Reflecting on experimental museology at the Museum of Memory of Colombia

• Published in: Experimental Museology pp. 50 - 66
• Main Authors: Carter, Jennifer, Lleras, Cristina
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Routledge 2021; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• ISBN: 0367406764; 9780367406769; 0367406772; 9780367406776
• DOI: 10.4324/9780367808433-3-5

This chapter explores the idea of experimental museology through the lens of a national museum-in-the-making. Seeking to create a public space in which to present a multidimensional account of Colombia's long-standing armed conflict - one that would escape the logic of a victim-perpetrator binary - the museum team adopted an innovative approach to curation and design and tested this approach in the temporary exhibition it curated and produced, Voces para transformar a Colombia. The visioning process of the Museum of Memory is examined through a description and theorisation of the planning, creation and inauguration of Voces. We consider not only the how, why and to what ends of this ephemeral experiment, we also ask what happens when process becomes praxis, as it did throughout the conception phase of the Museum of Memory. Following a brief discussion of the research methodology used in our analysis, we present our theoretical framework which contextualises the Museum of Memory and Voces in relation to the evolving genres of memorial museums and human rights museums. We then analyse how concepts of narrative, metaphor and spatial trajectories, informed by strategies of design thinking, became the grounds for experimenting with modes of engagement with traumatic pasts and presents In 1889, Smithsonian Institute curator George B. Goode delivered an anticipatory lecture entitled 'The future of the museum' in which he forecast that the museum would one day 'stand side by side with the library and the laboratory.' As public cultural institutions, the primary mission of galleries, libraries, archives and museums is to provide citizens with knowledge not only about but through their collections and cultural heritage materials. Mapping data to visual representations has been used for centuries to reveal patterns, to communicate complex ideas and to tell stories. For Leonardo da Vinci, visuality in the painting was the paragon of apprehension, surpassing both poetry and music. Digital tools for the past decade have in turn enabled a wide array of interaction technique. Visualization of cultural heritage data has to encompass sense-making, from foraging to synthesis.