内容还是容器?作为学科的博物馆学

Content or Container? Museology as a Discipline

在博物馆学学术地位的讨论之下,还有更为宏观的问题:什么是博物馆?博物馆的目的是什么?荷兰莱登的国家古物博物馆,这个我工作了近10年的地方,为此提供了一个很好的实践案例。有趣的是,这和中国的情况十分相似。大部分工作人员认为,国家古物博物馆本质上是一个考古学机构,呈现特定的学科,展示考古发掘和收藏实践中的发现以及研究成果。因此,博物馆的一切都是服务内容的,其媒介属性几乎不可见。事实上,国家古物博物馆的curator中,有两位拥有莱登大学的博物馆学教授职位,而博物馆学在那里是考古学的下一级学科。另一部分人则使用传播功能来定义国家古物博物馆,或其他任何以考古或物质文化史为主题的博物馆。在这个意义上,博物馆是一种容器,准确地来说可以被认为是一种媒介。这种认识的转变和博物馆自20世纪70年代以来从收藏中心向功能中心转型密切相关。作为一种媒介,从"学术方法"的角度看博物馆,其在一个更为宽广的社会和文化情景中聚焦于理解博物馆化和文化遗产化(功能)的过程上;从"内容方法"(收藏)的角度,则更多聚焦在呈现,而不是将物转化成"博物馆维度"。我所工作的瑞华德学院属于阿姆斯特丹艺术大学,更推崇功能方法。我们需要从专业角度对博物馆作为媒介予以定位,并促进这一研究能力得到全面提升。这样,博物馆的基本工作流程可以回归到获取(评定、选择);物理和智识层面的保护(或者非物质文化遗产保护),以及为此进行的信息管理;提供从传播和教育到呈现和外联的各种形式和方式的访问;在管理和伦理上提供领导和指导。最后一个功能是其他方面都内在固有的,但同时也需要在更高的层次上为机构整体提供重点和方向。既然我们相信博物馆和其他文化遗产机构的最终目的是创造意义,而不是发现预设事实,那么博物馆的核心过程应该不是线性的,而是一个反馈循环。这是博物馆与当下不断变化的观众互动过程中所产生的结果(观众成为博物馆的共同拥有者)。所以,传播过程中的影响和输出,将成为下一次评估选择和获取循环的输入。比如,给这一核心过程指明方向的引导性愿景将带来更公正、更包容和更可持续的未来。在与观众的互动中,博物馆就不仅仅只是一个考古学传播机构了。理解这个过程,并在之后出现的困境中批判性反思,才可以使得博物馆学成为一个具有高度跨学科特性的独立学科。

Underlying the discussions about the academic status of museology, there is a broader question: what are museums, and what are they for? The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden(the Netherlands), where I was employed for almost a decade, offers a good practical example, with interesting parallels to Chinese situations. Members of its staff contend that it's essentially an institution serving archaeology, functioning as a showcase for a particular academic discipline by presenting the results or research and the materials found during archaeological excavations and focused collecting practices. Thus it would all be about serving the content, and making the intermediary nearly invisible. In fact, two of its curators hold Leiden University professorship chairs in museology that are ancillary to archaeology. Others, however, defi ne that very museum, and by implication any museum, fi rst and foremost by its particular communication function, the subject of which is archaeological, or material cultural history. In that sense, the museum is a container that deserves to be understood precisely in terms of its being a medium. In this way, a time-honoured organizational transformation that took place throughout the museum world, during but not confi ned to the seventies, from collections-based to functions-based, is still relevant. Academic approaches of museums as media therefore will focus on understanding processes of "musealization" and "heritagization"(functions) within wider societal and cultural contexts, whereas in a "content approach"(collections) focus will be more on presentation, not particularly heeding the quintessential transition of objects to a museum dimension. At my own Reinwardt Academy, the cultural heritage faculty of the Amsterdam University of Arts, the functions approach is privileged. We facilitate the comprehensive development of competencies required to be able to professionally function in museums as a medium. The basic museum processes can be brought back to: acquisition(assessing, selecting); physical and intellectual preservation(or safeguarding when dealing with intangible heritage), implying managing information in order to do so; providing access in all forms and manners, from communication and education to presentation and outreach; and applying leadership and guidance, both managerial and ethical. This last aspect is inherent in all others, but is also needed on a higher level in order to provide focus and direction to the overall course of the institution. About these core processes we furthermore contend that they are not linearly aligned but rather form a feedback loop, since we believe the purpose of museums and other heritage institutions, ultimately, to be in the creation of signifi cance, not as the discovery of a predetermined fact but as the result of an ongoing process of interaction with today's ever-changing audiences(that are morphing from visitors through users to co-owners). The output and impact of the communication process, therefore, are input in the next iteration of assessment, selection and acquisition. A leadership vision giving direction to these processes can be, for instance, to contribute to a more just, more inclusive and more sustainable future. And it is in such interaction with audiences that a museum shows itself to be quintessentially more than just an archaeological communication institution. Understanding these processes and critically refl ecting on the ensuing dilemmas is what make museology into an independent subject, though with a high crossdisciplinary character.