In 1998, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective exhibition of artworks by Jackson Pollock. Curators Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel worked in an art historical context that had been significantly shaped by the early critical writings by Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. The curators’ stated intention for the exhibition installation was to provide “a fresh chance for new generations of artists to come to terms with a legendary figure” and to enable “the broader public to reassess a quintessentially American artist in light of three decades of new scholarship,” without “ hewing to any particular critical dogma.” Despite this curatorial intention, this thesis examines the ways in which the retrospective inscribed Greenberg’s and Rosenberg’s theories, while disregarding subsequent scholarship that did not explicitly inscribe or align with the mid-century criticism in its account of Jackson Pollock.

This thesis will explore the causes and consequences of the absence of vernacular photography from museum collections. Through historical analysis of vernacular photography and a close interpretation of a contemporary family snapshot, I will argue that vernacular photographs are important objects of great cultural significance and poignant personal meaning. Photography has always defied categorization. It serves multiple functions and roles, is studied in a vast number of disciplines, and exists in a variety of institutions and collections. Furthermore, it is difficult to classify a single photograph. Vernacular photography thus poses a challenge to museum methods of sorting documents, artifacts, and art. Consequently the photographs that are most significant in everyday life are often missing from the museum setting or are misinterpreted and stripped of their meaning.

"Playing with Aesthetics in Art Museums" presents a strategy for using design thinking to mediate engrossing art experiences for adult museum visitors. Built upon a substantiated family resemblance between art and play experiences, the study synthesizes a typology of aesthetic theories, ten germane tenets of game design, and a psychographic portrait of the "archetypal" museum visitor to create a practical framework for delivering engrossing art experiences to adult visitors who typically enter museums with limited art historical knowledge. The interdisciplinary approach used is intended to replace the singular methodologies (whether art historical, pedagogical or aesthetic) that have informed museum practice in the United States since the late nineteenth century.

This dissertation explores a shift in cultural memory theory and praxis that loosely coincides with the turn of the century. With Berlin as its focus, I trace this shift through three of its museum institutions (the Jewish Museum, the Masterplan Museumsinsel, and the Neues Museum). I specifically look at three aspects: their museum practices (how history is expressed), the main narratives embodied in their spaces (what history is being expressed), and the critical contexts in which they are embedded (what do these practices and narratives mean in the wider cultural context). Throughout, I develop the idea of a cultural memory that emphasizes how we use the past, or what we do with our cultural inheritance. This runs counter to the cultural memory that sees remembering as a categorical imperative ('never forget' or 'lest we forget'), a memory that is clearly embodied in Libeskind's Jewish Museum and is typified in critical work that either prioritizes trauma (Caruth, LaCapra) or stresses cultivating specific empathetic responses (Landsberg's 'prosthetic memory,' Hirsch's 'postmemory'). My cultural memory hypothesis fits within the general German field of Cultural Memory Studies, as typified in the work of Jan and Aleida Assmann. The outcome of thinking about memory as use, appropriation, and transformation of cultural inheritance is the characterization of the past as an analytical tool. This notion sits well amidst current work by Dekel and Arnold-de Simine who read museum/memorial spaces as facilitators of civic engagement. This new cultural memory can be found embodied in the architectural and curatorial framing of the Neues Museum, in its phenomenological approach to history, its narrative of fragmentary wholeness, as well as in its placing of the twentieth century in long narratives of historical continuity. These characteristics allow me to read the Neues Museum as an example of contemporary thinking about modernism, and thus as part of a discourse that looks to restore and transform crucial mythological tendencies.

Cette thèse appréhende l'histoire de l'évolution des musées et la professionnalisation de ses acteurs, la diversification de leurs fonctions pour répondre à des nouvelles tâches, pour favoriser véritablement un rôle de service public et implanter des services des publics. Nous nous sommes intéressés aux deux groupes professionnels liés à la conservation et à la médiation dans le contexte du rôle social des musées. Cette recherche explore l'état actuel de la fonction des médiateurs et leur non-reconnaissance professionnelle par rapport aux conservateurs dans la division du travail au sein de l'organisation, en dévoilant le processus de construction du champ d'action dédié à la médiation culturelle dans les musées. Finalement, elle se focalise sur les enjeux de la Gestion des Ressources Humaines, à travers une observation des dispositifs visant à reconnaître l'identité professionnelle et les activités des médiateurs au sein des musées. / This thesis apprehends the history of museums development and the professionalization of its actors, the diversification of their functions to meet new tasks, to promote a public service role and implement public services. We were interested in two professional groups related to the conservation and mediation in the context of the social role of museums. This research explores the current state of mediators' function and its non-professional recognition from the curators in the task division within the organization, revealing the process of building the scope dedicated to cultural mediation in museums. Finally, it focuses on Human Resource Management issues in order to recognize the professional identity and activities of mediators in museums.

This thesis explores how the aura of the artworks changes in the age of digital reproduction through the empirical experiments conducted in Uppsala Konstmuseum. By employing the definition of the aura given by Benjamin in The work of art in the age of the mechanical reproduction and The arcade project, this thesis conceptualizes the “aura” into eight dimensions and then operationalizes the eight dimensions in order to find whether audience’s evaluation of the artwork changes when they are given different stimulus in the control experiment. From the control experiment, the quantitative data will be obtained from a questionnaire and non-participant observation. The qualitative data will be obtained from the interviews. By also applying the simulacra theory of Baudrillard to the analysis part, this thesis finds that there exists a small difference in the perception of the aura between the people who see a digital copy and who see a real painting. The aura still has its power. However, such power is really weak, as many dimensions of the aura have been weakened by the digital simulacra. Through this study, I suggest the museums to take cautious steps to digitalize their artworks though there is no evidence that virtual museums can replace real museums.

Ao longo da história, o Museu foi uma instituição de muitas características, finalidades e motivações, acompanhando as mudanças sociais de seu tempo. Ele possui hoje, um papel fundamental em diversos aspectos contemporâneos, compondo parte estruturante para o desenvolvimento da sociedade. Contudo, ele enfrenta grandes desafios para manter-se vivo e ativo em suas funções, o que nos leva a refletir se as instituições museais contemporâneas de fato cumprem a sua função social. Diante disso, o objetivo principal dessa dissertação foi analisar as transformações da instituição Museu, apresentando a sua trajetória a partir das mudanças dos paradigmas do conhecimento da sociedade. Como desdobramento desse objetivo e em virtude do movimento da Nova Museologia, a pesquisa teve como objetivo específico apresentar o Museu contemporâneo sob o prisma das novas formas de diálogo com a sociedade, trabalhando com a hipótese de que, essa mudança na postura museológica aproxima o museu da sociedade, contribuindo para o alcance e aprimoramento de sua função social. Buscando atingir tais objetivos, o método de pesquisa constituiu-se de uma abordagem qualitativa, exploratória e explicativa onde os procedimentos metodológicos foram aplicados as pesquisas bibliográfica e documental. Deste modo, a partir dos questionamentos: O que é conhecimento? O que é Museu? A que se destina? e A quem se destina? expostos em cada paradigma: Greco-Romano, Judaico-Cristão, Ciência Racional e o Paradigma Atual, elaboramos quadros com as respostas consolidadas para fundamentar reflexões acerca do passado, do presente e do futuro dos museus. Destacamos que em sua trajetória paradigmática de transformações e (re) transformações, o museu encontrou no movimento da Nova Museologia a busca pelo aprimoramento de sua função social. Nesse sentido, as análises feitas do passado, no Capítulo 2, e do presente, no Capítulo 3, nos permitiu que, no Capítulo 4 delineássemos a perspectiva de três novas formas de diálogos do museu com a sociedade: Diálogos por meio do Lazer Cultural, Diálogos por meio da Educação Não Formal e Diálogos por meio do Patrimônio Cultural, que a nosso ver, fazendo uso da criticidade e do desenvolvimento recíproco, favoreceriam o alcance das três finalidades prima do Museu (estudo, educação e lazer) e, consequentemente, o alcance e o aprimoramento de sua função social, razão de sua existência e objeto de estudo dessa pesquisa / Throughout history, the Museum was an institution of many characteristics, purposes and motivations, accompanying the social changes of its time. Today, it has a fundamental role in several contemporary aspects, forming a structuring part for the development of society. However, it faces great challenges in order to remain alive and active in his functions, which leads us to reflect on whether contemporary museological institutions actually fulfill their social function. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation was to analyze the transformations of the Museum institution, presenting its trajectory from the changes of the paradigms knowledge of the society. As a result of this objective and due to the New Museology movement, the research had as its specific objective to present the contemporary Museum under the prism of the new forms of dialogue with the society, considering the hypothesis that, this change in the museological methodology approaches the museum society, contributing to the achievement and improvement of its social function. In order to reach these objectives, the research method consisted of a qualitative, exploratory and explanatory approach where the methodological procedures were applied to bibliographical and documentary research. Thus, from the questions: What is knowledge? What is Museum? What is it for? and Who is it for? in each paradigm: Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Rational Science and the Current Paradigm, we elaborate tables with the consolidated answers to support reflections about the past, the present and the future of the museums. We emphasize that in its paradigmatic trajectory of transformations and (re) transformations, the museum found in the movement of the New Museology the search for the improvement of its social function. In this sense, the analyzes of the past in Chapter 2 and in Chapter 3 have allowed us to delineate the perspective of three new forms of dialogues between the museum and society in Chapter 4: Dialogues through Cultural Leisure, Dialogues through Non-Formal Education and Dialogues through Cultural Heritage, which, in our view, making use of criticality and reciprocal development, would favor the achievement of the three primary purposes of the Museum (study, education and leisure) and, consequently, the scope and improvement of its social function, reason for its existence and the object of study of this research

Cotemporary museum theory calls for dialogue as a means of making museums multi-­‐ vocal and representative of larger audiences. Dialogue is seen to be a break with prior modernist practices and epistemology. However, in most cases what is meant by dialogue and how to implement it is not made clear. I proposed using the Community of Enquiry Approach to dialogue in the development of the Travelling Museum. The Travelling Museum is a community museum based at ‘The Centre’ on the land of the Swazi chief in Emjindini. I was concerned that labelling the community and associating the museum with the chief could perpetuate essentialised ideas of what it meant to be Swazi. I was also conscious of not wanting to be the ‘outsider expert’ and for the museum to be developed by the community it was intended for. It was for these reasons that I decided to employ the ideas of dialogue. While implementing dialogue through the Community of Enquiry, I started to question whether this method of dialogue could become normative, and whether it excluded or silenced certain members. I wanted to locate this approach to dialogue on a larger theoretical base, in order to understand how dialogue challenges and departs from modernism and moves into postmodernism. In order to do this in the Report I explore postmodern and modern theories of knowledge and difference. My research method is to use critical incidents. These are moments of noticing or jarring in my practice, which when interpreted allow me to interrogate theory and practice. The first incident questions my openness to the other where I raise concerns of relativism. The second and third incidents address issues of power and access in museums. I conclude by recommending a new role for the museum. No longer in a role of cultural authority, museums can take on the new role of artist. As an artist the museum can be multi-­‐partial and act as social commentator, provocateur and catalyst for change (Gogan, 2005, p.60 ).

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Traditional definitions of the museum present a building type that is intended to act as a repository for the collection, preservation and display of static artefacts. Since 1994, numerous efforts have been made to conceive and construct appropriate museums in previously excluded townships. What has resulted from these efforts is, in many cases, large scale State driven projects that elevate political grandstanding over considered contextual engagement and much needed social cohesion. This thesis aims to question the traditional role of museums as an architectural typology within the specific context of peri-urban township areas. The context chosen for this exploration towards a new museum is Tembisa. Tembisa received its first inhabitants in 1957 and is located within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. It is the second largest township in the country by population. Unlike many of the country’s older townships, this peripheral neighbourhood is yet to receive sustained cultural interventions. As such, it lends itself as the ideal testing ground for the creation of a ’living museum’. The thesis aims to create a living museum that does not rely on imposing a master narrative, but instead aims to actively locate traces of history, heritage and culture with [IN] Tembisa for collection, reproduction and display. In this museum the ‘artefacts’ on display are the result of evolving processes that are not only present within the confines of the museum itself, but are informed by, and spill out into the fabric and consciousness of the immediate context. This is explored through a reconsidered museum program that includes a historical archive and art ensemble for Tembisa. / GR2017

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in History of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / In this research report I look at how the Goodman Gallery has played a role in the construction of cultural capital around the contemporary South African photographer Mikhael Subotzky (1981). Unpacking Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “cultural capital” (1986: 243), and applying it to the South African art industry, I explore the direct impact that commercial galleries have on the building of artists’ careers through acts that result in the construction of cultural capital, and in what capacity they do this. Little has been written in South African art history about local commercial art galleries, and my interest in the role that they play in the construction of art history stems from my own involvement in this sector, as a commercial art gallery curator. As businesses, these institutions have profitable ambitions, and by successfully promoting the artists they represent, they are affecting the course of South African art history. Due to the potentially vast nature of this subject I have chosen to focus on one contemporary artist, Mikhael Subotzky, and his relationship with the one South African gallery he has been affiliated to throughout his entire professional career, the Goodman Gallery. As much as every person’s life is different, every person’s career is different too, and in this way I cannot use Subotzky’s career trajectory to explain all other contemporary South African artists’ careers, but I do believe that the impact that commercial galleries can have on the cultural capital surrounding artists in South Africa is a topic that should be explored further. I argue that there are various ways of gauging the cultural capital surrounding an artist in the South African art industry, and that one can look at various aspects of an artist’s career and assess their cultural capital. I substantiate this claim in this paper, and indeed why it is important to understand what role the commercial gallery can play in this construction