{"id":337,"date":"2017-01-30T01:34:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T01:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=337"},"modified":"2017-01-30T01:34:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T01:34:44","slug":"museums-and-organization-some-thoughts-on-classification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/01\/30\/museums-and-organization-some-thoughts-on-classification\/","title":{"rendered":"Museums and Organization: Some Thoughts on Classification"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nOne of my favorite museums is the J. Paul Getty Villa<\/a> in Malibu\u00a0(seen above, back peristyle garden). The “Villa” is a 1:1 replica of the Villa of the Papyri – a large Roman villa from Herculaneum, a 1st<\/sup> c CE town on the Bay\u00a0of Naples, and it is entirely dedicated to the ancient “Classical” world. In this form, it provides an almost immersive experience of life in ancient times, with displays of material objects that might have been found in such houses and villas of the time.<\/p>\n

\"\"Its current arrangement<\/a> is primarily thematic – that is, arranged in artifact and sculpture groups like “theater,” “gods and goddesses,” “heroes,” “coins,” and “wine” to give the viewer a sense of life in the ancient world by topic. The museum is about to go through a rearrangement, to be reorganized more chronologically (which will separate themes and their chane over time, rather than blurring the
\ncultural practices\u00a0of the Greeks, Romans, and their Bronze Age counterparts). [Interestingly, one of my favorite museums in Boston, the Museum of the Fine Arts (MFA), had recently begun the opposite process when I left the region.] Some of the smaller exhibits therein are more materially or stylistically-based (ie. Glass, Silver, Marble, Bronze, and Luxury Vessels), allowing for a more technical study or comparison for a viewer.<\/p>\n

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In addition to the traditional exhibits, there are also a few rooms dedicated to education and outreach. In the atrium (foyer), there is a room where a visitor may watch a short video about the history of the museum – that is, the Villa itself. Off the peristyle garden, there is a timeline room (“Timescape Room”) to provide more background on the cultures whose objects are on display, complete with active exhibits and terminals (“GettyGuide stations”). A room for children sits at the back of this first garden (“Family Forum”) – with activities like designing your own black-figured vase (sharpie on “whiteboard” copies).<\/p>\n

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Considering my last post, Dillenburg’s article<\/a> makes a several good points about what constitutes a museum. With my work in the ancient world, I haven’t encountered many museums without objects, but there are admittedly such exceptions (ie. Science and Children’s museums with activity stations) and these can work well. But these examples incorporate experiential setups, activities, exhibits – still physical representatives of an idea – and I think the physicality and thoughts on “firsthand experience” apply there too.<\/p>\n

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While typologies and the kind of thematic display that the Villa currently employs can be useful, these are not necessarily the most important part of what can be conveyed by\/learned at a museum. The exact kind of display used [should] depend on what is intended – is the chronology (read: change\/development) important? Is it the “sense” or “experience” (ie. themes)? Or a combination thereof? Even in archaeological theory, classifications (typologies) are only useful to an extent, governed by who makes them and their subjective choices. They are only useful for short periods of time as well, since categories must eventually change and adapt with new discoveries or inventions. Though there must be curation for practical reasons and to provide context for the audience, I do not think that museums need to<\/em> make “rational sense out of the world” via classification as Steve Conn suggests (21). Whether a museum like the Villa is organized by theme or chronology, the affect will not be universally compelling, and this is where the interactive exhibits and activities come in. These allow visitors to use what they see to experience the material and collections for themselves – to “rationalize” it in a way that is personally meaningful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite museums is the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu\u00a0(seen above, back peristyle garden). The “Villa” is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}