Catalogs and guidebooks manufactured the separation of visitor from exhibit

Evidence

I want to recall, finally, from my earlier discussion of the exhibition that this ‘objective’ isolation of the observer from an object-world, in terms of which personhood was understood, corresponded to a distinction that was now made between the material world of exhibits or representations and the meaning or plan that they represented. This too the authorities and organisers seemed to understand. In order to encourage the proper objective attitude among visitors, they made a concerted effort to provide the necessary catalogues, plans, sign-posts, guidebooks, instructions, educational talks and compilations of statistics. … Such outlines, guides, tables and plans mediated between the visitor and the exhibit, by supplementing what was displayed with a structure and meaning. The seemingly separate text or plan, one might say, was what confirmed the separation of the person from the things themselves on exhibit, and of the things on exhibit from the meaning or external reality they represented. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 101 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The artist answers the issue of Information by reversing the question: information is no longer spreading from the museum towards the public; on the contrary, it is the viewer who is solicited to deliver his or her opinion on the very project of the demonstration. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2918 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Museums should open with one beautiful unlabeled object — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 524; Catalogues and guidebooks reinforced the visitor’s separation from what was exhibited — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 101; Conceptual art can reverse the museum’s information flow toward the viewer — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2918 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Catalogues and guidebooks reinforced the visitor’s separation from what was exhibited #corroborates (0.97) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 101
• Conceptual art can reverse the museum’s information flow toward the viewer #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2918