Strategies Of Display: Museum Presentation in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century

by Julia Noordegraaf

Strategies of display describes the history of museum presentation within the context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century visual culture. Taking the remarkable display history at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam as a point of depature, it reflects on the history of presentation in museums in Western Europe and North America. Its numerous illustrations present a parallel history of museum presentation in pictures.
Julia Noordegraaf describes how in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries museums communicated with their audiences through their presentations. She argues that museum presentations are based on a 'script' which, like the script of a film, defines a framework of action within which the presentation, its designers and its users interact. This script comprises all the elements that mediate between the museum and its audience. These include the location, architecture and layout of the building, the order and arrangement of the objects, the various display techniques and the different means of communicating with the visitor.
This book is unique in its approach to museum presentation as a part of visual culture. Drawing upon ideas developed in film studies, it proceeds from the assumption that the visual media confronting exhibition designers and visitors alike, constitute certain viewing habits that influence the design of museum displays.

287 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2004