Musuem Studies

This article discusses the development of digital curation in cultural expression applications, such as museum and art gallery, focusing on the user experience perspective. The use of digital technology has improved the production process in conventional museum and art gallery and has greatly facilitated the interaction between viewers and collections. Although the concept of digital museum has attracted a lot of attention in the past decade, there remain many challenges to be addressed. In this paper, we discuss current progress in the development of digital museum and identify important factors that affect its successful deployment.

The Deutsches Museum in Munich holds a rich collection of aerial cameras. For the first time since the post-war period, parts of these devices will constitute an independent theme, called Luftbildfotografie, within the museum’s renovated historical aviation section. In this paper, Quagliati analyses the reasons for this curatorial choice while offering insights into the material – and animal – infrastructures necessary to realize aerial views at the beginning of the 20th century. Focusing on specific cameras (photographic rocket, pigeon photography, photographic gun and others), Quagliati also describes the institutionalization of aerial photography as a military discipline in World War I. She explores epistemological implications and public reception of airborne imagery through the material and technological features of aerial cameras as well as the circumstances that brought these devices to the Deutsches Museum.

The archaeological imagination at work: speculative design in curatorial experiment at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (5).

Speculative design meets archaeological critique — a provocation or intervention in a matter of contemporary concern. One of five commentaries on a series of exhibitions at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

This special issue is designed to draw attention to community-engaged projects that have been ongoing in Pakistan through archaeology, museums, and heritage work. Although the focus is on contemporary practices, this project is a future-oriented endeavour as it provides an alternative view of what is possible in the archaeology of Pakistan. Given the strength and range of the articles within this collection, I anticipate this journal issue will become a touchstone for many future projects
in the region.

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Design Rationale
The Filipino word “Likha” which means “creation” has been chosen as the name of the museum, for it resembles the process of bringing ideas into existence by means of expression or application of creative skill of imagination that in the latter would result into art. The museum was named in the national language, for the museum is mainly dedicated to the Filipino people and artists in order to both express and perceive new forms of Filipino art.
The art breathes life into the neighborhoods in which it is prominent. Artists infuse an area with creative energy and can play a significant role in urban revitalization efforts—bringing vibrancy to a community, enriching the quality of life and developing the creative workforce that is a hallmark of the 21st-century economy.
Bacolod as a cultural and economic destination in the country is a city that is vibrant and active in the art scene. One of the existing shortcomings of this highly urbanized city is not having a contemporary art museum with enough facilities to preserve and display art. With a lot area of more than 2.6 hectares, the proposed art museum is planned to fill the gap for the scarcity of function-oriented facilities and amenities such as exhibition halls, stores, restoration workshops, archival storage room, film screening room, function halls, multimedia research room and lecture halls taking into consideration the future expansion for the success of the museum.
The museum creates an environment that promotes creativity, expressing cultural aspects that may otherwise seem intangible, to become something that can be perceived. It gives the public an immediate access to advanced education about the arts, with the vision of bringing art to the community by means of publicizing art museums, particularly intended for the underprivileged youth.

Design Objectives
The objectives of the architectural design of Likha contemporary art museum are as follows:
1. To provide a venue with complete facilities that could accommodate the community’s present needs and future increase in demand for art related activities.
2. To provide a venue to continuously promote local art market, educational advancement, tourism and economic growth.
3. To provide a place for new art to evolve and encourage public interest in arts.
4. To create a market for higher learning by means of providing art education, and stimulate people’s creative potentials.
5. To design a museum that could become a symbolic element for the developing metropolitan city.

It is estimated that over 60% of skeletal holdings in English museums are stored behind a certain level of obscurity. Excellent protocols for assessing the condition and completeness of specimens exist, systems which can accurately collect information on age, sex, and disorders. The problem is that these excellent protocols are time-consuming and require workers with a level of expertise to collect the data in an accurate, meaningful way. However, without some basic level of information about what a storage box contains (fragments, complete skeleton, a fairly complete skull but fragments of other elements), remains languish in obscurity, with boxes pulled at random; research visit time is squandered searching for appropriate specimens; and other, perhaps scientifically important remains boxed and unnoticed. The aim of the project outlined here is to serve as a way to amass information from skeletal remains in a tested, standardised manner, using novice workers, in order to create a data set of information. This data can range from the most basic to the capture of more nuanced observations that can inform on possible sex, age and some common disorders. The project, a doctoral investigation is discussed from genesis through development and into its current form. Included is an overview of extant protocols, their benefits and shortcomings. As this is both rationale and overview of a ‘rapid assessment system’ (RAS), the emphasis is on its design, with testing, results and analysis of the testing discussed elsewhere.

Key words: Skeletal analysis, Museums, Data collection, Assessment protocol

The Mission of Mieczysława Ruxerówna. Contribution to the History of the Museum Heritage of the Western and Northern Lands

The Second World War was an important turning point in the history of the Polish western and northern territories and several dozen of museums operating there before the war. The vast majority of them were destroyed together with the cities in which they were located. Only a few institutions endured, of which only five resumed their activity in 1945. The state of preservation of the collections of the former Pomeranian museums was affected not only by the destruction and looting at the end or shortly after the end of the war, but also by the actions of Polish authorities, museum workers and scientists from central Poland, who treated the collections that survived in the Recovered Territories or their remains as abandoned property, nobody’s property, and Pomeranian institutions as a collection of exhibits and books. This approach was dominant especially in the 1940s and the first half of the 1950s; later the situation of Pomeranian museum objects stabilised.
In the case of the museum in Koszalin, it has so far been believed that its collections were dispersed during the war or immediately after it due to lack of proper care. However, searches carried out in various archives revealed documents that allow to shed some light on the problem of the dispersion of museum collections in the Recovered Territories on the example of Koszalin. It turns out that scholarly institutions, such as Central Poland universities and museums were also involved in acquiring artefacts and equipment in the Recovered Territories. This is evidenced by the fact that in July 1945, Prof. Mieczysław Ruxerówna from the University of Poznań was delegated to Koszalin in order to bring books and archaeological artefacts. The authorities allowed her to take books and some equipment. Such endeavours were not unusual, and from the perspective of the then problems with taking over the western lands and securing the collections located there, they should be considered an attempt to save them by evacuation. Only a small part of the collections returned to Pomerania still in the 1940s, other enrich the collections of scholarly institutions in Central Poland to this day.

È il 1972 quando il Metropolitan Museum di New York annuncia l'acquisto del Cratere di Eufronio, capolavoro della ceramica attica che, dopo una lunga battaglia legale, dovrà restituire all'Italia perché frutto di uno scavo clandestino. Le critiche al museo per questa operazione si sollevarono quasi subito, spingendo l'allora curatore per le Antichità Classiche, Dietrich Von Bothmer, a chiedere: “Why can’t people look at it simply as archaeologists do, as an art object?” Questa dichiarazione danneggiò moltissimo la reputazione di Von Bothmer presso la comunità archeologica, per la quale il valore dei reperti va molto oltre quello economico e artistico. Essi, infatti, sono parte della narrazione di un territorio, e l'essere sradicati dal contesto di appartenenza fa perdere loro la funzione di strumenti di ricostruzione del passato, la nostra eredità culturale. L'acquisizione del cratere di Eufronio mise in moto un'inchiesta giudiziaria che portò per la prima volta alla luce I meccanismi del traffico internazionale di reperti. Inoltre scatenò un terremoto che costrinse gli americani a fare luce e riflettere sui metodi con cui i loro grandi musei, Metropolitan e Getty in testa, si procuravano le opere da esporre, grazie ad accordi con mercanti d'arte privi di scrupoli. Ma il problema non riguarda solo gli Stati Uniti, e Von Bothmer non è stato certo l'unico curatore museale a usare la Bellezza come arma di distrazione per evitare di rispondere a domande circa la reale provenienza dei reperti archeologici esposti, spesso appartenenti a contesti culturali completamente estranei a quelli del museo che li ospita. Scopo di questo articolo è presentare alcuni esempi di questa pratica, con l'intento di spingere I visitatori a osservare le vetrine di musei con un occhio sempre più critico, e riflettere sul reale valore delle opere esposte, al di là del modo in cui vengono raccontate. Perché un reperto scavato clandestinamente è il frammento di una storia privata della sua voce, e un museo che accetta di acquistarlo mette in discussione la finalità della sua esistenza, che dovrebbe essere quella di custodire, proteggere e tramandare la Memoria.

This publication is a contribution to reflect on the material culture of everyday life, and in particular on the primary role that the "kitchen space" plays in shaping the concepts of family, gender roles, social and economic status markers, as well as the technological and cultural transformations that have marked the transition to contemporary societies.

La presente pubblicazione intende essere un contributo pensato per fare riflettere sulla cultura materiale della quotidianità, e in particolare sul ruolo primario che lo “spazio cucina” riveste nel plasmare i concetti di famiglia, i ruoli di genere, i marcatori di status sociale ed economico, come pure le trasformazioni tecnologiche e culturali che hanno segnato il passaggio verso le società contemporanee.

This essay examines two case studies from Taiwan to rethink art and its relationship to/with power and frame the concept of “art as protest”. The Shijhou and Sa'owac tribes are urban indigenous communities who faced forced eviction due to new urban development plans. In their protests, the role of art goes far beyond one’s expectations within a conventional social movement. Art systems - which include the gallery, museum, biennials and art awards - play a specific role in protests. I argue that "Art as protest" is not merely a form of symbolic dissent within the art world. Instead, it acts as a platform or vehicle for certain values and is a new form of social practice that potentially engender social and political change in order to highlight the right to live as one desires and deserves as well as foregrounding questions of social justice.

Partiendo de algunas perspectivas teóricas sobre la construcción social del espacio y teniendo presentes los estudios que vinculan el arte actual y ese nuevo concepto espacial, este artículo investiga las posibles articulaciones entre espacio social, arte y forma de exposición de ese arte. Con la ayuda de dos propuestas artísticas de la última edición de documenta, se reflexiona acerca de la construcción social del
espacio expositivo. Documenta 14 se entiende como el resultado de unos cambios políticos y sociales más generalizados. Su propuesta expositiva sigue una tendencia que viene consolidándose los últimos años. En el presente artículo sirve como ejemplo de creación de un nuevo espacio relacional, ampliado hacia lo temporal y lo social, como medio de representación de una sociedad inclusiva en un entorno
social adverso.

Abridged text published in DIE ZEIT edited April 28, 2018. Full unpublished text deals with Humboldt Forum's balancing act between strong demands for a complele provenance research of the collections to be exhibited, on the one hand, and a platform for a national presentation of Germany's place in a globalized world, on the other hand. Humboldt Forum is the name for the  reconstructed Prussian Palace to be opened in 2019.

تشكيل موزة تاريخ طبيعي در يك جامعه از ضرورت‌هاي اوليه‌اي است كه يكي از مباني رشد و شكوفايي آن جامعه در زمينه‌هاي مربوط محسوب مي‌شود.  به واقع در سطح جهاني سر‌آغاز شكوفايي‌هاي علمي و فرهنگي برخورداري از مراكز و مكانهايي بوده كه امكان پژوهش و كشف اسرار و حقايق را در زمينه‌هاي مختلف فراهم مي‌سازد. 
موزه‌هاي تاريخ طبيعي  با برخورداري از ديد وسيع و تاريخي وشواهد بي‌مانند، در زمينة تقابلات عرصه‌هاي زيستي و غيرزيستي، و به طور جزئي‌تر انسان و محيط‌زيستش، كمك شاياني به مطالعات بنيادي در زمينة انسان‌شناسي مي‌كند. به‌عبارت ديگر از اين نظر موزه‌هاي تاريخ‌طبيعي رهيافتي منطقي به شمارمي‌رود كه در عرصة «دانش بوم‌شناسي»، به‌عنوان بحث بنيادي در رويكردهاي جديد علوم‌انسان‌شناختي كاربردي بي‌بديل پيداكرده‌است.  در اين مقاله با بيان  ارتباطات علمي اين موزه‌ها با دانش باستان‌شناسي، به‌عنوان يكي از شاخه‌هاي انسان‌شناسي فرهنگي، به معرفي  موزه‌هاي تاريخ طبيعي و بررسي تاًثير آنها بر توسعة رويكردهاي بوم شناختي در باستان‌شناسي پرداخته خواهد شد.

The Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) was established during World War II to fuel the British Empire's need for aircrew: pilots, observers, navigators and gunners. Between 1940 and 1944, the training facilities of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) expanded phenomenally. At the outbreak of war the strength of the RAAF numbered 3489 personnel of all ranks and its schools numbered three. By mid-1944 RAAF personnel numbers had increased to 182,000 and schools numbered 84. During this period, significant material culture was amassed, while social and cultural memory was created - especially within local community and training course contexts.

At the conclusion of the war, however, evidence of many of these institutions disappeared as quickly as it arose. Buildings were sold, relocated and reappropriated; clothing marched out on the backs of the service men and women; aircraft were auctioned, decommissioned or dismantled. Likewise, runways were left to crumble; engineering, office and catering equipment was sold and removed; books, photographs and historical records were packed into boxes and trucked out to organisational or archival institutions. The material culture of this significant scheme in the history of Australia's war was essentially dismembered.

This paper asks how the memory and the intangible heritage of EATS is reconstructed and interpreted at its former sites, and via the operation of restored wartime aircraft. I commence by surveying the sites of two former EATS schools in New South Wales: No. 5 Service Flying Training School (5 SFTS) at Uranquinty and No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora. The presentation of each site reflects differing methods of remembrance: as a 'displaced' memorial and a museum, respectively.

Arguing that restored aircraft also represent archaeological remnants of the Scheme, I consider two examples of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Wirraway the primary trainer used at 5 SFTS. One static survivor held at the Australian War Memorial and a flying example operating out of from the Temora Aviation

Partiendo de algunas perspectivas teóricas sobre la construcción social del espacio y teniendo presentes los estudios que vinculan el arte actual y ese nuevo concepto espacial, este artículo investiga las posibles articulaciones entre espacio social, arte y forma de exposición de ese arte. Con la ayuda de dos propuestas artísticas de la última edición de documenta, se reflexiona acerca de la construcción social del espacio expositivo. Documenta 14 se entiende como el resultado de unos cambios políticos y sociales más generalizados. Su propuesta expositiva sigue una tendencia que viene consolidándose los últimos años. En el presente artículo sirve como ejemplo de creación de un nuevo espacio relacional, ampliado hacia lo temporal y lo social, como medio de representación de una sociedad inclusiva en un entorno social adverso.Based on some theoretical perspectives on the social construction of space and bearing in mind the studies that link current art and this new spatial concept, th...

Are museums loci of fossilised objects, deprived of their initial vitality and immediacy of life? What kind of time governs the western museum culture, and how does it relate to the time of conservation and its object? And how does the temporal logic of museums and structures of keeping and care impact the artworks' identity? This paper offers an excursion into the temporal concepts underpinning the system of collecting, musealising and conserving works of art. Drawing on several ideas of continental philosophers and authors concerned with the theme of museums both as sites of revival and death, I interrogate the museum's alleged capability of keeping time. I further purport that recent art-including the dispositive of performance, event and media-subverts the idea of fixity and stasis that for decades underlined the logic of collections. How does art matter in these temporal constellations and how is this mattering always already temporal?

This is the edited video of my latest performance 'The Foreigner-Unknown Unlabeled Unexpected' that took place at the Daegu Art Factory (SK) as part of PSi#24 - Performance Studies International Conference, themed 'Art, Culture, Network'. This open-ended durational performance is a personal response to the migration question currently involving Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The work explores and questions notions of identity and territoriality, reality and virtuality, through the anonymity and vulnerability of the artist, and the active participation of the audience in the performance process. The artist’s body works as a mirror that reflected personal ideas, constructs, and emotions of the visitors, who experience and interpret the image of The Foreigner according to their personal histories and past experiences. The result is a multiplicity of perspectives on migration and beyond.
Prof Stefano Tomassini discusses 'The Foreigner' in his latest book 'Tempo Fermo. Danza e Performance alla Prova dell'Impossibile' (Scalpendi, 2018). The performance is featured in the article 'How PSi Works: the Practice of Performance Studies' (2019) by Bleeke M., Laine E., and Metzger S.

To reach younger audiences, museums worldwide have incorporated interactive and hands-on activities, while some venues specialise in children as their main audience. Videos, in particular, can be easily integrated in the museum space and provide a variety of application possibilities. Their use creates a hybrid experience for the visitor in which the interaction between physical and digital elements transforms and enriches their experience of the exhibits. Furthermore, the use of interactive technologies has been proven to increase visitor numbers and interactions on- and off-site. In this context, our research focuses on the use of interactive video technologies, and factors that can lead into the design of engaging and user-friendly museum experiences for children. To achieve this, a museum was chosen as a case study and a survey was conducted. The results indicated that the creation of an interactive video could benefit the areas that were visited less; the preferable length is rather short; while hands-on and video installations promote and prolong the engagement of young visitors, and are favoured by both younger and older children. Additionally, fictional or dramatised stories are attractive to children compared to documentaries; and it would be preferable to access the interactive content on their mobile devices. These have led to the production of Paintings Alive, an interactive film for children, based on the museum’s art gallery, and accessible on the visitors’ mobile devices. Our paper also discusses the findings of the project, alongside the challenges and limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and offers recommendations for future work.

Many of us have fond memories of our first visit to a natural history museum with its imposing dinosaur skeletons, neatly arranged rows of butterflies, and those musty smells. For centuries, scientists explored and understood nature by collecting and cataloguing its stuff. But what role do natural history collections—and the museums that preserve, study, and exhibit them—play in a world where science has moved beyond collecting and naming? In their book, Dinosaurs and Dioramas. Creating Natural History Exhibitions (Left Coast Press, 2014) Sarah Chicone and Richard Kissel assert that natural history museums sit at the corner of science and art and as such have a vital role to play in today’s world.