week 10

Readings

The Ignorant Art Museum: Beyond Meaning Making

This article talks about the role of museums as learning spaces. What exactly do we learn when we go to a museum? It definitely all happens through empathetic processes, but is the knowledge something that confirms our already existent internal beliefs, or is it something that we acquire from the outside world. Contrary to either of these, is the knowledge something we create on the spot? As visitors to a museum, we must understand these different paths of understanding to our selves and the properties of the cultural objects we view in a museum.

An important transformation of museums in the modern era is saving them from the stuffy elitism they endear and transform them into learning centers of inclusive dialogue and experience. It is bridging the gap between the museum making meaning within their pieces and allowing the production of knowledge within the community. If either of these factors has too much power over the other, there will be an imbalance leading to a stagnating pool of ignorance.

Too much production of knowledge within dialogue can lead to echo chambers and descend into what can be viewed on a lot of online platforms today. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram allow for the creation of any knowledge possible without the interference of moderators, however this leads to the descent into unintelligible mumble that accomplishes little in promoting the good of knowledge for all.

On the other hand, if museums only focus on creating knowledge without allowing the input of their visitors to create and encourage dialogue, then they simply become inaccessible to the mainstream mindset that society may occupy at the time. Museums must understand the equality of intelligence and allow their art to teach not only through tradition, but also through empathy. Whether if it is for political benefit or intellectual benefit, there can be a great benefit to releasing the elitism that many museums hold onto.

I believe that museums can transform from an assertive authoritative voice to an open intellectual relationship through mediation with digital info. They must become centers of expertise AND public forum. This will lead to the a balance in the scale of power. Museums can not only retain their status as monuments of intellectual power, but also allow for the rest of society to reap their benefits through balanced discussion.

In the context of this class, by adjusting to the modern society’s technological needs, through the integration of digital info and more discursive content, this balance of power can absolutely be achieved.

Distinction

When we consume cultural goods as a work of art, who is to say what the value is in if the cultural goods that I consume may not appeal to others?

Any form of consumption is communication, no matter what gaze others lay onto me, how can they disagree with what I believe in just because it is not the mainstream aesthetic. What we portray definitely is easier to be absorbed by others if it matches the current mainstream aesthetic, however, if anything, more meaning is portrayed when something outside of the current cultural bubble is able to be presented and still received by others.

It all comes down to the individuals conveyance of their own personal beliefs and their confidence in asserting that consumption of whatever cultural goods. We can make meaning out of anything regardless of accordance to the current aesthetic.

A dismissal from the common aesthetic doesn’t indicate cultural ignorance. In my experience, it shows a further cultural understanding that you don’t have to conform with what everybody else does in order to feel that you are accomplished in your ways of being.

The only instance that a dismissal from what others believe in may not succeed within the self is if it has a complete denial of function. However, regardless of your consumption, cultural expression is all about differentiation in order to perform as a medium of the expression of individual identity. No cultural tradition can be seen as its own without another one in opposition to it in the same way as no good can be seen without something bad in accordance to its energy output.