从博物馆陈列实践反观博物馆建筑--以瑞士三个艺术博物馆为例

在日新月异的当今世界，建筑大师们正在不断探索博物馆的建筑形式，建筑物的风格如何才能与博物馆内容“水乳交融”；博物馆的功能和外观以及观众在美学方面的享受，又如何才能作出独到的诠释，以本介绍的三个瑞士名艺术博物馆令人难忘而又别致的“个性化”建筑中，人们将得到启示。     

The Authority of objects: From regime Change to Paradigm Shift

Abstract Objects have never been quite as bluntly material as is conventionally claimed. Nothing is just a thing. We carve objects out of a blurry reality as we need them, creating narratives that adhere to them in greater or lesser degree. Traditional museums were held to be “about objects”—which were esteemed as material bearers of accrued significance. Why then the current disputes among museum professionals and observers who question the role of objects? Museums have always been about ideas and about objects. They foster human and physical interactions in which neither persons nor things take precedence.     

从卓越博物馆到卓越科技馆:理论、实践与评估探讨

培育具有卓越特性的科技馆群体是促进科技馆建设质量整体提升的重要手段之一。本研究对国内外博物馆领域追求卓越的理论与实践成果进行整体概述,重点梳理卓越绩效模式在欧洲博物馆的应用,以及美国博物馆联盟卓越认证的进程。结合国外科技馆追求卓越的实践经验,厘清卓越科技馆的内涵外延,有助于在现有的科技馆评估研究的基础上,构建卓越科技馆评估路径,为培育卓越的科技馆群体,促进现代科技馆体系更高层次的创新与发展提供借鉴参考。     

The Evolving State of the Art CD-ROM: The National Museum of American Art and Les Impressionistes

The present paper analyzes two prominent art history-based CD-ROMs published in 1996 and 1997, and suggests trends in the information and interface design of cultural multimedia programs. It reviews first- and second-generation feature sets, and assesses the initial impact of object-oriented programming. Both CD-ROMs are described in detail, and their interfaces and navigational structures appraised. Other questions treated include the virtues and pitfalls of hyperlinking, the audience for such ambitious projects, the impact of market dynamics, and potential transferability to the WorldWide Web.     

The Museum Experience: Mapping the Experience of Fine Art

How do visitors to fine art museums experience exhibitions? Can we classify their experiences? What are the factors that drive different types of visitor experience? We set out to answer these questions by analyzing from sociological, psychological, physiological, and behavioral perspectives the responses of 576 visitors to a special exhibition 11: 1 (+ 3) = Eleven Collections for One Museum mounted at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, from June to August 2009. Our five‐year research project, eMotion: Mapping the Museum Experience, interpreted computer‐modeled movement‐tracking and physiological maps of the visitors in complement with entrance and exit surveys. We tested individual aspects of the visitor, such as her or his expectations of the exhibition prior to seeing it; his or her socio‐demographic characteristics; her or his affinity for art, mood just before and receptivity just after the visit; and spatial, individual, and group‐related behavior patterns. Our study breaks down three types of exhibition experience that we call “the contemplative,” “the enthusing,” and “the social experience.” The results yield new information about aesthetic arousal, cognitive reaction, patterns of social behavior, and the diverse elements of the exhibition experience.     

From Living to Virtual: Learning from Museum Objects

Interactive museum exhibits have increasingly placed replicated and virtual objects alongside exhibited authentic objects. Yet little is known about how these three categories of objects impact learning. This study of family learning in a botanical garden specifically focuses on how 12 parent‐child family units used explanations as they engaged with three plant types: living, model, and virtual. Family conversations were videotaped, transcribed, and coded. Findings suggested that: 1) explanations of biological processes were more frequent than other types; 2) model and virtual plants supported more process explanations than did the living plants; 3) the model plant supported more references to school than did the living and virtual plants; and 4) the living plant supported more references to everyday experiences than did the virtual plant.     

The Via Media of American Museum Practice: Henry Watson Kent and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Speculation about the character and purposes of American art museums has occasioned intense debate since their inception—never more so than today. Whether to be elitist or populist, object‐based or audience‐based forms the crux of many heated arguments. This article asserts that, in the midst of competing philosophies, the successful American art museum has in reality grown from an amalgam of ideas that form a via media or middle path, far more inclusive and pragmatic than is usually noted. This comprehensive philosophy is most effectively demonstrated in the work of Henry Watson Kent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during the first decades of the twentieth century. The work of Kent and his colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum is here examined as a paradigm for the via media museum practice that speaks to the aspirations of America's current art museum leadership.     

Crisis Leadership and Hurricane Katrina: The Portrayal of Authority by the Media in Natural Disasters

This study used the perspectives of Kenneth Burke to reveal how the media characterized the crisis responses of legitimate authorities during the natural disaster that affected the residents of New Orleans and its surrounding area as a result of Hurricane Katrina. A textual analysis of 52 articles drawn from the New York Times and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans from August 29 to September 3, 2005, indicate that positive and negative terms clustered around the military, the Department of Homeland Security, President Bush, the federal government, and the local government. The findings suggest that the media stepped outside their role of objective observer and assumed a privileged position to point blame toward those with legitimate authority. This positioning implicitly empowered the media to evaluate crisis responses and create a view of reality reflecting their perspective. Understanding how the media create images and depictions can affect how authorities frame their initial crisis responses.     

从古物陈列所到国立博古院——中国的第一座国家博物馆

古物陈列所是我国的第一座国立博物馆,建成之后在北洋政府统治时间一直发挥着国家博物馆的作用,因而古物陈列所也是我国的第一座国家博物馆。它的建立是中国博物馆事业发展的一座里程碑,是国家博物馆在中国诞生的标志。     

From Docent to Cyberdocent: Education and Guidancein the Virtual Museum

The paper explores the nature of docents'work in museums. From this is derived the concept ofthe docent function to describe different aspects ofthat work, some of which may be performed by otherpeople and also by objects such as maps andguidebooks. This analysis leads to the idea of theCyberdocent – an extension of the docent function totake advantage of new possibilities afforded byadvanced technologies. The potential of theCyberdocent in both virtual and real museums isinvestigated. The authors claim that it is theprovision of docent functions that make a physicalmuseum more than merely a collection, and equally, itis by the provision of Cyberdocent functionality thata virtual collection becomes a virtual museum.     

Portal to the Public: Museum Educators Collaborating with Scientists to Engage Museum Visitors with Current Science

Science museums play a role in creating visitor experiences that relate to contemporary issues in science, and in linking audiences to the scientific enterprise and the community of scientists. In the Portal to the Public approach, science researchers are trained by museum educators with experience in inquiry‐based learning, and are then given opportunities to translate their current research for museum audiences. Portal to the Public offers one solution to museums seeking to sustain a commitment to delivering experiences that reflect the dynamic pace of research, and the need to connect local communities to scientific research occurring in their midst.