The purpose of a museum is to educate
*education: the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, habits
Current
#How does museum gather information from the past to now
Appropriate objects
Gather information on human history and civilization from these objects
Distribute information by exhibiting the study, usually with the physical presentation of objects
What are these objects, in penn museum
Administrative records (paper)
Manuscript collections (paper)
Visual collections
Motion picture films
Filmed expeditions
Photographs
Territorial surveys
drawings/ paintings
3D objects in different scale
# Activities in penn museum / online
Physical exhibition of artifacts
Archive and storage of artifacts
Library with resource to be study on site and borrow
Classes and workshops
Online database (in progress) to be acquired remotely
Proposal (for historical museum, not necessarily contemporary)
#How could museum gather information in the future
Field trip to the site / form relationship with scholars at the local region
Gather information / Record and study on site
Upload and share information online / made it possible for researchers at other location to study and add to the analysis
Distribute information by exhibiting the study (with virtue or recreation of the objects in the museum)
Distribute information with the online database
# Activities in museums
Museum staffs studying: objects appropriated from the past, still in the process of being studied and record / online shared new information from fields
Viewers looking at virtue exhibition/ replicates of artifacts / museum studies and analyze on the artifacts
Scholars symposium (could be recorded+archived+distribute)
Educators and students in lectures and classes (could be recorded+archived+distribute)
# Why do human preserve historical artifacts? / What make them valuable for human society?
Historical artifacts in museums are considered valuable because they are man made. In other words, historical preservation should preserve the information of history/ culture/ civilization, not the physical vessels/ drawings/ other media, that carries these information.
When we read a book and understand the idea, there is no necessity to keep the papers and ink that made the book. Paper is organic matter and will decay, yet if an idea is in ones brain, the idea does not decay.
Compare a historical artifact to a book. The substances carried the knowledge/ culture/ intellectual information in an historical artifact, from molecular level, are meaningless to human beings. They are media of information, yet not the information itself. They are same as the molecules in a rock; in a flower, or in a human body.
# What historical preserver should do?
- Collect information, instead of physical matters + record and archive the original forms
- Make these information more accessible to the potential learners
Archive of the Original
Revist and reinterpretation should be made possible. With technology, the original artifacts’ forms can be scanned and built into models, allowing revisit and reproduce. For example, a vessel from ancient Egypt can be 3D scanned so that the form of the object is on record. Museum staff can also note the material use, fabrication methods, and other cultural background information, etc.
Reason for archiving (allowing reproduce/ revisist/ reinterpretation)
1 different person can have different interpretation of a same object, museum’s analysis is a reference offered to learners. One can agree or disagree with the museum's read and interpretation. The original information should be kept for individuals’ study.
2 the development of research, technology, and other aspects can add to the interpretation of the original object.
What justify the act of recreating historical objects and exhibit them?
They are object of the current age. In other words, they are result of current civilization. They belong to this time. The recreation is not simply duplication, what make them valuable is the current scholars’ studies and their intellectual involvement. These metaphysical aspect make the recreated objects suitable to be exhibit in museum, since museum is a place to house objects that carries information and intellect of humans.
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Human civilization develops with constant study and critique on the past. We learn from the information extracted from original sources. Yet the physical form of artifacts or documentation does not carry information. The substances in the artifacts are not different from substances in a rock. They are not a representation of human civilization. Thus the preservation and exhibition of physical forms should not be the concentration of museums.
Museum Purpose
To Educate
*education: the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, habits
Problem:
Conventional museum system is not effective for education due to
> limitation access
> lack of public involvement
> time and effort spent on preserving the physical form
Solution:
Endorse modern technology , new system of acquiring information / distributing information / generate conversation
( Which the penn museum has already started to do before many museums around the world)
Two moves in design
1. Storage:
Manifest of the natural cycle of physical form
(natural decay as a part of the cycle )
2. Reprogramming
From exhibition space to a public forum
Spaces
1 storage space
2 exhibition space > public forum
3 intersection > exhibition space of the original form
Participants
From generating / receiving information > exchange and synthesize information
Museum Artifacts
From > created, collected, shown and studied
To > created, study: information collecting , study : archive and replicate , exhibit : the information being collected, and study from scholars all over the world
Museum Staff
From > preservation of the physical form
To > extract and study of information, museum as a media to agitate intellectual activities
Museum Exhibition
From >Exhibition of original source
To > exhibition of current civilization. Contemporary perspectives on history.
General Public
From > physically going to the museum to see the physical forms
To > acquire information from any museum in the world through internet, study in their own (no restrictions on time and location), go to the museum for lectures / symposium / etc.
Museum Role
From > education by exhibiting physical forms of historical artifacts
To > education by facilitating conversation and debates
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