>I do not consider the alternative to be edutainment, but I would
>suggest that a leap in terms of the public education that museums
> provide is in order.
 
        Museums risk the possibility of becoming self
parodies.   I visited Moscow last September.   While I was
there, I had the chance to see the natural history museum.
The museum, located on the twenty eighth floor of the main
building at MSU, is a beautiful , beautiful place.  It has
gorgeous wood cabinets, and carefully labeled specimens.  The minerals
have both the common name and the chemical formula on a little
yellowing card.  The diorama's are carefully maintained. The
stuffed and liefless "animals" dusted every day for the last
forty years. The walls of the museum are decorated with ornate
designs and with paintings of Russian landscapes.  Reconstructions
of geologic processes inhabit the space that might otherwise
be empty.  All in all, it is a very impressive, but also very
depressive place.
        Museums, I think, become self parodies, sort of museums
 of themselves when they adhere to ninteenth century ideals about
how a museum should "look" and the information that museums should
provide.  The museum at Moscow I think was the perfect example of this
old ideal.  I do not dislike this old ideal, just think that
museums need to be aware of the extrnal world, and to adapt
accordingly.  Instead of concentrating on objects, interactive and
process orientated displays are more interesting and more
information rich.   However, I also dont think that museums are
or should be based solely on externalities, or that we can
deconstruct museums down to "epiphenomenon".  A museum may be
best thought of as an organism or individual.  It is autopoetic.
Like a balloon, it is pushed by external forces but singularly
a structural entity.
 
Robert Guralnick | Museum of Paleontology | University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720 | [log in to unmask] | (510) 642-9696