Musealization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term museumization , the associated verb museumize and the derived adjective museum have their linguistic and ideal roots in the word museum. The terms museification and musealization are used congruently. The also related term museality is described as the result of the process of musealization. Musealizing means selecting, storing and presenting evidence of the past. In the course of museumization, the certificates are given both a memory and a meaning function. Objects made in museums become carriers of memory and meaning. The term musealization is not only applied to objects, but also to ensembles and urban contexts. He dives z. B. in the conversion of industrial plants or farms in (open-air) museums, as well as in relation to change processes in historic old town areas, especially those that are related to tourist use.

In the 1980s, under the catchphrase museumisation, a discussion group made up of museum educators dealt with the “activation form of the rather static term museum”. When dealing with the concept of museumisation, the museum educators wanted to investigate "museumisation phenomena outside the museum doors". The reason for the investigation was the thesis that “in the history of mankind there has never been such massive historicization as it is today”. The museum educators derive definitions of museumisation from the museum functions of collecting, storing, processing and public presentation.

Why is it becoming a museum?

The reason that museum researchers give for museumization is the desire to preserve objects from the past in order to overcome transitoriness and alienation. Karl-Josef Pazzini put it: “The museum softens the transience of human life and man's products.” Hermann Lübbe sees the reason for a museumization trend in the need to compensate for a “loss of familiarity caused by changes in the tempo”. The feeling of familiarity is lost, for example, through “too much new construction”, says Lübbe. The fact that the “approach to the past” increases with the speed of “civilizational modernization processes” is represented by Lübbe and Treinen.

Musealization features

Eva Sturm describes musealization as "a way of dealing with objects" that includes the following features:

  • A de-functionalization or a change in function
  • A change of context, which also means insertion into a new context (the museum)
  • A new relationship between the subject (viewer) and the object, in which the viewer takes "a gesture of inspection"

An example of a change in the function of an object is, for example, a jug that loses its original function in a museum, namely water transport. Instead, he takes on a representation function and is so z. B. for the craftsmanship of a tribe. Nelle defines the functional change in the urban context as a modification or diversification of the use of public spaces that is related to changes in the use of the buildings. The new functions in historical inner cities represent history, offer information about the past and meet the visitor's wishes for accommodation, food and (souvenir) shopping. According to Nelle, a museum-like urban environment that has undergone a change in function is characterized by a dominance of (ground floor) facilities for the target group of tourists, as well as the use of public spaces for presentations aimed at tourists. This is often accompanied by a dominance of visitors in public spaces.

Sturm's second museumization feature, the change in context, can again be clearly understood for objects using the example of the jug. Sturm speaks of delimitation and the change in the degree of reality of an object. For the urban context, Nelle explains that it is seldom a question of relocating buildings, but rather of changing characteristics that make up an urban context, such as B. the modification of traffic systems (introduction of pedestrian zones), facade design, street furniture and the appropriation by users. She speaks of the absence of "present signs" (advertising, cars, etc.) and the presence of "staging signs" (street lamps with a historical appearance, carriages, etc.).

Sturm's third characteristic, the 'relationship between subject and object in which the viewer takes “a gesture of inspection”, refers to the behavior of museum visitors (viewing subjects) towards exhibits (viewed objects). This characteristic can also be found in the urban context. The different appropriation of public spaces by tourists and locals is z. B. by Urry (Urry, 1990, p. 120) and Orbasli (2000, p. 55). According to Nelle, museum quality in the sense of the sign of viewing in public spaces is present when there is a dominance of tourists.

Assessment of musealization

The negative assessment of museumisation in the context of the literature on urban preservation, monument preservation, reconstruction and heritage tourism can be summarized in two lines of argument:

  1. A criticism of a movement of nostalgia that seeks to compensate for the insecurity in a constantly changing world by means of an approach to the past. According to the critics, images that try to present the past or to restore it visually prevent the continuation of the building history into the present. The debate about the maintenance of the cityscape versus the preservation of city monuments and restoration versus conservation can also be seen in this context.
  2. A criticism of the commercialization of public spaces associated with gentrification processes. In this context z. B. von Tjoa-Bonatz (1999, p. 251), Jones and Varley (1999, p. 1563) described urban change processes in which the promotion of tourism caused displacement processes. The commercialization of historical values ​​for tourism consumption and the increasing assimilation of historical sites that are being prepared for tourism are shown by authors such as Orbasli, Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge.

In contrast, the comparison of a city center with a museum is positively proven in the marketing of historical locations. Brochures and travel guides mark places as particularly worth seeing by describing them as living museums. The trip into the past is touted by them as an attractive vacation experience.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Sturm, Eva (1991): Konservierte Welt. Museum and Musealization. Berlin, pp. 11-12.
  2. ↑ Nelle, Anja B. (2007): Museality in an urban context. Investigation of museum status and museumization processes using the example of three Spanish-colonial world heritage sites. Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, urn: nbn: de: kobv: co1-opus-4029 .
  3. ↑ Gebhard, Torsten: On the subject of open-air museums. In: The preservation of monuments as a plague and a question. 1989, p. 67
  4. ↑ See authors under the heading Assessment of Musealization
  5. ↑ Zacharias, Wolfgang (ed.) (1990): Zeitphänomen Musealisierung: the disappearance of the present and the construction of memory. Essen, p. 7.
  6. ↑ Sturm (1991), p. 13.
  7. ↑ Ibid
  8. ↑ According to Sturm, making museums is associated with the activities of “collecting, preserving and passing on” (Sturm, 1991, p. 13). Treinen puts together “collection, processing, storage and public display” as “normative museum functions”. (Treinen, Heiner (1990): Structural constants in the development of the museum system. In: Zeitphänomen Musealisierung, p. 162) Fliedl defines: “Musealization aims to preserve the objects in their material identity over a long, basically unlimited period of time . “(Fliedl, Gottfried (1990): Testament culture: Musealisierung und Kompensation. In: Zeitphänomen Musealisierung, p. 172.)
  9. ^ Pazzini, Karl Josef (1990): Death in the Museum. About a certain proximity between pedagogy, museum and death. In: Zeitphänomen Musealisierung, p. 88.
  10. ↑ Cf. Lübbe, Hermann (1990): Time-Relationships. About the changed present of the future and the past. In: Zeitphänomen Musealisierung, pp. 40–45.
  11. ↑ Treinen formulates: “The collective appreciation of authentic objects as symbols for imagined cultural contexts mainly takes place in epochs in which cultural change processes take place and are cognitively processed; in which traditions are replaced by processes of reflection on history through historical awareness. ”(Treinen, 1990, p. 156 f.)
  12. ↑ See Sturm, Eva: (1990) Museification and Loss of Reality. In: Zeitphänomen Musealisierung, p. 100f.
  13. ^ Nelle, Anja B. (2009): Museality in the urban context: An investigation of museality and musealization processes in three Spanish-colonial World Heritage Towns, Urban Design International, London, Edition 14.3 pp. 152-171.
  14. ↑ Nelle (2009), pp. 153f.
  15. ↑ z. B. Choay, Françoise (1997): The Architectural Heritage, an Allegory. History and theory of architectural monuments. Braunschweig, Wiesbaden, p. 143; Lübbe, Hermann (1987): Progress as a past production. In: Anthos. Vol. 26 Issue 1, Münsing, p. 4; Orbasli, Aylin (2000): Tourists in Historic Towns. Urban Conservation and Heritage Management. London 200, p. 182 f.
  16. ↑ Tjoa Bonatz, May Lin (1999): Singapore and Penang. Two ways to market a story. In: Old City. Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 240-258
  17. ↑ Orbasli, Aylin (2000): Is Tourism Governing Conservation in Historic Towns? In: Journal of architectural conservation. Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 7-19.
  18. ↑ Graham, Brian et al. (2000): A Geography of Heritage, Power, Culture and Economy. London 2000, p. 20.