On Object Dialogue Boxes
Silence, Empathy and Unknowing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5700392 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexandra Woodall (University of East Anglia), Alexandra Caroline Woodall (University of East Anglia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 96-111 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13527258.2018.1428665 |
| OpenAlex | W2791363112 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
Museums and the objects they hold are full of noise, yet at the same time, they are silent. This paper explores the oxymoronic ‘deafening silence’ of the museum object by investigating ‘Object Dialogue Boxes’ and visitors’ responses to these. Made by artists Karl Foster and Kimberley Foster, these boxes contain surreal things made as interpretive or pedagogical art objects. Use of these objects, as a form of ‘material interpretation’ enables visitors to respond to collections in imaginative, empathetic and playful ways. Yet the objects inside the boxes are unfamiliar and strange. Provoking an initial silence, they often destabilise visitors, whose expectations of museum visiting might be to know and find out, but who now find themselves in a situation of deliberate not knowing. This paper explores ‘unknowing’ as an interpretive strategy, arguing that it allows for rich empathetic responses to objects from visitors. Paradoxically, this engagement is often as much about silence as it is about dialogue. The paper experiments with the twin metaphors of cataphasis and apophasis (derived from mystical theology), to explore some of these paradoxes, and concludes by suggesting they are helpful in developing imaginative strategies for museum and gallery interpretation
Aesthetics · Art · Empathy · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Mysticism · Silence · Sociology · Visual arts · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Routes
Mystical languages of unsaying
Art And Agency
The Darkness of God
Reflective Interviewing
Museums in a Troubled World
The cultural biography of things
Museum Materialities
The Social Life of Things
Always True to the Object, in Our Fashion
A Companion to Public History
The thing is
Contact Networks for Digital Reciprocation
Legacies of prejudice
Museums and communities
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |