I am in Manhattan at Bard Graduate Center, celebrating its twentieth anniversary, its explorations of decorative arts, design history and material culture in research, pedagogy, exhibition and curatorial practice [Link]. Like any good celebration we’re looking forward as well as back. This morning was about imagining the future of museum and gallery exhibition. This afternoon was…
museums
matters of authenticity and simulation
Is Disneyland authentic? This is a question I have pondered for a number of years, since I visited what was Eurodisney in 1992 (and explored in my book with Mike Pearson – Theatre/Archaeology – [Link]). It is too easy to say that Disney is superficial, or fantasy, or ideology. Here are a couple of cases…
What is (of our) human making?
I have joined the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam as part of a new exhibition program. This extraordinary museum [Link] holds the largest collection of contemporary art in the Netherlands. Experiments in temporary and often provocative exhibitions, rather than permanent displays of the collection, are the museum’s specialty, and it runs over twenty a…
Bill Moggridge, and the museum as design studio
Bill Moggridge has died. With his warmth and sense of humor he embodied the human in human-centered design. Bill in class at Stanford, before he went off to direct Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum – click on images to enlarge The obituaries give the details of Bill’s extraordinary contribution to industrial design. With Bernie…
Louwman Museum – a cathedral of automobilia
Visited the Louwman collection of automobilia today with Riemer Knoop – [Link] One of the oldest and most spectacular in the world. Housed in a remarkable new building (architect – Michael Graves) in Den Haag, Netherlands.
this happened here – presence and authenticity in an archaeological sensibility
Gary (Devore) has brought my attention to a remarkable new publication from the Panstwowe Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau [Link] “The Auschwitz Album” or “Lili Jacob Album” comprises about 200 photographs taken by the German SS and depicting the arrival of a transport of Hungarian Jews at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp in 1944. This new collection takes 31…
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