very existence, is going through a decade of stagnation whereas the museums and kindred institutions flourish like never before. The objective reasons are contained in a general lack of philosophy of heritage which leaves the entire sector rather defenceless in the face of competition, temptations and corruption of the modern world. The common denominator means: the similar conceptual basis, similar definition of the object, similar role in the society. It must be that the entire institutional configuration in the field of heritage shares the same general ideals of its fulfillment that run any true profession. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">This broad concept includes obviously other institutions <sup>5</sup> from the field of heritage that do at least one part of the triple natured museum job: collectioning, care, presentation. It would be hard to find any institution devoted solely to collectioning and what it comprises (knowledge of the subject, research), or to the care (preservation, conservation, restoration). The presentation, on the contrary, is quite often performed as an exclusive activity and one could regard different exhibition centres as a sort of temporary museums. The range of institutions around the same concept of heritage increases still significantly if we open up the notion of the object collected, cared for or presented. If museums collect only the three-dimensional objects as material evidence of some past, we stick to traditional definitions and allow no change. If museums also collect ideas, material objects being only one form of them, then only the concept of evidence decides what is a museum object. What is an evidence of past events, people, ideas, situations, deeds...? Anything that possesses scientific reliability, ethical relevance and quality of emitting its information potential when appropriately presented or demonstrated <sup>6</sup>. Further on, the informatic society created the context in which museum tradition could only consent to regarding the information on a museum computer as yet another aspect of museum object or, as the reality brings it, as an object by itself. Wherever the broad concept of heritage represents the departure point in the activity, we are entitled to expect the same, general theoretical consequence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Some more arguments within the broadening filed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There are still more practical circumstances to this unity, which theory (or science) can signal, inspire, enhance, spread: mission, legislation <sup>7</sup> , networking, ethics, professional education <sup>8</sup> and partnerships. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Idealist goal of any profession, when structured and supported by organization and management, defines its mission. Using the collective memory for the better understanding of present and preparation of usable future is easily, - aiming at quality of living within a frame of a balanced development, - that can easily apply to many an institution. Yet, all will readily define their methodology but only a few would seriously study their mission. Since they have no clear ideals and maximum expectations, no wonder they do not achieve optimal results. On the other hand, to know one's mission requires full knowledge of the basic concept, ability of critical self-analysis, and de-institutionalized mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Legislation defines the place of the professions in the social and political organization of the society. If bad, it can cause drawbacks: social (e.g. that the institution is discouraged from serving the minorities), financial (e.g. that other programmes and institutions get more as being better positioned in the public offer <sup>9</sup> , professional (that profession is neglected and backward, lacking standards and norms, disoriented etc.). Networking is aimed at functioning together, sharing the resources as well as responsibilities with a sole aim to do more and better, for the society or community, with less strain and less means. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Ethics is hardly perceived as important as it seem to have no practical consequence <sup>10</sup> . Yet ethics assures pride and emotional stability of profession(s); the constant effort to improve it will necessarily embetter the service: ethics affirms responsibility and represents the only basis for an idealist goal, - a glowing orientation point in discouraging practical circumstances. If perceived correctly, only the ethical definition of the museum service, to take one example, will firmly define museum as community oriented institution. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Heritage professions need the their common theory to understand the nature of their medium, to grasp the spread-up of the concept of heritage, to be able to form their own mission, to create a conceptual basis of their involvement wherever the heritage is, to be accountable partners, to state administration, to business and to hypermedia; they need the theory to create strategy of accomplishing their mission, assuring thus their own survival. If they do not see clearly their own strength and weakness, they will give harmful responses to the offers of the other sectors, requiring too much or too little in any proposed deal. They should be able to take full responsibility for the public welfare they keep and represent so that it gains value and stays under control of democratic forces of society. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>What theory?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Would a theory be able to take up such a set of ambitions or the name of science is more appropriate, it depends upon definitions. Politics, which is (ideally speaking) principles, methods, and practices of government, hardly a science in its own right, has its own philosophy. Why shouldn't heritage? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">This may belong to the third phase of museological ambition. In the first, Museology was the history of collections and museum institutions. Then it became further concerned with methods, techniques and technology of museum work and started as reflection upon institutional services and professional matters, including ethics. In that second phase of development, we have witnessed the tendency of seclusion between practical matters (which were supposed to be Museography) and "theoretical" which were destined to acquire the status of science i.e. Museology. This later meant also the transfer of professional experience. The third phase, which we are establishing for a decade at least, is continuing the museological development establishing it as history of past, cybernetics of human experience, and philosophy of heritage. Any conception of science will comprise double movement, - of theory towards the practical experience and of practical experience towards the theory. Although it may seem that the third concept describes the needed theory as rather esoteric, it indeed derives its motives form the very practice and, consequently, admits the verification by practice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Introducing Mnemosophy</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Leaving the methodological field, where some practical solutions to specific problems are found, we move towards the substantive field. What Museography, Librarianship, Archivistics or Informatics have as specific differences, will rarely be obvious at the utter speculative level of their proper filed. But to go that far means the loss of professional identity (like leaving one's own fortress in troubled times) and the risk of incompetence (as multidisciplinary approach requires fair insight). Yet, they all share the same subject which is information pertaining to the past human experience, its creation/acquisition, analysis, care and dissemination. The scientific community entrusted Museology with the status of science by allowing it to the Universities. Yet, it is far from being a rule <sup>11</sup> . Museology, in whatever variant taken, is still disregarded an surely not among "mature" or "compact" <sup>12</sup> sciences; it is rather "diffuse" and quite a "discipline to be". But, so are many other, well established and yet neither prepared to admit it, nor disposing with such capacity of development.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It is obviously about an information science, one that should be among other "cultural sciences" (like linguistics, ethnology, or history of art), "soft"(Hagstrom, 1965;) humanistic sciences as opposed to "hard" sciences (which are hard, as we are told, due to the level of impersonal in citation and capability of demonstrating their theories and laws in mathematic formula (Storer, 1967) <sup>13</sup> . Sciences grow and change, and others (usually transdisciplinary) are conceived: this way Biotechnology has been created or even such an amalgam as Sociobiology. Most of these new disciplines appropriated "gestalt" approach which is very "soft" indeed in its ambition to understand wholeness in things and concepts, admitting that the whole is more than the mathematical sum of its parts. The modern sensibility, which is so attracted by holistic views derives from it the religion of modern atheists as well as ecological concern. The things and the ideas seem to be so definitely interlocked that analytical paradigm obviously failed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">In that sense, we need an etiology, a science which will be able to understand the causes of our dependency upon the past. We need a dialectics of heritage to understand the laws that govern its changes and our expectations from it. Unlike Museology, this general theory should be an ontology of heritage institutions, not concerned with their history but the philosophy of their inception. We need a sinechology, able to embrace the dimensions of space and time and beyond them. It should not though be just another, all inclusive, theosophy, but enough to understand the logic of material world, maybe a sort of metaphysics as "the part of philosophy that deals with the nature and structure of reality" (Aristotle). The idea of having the concept of heritage in the metaphysical "high country of the mind" <sup>14</sup> looks ambitious enough for a theory with so many aspirations. Ideally speaking, Komensky's utopian science of Pansofia, contains some key words of our idealist construction. Its ambition was to present the results of the entire human knowledge with a social and psychological objective of creating harmonious community of all people. The dozen encyclopaedic, gigantic, museums of the western hemisphere, harmonize with both the scientific and the ethical ideals of Komensky.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Visionaries and utopians always tried to attain some level of "sciencia generalis" (Leibnitz) which would synthesize results of all the sciences (Kropotkin). David Hume was trying to establish a "science of man", about human nature and the limits of human spirit. What we may rightfully strive for is a science about relation of man to his realities, the past and present. The relation is always there, but not subdued to the criteria of quality. If museums and kindred institutions are just about collective memory, things are so simple that cyber-space would make all those institutions obsolete. Are we asking for too much? Utopia is, in a strange way, part of museum reality as museums try to keep alive the past by preserving the material fragments of decontextualized, ultimately unknown reality. Modern science was born as discovery of infiniteness, and yet, we try to prove in our museums the finite and definitely material nature of our worldly reality as the scientific and sole truth. We need a science which would also function as a hermeneutics of past, able to de-code and give meaning to the inherited signs. We need principles of interpretation, beyond the clues given by each specialist science. In this respect, an individual, specialist analysis of a particular object should not exist without a parallel strive to understand the wholeness it makes the part of. This general science would excel the ambition of specialist sciences by undertaking the idealist ambition towards understanding of humans' "being-there" (Heidegger). Demonstrating the multi-faceted nature of an ideal science of heritage, let us remember that hermeneutics, itself a possible aspect of it, was constituted as a science of understanding the historical reality, of understanding the world's experience (Hans Georg Gadamer). Besides, like heuristics, this new science should also teach us "methods" of researching new concepts and art of finding the truth. Once a separate body, this science of heritage, composite as it may be, could derive its coherence from practical use it may have in assuring that we profit most from the past. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">When saying "heritage" museums and other institutions have usually meant the heritage stored in their premises, - the heritage they have accumulated. But, what about the remaining 70%? Or less? Be that as it may, most of that "un-stored" past has become someone's heritage, personal or group, and it is being acquired, kept, researched and disseminated. The lack of any standards of excellence and scientific responsibility for the most of it does not make it irrelevant. Placing the concept and not the institution in the middle of our concern, we see that institutions are only one solution to saving the past and, indeed, only part of the past. Unlike the useful memory of the primitive society, transferred to the living and those to come in the form of artistic expression, - this heritage is largely artificial. A past, namely, becomes heritage once we are aware of its value and once we manipulate it to become such. Selected and structured according to current value systems it becomes official heritage. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The general theory of heritage will have to be applicable to any heritage not just the official one. Once elaborated to the possible extent, it may inspire and assist the great conceptualization of the world and assure the conceptual shares of concerned professions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">With this comes another recantation: the science is not the paradise of certainty but a hell of mere probabilities. So called "theory of chaos" is a tacit admission from the part of Physics and Mathematics that the System must be there but we cannot grasp its regularities nor to understand its ultimate nature. This is hardly hinted in the temples of Certainty <sup>15</sup> . Even the physicists had to accept the heresy that there are physical things and phenomena which cannot be proved by experiment. In its final claims, Physics always liked to use the metaphor. Therefore, the science of heritage might well allow itself the lack of finiteness and bravely claim an openness of the system, able to anticipate the future, but already appearing circumstances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>The outline of Mnemosophy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It will certainly look preposterous and exaggerated to ask for so much from a supposed science. Yet, aspirations should not be forbidden, so much more as harsh practice and a search for consensus will form their final profile. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">When the term "heritology" was mentioned for the first time it was literally loughed out <sup>16</sup> . But the third museological paradigm was much on its way. Its concerns were becoming different: the very meaning of heritage and its institutional concept, the mission of heritage related profession(s), the needs of users (community, society), and perception of institutions as of system units of heritage action (meaning that institutions as we know them are only one and changing possibility of an institutional answer to a need). By that time already, Museology was splitting into several Museologies, the development reaching its summit in the last few years <sup>17</sup>. Heritology was a welcome provocative thesis to end the useless academic discussion which was much away from practical causes of any theoretical endeavour. In the last ten odd years arguments for a radical brake with a century of museological frustration only augmented even as far as terminology. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">A long practice of telling a puzzling story of genesis of museums from the temple of muses never clarified the possible derivation. None of the seven Muses was dedicated to anything like museum. It is their mother, by Zeus, Mnemosyne that should have come into mind instead. The daughter of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth), Mnemosyne is personification of Memory, a goddess of it. What we deal with in "arts of heritage" is memory and what we discuss in our theory of heritage is but qualities of that memory, including the quality use of it. The earlier classical mythology offers the possibility of terminological linkage, through Muses, though not to the proper name of the institution (a third of today's museum institutions are not museums anyhow), but to the central concept itself, - the memory. Formerly, the Muses were only three, out of which the first two were "in charge" of song and meditation and the third one, Mneme, was concerned with memory. This fact was not unnoticed so we have mnemonics (the art of improving or developing the memory), but also "mnemism", a theory of memory by E. Hering which says that any organized matter has the memory <sup>18</sup> as its basic biological function. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The philosophy of heritage is not a science of collective memory, but the one selected and valued as necessary for survival of certain identity. The neologism Mnemosophy would imply the memory and the quality of it: sophia means wisdom. If we can object scientism and possessiveness to museums, we can regard hyper-media as insatiable, unselective omnivorae, and both are quite at ease with any quantitative analysis upon a sound basis of the official science. The old-fashioned call for wisdom is suggesting the quality as the only solution to the "easy" quantitative solutions. This, discipline should offer a common frame for all other specialist disciplines in the field of heritage, as their metaphysical super structure. Before we discuss its structure and other elements as it may contain them, let us claim that this philosophical discipline has for its aim the understanding of the essence and value of entire heritage. One should probably prefer the term as proposed, since this should not be only the study, the science of heritage (mnemology?) but rather a science about the usable, quality substance of heritage. Even in broadest interpretations, Museology suggested the ideal of unlimited memory, as a perfect recall with no value judgment <sup>19</sup> , - avoiding thus the ethical responsibility and earning to its unprepared self an easy access to the crowded informatic super-highway. There would be always quite a few museum specialists who will intimately consider museums scientific institution (even if the science has to be presented to the public) and they will tolerate Museology which can be interpreted as professional experience dealing with standards, methodology and management of institutions. That discipline stresses no creativeness, ethics and responsibility as deals with the formal side of the profession (so foolishly called practical). Besides being the information science, Mnemosophy should also be the cybernetics of heritage as it has the active principle inbuilt in its structure. Memory serves as survival tool and a basis for a coordinated response of the society, community, or a group when confronted with a situation, stimulus, challenge or aggression tending to disturb its normal condition or function. Memory is the basis for homeostasis of the identity, the complex balance which, if maintained, enables the harmonious change or development. Since this does not happen in a spontaneous way but is "engineered" through different institutions of the modern society, heritage institutions have to produce the filtered, adjusted, selected, appropriate wisdom to generate the proper reaction aimed at regaining the balance. Therefore, it isn't just any memory that restores lost harmony as a condition of successful survival. Wasn't Aristotle suggesting "the wisdom of the world" as a separate science? The philosophy may have forgotten the simple meaning of "-sophia" (wisdom) yet it is, ultimately speaking, nothing else that we are after. Needless to say, this approach changes radically the optic and mentality of present institutional tradition. It involves, namely, as the daily practice, the risk of institutional action in the real time and living circumstances i.e. taking part of responsibility for the destiny of the identity the institution stands for. Finally, the birth of community museums (eco-museums) coincided with the conviction that museums bear their part of responsibility for the development of the society. The notion of sustainable development, i.e. the one that retains balance and variety of vital forces, justifies well the notion of museum as a cybernetic mechanism of a society <sup>20</sup> , and the theory that supports and assists such mechanisms.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">To the configuration of museums, libraries, archives, sites, parks and alike, Mnemosophy as syncretic discipline, should strive to answer the main questions that arise from these disciplines, much to the same list as would be proposed by journalist procedure: WHAT is heritage? WHAT are the historical changes of the idea of the past and that of heritage? WHEN did they happen, WHY and in WHAT circumstances? WHY is heritage collected, kept and stored? WHO stores WHAT ? WHO is in charge of heritage? In WHOSE name? WHO should be served and HOW? WHAT is the future of the past? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Creativity taken into account </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Traditional heritage institution was formed as the end of the process of musealisation. The mistery of immense past was arbitrarily transformed into the classified, taxonomic quantity of museum or archival collection. Even scientific procedure could be arbitrary (as might already be obvious), but individual collectioneur's interest is, as a rule. Thus, majority of museums came into being without exact reference to some identity, let alone to the complexity of the reality of past. The entirely random nature of birth of museums is much corrected in modern times leaving the transformation to the scientific knowledge of curators. One has to know, however, that museum curator rarely creates science but follows it, choosing and structuring his or hers collection to illustrate, not the reality but the scientific view on it. Therefore, science is the authority which justifies the choice made. As result, the meta-reality of museum corresponds to a certain extent with the departing reality of the past. Devouring the future and producing more and more past, which is then put into museums, the world is turning into an immense museum. Once in secure hide of storage, the past becomes a reality of heritage. Researched and drastically selected once again ( to form some 15 % ,on an average, of the original quantity it is then presented in this form to the public. The public, besides fellow professionals, itself well selected, cultured and conditioned by the education, comes regularly to meet the Eternity exposed in the glass cases. Once out of the museum, it feels fascinated, knowledgeable, and secure being convinced in the omnipotent nature of science. Idyllic, but false. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The museum, contrary to traditional notion, does not happen in museum but in the visitor's mind. Like in any real theatre, the revelation, the ecstasy, happens by the stage but not on it. Thus, museum is not the end but the intermediary, the transmitter, selector and amplifier, a medium and means. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The process of musealization implies making choice, using analogy and abstraction, scientific knowledge and common sense respectively. But any act of choice, as known in physics or art, is necessarily a creative act. There is no way to avoid the fact as only "one-to-one" map assures accuracy but becomes ridiculous <sup>21</sup>. The process of musealisation implies, therefore, the creative responsibility. If it is there, and as inevitable, it should be explored and used to the advantage of the professional effectiveness. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">But, since museum institution is not an aim in itself, the counter-balancing process to musealisation is communication. It is the finishing part of the mediating role of heritage institutions. It should happen as a process of interchange, guided by the vital forces of development, life itself that is, and by the affective principle. If the professional on one side does not love the user on the other, and vice versa, the collaboration stands little chances as it ends up in cultural cliché. Inaptitude of institutions to take part in creative forces of living culture is the sign of their obsolescence and decadence of the society itself. A mission defined in broad strategic arguments of the survival, serves the purpose well, as there the theory acts as incentive of constant adjustment of institution to the context and needs. Working hard upon this dynamic quality of heritage institutions transforms them into (one of the) guiding mechanisms of contemporary society. Able to receive the signals, to analyze them and select answers then emitted to the community of users, - heritage institutions use the wisdom as filtered, sublimated knowledge, as catalyst, enzyme and hormone to produce corrective effects, acquire transparency and arguments for democratic decision-making. Knowledge can easily be useless, messages can become dangerous, but the creative dialogue that links the collective experience to present day needs rarely misses. Some years ago this seemed mere intellectualizing but now the whole concept of sustainable development depends upon these subtleties. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Any heritage institution is double-natured theatre: that of facts and of fiction. The factual side is scientifically sustained process of musealisation, whereas the "fictional" part pertains to communication, emission, - performance. Of course this part could not be properly done in a museum where curators are academic specialists who learned their museum job on the spot by an old method of "sitting next to Sally". This is why the need ushered architects, designers, media experts, artists, actors, stage directors, light engineers and, - consultants able to direct the entire production. The heritage "business" becoming complex in booming, will mean that the profile of new experts will form around the need. To remind ourselves, - the creativity here is double: that of performance (stage, script, dramatization) and that of effects (study of public and their needs, ways of mutual influence). Unlike the true theatre, heritage institution has to base its entire production upon scientific factography, but this isn't much of a difficulty once the dialog with the science is opened.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">What heritage institutions perform is the transfer of wisdom, made possible through para-artistic quality of heritage communication. Even if compared to art it demonstrates some conspicuous similarities: the same source of inspiration (identity) the same capacity (creativity), the same method (interpretation) and the same quality objective (communication, as giving and taking). Since creativity means art and ethical standpoint, both mean responsibility. This position of serious partner able to request autonomous status from the state administration and ready to negotiate usable terms with corporate business is something that suggests a strong professional background. This, however, cannot be achieved without convincing and ambitious body of theory. It might have been ridiculous that only museum people and peasants had no any job training before starting to earn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">their living from it, but it has become impossible to retain this curious luxury any more, - at least for museum people. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Learning how to transform the immensity of past human experience into usable wisdom and learning why, how and to whom offer these glittering nuggets might comprise composing some Mnemosophy. According to the counter active satisfaction of any cybernetic thinking, the proposal makes sense even if it only corrects the present insufficiencies of the institutional field of heritage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">by Tomislav Šola, 1995.<br /> </span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Neickelius, C.F. used the term "museographie" already in 1727, signaling <correctly its substance.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Stransky, Z. Zbynek used the term in his numerous texts upon the scientific <status of museology</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">What Mathilde Bellaigue calls "les grand etapes successives": Santiago de Chile, <Lourmarin, Le Creusot, Quebec.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> see the diagram No.1, explaining the "copernican" change by which the centre <of the theoretical speculation is not the museum institution but the concept of <heritage</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> The interpretation effort involved all secondary museum material (diorama, <models, charts, diagrams, illustrations, photography, informatic recording, audio-<visual information etc.). The need for the context and for the comparison (as <any instructive method would necessarily require) changed further the nature of <museum object towards ephemeral and ordinary.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> In North America, where changes happen earlier, the theory seems to be <less important but the practice preceeds it well pushing towards the broader, <all embarcimg schemes; in U.S.A. Preservation Act (1966) was first of the <regulations that started the evolution: National Register of Historic Sites, <Advisory Council on Historic Places (1978), Heritage Conservation and <Recreation Service at the Department of Interior (showing thus the widening <tendency, both terminologically and finctionally); the same development, which is <topped by CHIN (Canadian Heritage Network) can be traced in Canada. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> In the last decade there is growing number of places where professional <education (usually at post-graduate level) is offered cumulatively to the variety <of future professionals, from museums, art galleries, archives, historic sites, <libraries, interpretation centres heritage plannning groups and to those from <similar institutions: Advance Studies in Cultural Resource Management <(University of Victoria, Canada); Ecole du Patrimoine (France); Reinwardt <Academy (Netherlands); University of Zagreb (Croatia) etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> That goes specially to heritage entertainment business, heritage parks, science <centres and alike which attract crowds of visitors and attract more easily public <and private funding.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> The usual level of treating the theme is the professional conduct and <legislation; one could claim that all that would logically derive from ethical <understanding of the nature and role of the museum institution in the society. <For some novelties in this development see the book: Edson, Garry ed. <Museum Ethics, Routledge, 1995. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Edson, Garry, from Texas Tech University is editing a book upon museum <ethics for Routledge of London</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Toulmin,S., Human Understanding: The Collective Use and Evolution of <Concepts, Princeton University Press, Princeton N.J. 1972.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Storer, N.W. The Hard Sciences and the Soft: Some Sociological Observations, <Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 55, 33-52.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - An Inquiry <into Values. Bantam New Age Book, 1981. p.179 first published by William Morrow an Company, Inc. 1974. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> One exception, known to the author, is the science centre "Heureka" in <Finland and there might be some others in the science and technology sector, <but anything of the kind is hardly possible in other museums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Šola, Tomislav. A contribution to a possible definition of Museology. A paper <presented at ICOM/ICOFOM Symposium: "The system of Museology and <interdisciplinarity", Paris, 1982. The ethusiastic reaction came though from <G.H.Riviere. The main objections throughout the years were basically two: <linguistic clumsiness of the term and lack of any pragmatic relevance to the <museum profession (English disagreed, French refused, German never cared and <Americans saw no need for an applied science at all).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> ecomuseology, new museology, economuseology</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Ewald Hering, German physiologist and psychologist (1834-1918); a very <inspirative and visionary author who wrote a book about a theory of memory, <regarding memory as "general function of any organized matter. In modern <technology of alloys, increasing the "memory" of material is actually acheiving <the extraordinary elasticity of these materials. It would be, therefore, normal to <use the analogy in its full capacity in the humanist field.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> See page .... of this book for some further reflection upon values in <museums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> see the text re-printed in this book "The prologue to the cybernetic museum"; <"cybernetic museum" is part of my international lecturing from 1989, also <mentioned in some of my published texts; this analysis merits further research <beyond my amateurish try. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Caroll, Lewis. as quoted in the paper by Frans Schouten </span></li>
</ol>
Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-33799544049495317202012-10-18T11:24:00.001-07:002012-10-18T11:24:05.376-07:00Can theory help and be proactive ?<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The shortest way to deal with this question would be by saying: Yes, it can. Further on, we may wish to know which theory can help in what way and to whom, under what conditions it could make way and push forward. <br /><br />What we have to deal with is Museology. It is not an entirely agreeable task as we deal with the matter that dwells upon variety of controversies, denied only by those occupying the extreme positions: it does or it does not exist. It does exist because we have it mentioned, discussed and wrote about since 17th century, because it is being taught at more than 800 places all around the world, because it exists in legislation and professional jargon etc. It does not exist, on the other hand, because serious protagonists say it is still in status nascendi, yet to be born; the pragmatists among scientists and managers alike refuse even considering it seriously. So, is there a way to solve the dilemma? We need answers urgently as it might easily be true that after some two hundred years of evident history of museum institution we can neither speak of museums as unquestionable public service nor we can claim that there is a respective profession behind this sector.</span></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Critics of traditional Museology</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Traditional Museology is museum centered. Since there is no other example of a science about an institution, it would be highly doubtful that this one could exist. It demonstrates clearly the inability to deal with the new practices in heritage care and communication. This is why at its very beginning it split into "special Museologies", trying to function as a divided whole, - very much responding to the very situation of the museums. With the appearance of the new, holistic approaches to the heritage care and with the insistence upon communication, Museology responded by multiplication of concepts instead of integration and openness.<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We do hear some clear voices here and there, but the prevailing state of today's Museology is still rather chaotic. Anybody inclined to take Museology seriously will stumble over the multitude of proposals: new Museology, ecomuseology, economuseology, Museum Studies etc. Whereas Museography clearly stands for the methods and techniques of museum working process, the same process is still assigned to Museology; some speak about museologists meaning museum people, while others talk about them as museographers. Others still, explain that curator of a museum is not necessarily a museologist (or: museumologist). Some differences are conceptual, some obviously terminological: is Museology interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary discipline makes a good question but the most using the two terms are having in mind only its eclectic nature. <br /><br />Traditional Museology became a sort of placebo discipline, an armchair science, and what was done usually lacked the witty charm of contemporary scientific discourse. But, as H. Hesse says, it is known that nobody writes worse than the defenders of the old ideologies. Besides, to mention just one inaptitude, - according to common sense and the testimonies of our African colleagues, - the concept of Museology is totally useless in Africa. The problem is, and let me signal it here, that European museography is useless there, because, put it this way or that, - what is being taught as Museology is not much more than a pretentious Museography: methods and techniques, and, - history, be it collection care, education, marketing, management or exhibitions. <br /><br />The system of present Museology is divergent and inconsistent, it is not yet in productive shape i.e. it can only service itself, but stays there and is not ultimately questioned because it needs a complete re-definition: it cannot receive any corrections as it is not an opened system. Had it been differently, Museology would not be for some hundred years in, what was afterwards called status nascendi. An unhappy defect, as it produced a sort of misology, a pragmatic opposition to solving some problems of profession by reflection and intellectual effort. The quantitative boom of museums produced the self-satisfaction of the profession which, in its turn, made all the questions of theory second rate. What was only a societal reaction to the drama of endangered identities, museum people understood as a triumph of pragmatism. The pragmatism, so triumphant and so shortsighted, is, as B.Rusell says, like a warm bath getting warmer and warmer so imperceptibly that one never knows exactly when to scream. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Why should we get concerned?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />It is this hot bath of today's museum situation that makes the discussion about Museology meaningful: we have to scream finally, if it is not too late. Squeezed between reluctant state administration, and reckless corporate business on one side and heritage industry and entertainment on the other, museums would thus signal two things: that we finally want a science helping to make us a true profession and that we need a body of sublimated multidisciplinary experience able to define our entire professional mind. Museums face the stagnation whereas heritage in its totality becomes more and more an integral part of everyday culture. It may be, indeed, all the same who will do the job, but we claim the right, don't we? But we do not have a coherent and convincing way to express ourselves, first of all to achieve understanding among ourselves and, secondly, to be clear to our partners and clients. Besides, a true profession knows organizational coherence which is above the specific differences of its parts. Moreover, it transcends not only particular interests of an individual institution but also of the individual experts, prolonging their interests in terms of both, space and time: it is not only those circumstances of yours, hic et nunc, that will guide your interests. The Museology in that sense, as well as in the sense of a science with its proper place in the scientific community, - does not exist. But we do have some professional basis. <br /><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Do we have a theory?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />It seems that we do. Museography is a constantly developing theoretical body which contains abstracted, abbreviated and normed professional experience concerning the methods and techniques of our job. We now have numerous manuals which clearly, and I would say rightly, claim to be usable or even good guides to a successful museum practice. They represent a mixture of skills and procedures which guide any professional throughout the museum working process. Those authors, being convinced, maybe even talented, practitioners, have a pragmatic barrier that prevents them, at any moment, to mention even a notion of a possible science behind the job they describe so well. They instruct the diligent feeders of the machine but where the machine is heading, and which directions all the machines go, with what foreseeable effects on themselves and the mission they have to accomplish, - that is outside their scope of interest (even the reach, maybe), and therefore inexistant. (So very human a behaviour). Of course, most museum people like this rationalist utopia where things seem clear and solid, where all questions are answered (even though only the answerable ones are posed, which is almost a matter of cartesian upbringing) and where perspectives are mathematically regular and endless. <br /><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Should we have a science of our own?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />Taken formally it is an academic question, but the answer is already contained in the questions posed, if they are posed, but whichever way taken, they will irresistibly sound like: Who we are? What do we want? Where do we go? We are institutions paid (tacitly) by the community administration, doing exactly what has to be done in museums (see the manual!), and this then also answers the other two questions. Great practitioners (J.C.Dana, Alma Wittlin, G.Morley, W.Sandberg, G.H.Riviere, D.S.Ripley, to metion just a few), posed those simple questions more than often, offering bright and visionary reflections together with innovative practices. <br /><br />The science we talk about, implicitly, can even be called Museology if we agree so but the name, like in any good marketing should not be misleading: we now talk not only about museums but about many other institutions, most of which, indeed, qualitfy for the membership in ICOM if they wish so (additional articles of the statutes enable it) but not many do. Science centres, heritage centres, theme parks, cultural centres, art centres, variety of private and company museums, natural reserves, natural parks, orientation centres, interpretation centres, permanent exhibitions, visitor centres, archeological sites, etc. are this growing heritage species, which might need some common explanation. <br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Knowing ourselves</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />It is not an easy effort any more, to define one's own self, and yet this sort of analysis, that we lack all the conceptual and methodological accessories for, is exactly the introspection we have to do. Know yourself! What more basic a request one can propose? Out of this introspective ability stems every possible quality afterwards. The fact is, - most people working in museums do not truly know the museum medium. They do not understand the museum concept. They recognize museums only where they see the recognizable technology. Can museum exist, in its elements at least, outside of institutions, in the streets, in the heads, in other cultural forms? Is museum necessary everywhere and in all cultures? What are the extents and limits of museum expression? It is absolutely unthinkable that a theater could be successful when directed by somebody who does not understand the specificity of theater medium. What makes a true virtuoso is the profound understanding of the instrument. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">How far do we reach?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />We cannot afford any more to think only in terms of physical institution but in terms of concepts. But this is yet unexplored land and no wonder we fear the unknown: with data and information banks (including even museum storages in their network), with telematics and virtual museum of hypermedia, all there, we must seriously consider how close our relations are with other institutional sectors that have the same generative concept of heritage as their basis: archives and libraries, to mention only the closest. Aren't we the branches of a same tree? We all deal with the selected collective memory, and all have possibilities to form our messages the way that immediately comprises responsibility (What message? For whom? In whose name?). Twelve years ago when the term "heritology" was provocatively proposed ([ola, 1982.), it was there only to show the direction where we should be trying to find our science. What can be seen as based upon similar principle forms the common area of resonances, of unifying factors, deserves definition of that principle: most likely we are talking about the same strive to assure the continuity of the heritage, be it natural, civilizational or cultural; we are talking about survival of identities endangered by the change and accumulation of new experiences; we are talking about preservation of information (in form of objects and/or recorded), of upkeep of messages and their creation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Understanding the mission</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />We need a science to be able to define and constantly redefine, - our mission. It is a multidisciplinary approach applied to the specific filed of heritage, which should enable us to make clear mind upon whom do we serve, - who are our true bosses. <br /><br />There is no permanent definition of the role of museums as it changed ever since the creation of museums so the question is only how well we would like to adjust it to the present and possible users. All the mentioned areas of institutional heritage care make selection and thus create the bodies of collective memory. They create memory (although they claim that it is science that decides for them) because every act of choice is necessarily subjective and potentially also creative act. It is expertise, vocation, talent and responsibility that make the creation. And, the sooner one knows this obligation, the better chances there are for a creation to take place. <br /><br />What is creation in museums and institutions alike? Successful, meaningful, productive, spiritual impact upon the mind of the visitor that leads to a changed behaviour on the higher conceptual level. An impact that is created through repeated emissions corrected by the received reaction i.e. through communicational process can produce a surplus value that I would like to identify as wisdom. <br /><br />A science of heritage deals with the quality of memory, not just any memory as it might appear with today's perfectionism leading to a future of perfect recall: What a nightmare! We talk about a ennobling and enriching the raw material of memory so that it becomes a wisdom. This Mnemosophia ([ola, 1985.) could make sense by the wideness of its application, openness of its possible system, and qualitative ambition it contains by definition. <br /><br />If museum institution is a means of good, the source of wisdom amalgamated and sedimented in the past, then it might be perceived as a mechanism of liberation and emancipation. (There are many museums that the soul and torture the mind into the moulds of concepts and myths of suspect quality). Mnemosphy could also help us to and create museums where we shall not assure only the transfer of socially and scientifically formed knowledge (i.e. education) as knowledge alone, disregarding the quantity, serves little purpose. If museums cannot appropriate the sort of impact produced by great music, namely that feeling of fulfillment and closeness to the essence, if they cannot enhance self knowing, through contemplation and the chatarsis of understanding, - then they might easily find themselves out of business, - to put it rudely.<br />Organization of the service<br /><br />In most countries of the world, museums are badly organized as a sector. Most of them function as separate strongholds of some vaguely common cause: the spirit of private collectors still dwelling in their collections invaded their minds. The frontiers between them are drawn by scientific classification, by fiscal status, by rank, by size and ambition, by administration, - and by individualism. Besides, what they expose are parts of an imaginary puzzle never meant to be put together. In this world of synthesis museums are still not prepared to go far from their analysis, not to mention any further ambition, like contributing to the sustained development of society. Without the professional philosophy, without unity through the same mission, assured by professional discipline and vocational fidelity to a common cause, - there is little hope museums could remain a developing profession. Some Mnemosophy or call-it-what-you-like science could give the convincing frame to this professional cross reference, introducing the notion of museums as common, unified source and building the network towards systems of libraries, archives and towards all the rising variety of other heritage oriented institutions and organizations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Building a profession</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Finally!, one would almost exclaim. Just like disordered ranks are not an army, the dismembered and divided institutional clusters are not a profession. So, little can be done on a larger scale or in a conceptual shift, when we still have the majority of people working in museums without any formal training that would enable them to understand the medium and the mission in its full potential. The talent and quality experience are both rare so the profession is constituted upon the fact of specific institution they all work in. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I am convinced that two hundred years of history and some half a century of true effort to build a profession were not entirely sufficient: there are weak zones in what should be a compact professional system: legal regulations (regulating the status in the society), licensing system (as our job is performed by all and everybody), code of ethics (usually of "conduct", hardly concerning mind and attitudes), autonomy (museums are autonomous only when acting according the rules of "establishment") and mission (which is mostly defined at the lowest, technical level). </span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Insisting upon professionalism is not building a position of a guild but caring that museums and kindred institutions become a solid, reliable partner: to the state, to the media, to the informatic and telecommunication business and to the corporate business itself. If we consent to the present role and impact of museums, we might be relatively happy, at least in the cultural centres, with the place assigned to museums. But if we see museums as active, creative addition in the society where they use their enormous potential of stored knowledge in pursuing humanist and democratic ideals, forced sometimes into disagreement with the actual interests of governing force, - then they might profit for the common benefits if they present a strong, united profession (When saying united, I even mean decentralized!).</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Museums cannot ignore the globalization of many a problem of modern civilization: if they wish to participate in solutions (And I believe they should), the have to think globally, wherever their acting would be performed. As a strong profession (this "Mnemosophy" is state of mind) they can see that true multidisciplinarity means ability to move into the interspace, where the firm ground is not own institution but the common principle and mission. Thinking along these lines one easily comes to solutions which practice will certainly find, but one wonders will that happen in (proper) time, or at least in proper way: preliminary reflection enables practice to locate the solutions effectively. I therefore believe that we could (and should, indeed) have theoretical writings about the future of our profession(s) with the sole ambition to clear the mind and comprehend our present selves. (The first book on the theme was recently published by Routledge). A profession without its speculative theory is like a vehicle without headlights: usable and secure when weather conditions are ideal. So, even the ideas I have proposed will, it seems to me, depend upon how you estimate the state of museums, of heritage or, maybe, even of this world of ours.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Zagreb, October 2004</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></div>
Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8258863753392634698.post-38900662068138442952012-08-02T03:24:00.000-07:002012-08-13T08:14:03.026-07:00The heritage product as suggested by a marketing approach<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">by Tomislav Šola </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Introduction</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">The number of true traditionalists in the profession is probably rather small these days, but there are many experts who are not doing a good job, even outside the inherited professional tradition. It is not easy to change established ways of thinking and practices. This means that museums continue to interpret their objectives as scientific ambitions which in presentation take on an anaesthetized or even visually attractive appearance. Nor is it easy to ask ourselves who we are, what we are producing, for whom we are producing it, and where we see the quality of the results. Only a few decades ago (if that, in some places) the profession was still focused on scientific work within the limits imposed by the domain of a specific academic discipline. Collecting was both a prerequisite and its consequence. Until recently, museums were still working for an exclusive audience of experts and their regular or supposed clientele. What the community was offered was unacceptable because it was largely incomprehensible and de-contextualized. Now many take it for granted that the focus has switched to deliverables outside the museum.<br /><br />However, there is even a trend toward returning to the old values according to which museums disseminate knowledge and let the “exhibits speak for themselves”. The misunderstandings are caused by the inadequacy of the occupation<sup>1</sup>, which does not seem to be able to find the right balance between science and society or between “profit” and mission. Professionalism, which is attained only occasionally (not systemically), is this ability to balance these opposing ambitions. Quite frequently voices are raised warning about the danger of the profession taking the wrong direction, and most often they resort to a narrow, reduced definition of the working process that should not be considered sufficient: “…curators should not let themselves be distracted from their primary task, which is the preservation and enrichment of their collections”<sup>2</sup>. Collecting and care of the resultant collections are so self-explanatory and comprehensible (like the science which makes them possible) that any trained curator would take them as a starting premise of the job. Therefore, curators are doing a bad job if they forget the principles of museum work, but equally so if they forget that a museum is a institution for communication. Besides that, museums represent immense variety, so generally speaking one should trust a theoretician – a generalist with knowledge of curatorship practice – more than the more frequently occurring curator, who naturally conveys their own particular experience gathered from the perspective of their own museum. In other words, a curator without professional training for the specific working process within an institution of public memory is but a scientist trying to run a public professional programme. A reliable, excellent scientist will always count, but in a situation when most museums have just one or only a few employees, a generalist with good communication skills will see more and know more. The past decade was very much one in which theory finally became important enough to suggest re-orientation of practice. Reactions to these changes have once again made it very trendy to view museums as places where knowledge is created and distributed. That way, it seems, the temptations of management and marketing become minimal: the world is a deceitful kaleidoscope of challenges, so ignoring this or insisting upon reliable tradition gives an illusion of security. It is important to realize that conventional museums are not capable of becoming part of the knowledge industry, because that field is governed by different,somewhat harsher rules: information and knowledge dealers constitute a distinctive business where it would be a rare museum that could survive the competition – one in which the research was only part of the job. The same would apply if museums were (once again) to consider themselves primarily educational institutions, not only because they lack regularity, compulsion or the appropriate professional education, but because it is not their primary role. Neither research nor education should be a description of the museum product: they may be part of it or a means to providing it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Marketing is a way of producing and retaining an insight into the nature of museums. Concentrating marketing on the consumer reminds museums that marketing is a new term for the sector’s responsibility. It is clear that there is often resentment to such a confrontation with evident truth. Marketing is not a solution to all of our problems; it cannot be a magic wand: it is a perfect reminder of what museums have to deliver and what the desirable quality of their deliverables would be. If used correctly, marketing, as a modern brand of managerial expertise, would pose the necessary questions and suggest,based upon its own research, the strategic and tactical nature of the answers. It has long been believed that marketing belongs to commercial business, but in fact no form of management is reserved solely for commerce. No matter who invented it and why, we know the principles will be the same; only the interpretations and strategic objectives will differ. Convincing marketing will produce precise and simple answers to questions not previously posed: What business are you in? What is your product? Did we ever pay any attention, until relatively recently, to this? Not really, because everything we were doing was obvious – perhaps too obvious to be true.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">“The chances for the museum to reach the state of perfect functioning of the institution depend in the first place on the clearness of the definition of its potential functions: one cannot target the goals that are not clearly defined.”<sup>3</sup> (Is it not true that a person who is both a theoretician and a practitioner, a curator with insight and vision, separated from the future by several decades, sees clearly what mere practitioners were unable to conceive?) Marketing suggests that kind of pondering and insight. In the gradation of preciseness it must reject some fundamental claims like the seemingly simple one that: “As a matter of fact, a museum, in toto, needs to be public-oriented.”<sup>4</sup> This must be understood correctly. The “orientation” in question is not superficial, merely declarative. A poor marketing specialist, usually with an ambition to pursue public relations, will possibly regard everything obtained from the curator as the product, and will therefore probably construe their own task to be the addition of some kind of persuasive mechanism to whatever he or she is engaged to “sell”. Public orientation implicitly comprises a product required by the public, one which suits their needs and, to some extent, their wishes. Therefore, when defining museum services, it is not enough simply to say that a museum offers the public “communication with the artefacts”<sup>5</sup>, which is precisely the kind of narrow view that the more superficial curators and marketing experts seem willing to accept.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The nature of the product</span></h4>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />To make a good product, which is the basis of marketing, it is necessary to create a corporate identity, “to research the market, carry out visitor surveys, build public and media relations and it is also necessary to have appropriate design, interpretation, publicity and advertising.”<sup>6</sup> The services a museum offers operate on three levels, so that we can identify the place of the actual product –and consequently its quality – more easily:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The scientific range (which is mostly out of the reach and interest </span>of a wider audience);</li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The populist range (which offers sensation, often without particular </span>concern for quality);<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The professional range (which stems from knowledge museums</span><span style="font-size: small;"> and heritage and their role in society); </span></li>
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</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">The last one should be based on a balanced mixture of science</span> and theatre; a mixture which by the type of discourse and contents is suited to the needs and abilities of its audience. Some call it “promotion-focused heritage”<sup>7</sup>, but that would need an accent upon societal relevance. When trying to define a museum product, some marketing experts believe that the museum is a specific institution which has “intrinsic socially determined or derived functions and characteristics”<sup>8</sup> and that most museums are “multiproduct and multiservice”<sup>9</sup> organizations. The same author suggests “a product portfolio strategy” and thinks that “a first step in portfolio analysis is to identify the museum’s key programs and businesses”. Instead of such an approach, which
<span style="font-size: small;">measures the success of a portfolio by reconciling the meeting of the museum’s mission criteria (“centrality”) on the one hand with the criteria of brand recognition and reputation (“quality”) on the other, success could be measured in terms of the balance created between the scientific quality of the museum product and the degree to which the museum meets the needs of the community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">What is the product?</span></h4>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Marketing, as a form and part of management, demands clarity, which is not something the sector is used to: “the product must be at the centre of successful marketing”<sup>10</sup>. What is our product? Unfortunately, it is not easy to define the product, and the fact remains that without a clearly understood product and a clear idea of the quality it should display, there can be no real application of the concept of marketing. Generally speaking, the product is everything that is meant to be exchanged, but generalities are of little use to the pragmatist, as we shall see. Marketing logic really encourages simple definition of the product, and the whole non-profit sector, including museums, is reluctant to see the advantage of doing so. The problem is that in this sector the benefits of clear product definition are not seen immediately and do not have direct effects. Museum literature gives little support to this so the theory faces the tasks of (re)defining the basis of the (museum, heritage) occupation(s) and trade and of major re-conceptualization. The strain of defining a product has beneficial consequences for the occupation in crisis, because it presupposes a vision of quality. This is something the literature has only recently begun to mention. Do we have to say that it is by defining the product and its quality that we are finally achieving a definition of the criteria for working in the museum and heritage business? The very existence of criteria is one of the basic preconditions for the status of the profession. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Marketing comprises a holistic approach which requires deduction of details from the whole, and the whole from the details, respectively. However, certain notions are central: the product and the user. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The possible definitions of a product demonstrate the three basic market approaches<sup>11</sup>. The product may be:</span>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">generic, i.e. an expected product; one that suggests itself without </span>effort; this is mostly the case with museums where the product<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>is cheap and economical, to save money, and the user profile ordinary<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>– usually the faithful, culturally conditioned public; in this case marketing<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>can be limited to advertising and distribution;</li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">an expanded product; such a product is in itself the result of </span>the marketing process and it requires the entire marketing cycle to be<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>harnessed: from product formation to its advertisement to the public,<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>gauging of its effects, and implementation of improvements; this is the<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>case with some conceptually newer museums;</li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">a necessary or useful product; designed as a supplement to the </span>expanded product; it presupposes an ethical responsibility that reveals and attempts to satisfy needs through research and contemplation; there are few products of this type in museums. Here, marketing is<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>used in tandem with full insight into the respective heritage occupation and its mission.</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">If we take the example of art museums, which are among the most delicate of heritage institutions, and point out just the first possibility of many, the generic product is the standard art exhibition with works of art on display, an opening event and a catalogue<sup>12</sup>. The exhibition corresponds perfectly with the research interests and domain of expertise of the curator concerned. The priorities in any choices, whether concerning the theme or its interpretation, are those of the “inner circle” – the professionals.<br />The expanded product might be an exhibition which is consciously directed at a particular segment of the population, some particular group or indeed (with sound reasons) to a “general” public. It comprises multiple points of outside contact, sources of strategic information,preparation for media presentations, sophisticated accompanying events, several levels of information and distribution (posters, outdoor advertising, leaflets, catalogues…), its own accompanying products for sale in the museum shop, and an evaluation of the outcomes of the exhibition. This is a properly marketed product. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The necessary, useful product comprises all the qualities of the former. It may take the outward form of an exhibition on a topic reflecting public interest (impossible without profound research and insight), or one which explains a particular phenomenon or concept, examines all its social connotations, and attempts to use it to influence and change reality. It is an effort to better the human condition, be it in one respect or more, in the particular group or community, nonetheless with the awareness that any isolated effort is futile but that many make a difference. A contemporary art museum capable of creating this kind of product might demonstrate a programme aimed at establishing basic visual literacy among targeted audiences. This would not exclude initiated connoisseurs, would show concern for the often visually devastating reality of the tax payers, and educate itself future audiences. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Such an exhibition might speak about the meaning of art, its incorporation in life, and the museum curator and his view of his mission; it may try to speak about art by portraying just one artist and his work, well enough known to be a good case study. Such a series of events and activities comprising exhibition(s) is a particular kind of socially and aesthetically pro-active heritage campaign. It turns a museum into a forum where questions – both spoken and unspoken ones – are posed and answered. If the work of an art museum bridges the gap between the common citizen and art production, and if it synergistically connects its various forms of expression, if it explains art when it is not on a pedestal or hung on the museum wall, then we can speak of its being a convincing, useful product, in this case, of the art museum. The example of the art museum is chosen deliberately, as art is (seemingly) the most difficult part of heritage to communicate effectively or employ for the otherwise underestimated and depreciated daily circumstances of ordinary people. This – the power to change the life of the common, insecure, exploited and manipulated, of the individual that nobody (except in political declarations) treats as an individual, but merely as an ingredient of the grey mass – this is the touchstone of the quality of any heritage institution’s product.A positive elitism, as sane perfection and excellence in whatever we value greatly, remains a possibility but needs to become a public goal,however ideal or unattainable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Commercial marketing will be of little help in defining the product. It will tend to pin down a particular thing or act and see it as an object of exchange. A softer, broader approach is required, to allow the seemingly immeasurable, impalpable and intangible to be regarded as a product. Therefore, though the structure and vocabulary may remain the same, the definitions are necessarily different. Even marketing experts without cultural insight sense this by guessing correctly that the product may be found in a “blending of science and art”, in “creative blending of inputs”<sup>13</sup>. The key to a sustainable definition has to come from a broad base of understanding the non-profit status of heritage as a sector and of museums, and their function as one of the public services that should remain a domain of free or assisted access – making clear that they are a basic civil right, like education and health care. This may sound rather “socialist” an idea in the context and against the background of radical capitalist liberalism. Yet the loss of quality we have suffered in education and health care may easily be topped by the loss of culture through excessive commodification and commercialisation of heritage. Both processes are well underway, so the problem of product definition will indeed become the touchstone by which we shall know the level of decadence of the social state we are being exposed to. It is not a matter of understanding an exhibition as a product or not. What is at stake is not mere control of the product development but the social use of public memory. The end to which we use the collective experience has never been the subject of a social contract or some long-term strategy. It is all still hidden within the internal rules of different occupations and particular subjects concerning conservation and care of heritage. A huge professional challenge, yet to attain its full importance, is developing expertise capable of differentiating between the heritage industry, heritage tourism and heritage-focused cultural industry on the one hand, and public heritage institutions on the other. Marketing makes this more obvious than heritage-related occupational theory because it poses clear questions. It is able to function only with clear demarcations and definitions. In that role, marketing is the most perfect reminder of all our obligations, liabilities, tacit commitmentsand social responsibilities. </span><br />
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<h4>
<span style="font-size: small;">Conclusion</span></h4>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />One option is to consider that the product is “everything the museum has to offer”.14 “Museums which do not offer high standards of public facilities and customer care will become increasingly unattractive.”<sup>15</sup> One can also consider the product to be the “… amalgam of services, people, buildings, facilities, atmosphere, customer care, access and accessibility, corporate presentation, collections, events and activities and many other quantifiable and non-quantifiable factors.”<sup>16</sup>The same author sees “what essentially makes a museum’s identity and personality”<sup>17</sup> in this blend.For some the product is “education” in the museum<sup>1</sup>18, while other authors will see the practical value of the collection as the museum product.<sup>19</sup> Moreover, some will see the “tip of the iceberg” in the object or the artefact, but they will still believe that the museum artefact “retains the absolutely essential function.”<sup>20</sup> “A museum collection is one that determines the visitors’ experience”<sup>21</sup>, above all. It may indeed be, but very often it does not fulfil this criterion. A definition of the museum product will not come out of concentration on the collection, nor will it come out of a fascination with the museum artefact. This is not clear to marketing experts, because they do not understand the essence of the museum institution. Curators, on the other hand, find it difficult to understand marketing, because they do not know to what depth the project marketing extends: “museums have always marketed their products – exhibitions, displays and so forth…”<sup>22</sup><br />Unfortunately, they are rarely in a position to properly answer the questions that marketing puts before them because, conceptually, they live in the past. That is why marketing is still an unconvincing variant of the nascent commercial model.<br />The product can also be seen as the set of services provided by the museum: information and identification services, research facilities, shops, publications, educational programmes for leisure time, and other educational services.<sup>23</sup> One often comes across the attitude that “a visit to the museum is the museum’s principal product” <sup>24</sup>, but in such a way that this encompasses everything from the car park and clean toilets to the quality and appeal of the collection, exhibition and extra events. In short, the product would be “a coherent and satisfying visit”.<sup>25</sup> And in such cases, we are again dealing partly with the product and partly with some of its outward manifestations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Literature on museums will offer many solutions. However, to consider these particular elements to be the museum product is a way of avoiding difficult solutions and proclaiming the visible service to be the product. According to various authors, equipment, comfort, design, a pleasant atmosphere, a full shop, helpful staff, a real ticket office, good toilets, good signposting, etc., is a welcome basis for the main event that is the permanent exhibition and accompanying programmes. This is the level where the ultimate product is yet to be realized.<br />Knowing that the final, central product of the museum is completely intangible and invisible should not be a disappointment, either for the inexperienced curator or for the marketing expert. Few among them understand it properly: “although there is a physical product (the collection), what is really being marketed is an intangible […]the importance of the product is […] in the mental impact [it has] on the user or buyer […] the consumer “will receive [this product] as an idea, as information, as mental stimulation.”<sup>26</sup>If the theatre can cope with this frustration known to all the creative professions, it is time the museum curator realized what business they are in – not science, not information, not education, not entertainment but communication. <sup>27</sup>Understood correctly, it contains all of the above.<sup>28</sup>Communication includes trying to establish an exchange, and therefore it necessarily aspires to affective quality and to the creativity we find in reproductive art. This conceptualized communication quality must have a scientific basis, of course. “A successful popularisation can be performed only on the basis of scientific quality.” It goes without saying that it would be wrong to forget this view of quality. “Only quality deserves to survive. The amount and level of research could be a measure for the chances of survival.” Creativity will decide on the balance between two qualities – the scientific quality and the quality of communication, which the museum user obviously perceives as one. The product is the difference in the visitor between their state before and after their visit, seen in its effects, such as awareness of the environment, self-realization, the quality of contemplation and the social event that was experienced in the museum. It is also the knowledge, the education, and the aesthetic pleasure or inspiration gained in the museum, as well as the contribution made to the individual’s selfconfidence, their awareness of their values, their awareness of the richness we are surrounded with, and their ability to recognize all of these. The development of respect for the environment, built or natural, as an asset which should be carefully looked after because this generation has borrowed it from the next, is also a product. The product should be a means by which the museum is able to create trans-generational moral responsibility built on the concept of contributing to the public good. Every success at bringing back life to a dying tradition, knowledge or skill is a product. The joy that comes from an inspired moment of realization, which is more than simple knowledge, but is a common trait found in the theatre, museums and good schools; in short, something the psychologists call “the Aha! effect”, the relief or joy of understanding – this, too, is a product. The sum of the product is the quantity and quality of all these changes brought about by a visit to the museum. If a museum of natural sciences, for example, succeeds in increasing the visitor’s awareness, in helping the visitor to understand man’s role in nature, this is a delivered product. The nature of the change to the prevailing ignorance lies in the awareness that man has an obligation to adapt to and cooperate with nature; he should take whatever nature gives him, but not by using violence and brutally imposing changes. That is the essential part of the museum product.<br />Thus, the actual product is the museum’s effect on the individual, and everything that preceded and enabled that effect (the collection, presentation, programme, building, comfort, etc.) is, regardless of its importance, only a means.<br />For those who see money as something that comes before “unnecessary theorizing”, museums are providing more and more evidence of their hard economic value. They have become the main driving force behind the development and revival of cities and regions. Can we keep them so effective and yet unquestionably dissociated from the commercial sector and its pervasive focus on profit and augmenting that profit? We must. In the explanation of the reasons why this is so important lie new definitions of the (future) profession and of the product, only fleetingly tackled here.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><br />1 Museum curatorship is not a profession but an occupation; I have dealt with the problem often. This causes many misunderstandings within the trade because the prerogatives of a profession entitle its practitioners to a much greater<br />role in society.<br /><br />2 “Le nouveau visage des musées: la vocation culturelle et le service du public”, Etudes speciales, Institut la Boene, Paris<br />1990, p.24.; the words cited are those of Mr J. Rankinn from the British Museum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">3 Wittlin, Alma, Museums: in search of a usable future, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1977, p. 185.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">4 Vleuten, Ronald van, “The role of the museum public relations officer”, Public view: the ICOM handbook of museum public relations, Corinne Bellow (ed.),ICOM MPR Committee, Paris 1998,<br />p. 22.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">5 Dixon, Brian, “Marketing for museums: enhancing the social value of the museum experience”, Paper at the annual conference of ICOM MPR Committee, Girona, Spain 1991 (manuscript), p. 19.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">6 Lewis, Peter, “Museums and marketing”,Manual of curatorship John M.A. Thompson (ed.), Butterworth & Heinemann, London 1992, p. 152.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">7 Dibb and Simkin, 1993, in: Mclean,Fiona, Marketing the Museum, Routledge, London 1997, p. 59.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">8 Dixon, Brian, “Marketing for museums…”,op. cit., p. 1.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">9 Kotler, Neil, Kotler, Philip, Museum strategy and marketing: designing missions, building audiences, generating revenue<br />and resources, Jossey Bass Publishers, San Francisco 1998, p. 89.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">10 Adams, Donald G., “Listening to the audience”, Public view: the ICOM handbook…, op. cit., p. 118. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">11 Marketing models for commercial institutions are rarely “simplified” or adjusted to the needs of specific nonprofit<br />organizations such as museums; in museum literature dependence on<br />commercial patterns is the source of misinterpretations of museum marketing.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">12 This is the practice of most art museums,especially in Eastern Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">13 Dixon, Brian, “Marketing for museums…”,p. 9</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">14 Vleuten, Ronald van, “Museum marketing: a definition”, Marketing the arts: every vital aspect of museum management,<br />
Paris ICOM MPR Committee, 1992, p. 67.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">15 Runyard, Sue, The museum marketing handbook, Museums and Galleries Commission, London 1994, p. 72.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">16 Ambrose T., Paine, C., Museum basics, ICOM, Routledge, London 1993, p. 26.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">17 Idem.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">18 Ames, Peter J., “Marketing museums: means or master of the mission?”, Curator, Page 32.1 (1989), pp. 5-6.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">19 Dixon, Brian, “Marketing for museums…”,op. cit., p. 5.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">20 Adams, Donald G., “Listening to the audience…”, op. cit., p. 22.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">21 McLean Fiona, “Razvijanje muzeju prilagojenega marketinga”, Zbornik muzeoloskih predavanja 1993/1994, Zveza muzejev<br />
Slovenije, Ljubljana 1995, p. 41.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">22 Wilson, Guy, “Marketing and self-promotion in museums”, Museums Journal, 88, (2), 1998, p. 97.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">23 Ambrose, Timothy, Managing new museums: a guide to good practice. Scottish Museums Council, Edinburg 1993, p. 68.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">24 Adams, Donald G., “Listening to the audience…”, op. cit., p. 120.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">25 Ibidem.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">26 Dixon, Brian, “Marketing for museums…”, op. cit., p. 6.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">27 Tomislav Šola, „Od obrazovanja do komunikacije”, Informatica Museologica, 19½, 1998, pp. 92–95.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">28 Tomislav Šola, “Kiberneticki muzej”,1992 (unpublished).</span><br />
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Tomislav Šolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578212045532332821noreply@blogger.com