(Updated September 2017)
This module offers an introduction to the history of the museum. It combines a historical and theoretical investigation of the subject with a range of practical assignments to give students a multifaceted understanding of the subject. We will consider the basic human instinct to collect and explore different ways of making some sense of the world through ordering its material manifestations. We will analyse the spaces in which collections were displayed, and ask questions about privilege, power and the intended publics in the run up to the invention of the civic museum. We will discuss the ways art history, history and ethnography are presented and constructed in the museum. We will also consider the museum as a tool of urban regeneration and a motor of the tourist industry. While global cultural tourism is a widespread and lucrative phenomenon the museum's final frontier is dematerialisation and the digital. We'll ask what's the museum's future?
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this module the student should have:
* a firm grasp of the history of the museum and its political contexts;
* the ability to interpret museum taxonomies based on visual and textual evidence;
* an understanding of historical museum practices and its various publics;
* knowledge of the appropriate art historical and historical contexts;
* the confidence to subject the texts studied to critical analysis;
* good bibliographical and basic research skills.
This module offers an introduction to the history of the museum. It combines a historical and theoretical investigation of the subject with a range of practical assignments to give students a multifaceted understanding of the subject. We will consider the basic human instinct to collect and explore different ways of making some sense of the world through ordering its material manifestations. We will analyse the spaces in which collections were displayed, and ask questions about privilege, power and the intended publics in the run up to the invention of the civic museum. We will discuss the ways art history, history and ethnography are presented and constructed in the museum. We will also consider the museum as a tool of urban regeneration and a motor of the tourist industry. While global cultural tourism is a widespread and lucrative phenomenon the museum's final frontier is dematerialisation and the digital. We'll ask what's the museum's future?
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this module the student should have:
* a firm grasp of the history of the museum and its political contexts;
* the ability to interpret museum taxonomies based on visual and textual evidence;
* an understanding of historical museum practices and its various publics;
* knowledge of the appropriate art historical and historical contexts;
* the confidence to subject the texts studied to critical analysis;
* good bibliographical and basic research skills.