Abstract
This research addresses how death is engaged with, understood, and exhibited in museum contexts, specifically analyzing curatorial considerations, policies, and decision-making practices when planning an exhibition on death. The main field site is the University of Aberdeen’s Museum and Special Collections in Aberdeen, Scotland, and research is focused on the development and planning of an exhibition on death. The exhibition intends to introduce and speak to the topics of ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ deaths, how the body is transformed upon or after death, the ‘soul,’ memorialization, and uses of the body after death. Through participant observation in the planning committee meetings and one-on-one interviews with staff, I consider data from the planning phase of the exhibition. Questions that guide my data collection include: what are the curatorial goals and intentions of exhibiting death, how are materials chosen for the exhibition, how will they be represented, how are these representations agreed upon or negotiated, what are the challenges, risks, and opportunities of exhibiting death, and considerations around public engagement opportunities. Similar questions are also raised in interviews with curatorial staff at other museums in the United Kingdom to gather additional data on how death is framed in order to contextualize the death exhibition in Aberdeen. The purpose of interviewing and gathering data from other institutions is not to provide a systematic analysis or survey of how museums display death, but to aid in highlighting the particular considerations and choices made in the Aberdeen death exhibition.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
DEATH, EXHIBITION PLANNING, CURATORIAL DECISIONS, EXHIBITING DEATH, FRAMING DEATH MATTER
