With apologies for the spam-like quality of this announcement, I risk
intruding on the list to alert you to a newly-published volume of essays
on the museum. Thanks for your tolerance. TK

 ------- ANNOUNCING

THE END(S) OF THE MUSEUM
ed. Thomas Keenan
Barcelona: Fundacio Antoni Tapies, 1996

What is the point of the museum?  There cannot be just one, but has it,
inany case, outlived the historic definitions of its aims and goals?  Is
there a crisis today of the museum?  Faced with a variety of challenges,
from the multicultural critique to the specter of the on-line world, and
nevertheless more popular than ever, what is happening to the museum
today?  This collection of essays on the genealogy and possibilities of
the museum, on its ends, seeks to explore these questions from a variety
of theoretical and practical perspectives.  Based on a conference at the
Fundacio Antoni Tapies in Barcelona in May 1995, held in conjunction with
the art exhibit of the same title, this volume includes the following
texts:

        Andrew Ross, "The Great American Numbers Game" [on statistics,
                multiculturalism, and contemporary American museum politics]
        Gyan Prakash, "Museum Matters" [on colonial and post-colonial
                museums in India]
        Friedrich Kittler, "Museums on the Digital Frontier" [on museums
                threatened by digitalization?]
        Werner Hamacher, "Expositions of the Mother: A Quick Stroll
                through Various Museums" [on the figure of the mother in
                philosophical texts on the museum]
        Kristin Ross, "Paris Assassinated?" [on the Centre Pompidou and
                the Forum des Halles]
        Alexander Garcia Duttmann, "How Portable is your Museum" [on the
                figure of the orphan in philosophical texts on the museum]

The book also includes a preface by John Hanhardt and an introduction by
the editor, Thomas Keenan.

All of the essays are published in English and in Catalan. The book costs
approximately $25.

For more information, please contact:

Clara Plasencia
Fundacio Antoni Tapies [publisher]
Arago 255
08007 Barcelona
(34) 3 487 0315 tel
(34) 3 487 0009 fax

or

John Simons
Ideabooks [distributor]
Amsterdam
(31) 20 622 6154 tel
(31) 20 620 9299 fax

[Neither appears to have email capability.]

(By the way, there is also a catalogue of the art exhibition that
accompanied the conference, unfortunately bearing the same title.)

Any other questions, feel free to direct them to me (Tom Keenan,
[log in to unmask]).