ABSTRACT
The Things about Museums constitutes a unique, highly diverse collection of essays unprecedented in existing books in either museum and heritage studies or material culture studies. Taking varied perspectives and presenting a range of case studies, the chapters all address objects in the context of museums, galleries and/or the heritage sector more broadly. Specifically, the book deals with how objects are constructed in museums, the ways in which visitors may directly experience those objects, how objects are utilised within particular representational strategies and forms, and the challenges and opportunities presented by using objects to communicate difficult and contested matters. Topics and approaches examined in the book are diverse, but include the objectification of natural history specimens and museum registers; materiality, immateriality, transience and absence; subject/object boundaries; sensory, phenomenological perspectives; the museumisation of objects and collections; and the dangers inherent in assuming that objects, interpretation and heritage are ‘good’ for us.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|81 pages
Objects and their creation in the museum
chapter 4|22 pages
Emblematic museum objects of national significance
part II|118 pages
Visitors' engagements with museum objects
chapter 8|14 pages
Inexperienced museum visitors and how they negotiate contemporary art
chapter 11|12 pages
‘Do not touch'
chapter 13|17 pages
The poetic triangle of objects, people and writing creatively
chapter 14|15 pages
Location and intervention
part III|61 pages
The uses of objects in museum representations
chapter 17|8 pages
Material object and immaterial collector
chapter 19|14 pages
Arctic ‘relics'
part IV|109 pages
Objects and difficult subjects