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The subject of collective inheritance localized in museums.
-Kristina

Yes! Localized and used by museums presented as owned value.
Filippa

In a western context, often associated with the church and ensconced in a male dominated power structure. - PM

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Considering page 109- “The patrimony exists as a political force insofar as it is dramatized in commemorations, monuments, and museums.” How does the museum function as a system of education? How does the MFA also ensure a patrimony?
-kB

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At the end of the article the author discussed the impact of the type of display. The archeological and anthropological initiative had a distinct impact on the message the collection in Mexico played for the public.

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Is it possible that a not science (progress) centered display/curation would have done a “better” job at managing patrimony? Is it being communicated that the system of patrimony for the supposed greater good is not a manageable paradigm at all? Is there compromise?
-kB

Would the dramatization of daily life be alleviated? I think to the narratives of progress presented in historical works- from neolithic pottery to Dynastic Qing Imperial wares- The patrimony is presented in the current uplifting of the latter. This is also present in the commercial world as works of the latter sell for much more despite the historical "worth" and rarity of much older, yet more rustic looking pieces. How could we tackle these narratives through artistic institutions, especially given the much more fluid and quick paced nature of art exhibitions?
-SC

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I could use a little more time discussing the idea of being conquered and then reconquering that materials and processes (rituals etc) of the pre-conquering time. I would like to know more of how that can be considered after events and reclamation has occurred- to me that changed the way anything can be presented from the past- the story has more to say now. How can we consider this outside of the plaques that are mentioned
in the article
-kB

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Page 115: paragraph two
- I see the qualifications of visitors and sustainable profit to be very important. I think these initiatives need to be discussed more
Page 119: midpage beginnning with “The aestheticist approach to curating... supremacy of the cultured gaze.”
-What do you call a ritual that does not recognize itself?
- I am thinking here about the processes and management of cultural institutions and reiterating the thought that these spaces need to discuss more openly the importance of money and funding in their missions and public discourse. how does patronizing impact their commercial choices and how can we discuss this? How will that reform the model, for good or bad?
-How can transparency from administration, board of directors, and founders help these conversation?
-kB

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Patrimony as a manifestation of collective anxiety? 

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Patrimony as a manifestation of collective anxiety? 

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I feel like the Chinese society has the same patrimonial attitudes towards our history and the way we present our culture/history in museums/schools/other cultural institutions. Does it reflect a sense of collective anxiety and a lack of group confidence? It feels like, by repeating the mantra of being a cultured nation, we can alleviate the trauma left by Western colonizers.

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One result of patrimony is "excessive ritualization" (p113). What was considered as "origins" or "founding substance" is ritualized and almost "worshipped".

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^^^ Also along the lines of patrimony is the idea of inheritance, that knowledge and traditions are accessible (it's implied only if you know where to look)
-CC

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It's interesting to read above the link between science and progress, it's also related to modernity, that science and modernity are cited together.
-CC

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^^^ this is such an interesting construct that I would also like to explore. How does a large society address trauma caused by Western colonizers and colonization? How does healing from that trauma work in practice within a pressure cooker of modernity, with (maybe against) it?
-CC

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This also touches on "art for art's sake" and what is lost in that thinking... transparency to what lies beneath.

"as nothing more than art" pg. 119

"Fascination in the face of beauty annuls astonishment in the face of the different." pg. 120

-CC

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pg. 109, "The permanence of cultural values, the respect for tradition and, above all, the fact that communities do something transcendent in respecting their identity are most secure in the interior of the country." (Ulanovsky, 18)
- interior geographically?
pg. 111 "For patrimonial conservatism, the ultimate purpose of culture is to be converted into nature. To be natural like a gift."
- natural but also in "old buildings"
- How do we address diasporas?

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Linked to historical patrimony, the concept runs the path of putting historical concepts on a "pedestal," and reaffirming the mythos of nationhood using materials and past cultural remnants
-SC

"Traditionalist commemoration often establishes itself on an ignorance of the past. Given that this version of the cultured is sustained by oligarchic groups, it can be supposed that their "ignorance" results from an interest in preserving the privileges they conquered in the idealized period." - p 114 - PM

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To add on your thoughts Kristina: the "educational" aspect of museums is also presented as something "non-questionable" (p.108)
Filippa

I appreciate this being brought up Filippa! I spoke to a security guard at the Whitney just a few days ago and from the perspective of a gallery educator, the audiences seem to be encouraged to take what is being said as "something to be absorbed, not questioned." I wonder how often it is that someone would speak up about certain interpretations of art and history, even if they are aware of a fact simply because of a systemic power dynamic between who is presenting the art and themselves
-SC

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My familiarity with both of these comments above stems from the anthropological side. On a course I took about modern China, the anxiety stems from a healing process(initiated from the central government) that hopes to undo some of the cultural and community erasure that occurred in the past century. In the past few decades, China has tried to retrieve and open up its dynastic history (versus the Mao Era narrative of how China's culture starts and ends with Mao and the CCP) Palace Museum collections when previously only governmental conservators were allowed to see them.

The same process occurs even in America in addition to so many other previously colonized countries and areas. There still remains to be a history of protected  "colonizer history" that have been established in each harbour (royal collections, oil paintings, even present in the architecture). In my readings a large part of healing is reconstructing a distant history that may not necessarily be familiar to current nationals of a country. Many learn and uplift those histories in lieu of the colonial past to find new communities and senses of nationhood.
-SC

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term about 100 years old

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term about 10 years old

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What does it mean currently?
- extreme pride around where one votes (an example)
This has changed.
kB notes, "it doesn't have to be radicalized" (as it is seems to be currently)

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youhuan yushi- patriotic worrying -

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Veronica notes:

social media, different groups of users between these groups (across rural, city, etc.)

gap between literati and general public, higher and lower working class people

China banned Twitter, Facebook, Google, all Western social media.
- have own version of Twitter/Facebook version Weibo

manipulating public opinion, huge group of people influencing online expression, leading to a difference in access.

VPN used to access external media. Some have access to this, most don't.

Access to information creating this gap.

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Anxieties and trauma related to a (pressure to?) using this access.

"Established" - also self sustaining, it's always been there. Unquestioned?

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Market driven?
International boundaries.

Filippa: I am not sure who wrote this comment above but yes, I agree. The international, the global needs to be discussed when we also examine the local.

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re-
self-

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pg. 265:
"both dreams can be used as discursive tools to critically evaluate the nation and the world."

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The global "dream" and Americanism (see also the comment below)

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The global "dream" and Americanism (see also the comment below)

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Isn't this interesting? How the Colonial past created a new terminology (based in the US), that of the "American dream" which traveled and adopted around the world? The "China Dream" I am reading about is just another example. My empirical self can also argue for numerous instances in Greece where the national self was connected with nostalgia, influenced by "a dream". And this is so hot topic this week for us, since we celebrate the 200 years after our independence from the Turks. Nationalism has many layers to unpack.

Filippa

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Αθηναϊκό - Μακεδονικό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων

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Citation is Solidarity, Solidarity is Citation

kB - Serubiri Moses: Hunter College

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I am partying something that relates to my comment above: "A critical view of the American Dream is important because, as Richard Hofstadter famously stated, It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies, but to be one' (cited in Lipset 1996: 18). The American Dream thus is part of the ideology of Americanism, the American creed, which Abraham Lincoln called the 'political religion of the nation'. "
Filippa

In response- I wonder then if there is a paradoxical connection to China and the US where we have imbedded ideology into our ideology and that thereby making it harder for critique and demonstration?

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So Greece is in an extremely strict lockdown. During this, the greek parade will happen, and museums that curated exhibitions based on the revolution, will do grand openings with more than 150 “selected” visitors and guests. The branding on national identity in Greece, is clear.

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Going to make a weekly calendar invite with Zoom link and Padlet going forward so we have options :)

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Cake and Culture
Cronk cited by Sanft, 2014
Communication and Cooperation in early Imperial China

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In the notes, "As per Anne-Marie Willis (2006, 70), ontological design is “a way of characterizing the relation between human beings and lifeworlds. ... we design, that is to say, we deliberate, plan and scheme in ways which prefigure our actions and makings – in turn we are designed by our designing and by that which we have designed (i.e., through our interactions with the structural and material specificities of our environments).”

What did you all make of this quote? I found it enlightening to think of design as a force, but also a tool.
-CC

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We spoke last week about re-colonization and self-colinization, this comes up in our reading on pg. 3, "[Dimeji] Onafuwa focuses on discussions of allyship and, specifically, opportunities to de-link (decolonize) from our unsustainable present, and to re-link (recolonize) as allies and on behalf of “all” to other epistemologies.
-CC

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I have questions (p.2): "To this end, we resist "common denominators" and singular frames of reference. Instead, we advocate for performative mapping and storytelling that design relations which respect the disclosure of ontological differences between bodies, geographies, and histories."
Filippa

class comment--> this is colonial writing

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We talked (among others) about "what artwork would describe your state right now. I (Filippa) shared this one -->

Find more: https://saatchigallery.com/artist/jorge_mayet#_

What's yours?

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I will be Anicka Yi's algae. (VZ)

https://www.gladstonegallery.com/exhibition/320/we-have-never-been-individual/info

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Emily Mae Smith's
UNRULY THREAD, 2019

(CC) Love this prompt, Filippa!

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I was really interested in this idea from the video Un-Documented: Unlearning Imperial Plunder by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay...

Why are we asked to imagine we are elsewhere (when in the major Western institutions)?

(The museum pretends to ask difficult questions.)

What’s the point of "protecting" the objects from the public?

So that they can be used?

… what is the point of reverting to the only things that have been made and not let people use them? It seems like it’s the opposite of creation. It seems to stifle creation and imagination.

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^^^ I totally agree with you. There's no point to "imagine" we are elsewhere if our feet is still on the societies of colonial heritage. In this sense, we are no different from the 18th-century arm-chair travelers whose imagination was tainted by the dominating EU-centered ideologies.

Instead of protecting the objects per se, they should protect those who have the knowledge and skillsets of making these objects.