Understanding Ruins, Monuments, and Museums: A Cultural Heritage Analysis
Ruins: Definition and Significance
Ruins: A building (or group of buildings) that has lost an important part of its original shape and form.
Value of Ruins
- Romanticism: A cultural movement that developed in Europe (18th-19th century) that exalts creativity, freedom, fantasy, and feelings. It prioritizes feeling, in contrast to neoclassicism.
- Scientific: The ruin is valued as a testimony of the past, a source of information.
Types of Ruins
- Traumatic: Product of an environmental catastrophe or a war.
- Slow Ruins: Product of degradation due to the passage of time, poor conservation, etc.
- Ruin Porn: Hobby or interest in seeing the passage of time more than the physical degradation of a building.
Archeology
Archeology: Scientific discipline that studies the elements of heritage to derive historical information on successive human settlements and their context.
Monuments: Preserving the Past
Monuments: A work carried out by human hands and created with the specific purpose of keeping individual feats or destinies alive and present in the consciousness of future generations.
Typologies of Monuments
- Palaces
- Castles/Fortifications
- Churches/Cathedrals
- Industrial Sets
- Tombs
- Memorials
Religious Structures
- Basilica: Ancient, spacious, and artistic church that historically and religiously stands out among other religious temples.
- Cathedral: Usually Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, depending on the country. In England, it is usually the seat of the Bishop and represents the link to heaven.
- Abbey: Church and monastery with its own territory governed by an abbot, with an important production of agri-food products.
Reuse and Adaptation of Heritage
- Restoration: Intervention in the heritage when it has lost part of its original characteristics.
- Reconversion: Adapt the building to new functions.
- Addition: (Extension/insertions/enhancement)
- Modernization: Adapt the building to current safety standards.
Vienna Memorandum (2005)
Guidelines for urban development:
- Respectful of the cultural and historical context.
- Minimize direct impacts on historical elements.
Scheme Analysis and Reconversion of a Monument
Type, name, and author. / Physical environment (relationship monument-surroundings) / Historical context / Who or what (character or fact to which it is linked) / Values (what makes this monument interesting for tourism) / Structure description (Has it had any transformation, how was it…) / What are its old and new functions.
Criticism of Museums
Imperialism / Glorification of nationalism / Cultural homogenization / Bourgeois character / Stagnant institution / Little attractive.
Museums: Guardians of Heritage
Museum: A non-profit institution at the service of society, which investigates, collects, preserves, interprets, and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open/accessible/inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. With participation of communities, operate and communicate ethically and professionally, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection, and exchange of knowledge.
Functions of Museums
- To collect (only what is unique and representative of heritage)
- To identify
- To register
- To research
- To preserve
- To exhibit
- To educate (pedagogical concern)
Characteristics of Museums
- Reflect cultural identity
- Guarantee cultural heritage
- Keep objects to know the past
- Testimony to the development of humanity
- Promote knowledge and reflection
Types of Museums
Divided by: Territory / Subject matters (anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, history, art, natural sciences, science and technology)
Museology and Museography
- Museology: As a theoretical, normative, and planning science, focuses on the analysis of museum phenomena.
- Museography: Practical and concrete, how to exhibit. It is the technique that expresses museological knowledge. It deals especially with the architecture and organization of the museum’s scientific facilities. Its object of study is the heritage and cultural reality of the museum.
Why Museums are Needed
- Reflect our cultural identity
- Places to keep our trophies
- Guarantee protection of cultural assets
- Remind us of our most important cultural events, wars…
- Promote knowledge and reflection
- Testimony of developments in history
Evolution of Museums
Topics closer to the community.
New Museology
Museums with social vocation with renewed forms of expression and community participation. Opposed to the traditional model. Traditional (continent, contents scientific disciplines, audience and entertainment) vs new museology (Territory, human being and cultural heritage, interdisciplinary approach, population of the community, initiative and creative ability).
Characteristics of New Museology
- Instruments of cultural, social, and economic development
- Collective awareness of cultural heritage
- Exhibitions closer to the communities
- More familiar
- More active and participatory audience
- Topic: injustice, civil rights, lifestyle…
Critical Museology
Museum as a space of conflict, as a public sphere, as a qualitative, networked institution that negotiates cultural meanings.
Aims of Critical Museology
- Challenge traditional ideas of the museum
- Ways of representation
- Turn it into a place of questioning
- Transform it into a learning community
- Generate a critical audience
Society Museums (of Today)
Agents of social transformation / Educational mission / Generate thought, reflection, and criticism / Commitment to educate quality citizens / Attractive to any type of audience / Inclusive, accessible, and participatory place.