Re-Imagining the Human: Exploring Best Practice in Object-led work with Ethnographic Collections
date: 31 October 2019
time: 17:30
venue: The Mediterranean Institute, Ir-Razzett tal-摩ursun
duration: 25 minutes
Dr Viv Golding, Chair of ICME (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography) invites scholars and practitioners to explore innovative practices and theories in object-led work with ethnographic collections. Using a range of international examples Viv will deliver a paper showing how object-led practice can draw strongly on our ability to employ the senses to re-imagine our place in the world. She argues that in-depth engagement with ethnographic objects in particular can promote social interactions and critical reflections on the logics of power and prejudice upon which collections are constituted.
This event is informed by humanist anthropology, which starts from the experience of human actors, addressing what it means to be human and to live a human life. In ethnographic museums it supports and imagines diverse forms of public engagement and education and promotes activism.
Delegates to the event will consider the following questions:
- How can ethnographic collections be used to examine or contest established notions of 'Self' and 'Other'?
- How can dialogical and/or affective engagement with ethnographic objects promote critical reflections on controversial issues (e.g. colonial legacies such as racism, ethnocentrism and primitivism, memory making, gender stereotypes)?
- To what extent can imaginative engagement with objects (through poetry, drawing, drama, dance, storytelling, music, etc) help challenge a fixed understanding of cultural identity and promote inter and transcultural dialogue?
- How can ethnographic museums use object-led practice to strengthen community collaboration and sense of ownership of collections?
Do join us!
