Overview

"The assumption that museum exhibitions, particularly those concerned with science and technology, are somehow neutral and impartial is today being challenged both in the public arena and in the academy. This title brings together studies of contemporary and historical exhibitions and contends that exhibitions are never, and never have been, above politics. Rather, technologies of display and ideas about ""science"" and ""objectivity"" are mobilized to tell stories of progress, citizenship, racial and national difference. The display of the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is a well-known case in point. In addition, the book aims to chart the changing relationship between displays and their audience; to analyze the consequent shift in styles of representation towards interactive, multimedia and reflexive modes of display; and to bring together an array of international scholars in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology and history. Examples are taken from exhibitions of science, technology, industry, anthropology, geology, natural history and medicine. Locations include the United States of America."

Full Product Details

Author:   Sharon Macdonald
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.414kg
ISBN:  

9780415153263

ISBN 10:   0415153263
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   25 December 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Notes on contributors, List of illustrations, Preface - Sharon Macdonald, 1. Exhibitions of power and powers of exhibitions: an introduction to the politics of display - Sharon Macdonald, Sheffield University, UK, 2. Speaking to the eyes: museums, legibility and the social order - Tony Bennett, Griffith University, Australia, 3. The visibility of difference: nineteenth century French anthropological collections - Nelia Dias, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 4. Reifying race: science and art in 'Races of Mankind' at the Field Museum of Natural History - Tracy Lang Teslow, University of Chicago, USA, 5. Making nature 'real' again: natural history and public rhetorics of science at the Smithsonian - Steven W. Allison-Bunnell, Discovery Online Channel, 6. On interactivity: consumer, citizens and culture - Andrew Barry, Goldsmith's College, London University, UK, 7. Supermarket science? Consumers and 'the public understanding of science' - Sharon Macdonald, 8. Nations on Display: technology and culture in Expo '92 - Penny Harvey, Manchester University, UK, 9. Strangers in paradise: an encounter with fossil man at the Dutch Museum of Natural History - Mary Bouquet, 10. Can science museums take history seriously? - Jim Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 11. 'Birth and Breeding: politics on display at the Wellcome Institute of Medical History - Ken Arnold, Wellcome Trust, 12. Balancing acts: science, Enola Gay and history wars at the Smithsonian - Tom Gieryn, Indiana University, USA, Afterword: From war to debate? - Sharon Macdonald

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Author Information

Sharon Macdonald is lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sheffield. She is author of Remaining Culture (1997), editor of Inside Identities (1993) and co-editor of Theorizing Museums (1996) and The Sociological Review.

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