Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Documenting the intangible



During recent years, more and more museums have become involved in documenting intangible, immaterial aspects of culture, in addition to the tangible, material objects traditionally included in their collections.
The Ethnographic Museum of Istria, Croatia is one such museum. A few weeks ago, EMI expanded their permanent exhibition by including documentary videos of craftsmen working on and discussing traditional blacksmithing and coopering, as a way of contextualizing the objects on display.
I feel that these videos revitalize the exhibition, making both objects and the knowledge surrounding them much more accessible to visitors.
Perhaps YOUR museum will be doing similar projects in the future?

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