Class about museums as memory institutions for the BA Cultural Information Science, University of Amsterdam

1. Museums
Informatie en Cultureel Geheugen
Universiteit van Amsterdam
CIW - 2012
Trilce Navarrete Hernandez

2. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
There
is
an
interest
to
document
informa-on
as
not
to
forget.
Museums
are
a
place
where
society
has
been
able
to
collect
and
preserve
informa-on
from
the
past.
Informa-on
has
generally
been
collected
as
objects
(tangible)
and
at
-mes
also
as
ideas
(intangible).
Collec-ng
objects
goes
together
with
collec-ng
knowledge.
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3. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
• Brief
history:
The
first
museum
dates
from
3rd
century
BC,
the
Museum
of
Alexandria:
it
housed
knowledge
in
many
forms,
in
the
museum,
libraries,
(botanical)
gardens
and
laboratories
(and
spaces
for
personal
exchange).
The
museum
served
as
center
for
learning
with
a
universal
collec-on.
Different
objects
transmit
different
type
of
informa-on
(words,
object,
image
and
text).
This
ideal
holis-c
view
would
last
for
centuries.
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4. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Universal
collec-ons:
-­‐
Samuel
Quiccheber:
Universal
Theater
(1565)
Collec-on
including
all
the
books
for
the
world,
all
rare
beasts
and
all
rare
birds
(books,
botanical,
man/nature
made)
-­‐
Francesco
I:
Studiolo
(1570)
Representa-on
of
the
world
in
a
microcosms
-­‐
Paul
Otlet
and
Henri
la
Fontaine:
Mundaneum
(1910)
17
million
documents
from
around
the
world
-­‐
Jacques
Chirac:
Europeana
(2008)
Gives
access
to
over
20million
objects
from
34
countries
Francesco I studiolo, 1570
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5. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
In
the
16th
century,
a
clear
dis-nc-on
emerged
between
types
of
collec-ons
Cabinet
of
curiosi/es,
or
studios
meant
to
collect
scien-fic
collec-ons.
They
collected
the
‘most
rare
and
wondrous’
and
therefore
excluded
99.9%
of
the
universe.
The
Studio
was
a
closed
room
for
study.
"Musei Wormiani Historia", the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities.
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6. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Gallery,
as
art
collec-on
was
a
place
to
visit,
to
‘pass
through’,
organized
taxonomically
(chronologically,
by
symmetry
and
color).
These
were
visual
libraries.
De schilderijengalerij van Cornelis van der Geest, door Willem van Haecht (1628)
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7. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Botanical
gardens,
or
living
plant
collec-ons,
ordered
geometrically
and
scien-fically
(Linnaean
system).
Generally
associated
with
universi-es
Pisa
(1543),
Padua
(1545),
Zurich
(1560),
Leiden
(1587),
Montpellier
(1593),
Oxford
(1620)
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Rudbeck's own design for the botanical garden (1675)

8. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
The
word
‘museum’
would
eventually
encompass
them
all
by
signifying
a
process
of
organizing,
compiling
and
colla-ng
of
objects.
In
the
16th
century,
‘musaeum’
denoted
a
classificatory
structure
for
a
wide
variety
of
texts,
including
dic-onaries
(galleria
di
parole)
and
scien-fic
journals.
Museums
gave
the
organiza-on
to
all
known
ideas
and
artefacts,
thus
solving
the
apparent
‘crisis
of
knowledge’
of
the
16th
and
17th
centuries
(Findlen,
2007)
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9. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
In
the
18th
century
collec-ons
specialized,
merged
and
expanded
leading
to
the
Na-onal
Galleries
(art)
Louvre
(1793),
Rijksmuseum
(1808),
Brera
in
Milan
(1818),
Prado
in
Madrid
(1819),
Na-onal
Gallery
and
Bri-sh
Museum
in
London
(1824),
Hermitage
in
St.Petersburg
(1852)
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10. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Science
and
technology
museums
gained
popularity
with
the
discovery
of
the
‘New
World’
and
with
the
great
industrial
advancements
(World
Fair,
London
1851)
1851 London 1889 Paris
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11. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Other
collec-ons
evolved
to
become
History
museums,
Zoological
Gardens,
and
Open-­‐air
museums.
The Versailles menagerie during the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century
The Old Town—an open-air museum in
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the city of Aarhus, Denmark

12. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
The
type
of
object
defines
the
collec-on
–yet
all
collec-ons
have
all
type
objects.
Paintings gallery, 1838
Fossils room, 1885
Science and Arts crowned by Fame, 1886
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Oval room, 1784 Library, 1885

13. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
The
message
delivered
depends
on
the
context.
The
building
serves
as
ini-al
‘frame’
or
context.
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Guggenheim New York, Frank Loyd Wright, 1959

14. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Museums
are
currently
exploring
possible
new
future
roles
(technology
/
informa-on
/
people).
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15. Museum
as
Memory
Ins-tu-ons
Conclusions
Museums
are
social
ins-tu-ons
that
have
collected,
preserved
and
transmijed
informa-on
through
the
genera-ons.
Objects
and
ideas
are
the
core
of
the
ins-tu-on.
Museums’
role
as
social
memory
ins-tu-ons
has
become
more
prominent
with
the
opening
of
Na-onal
Galleries.
Currently,
the
inclusion
of
intangible
heritage
and
the
use
of
media
technology
to
reposi-on
collec-ons
new
roles
are
being
explored
(Who’s
heritage?
Who’s
story?
Where
to
access?).
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Trilce
Navarrete