Introduction

MUSEUMS AND THE PLACE OF THE MUSE: Stories and Cultural Tensions

This paper was presented by Ray Norman at a Museums Australia conference in Hobart, April 2009. It aims to tease out some of the tensions to be found in contemporary museums and current museum practice. It discusses and touches upon:
• Introducing the Wundekammer and Kunstkammer to the 21st C and the World Wide Web
• Identifying museums’ Communities of Ownership & Interest – their Cognitive Owners
• The question of whose stories they hold and who might have the authority to access and tell them

• How museums might build ‘Social Capital’ in their communities and ways they might develop meaningful and ongoing interfaces with their audiences

• Museums as ‘Ideas Factories’ in a 21st C context
• The issue of authenticity, purity and truths relevant to 'cognitive ownership' in a 21st C context

CONTENTS: Click on a heading
• CONTEXT
• INTRODUCING THE WUNDERKAMMER & KUNSTKAMMER TO THE 21ST C & THE WORLD WIDE WEB
• CULTURAL PROPERTY AND LAYERS OF OWNERSHIP
• IDENTIFYING A MUSEUM’S COMMUNITIES OF OWNERSHIP & INTEREST – Their Cognitive Owners