博物館展示治理實踐─以敦煌主題展示策劃為例
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2020
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從晚近博物館學的發展來看,展示不僅源於展示策劃者的觀念、背景而策動產生,展示策劃者所處的機構、社會文化的脈絡也影響展示最終的呈現。展示策劃實務是一項深具挑戰的專業運作之外,展示策劃者進行策展工作同時又涉及其隱含的治理性問題,亦即是,作為技術意含的展示,既是指涉實務技術的方法、程序,也是意指實務技術的理論、目的。如此以博物館展示專業技術結合治理性意識,視為一種展示治理,並藉由深度描繪和解析本研究敦煌展示案例,以釐清博物館展示策劃工作的多重意涵。
博物館展示治理包含兩個部分。其一是博物館做為整體文化治理的技術,如何透過展示對觀眾進行治理,其治理的鋪陳可能隱含在博物館展示文本與展場設計之中。以Foucault討論治理性的四個技術系統(生產技術、符號技術系統、權力技術系統、自我技術系統)為基礎,透過本研究案例可以更細膩理解其間運作機制;第二個部分則是進入到整體治理性下的主體,以展示策劃團隊與觀眾對應機構展示策劃者的關係,透過西方基督教牧養制度的概念,以討論展示策劃團隊與觀眾如何達到自我技術切磋交流的可能性,也是博物館學所謂的展示效益。本研究以國立自然科學博物館「敦煌風華再現:續說石窟故事」特展展示策劃為實踐案例,因敦煌主題特展架構在浩瀚的敦煌學知識下,展示文本的組織變化差異性極大,而更顯示出展示策劃者對於展示詮釋權的治理性,進而影響個體在展示實踐上的各種可能性。
首先,第一部份從當代博物館學強調以觀眾為思考基礎,並由參與展示策劃的人員出發,展示技術工作不以線性作業的方式運作,日漸著重團隊協力共作的模式,團隊並不侷限於博物館機構內部人員,更朝向與所在社群、相關機構等合作,激發創意與多元角度共同策劃展示。再者,博物館具有生產知識的專業能力與性質,又透過展示將以物件為主的知識傳遞給社會大眾,這樣的博物館專業呈現一種行之多年的知識發展與詮釋的權力系統,在這個知識詮釋與傳播的權力制度下,主導展示策劃的策展人具有某些被期待與賦予的權威性,也因而掌握以知識教化觀眾的權力,觀眾因為認同與信任博物館所給予的知識,進而運用展示潛移默化地影響觀眾的精神與行為上的認知和改變。因此,本研究認為展示實踐工作最重要的即是展品有關的展示文本組織,與相關事務之權力的支配調理,並進而在實踐過程中對於個體的主體性產生影響力。藉由本研究案例之實務展示工作探討,發現博物館有其運作的專業制度與結構體制基礎,依循在此之下的是一套專業技術,包含由各項展品構成的內容文本,對應展示需求的各項設計,相互搭配的教育活動,以及行銷宣傳等實務運作上。
透過對於展示治理的分析,上述展示實務技術的方法所指涉的實務技術「理論」,與Foucault在主體性上所提及追求真理遊戲的四個技術有所呼應,包含:生產技術、符號技術系統、權力技術系統和自我技術系統的對應分析。特別是後三項系統,可從組織展品/物件的策展理念和詮釋權掌控的關係條理來實踐自我技術的層面。整合來說,其一是與展示文本直接相關的展品組織架構,又可從策展理念、展品性質、博物館屬性、展示設計等方面進行分析,理解博物館展示發展為具有治理性的權力運作系統,如何運用符號技術和權力技術相互作用而呈現其治理性。其二是與展示策劃過程息息相關的人(關係)連結的部分,展示策劃工作如何調理與展示相關的各項關係,以達到各方關係的相互搭配與平衡。最後透過諸多與策展團隊訪談和觀眾書寫所得的眾多資料,實驗性的與Foucault四大技術系統中的自我技術結合討論,呈現博物館展示是否可能成為展示策劃者與觀眾自我技術的一環,也是展示效益的結果。
最後的結語部分,再度整合本研究以展示治理假設做為博物館展示策劃工作的解析依據,再回頭審視博物館學中做為策展人字源的curator職務,理解博物館展示策劃工作在博物館整體與國家體制下的治理理性,進而可知其策展成員與觀眾個體主體自我技術的可能性。透過博物館展示策劃工作的治理分析,文末指出國家體制與博物館環境對應到策展團隊與觀眾,是整體性與主體性互為作用的不可分割關係。
According to recent developments in the field of museology, museum exhibitions originate from the curator’s concepts and background, as well as the curator’s organization. They are also influenced by social and cultural contexts. Curating practice is a challenging field, in which a deeper level of governmentality is implicit. As such, based on the combination of museum professional technologies and awareness of governmentality, exhibition governance is proposed with multiple connotations for museum curating. Exhibition governance consists of two parts. First, it is an overall cultural governing technology of museums that involves the governance of visitors. The apparatus of governance can be found in museum exhibition text and exhibition venue design. Based on Michel Foucault’s four technology systems of governmentality (technologies of production, technologies of sign systems, technologies of power, and technologies of the self), a case study was conducted to provide a more detailed understanding about the operating mechanisms of governmentality. Second, from the perspective of governmentality, I discuss the curating team and corresponding mechanisms of visitors. Based on the concepts of the pastoral leadership system of Western Christianity, how the curatorial team and visitors create possibilities for technologies of self in terms of learning and exchange is also investigated. This is the so-called effect of the exhibition in museology. The Dunhuang: Stories of the Caves special exhibition of the National Museum of Natural Science serves as a case study, involving the vast field of Dunhuangology, leading to significant changes and variations in organization and arrangement of exhibition text, and revealing the governmentality of the curators in terms of interpretative power, which further influences individuals’ possibilities for exhibition practices. Taking this a step further, in the first part, as contemporary museology emphasizes elements of visitors and from the starting point of participating curators, exhibition and curating technologies do not operate in a linear fashion. Increasingly, a coordinated team model is being shaped. The members of this team are not limited to the museum’s internal staff. Collaboration can involve various communities and organizations to stimulate creativity and to incorporate multiple perspectives. Moreover, museums possess professional competencies and specialized nature in the production of knowledge. Through exhibitions, knowledge related to exhibited objects is conveyed to the public. This presents a form of knowledge development and interpretative power system that has been in place for many years. Under this system, curators have been expected to exercise and are endowed with authority. They also have the power to control the education of visitors. As visitors identify with and trust the knowledge offered by museums, exhibitions imperceptibly influence cognition and changes in visitors in terms of consciousness and behavior. Therefore, from the results of this research, the most important parts of exhibition practice are the organization of text related to the exhibits, the distribution of power in relevant matters, and the influence of subjectivity of individuals. The subject of this research is a special exhibition that is used to discuss curating process. It was discovered that museum operation is based on professional systems and structural framework. Dependent on these is a set of professional technologies, including the composition of exhibit contents and text, design that corresponds to the needs of the exhibition, complementary educational activities, and marketing and promotional activities. For the above, the corresponding theory is that of the four technologies of the games of truth proposed by Foucault. These include analyses of the technologies of production, sign systems, power, and the self. Especially for the last three systems, from the curatorial concepts and right to interpretation of the arrangement of exhibits/objects, relationship conditioning was applied to the implementation of technologies of the self. First is the development of an exhibit arranging framework that is directly related to the exhibition text. In addition, analyses of various aspects are carried out such as of curatorial concepts, the nature of exhibits, the type of museum, and the exhibition design to understand that museum exhibition development involves power operating systems of governmentality and the interactions of technologies of sign systems and technologies of power. Second, there is the part that is related to the people who are closely linked to the curatorial process and leads to the conditioning of relationships to achieve reciprocal arrangement and balance. Finally, through the data obtained from interviews with members of the curatorial team and writings of visitors, the technologies of the self of Foucault’s four technology systems were integrated to elucidate whether, in the development of museum exhibitions, connections between technologies of the self of curators and visitors are possible, which is also related to the effect of the exhibition. In conclusion, by re-integrating hypotheses on exhibition governance, analyses of museum curating were carried out with a review of the functions of the “curator” in the field of museology, to understand the governmentality of museum curating in terms of the museum and nation state. Then, we determined the possibilities of individual technologies of the self of curatorial team members and visitors. Moreover, we elucidated museum curating in terms of the national and museum environments and the correspondence with the curatorial team and visitors. These integral and subjective mutual effects are inseparable.
According to recent developments in the field of museology, museum exhibitions originate from the curator’s concepts and background, as well as the curator’s organization. They are also influenced by social and cultural contexts. Curating practice is a challenging field, in which a deeper level of governmentality is implicit. As such, based on the combination of museum professional technologies and awareness of governmentality, exhibition governance is proposed with multiple connotations for museum curating. Exhibition governance consists of two parts. First, it is an overall cultural governing technology of museums that involves the governance of visitors. The apparatus of governance can be found in museum exhibition text and exhibition venue design. Based on Michel Foucault’s four technology systems of governmentality (technologies of production, technologies of sign systems, technologies of power, and technologies of the self), a case study was conducted to provide a more detailed understanding about the operating mechanisms of governmentality. Second, from the perspective of governmentality, I discuss the curating team and corresponding mechanisms of visitors. Based on the concepts of the pastoral leadership system of Western Christianity, how the curatorial team and visitors create possibilities for technologies of self in terms of learning and exchange is also investigated. This is the so-called effect of the exhibition in museology. The Dunhuang: Stories of the Caves special exhibition of the National Museum of Natural Science serves as a case study, involving the vast field of Dunhuangology, leading to significant changes and variations in organization and arrangement of exhibition text, and revealing the governmentality of the curators in terms of interpretative power, which further influences individuals’ possibilities for exhibition practices. Taking this a step further, in the first part, as contemporary museology emphasizes elements of visitors and from the starting point of participating curators, exhibition and curating technologies do not operate in a linear fashion. Increasingly, a coordinated team model is being shaped. The members of this team are not limited to the museum’s internal staff. Collaboration can involve various communities and organizations to stimulate creativity and to incorporate multiple perspectives. Moreover, museums possess professional competencies and specialized nature in the production of knowledge. Through exhibitions, knowledge related to exhibited objects is conveyed to the public. This presents a form of knowledge development and interpretative power system that has been in place for many years. Under this system, curators have been expected to exercise and are endowed with authority. They also have the power to control the education of visitors. As visitors identify with and trust the knowledge offered by museums, exhibitions imperceptibly influence cognition and changes in visitors in terms of consciousness and behavior. Therefore, from the results of this research, the most important parts of exhibition practice are the organization of text related to the exhibits, the distribution of power in relevant matters, and the influence of subjectivity of individuals. The subject of this research is a special exhibition that is used to discuss curating process. It was discovered that museum operation is based on professional systems and structural framework. Dependent on these is a set of professional technologies, including the composition of exhibit contents and text, design that corresponds to the needs of the exhibition, complementary educational activities, and marketing and promotional activities. For the above, the corresponding theory is that of the four technologies of the games of truth proposed by Foucault. These include analyses of the technologies of production, sign systems, power, and the self. Especially for the last three systems, from the curatorial concepts and right to interpretation of the arrangement of exhibits/objects, relationship conditioning was applied to the implementation of technologies of the self. First is the development of an exhibit arranging framework that is directly related to the exhibition text. In addition, analyses of various aspects are carried out such as of curatorial concepts, the nature of exhibits, the type of museum, and the exhibition design to understand that museum exhibition development involves power operating systems of governmentality and the interactions of technologies of sign systems and technologies of power. Second, there is the part that is related to the people who are closely linked to the curatorial process and leads to the conditioning of relationships to achieve reciprocal arrangement and balance. Finally, through the data obtained from interviews with members of the curatorial team and writings of visitors, the technologies of the self of Foucault’s four technology systems were integrated to elucidate whether, in the development of museum exhibitions, connections between technologies of the self of curators and visitors are possible, which is also related to the effect of the exhibition. In conclusion, by re-integrating hypotheses on exhibition governance, analyses of museum curating were carried out with a review of the functions of the “curator” in the field of museology, to understand the governmentality of museum curating in terms of the museum and nation state. Then, we determined the possibilities of individual technologies of the self of curatorial team members and visitors. Moreover, we elucidated museum curating in terms of the national and museum environments and the correspondence with the curatorial team and visitors. These integral and subjective mutual effects are inseparable.
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展示策劃, 治理性, 展示品, 關係調理, 展示效益, Curating, Governmentality, Exhibit, Regulations of Relationship, Exhibition Effect