30/06/2018 Bárbara Gual
What comes to your mind when we say the word museum? In general, there is an image related to the past, as if visiting a museum were only to visit the old, the distant and there was no connection with the present. Have you ever stopped to think that the present is a continuation of the past? This last one reverberates in the present not only as inherited knowledge, but also as a guiding experience that generates new positive actions. That is why it is so important to combine the remote object with its deep and critical historical significance, in view of the beneficial consequences and experiences with which it can enrich the contemporary world.
The present moment claims the incorporation of technological advances to transform traditional museums into neo museums. A recent survey by La Place Cohen, published by Artsy, showed that cultural activities are for many people just a form of leisure and relaxation – 81% of the public is motivated to participate in a cultural activity because they want to have fun. The desire to try something new was at the 71% mark.
And yet, about 37% of museum visitors do not consider this program as a cultural one. This way, museums must not work only as a visit to the past and begin to represent a space where critical reflection, interpretation and interaction connect present and past, and then, enrich their viewer culturally. But how to approach a contemporary audience to the art exposed there? One of the ways found by museums today is technology, a current factor in the life of this modern time. The instruments that the technology uses increase the capacity of perception, memorization and reflection because they access human senses (vision, hearing, touch). They impress all these senses through colors, images and sounds, favoring a better assimilation. The technology is not exclusive. Everyone can enjoy and appropriate sensorially the content displayed (ISRAEL, 2011), regardless of their cultural background, social, ethnic and even age status. The function of the new museum is, above all, to democratize. To carry out such an attempt it is required a new creative process whose aim is the public, which should actively participate in this cultural action. For this an affective approach is important. The museum offers the “spectacle”, the art, and the viewer audience can externalize in different ways the personal experience they have in this interaction, including personal creations, originating from this object / individual connection. As a result, the museum gains a new identity, from being an isolated, selective, sacralized space and becoming democratized, interactive, and with that, there is an expand of the horizons of its cultural and educational action, since, being a cultural center, it is a an institution that legitimizes and transmits culture in the same way as family, school, and the media.
These educational actions present in the museum space are considered forms of mediation between this place and the visitor. With them, the dialogue is instigated and it proposes the importance of the individual in the construction of knowledge. Cultural mediation must touch the sensitivity and still be linked to the interest of the viewers so that they can be attracted to the cultural space.
In addition, the museum can carry out cultural actions to call its audience and turn into a habit the going to space, using multidisciplinary teams, because with the presence of specialized professionals you get a greater reach of the desired results of the changes. Every challenge is a provocation because it leads the individual or group out of their comfort zone. It is laborious, controversial, argumentative, and error-prone. On the other hand, it is extremely salutary because it instigates modern man, not only to reach, but also to surpass his own limits and jump to an unprecedented development. And you, what would you like to find in the museum space? Would you like to be surprised by something new and unusual?
References:
ALENCAR,
Valéria Peixoto de; O mediador cultural. Considerações sobre a formação
e profissionalização de educadores de museus e exposições de arte; cap.
III – IV, p. 40-88, São Paulo, 2008.
ISRAEL, Karina Pinheiro. Informação e tecnologia nos museus interativos do contemporâneo; CELACC/ECA-USP, p. 1-18, 2011.
REVISTA MUSEU, “Ação Educativa”. In.: Revista Museu, Glossário. Disponível em <http://www.revistamuseu.com.br/glossario/pop_glos.asp?id=844>. Acesso em 15 de fevereiro de 2013. ISSN: 1981-6332
Revista Artsy. Disponível em <https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-37-art-museum-visitors-view-culture-takeaways-2017-culture-track-report>. Acesso em 23 de outubro de 2017.
