objects of ethnography
In 2009 the British Museum began working on an online archive of its collection. Every single object, both on and off display is currently being digitized, photographed or scanned and so made available to the public. But readymade photographs and preformatted information not only allow for a broader community to participate in scientific and conceptual research; they are also an honest move towards a deeper understanding of the institutional methods of producing meaning. This series of "textual interventions" highlights these very methods.
„Ethnographic objects are objects of ethnography. They are artifacts created by ethnographers when they define, segment, detach, and carry them away. Such fragments become ethnographic objects by virtue of the manner in which they have been detached. They are what they are by virtue of the disciplines that „know“ them, for disciplines make their objects and in the process make themselves. For this reason, exhibitions, whether of objects or people, display the artifacts of our disciplines. They are also exhibits of those who make them.“
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage; (University of California Press, 1998)
In 2009 the British Museum began working on an online archive of its collection. Every single object, both on and off display is currently being digitized, photographed or scanned and so made available to the public. But readymade photographs and preformatted information not only allow for a broader community to participate in scientific and conceptual research; they are also an honest move towards a deeper understanding of the institutional methods of producing meaning. This series of "textual interventions" highlights these very methods.
„Ethnographic objects are objects of ethnography. They are artifacts created by ethnographers when they define, segment, detach, and carry them away. Such fragments become ethnographic objects by virtue of the manner in which they have been detached. They are what they are by virtue of the disciplines that „know“ them, for disciplines make their objects and in the process make themselves. For this reason, exhibitions, whether of objects or people, display the artifacts of our disciplines. They are also exhibits of those who make them.“
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage; (University of California Press, 1998)