The Politics of Display: Museums, Science, Culture

by Sharon Macdonald (editor)

The assumption that museum exhibitions, particularly those concerned with science and technology, are somehow neutral and impartial is today being challenged both in the public arena and in the academy. The Politics of Display brings together studies of contemporary and historical exhibitions and contends that exhibitions are never, and never have been, above politics. Rather, technologies of display and ideas about 'science' and 'objectivity' are mobilized to tell stories of progress, citizenship, racial and national difference. The display of the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima is a well-known case in point. The Politics of Display charts the changing relationship between displays and their audience and analyzes the consequent shift in styles of representation towards interactive, multimedia and reflexive modes of display. The Politics of Display brings together an array of international scholars in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology and history. Examples are taken from exhibitions of science, technology and industry, anthropology, geology, natural history and medicine, and locations include the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Spain. This book is an excellent contribution to debates about the politics of public culture. It will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, museum studies and science studies.

Genres: Museums, Museology

264 pages, Paperback

First published December 25, 1997

Reviews

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Macdonald’s collection reads like a dark account of human nature, revealing how some of our worst tendencies pervade museum culture and frequently corrupt the science displayed therein. Throughout the book, the underlying psychology and sociology of exhibits—their designs and intentions—are exposed in many dismal, disquieting forms. Most of the articles found in "The Politics of Display" were collected from a special edition of the journal "Science as Culture" and, because they are assembled chronologically by topic, each chapter marches through a history of the politics of display that in the end seems no brighter today than it appeared in its shameful infancy. The legacy of our science museums parallels the challenges we face as a culture and this book offers stimulation and motivation to search for solutions.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Too much cannot be expected from those who can only find time for study after a fatiguing day's work."

"A museum without labels may be amusing, but it teaches very little."

"Physical virtue is the base of all other, and that they are to be clean & temperate & all the rest, not because fellows in black with white ties tell them so, but because these are plain and patent laws of nature."

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought provoking essays with interesting facts and includes history of science museums from 1600s to present. I didn't know the Exploritorum in SF was founded by Frank Oppenheimer who wanted people to learn and have fun with science separate from social fear created after A-Bomb.