Global art scene
Introduction
Wong, Schubert, Weibel & Buddensieg offer important information based on museum from history to modern world. It is true that the museum has changed in terms of its functions. Normally, the role of museum in society is to deliver a social message, provide a cultural heritage which connected people with customs, social values and unity. However, museum in contemporary world has changed in that instead of serving the nation, community and the general public, it has shifted to ‘consumer society’. In others words, museums are acting as corporate where they charge the general public while abandoning the cultural heritage. ‘The new museum’ has undervalued the role of tangible culture heritage in culture preservation but rather its operations are viewed through financial perspective where it serves institution’s self-interest.
According to Schurbet, the new museum has the following characterizes. The first typical characteristic is seen on the architecture. The new museum is characterized by autonomous building that does not display modern art. The new museum is using fluorescent lighting which makes the interior to appear dark (Schurbet, 163). Second, the new museum architecture has unique form and function in that it does not focus on creating an elite culture where all people gain education and enjoy the democratic rights. What happens is that it rests on old utopian notions of ‘democracy of spectacle’ or a society where people should focus on material reconstruction, material life and stick on self-sustaining nature. The architecture is characterized by technological advancement and this affects the historical art of display. The second typical characterizes is based on exhibition. The new museum has permanent displays and do not establish new programmes on displays and exhibition (Schurbet, 166). The new museum is characterized by act of abandoning the old guiding principles and historical ground rules that emphasized on education to entertainment. Today, museum ignores quality but value quantity simply because it focuses on mass markets and ignores art markets. In the old museum, people felt an erstwhile experience while the new museum uses personal knowledge to offer ‘intensity experience’ characterized by peculiar euphoria (Schurbet, 163). Other interesting point is that the new museum acts as a corporation as it holds institution’s power; it has directors, trustees, departments from public relations, architects and consultants who support the operations. However, there is not doubt that the act of behaving like a business will lead to potential problems. First, the museum will shift from art markets to mass markets where it will be offering simulation of reality (Schurbet, 163). Other potential problem to corporate model is that it will experience a classic power which will bring conflict in the institutional structure-decision making. With the merging technology, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has shifted from the traditional ways to contemporary ways where it offer interactive experiences to visitors. It has undervalued the need for education and interaction from physical access. Note that traditional museum offered an opportunity for individual narrative but in contemporary world, the new museum concentrate on digitization of information (Schurbet, 163).
The Lubumbashi context tells that it is the high time to re-think about the role of the museum and focus on the way of preserving the artifacts. In addition, it is the high time to redefine the functions as well as the goals in order to fulfill the needs of the changing world. Thus, museum should be restructured in a way that they should bring society development in terms of maximizing interaction, peace and unity (Weibel & Buddemsieg, 94). In the new museum, societies do not value the heritage-related practices and cultural memory. It is important to re-think the role of museum through valuing the heritage-related practices in order to understand our cultural rights and more important create a cultural identity. The points are that heritage as a museum practice is a way of valuing the traditional knowledge and make museum as a place of conservation. In addition, societies should re-think the role of museum by valuing the cultural heritage where material medium and cultural memory interact (Weibel & Buddemsieg, 95). From the article, Jewsiewicki tends to meet the needs of people by establishing a shared heritage which creates a cultural memory. In addition, he meets the needs of the people through bringing cultural products to the museum and performing the popular painting. He also ensures that visitors develop knowledge and skills through engaging in difference forms such as workshops. Popular painting serve an important role in that people develops a collective memory through sharing narratives. Through shared reception, people engage in a creative relation (Weibel & Buddemsieg, 97).
The museum boom in China started from 2002-2013 when fifteen hundred museums were built. A point to note is that the new museum has additional functions that present a symbolic role. In establishing the museum, the Chinese Communist Party was influenced by the need to create culture credibility. With this goal, it created “Ten Great Building” which encompasses ‘the National Museum of Chinese’, the ‘China Agriculture Museum’ and others (Wong, 1). Later, new museums were built though they were flawed due to lack of good infrastructure which was caused by to economic disaster. Contemporary museums are run by nonprofit organization in U.S or culture ministry in Europe (Wong, 3). The Chinese museums are public and their design signifies an official power. The museum presents a cosmopolitan art of contemporary Chinese. The interesting thing is that the museums are politically legitimized or in other words they act as a real estate schemes and ‘cultural industry’ (Wong, 4). These museums value the culture as a path of creating democracy and cultural heritage. However, the Chinese museum reflects the Schubert characteristic of ‘the new museum’ in that the cultural institutions with a political structure focus on market economy and real capital. Today, the new museum is transformed into private ownership and has abandoned the culture-heritage (Wong, 4).
Conclusion
‘The new museum’ overlooks the cultural framework that provides public benefit in terms of education and enjoyment. The museum focus on passive consumer while fulfilling the institutional interest. The bad thing with the new museum is that it has ignored the importance of cultural heritage. Note that museum provide cultural heritage where people are connected to traditional and beliefs. In addition, museum allows people to form a cultural identity and conserve heritage. However, the new museum is influenced by mass markets where a consumer society and a democracy of spectacle are formed. This means that the new museum create a society characterized by anti-democracy and a totalitarian society.
Work cited
Wong Winne. China’s museum boom. ARRESTING DEVELOPEMNT. 2015
Weibel Peter & Buddemsieg Andrea. Contemporary Art and the Museum. A global Perspective. 2007
Schubert Karsten. The Curator’s Egg. The evolution of the museum concept from the FrenchRevolution
to the present day. 2009
