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Fred Wilson, PTSD, and Me: Reflections on the History Wars
Author(s) -
Yellis Ken
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
curator: the museum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2151-6952
pISSN - 0011-3069
DOI - 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2009.tb00356.x
Subject(s) - exhibition , contest , narrative , visual arts , sociology , history , aesthetics , media studies , art , literature , political science , law
Our relationships with our audiences have proved parlous. But if history is destined to be contested, where should museums be in that contest and how do we get there? Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum has turned out to be a path not taken; Enola Gay was a cautionary tale. But we should have these fights in museums, where the national narrative is blocked out and staged, because of how museums teach us, opening hidden windows on cloaked realities. Museums can start by becoming clearer about what they think they are doing when they make an exhibition. Exhibitions can have a profound effect on visitors at many levels but it doesn't happen very often. Is that because visitors seek another kind of experience from what we typically offer?