Museums, plasticity, temporality

Throughout the 28th century, numerous philosophers of history and time have questioned the most ingrained of all our beliefs: does time progress in a linear way and is the future simply the next chapter in this narrative?² This essay proposes to rethink the future of museums outside of this narrative structure, one for which the future is reduced to words such as projection, prediction and prophecy. It asks: in an age of globalisation, can the museum still think of the future as the outcome of a chronological narrative? This essay takes one recent attempt (by the philosopher Catherine Malabou) to destabilise—again—this belief, and proposes to reveal the impact that this attempt could have on the museum's understanding of time and its place within it.     

工业遗址博物馆与工业企业博物馆的文化塑造:同与不同

本文以工业遗址博物馆和工业企业博物馆两类博物馆为例,探讨不同类型工业博物馆的建设路径。在界定两类博物馆概念和内涵的基础上,分析它们在文化塑造方面的异同,讨论两类博物馆的工业文化塑造模式,以期为两类博物馆的建设提供参考。     

Museums,Corporatism and the Civil Society

Abstract The prevailing worldview in North America is grounded in the belief that continuous economic growth is essential to individual and societal well‐being. One result of the dominance of this worldview is the rise of museum corporatism, characterized by the primacy of economic interests in institutional decision making. This paper provides a critical overview of the growing dominance of marketplace thinking in museum affairs, and argues that this market‐oriented viewpoint is enfeebling or diverting otherwise competent museums from realizing their unique strengths and opportunities as social institutions in civil society. The meaning and implications of the “civil society” are discussed with particular reference to museums, along with several examples of museums and galleries that are currently playing key roles as agents of the civil society. This paper contends that departing from the status quo of marketplace imperatives opens the door to more creative definitions of museums as social institutions. Rather than becoming more like businesses, museums must exploit their uniqueness, resisting the domination of marketplace thinking, and testing alternative means of achieving meaning and sustainability within their communities.     

Children's Museums: The Serious Business of Wonder,Play, and Learning

If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimiliate. Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder     

了解·理解·讲解——关于提高博物馆讲解水平的一点见解

随着博物馆面向社会免费开放的有效实施,在充分发挥馆藏、研究、展示传统三大职能的基础上,如何更好地拓展教育和服务功能的问题,越发引起各级政府和社会各界的高度重视和热情关注。加强博物馆建设需要从诸多方面努力,其中一项重要工作就是提高讲解水平。坚持贴近实际、贴近生活、贴近群众的原则,强化博物馆宣传教育队伍的素质,提高博物馆讲解人员的讲解能力,以期     

Redefining Access: Embracing multimodality,memorability and shared experience in Museums

The authors discuss the principles of “access for all” in museums, both physical and intellectual access. They explore this question of multisensory processing in neurologically typical individuals, and case studies of two Portuguese museums that experimented with implementation of an “access for all” approach to the presentation of their permanent collections. The study was designed with three phases: addressing architectural barriers to access, preparation of accessible information about space and objects, and testing of alternative formats to convey this information to learn how to meet diverse needs in different ways. Set in the context of research on multisensory learning, this article discusses why an access for all principle is a majority issue as well as a moral and legal concept. It discusses two case studies where an “access for all” museological approach has been applied to access to the collections, with differing success. The discussion focuses on how an “access for all” approach could enhance learning, long‐term memorability and the ‘cultural value’ of a museum experience for all visitors.     

Hyperconnection: Natural History Museums,Knowledge, and the Evolving Ecology of Community

Abstract Interviews conducted during the summer of 2006 with people in and around the international museum community suggest that the interests natural history museums share in common with each other and with other kinds of organizations and communities are creating an array of new links across institutional, social and cultural boundaries. These links are active, complex, networked relationships directed toward common purposes. Museums that are taking advantage of this emerging environment are becoming “hyperconnected hubs” across which knowledge is exchanged and action initiated. In forging a multitude of “weak ties” outward at different institutional levels, museums are finding that their shared activity with others brings to themselves new and often unexpected value across the “strong ties” that bind them together internally as institutions. Those natural history museums most able to participate as members of larger, interconnected entities are finding powerful new opportunities to more vigorously engage the world they study and the constituencies they serve. In the process, they are becoming increasingly open, active and relevant.