The intangibles are hardly a new (or neglected) idea. It has always been up to museums to educate through the interpretation of their objects. That is essentially what interpretation has always meant in our profession - what does this thing mean. In most cases the only way we know that there is a ceremony or a new species or neglected part of our history is because we find an object that requires explanation, research, measurement or interpretation. Museum theory is drenched with the idea that the object is the platform from which the intangibles are launched. But it is an irreducibly essential platform which makes a museum a museum to begin with. Without the object we we are left with a very large and very expensive book. My concern with the definition is that the object goes to the back of the bus when it is actually the driver.
Milton
>>> [log in to unmask] 10/08/03 09:12AM >>>
On 10/7/03 3:51 PM, "floris guntenaar" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
One of the questions that is reoccurring is how does a museum preserve and
present intangible heritage without making it tangible. Exhibiting an mask
from West Africa, as an example, presents the object, but it does not
present the intangible heritage that caused the mask to be made. It is
possible to preserve a recorded song or chant, but it is the recording that
is preserved not the heritage that caused it to be created or sung.
Generally, heritage is represented by its symbols, and they change with each
generation.
Gary Edson
> And what about intangible heritage ?
> Floris
> (Floris Guntenaar, museumdepot.org foundation)
>
>> Gary,
>> I like the gerneral approach for its directness and simplicity but
>> "...and often objects..."???
>> Isn't this a bit like saying that a vegetable market it a
>> nutritional outlet that has stalls, awnings and often vegetables.
>> Museums without objects are clearly the exception and their status
>> is still a matter to be resolved. It seems to me that collections
>> of objects are at the very heart of what makes museum education
>> unique and therefore they deserve a far stonger position in the
>> definition.
>> Milton
>> (Milton Bloch)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>> [log in to unmask] 10/07/03 10:50AM >>>
>> Colleagues:
>>
>> The following is one of the definition that has been suggested. What are
>> your thoughts about this idea. Does it adequately describe a "museum," or
>> is it too broad, too limiting, too inclusive, or too exclusive?
>>
>>
>> A MUSEUM IS AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION THAT SERVES THE PUBLIC BY
>> INTERPRETING SCIENTIFIC, CULTURAL AND/OR NATURAL HERITAGE THROUGH
>> THE USE OF A PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND OFTEN OBJECTS. MUSEUMS THAT
>> HOLD COLLECTIONS CARE FOR THEM AS A PUBLIC TRUST AND PRESERVE THEM
>> FOR THE FUTURE.
>>
>> Gary Edson
>>
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