Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Essay #2

I would suggest that for the vast majority of people it is nearly—if not entirely—impossible to remain unmoved by any physical location. People are almost always going to be impacted, consciously or otherwise, by the notion of “place.” However, I would posit that this is generally not a bad thing, even in the case of museums, in which it will likely sway a visitor's perceptions of the exhibits.

I should preamble my argument by saying that I come from a history background, so I cannot speak for science, natural history, or any other types of museums. All serious studies of history, however, have a specific, unique interpretation of the historical facts that the historian is attempting to prove. Generally we think of this as being a trait of scholarly books, articles, or perhaps video documentaries, but I believe that the exact same idea is the foundation of scholarly history museums as well. With regards to history, there is no such thing as absolute “truth”; there is only the individual's construction of the truth.

That being said, to respond to the prompt, yes, I do in fact look at museum exhibits differently than than I might look at similar items in a non-museum setting. As I discussed above, a (history) museum exhibit has a point of view or a “thesis” that it is trying to argue, so I look at an exhibit in much the same way that I read a scholarly history book: I figure out what it is arguing, what evidence is being used and how, and come to a conclusion about how successful the author (or the person who put the exhibit together) was. There would be no point to this process if I were looking at a similar collection in a non-museum setting. The trouble comes with the fact that most people are not trained as historians, and may take the museum's thesis as absolute truth when in fact it is not. That issue is another essay in and of itself, however.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree that it is entirely impossible to not be moved by a location. Just like any course of nature almost. We look at sunsets and sunrises and we are moved by them and we think they are beautiful. We go into a museum and we think "wow" when we look at the objects inside them. I was very young when I went to Pearl Harbor but it was still very moving to look at. The thing I am most aware of in a museum is how people react to a museum. I look around at the people and watch them look at things to see if they have the same reaction as me. It is hard to go into a museum and be closed and not willing to look at things. My parents would drag me into places as a child and I would be very antsy and the smell of some places would really get to me. I was a child though, so I didn't understand the significance of museums let alone the significance of what was in them. With that said, I think the way you see things changes as you get older and changes as you learn more things. I am a biology major so I may not necessarily see things the way a history major like you would just because I don't have all of the knowledge behind certain things that you do.

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