At Large in the Empire of Things: The Museum of Sundry Objects

AbstractThe Museum of Sundry Objects, located in Sólgarður, about 25 kilometers north of Akureyri, offers a site to think carefully about a number of key elements of museum practice, including the logic of collection, the practice of object “array,” and the role of the museum “heroic” object. Where...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Museum and Society
Main Author: Bodinger de Uriarte, John
Other Authors: With deep gratitude for support from the Fulbright–NSF Arctic Research Fellowship Program and Susquehanna University, and inspiration, research, and fellowship from Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson and Sigríður Rósa Sigurðardóttir.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: University of Leicester Open Journals 2020
Subjects:
Museum Studies
Museology
Cultural Studies
Anthropology
Array
Heroic Object
Slow Events
Liminality
Inbetweenness
Collections
Akureyri
Online Access:https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/view/3374
https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v18i2.3374
Description
Summary:AbstractThe Museum of Sundry Objects, located in Sólgarður, about 25 kilometers north of Akureyri, offers a site to think carefully about a number of key elements of museum practice, including the logic of collection, the practice of object “array,” and the role of the museum “heroic” object. Where the heroic object directs one to move from the individual to the imagined array, the array opens a different set of possibilities for recognizing the singularity of objects. In addition, a close examination of the Sundry suggests that “the museum” may simply be one stage of many in the ongoing life of the object, an extended liminal phase that offers a number of opportunities for the re-enlivening of the objects, a different set of steps on the path of the inbetween.

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