The Museum Box
From it's greek source (museion) as a « temple of the muses » until today, the idea of museum has had different definitions. Thus, during the Italian Renaissance (15th century), the collection of Lorenzo de' Medici was described as a museum because it conveyed the concept of comprehensivness. Later, during the 17th century, museums were housing collections of curiosities and they became public institutions, first in Switzerland (Basel, 1671) and soon after in England and in France, where people could access cultural material and artefacts that were collected, conserved, catalogued and presented in displays and exhibition rooms. From there it evolved gradually into what will become in the 20th century a building housing a collection of objects, documents or artefacts that have a more open social and educational vocation, cultivating « the spirit and culture of humanity ». But in 1947, french writer and philosopher André Malraux introduced the idea of an « imaginary museum » that will give a much broader meaning to their missions, re-thinking their nature and their function in modern societies. It opened totally new paths to their research and educational activities.
In conventional or traditional museum displays, the context is the homogeneous background of a universal and singular history which determines the order of things. But today's museums, and especially art spaces, are transforming that background or historical landscape into multiple contexts, so each work (artwork, artefact or object) start to be not just a story of itself, but to offer its own experience and present a perspective of the world. A fundamental difference between collecting works and documenting works is also being made. Therefore, says Steven ten Thije, museums are becoming kind of communication interfaces or « social nodes » and the use of computer and internet is restructuring the networks of the art world, science and humanities.
I think that this vision of the museum as « social node » carries interesting ideas and deserves some historical and philosophical background to be further refined. My first thought, then, would be to describe a museum as a lieu de présence, a place where people are experiencing works through the « imaginary texture of the real », to borrow an expression of Merleau-Ponty, and which is dedicated to contemplation, delectation and reflexion.
My second thought would be to say that a museum also develop a collection of works that enlighten our understanding or knowledge of human and natural history and cultures over the world. These selected works, usually described as its treasure, constitute through art, science and humanities the historical marks or references of the museum into its own « memory of things ». And this memory is continually re-actualised, irreversibly pushing something from the past into the present and into the future, to use Bergson's terms.
Finally, my third thought would be that such a place serves the good of the people by developing educational and research programs that are questioning ourselves and our relations to the world and to the other, and deepening (fathoming) our knowledge of the world we live in. « The museum promises and begins long conversation » wrote David Carr, and these programs exist to do so I think.
Lieu de présence
The Temple of the muses is no ordinary place. It is inviting us to a poetic experience of the real, opening hundred passages to our thoughts about life and the human phenomenon. No sacred place, but a space where we are experiencing a quest for sense or meaning through works of art, science and knowledge: un lieu de présence.
This notion of presence is fundamental to what we can experience in a museum (museion). For, it refers to that very existential moment into which someone is when discovering or giving attention to works (or a particular object, artefact or document) of art, science or knowledge. It describes a state of being, an openness to something we are taking time to learn about, and that particular feeling that french writers define as « un ravissement de l'esprit » (a quiet rapture of the mind ?).
A living memory / Open curating system
During recent centuries, museums and librairies have collected works and archived documents to an incredible extent. Their development around the world is giving us an occasion to think about these activities and their further evolution. What's more, they are now working with open systems where documents are not existing in an enclosed space, but in a space that is continually regenerating itself, open and productive, and where researchers, professionals and all people are sharing contents and knowledge, through various platforms and networks, from (about) their collections and archives, questioning our past, our present and our future. This is reconfiguring, in many ways, their education and research programs, as well as their outreach activities.
Collecting works is a continuous search of coherence. Objects, artefacts and documents can be re-presented and reinterpreted differently from time to time. They exist, each of them or all together, within a complex web of social and disciplinary practices (ars) and discourses, both prior to collecting and once in the museum, and become part of a living memory that is mutating and transforming itself through time.
A social node
In 1942, Theodore Low launched an open discussion about the role of museums in a society. He asked his colleagues of the American Association of Museums a simple question - What is the museum ? - advocating for a modern vision of it, and making of it an essential educational resource for communities, along with schools and universities. Modern museums, he thought, should become important vectors of cultural values in communities and support or develop education activities for all people. Thus, he wanted museums to be more accessible and also to use information and communication technology of that time to reach the people and encourage them to learn about art, science and humanities. His vision inspired many museum professionals to look at other ways of presenting exhibitions or their collections and to reach people. But museums were still suffering of their own elitist and distant attitude towards the public and critics arised also concerning the prevalent academic conception of history, arts, culture and knowledge.
Things will definitely change when André Malraux, a few years later, introduced the idea of the imaginary museum. He will ask the institutions to open their doors to forms of art, works and discourses that were proposing different perspectives of the real, and to share thoughts and ideas with the public. Works will become works by meaning and interpretation, he suggested, and the use of communication technology, photography, books and prints will allow the museums to expand their missions beyond collecting, and their walls also, to reach a much broader public.
The imaginary museum will not only succeed in changing the perception people had of museums, but also their perception of art, science and humanities. It invited public to go in, look at works, learn about, draw from or buy photos or prints to create their own imaginary museum. New approaches to knowledge, covering a larger spectrum of subjects, issues and cultural studies were proposed in their research and education programs and museums were becoming kind of social and cultural forums, generating dialogues in communities and among artists and scientists.
The further development of information and communication technology will have a major impact on museums' activities. Collections and archives were to be digitalized and the use of computer transformed their management and many aspects of their research and educational project. Challenges arised in this new technical environment and researchers found there unprecedented opportunities to communicate with people. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities initiated by the Max Planck Society in October 2003 will mark an important milestone in this regard. It will give a totally new dimension to their social, economic and cultural roles in a society, first as catalysers of ideas, knowledge and discourses, and second as vectors of cultural heritage, values and trends.
Today's world is a global interface where institutions like museums and librairies occupy strategic positions in the diffusion of arts, science and knowledge. The expansion of social media and other related technologies have shown an extraordinary potential for research and education, and it also brought to the surface their overall capacities to address critical issues of our time and to put forward interpretative or poetic values and discourses related to these issues, searching meaning and coherence. It is because of it, and for that reason I think, that the concept of « social node » suggested by Steven ten Thije can apply to the idea of museum in modern societies.
Museums, art spaces and librairies have and create a poetic of their own in our societies, and they are essential mediation interfaces in an ever-changing world.
JF