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Week 6 – Exhibiting cultures: Museums

For this week’s topic, we were asked to represent ourselves using a shoe box and any other physical objects. I started this project by considering what would represent aspects of both my past and present and decided on using photos to show the difference between childhood and adulthood. Like sixteenth century ‘collection of rarities’, I decided to include products of personal preference that had no scientific meaning, which could represent the ethnological approach of focusing on humans and their relation to each other. 

When constructing the box, I decided to  categorise my photos to show the transition from past to the present which I thought would display my habit to document my relationship with people and places over time. In hindsight, this idea of classifying photos according to specific periods of my life was successful in showing a transition because the photos produce a visual display of my life as a child and as an adult.

As well as exhibiting my relations to people through photos, I wanted to include a physical object that would represent my love for reading which is a central feature of my present life. In order to replicate the ‘microcosm’ aspect of the Musauem Tradescantianum, I included Dunkirk by Joshua Levine in my box to display my interest in modern history. The book symbolised my recent attraction to reading non-fiction surrounding the twentieth century and its presence in my box links to having products of artificialia in cabinets of curiosity.

However the feedback for my box indicated that the physical object doesn't always reflect the intended meaning. For instance, I intended on displaying the transition between past and present but the questions I received were more focused around if I had a 'favourite picture' or if the novel was my 'favourite book'. As a result I found that it would be difficult to convey the original meaning and auto-ethnographic museums, like the box, can be interpreted in several ways depending on the individual's social perspective. 


 
























Comments

  1. Tom O11 December 2018 at 07:30

    Thank you. I enjoyed reading this post. You reflect in an interesting way about the intended and actual readings of ethnographic objects and texts, fusing theory and practice.

    ReplyDelete

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