To Show or To Use? Examining the Means and Ends of Museum Collection Objects

• In Event: 545 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Material Culture Network

Abstract

It is almost a truism that in the museum, we look, but do not touch, a policy aimed at preserving the symbolic value of collection objects by limiting visitors’ physical interactions with them. This paper considers the limits of generalizing to all museums from the dominant emphasis on art museums within the sociological literature, arguing for attention to museums whose collections are conventionally understood as practically useful. Drawing on ethnographic data of educational programs at two major metropolitan botanical gardens, I examine how organizing a museum around natural objects both constrains and enables efforts to create a “hands-off” approach to museum-going. I illustrate how debates between the contemplative reflection of, and hands-on interactions with, plants in the museum shape 1.) organizational identity claims; 2.) aesthetic definitions and practices; 3.) the movement of bodies in space. Theorizing the interplay of aesthetics and functionality within object genres offers opportunities to bridge the literatures between culture and technology, and between instrumental and substantive valuation.

Author

• Gemma Mangione, Northwestern University