What does the word "exhibit" mean? Most people know that this term is associated with a museum or exhibition. This is an item for review. However, this interpretation is not entirely accurate. The concept we are considering actually comes from the Latin exponatus - “exposed”. But this is just one of the signs. Let's talk more about what an exhibit is.
It's not just an item
People often think that museums are there to entertain us visitors. However, in fact, one of their main functions is the preservation of cultural and natural heritage and its inclusion in the context of modern culture. How to get reliable knowledge about the past? Only by studying the artifacts of that time - real documents, objects, images, buildings. The museum is a repository of such artifacts, which are commonly called museum objects. Not any old thing becomes part of the collection, but only with certain properties. It should serve as a source of information, be outwardly attractive and historically reliable, capable ofevoke an emotional response. Foreign experts call this set of properties "museality". The value of the artifact depends on the degree of its manifestation. Thus, an exhibit is an object with museality.
This is not every museum piece
The largest museums in the world store a huge number of items. So, the collection of the Louvre in Paris has 300-400 thousand masterpieces. The Hermitage has 3,000,000 works of art. And the Natural History Museum in London boasts a collection of 70 million botanical, zoological, mineralogical and paleontological objects. However, most of them are stored in special conditions in the museum funds, properly restored and conserved.
And an exhibit is a museum item that has been selected for presentation to the public. As a rule, it has the properties listed above to the greatest extent and is characterized by good preservation. However, these may not be genuine items, but copies, reproductions, reconstructions, dummies, models, holograms. Such materials allow you to save a valuable artifact or get an idea of the lost realities. The exhibit is the main structural element of the museum exhibition.
Varieties
Museums store a variety of items. As in any household, order is also needed here. Artifacts are classified, divided into types and groups. What can museum objects look like?
- Real. They are made by human handsmetal, wood, glass, fabric and other materials and have a utilitarian value. Examples are weapons, furniture, dishes, coins, clothes, toys, and so on.
- Written. The main source of information are words, letters, numbers. These include annals and chronicles, books and newspapers, documents and statistics, magazines and correspondence.
- Fine. Paintings, films, photographs, plans, drawings, diagrams, maps, sculptures, graphics.
- Sonic. They can convey the voice of a famous person, the intonation of an outstanding poet reading his poem, the performance of a particular piece of music. Recording can be done on wax rollers and cylinders, records and magnetic tapes, compact discs.
A new look at museum objects
In the third millennium, a museum exhibit is not just an ancient object gathering dust behind glass. Cultural workers understand that in the age of the Internet, rapidly developing technologies and new ways of mastering information inherent in the "Next" generation, approaches to the organization of the museum space must change dramatically. Otherwise, the guides will be bored for months among the richest collections.
Today's exhibitions are becoming more and more interactive. In the most interesting museums, they strive to influence all the senses of the visitor. An example of this is the exhibition organized in 2012 at the Israel Museum of Childhood. She clearly demonstrated how aging occurs.
Before the startexcursions, the group was photographed, and after a while, children artificially aged for 70 years were shown on the screen. To the ticking of the clock, visitors walked along a winding corridor, on the walls of which the questions were read: “How old are you?”, “How old do you feel?”, “Do you look younger or older than your age?” In a room filled with interactive simulations, sightseers climbed stairs in heavy shoes. As people age, they lose muscle mass and it is really difficult for them to walk. A special device made visitors' hands shake as they inserted the key into the keyhole. Tourists tried to order movie tickets by phone, but the device was designed in such a way that it seemed to them that a drop of water was stuck in their ear - this was an imitation of senile hearing problems.
Such exposures are not quite common yet. However, it seems that the future of museums lies precisely in the skillful combination of existing collections and modern interactive installations.
