Dancing around the Subject: Memory Work of Museum Landscapes at the Welsh National Waterfront Museum

Abstract

As the newest of the seven national museums in Wales, the National Waterfront Museum tells the story of Welsh industry and innovation. This article traces the construction and engagement of the museum’s fifteen galleries as performed landscapes in a detailed analysis of memory work. Focusing on the crafted discourse of the museum, visitor narratives as they experience the museum, and performances that regularly occupy the museum’s spaces presents a unique opportunity for landscape analysis within the context of the memory work of a museum. Swansea’s 2017 Dance Days, for example, focused around the theme of climate change and the vulnerability of the ocean while visitors were somewhat less engaged with environmental impacts as presented in the permanent collections. This article expands beyond a typical understanding of museum discourse to explore the incorporation of creative geographies of landscape, performance, and memory into more traditional museum and spatial narratives.

作为威尔士七个国家博物馆中最新的一个, 国家海滨博物馆讲述威尔士工业和创新的故事。作为对记忆作品的详细分析的人工景观对象, 本文追溯了该博物馆15个画廊的建设和参与。博物馆精心制作的介绍、游客在体验博物馆时的陈述、博物馆内经常性的表演, 为博物馆记忆作品的景观分析提供了一个独特的机会。例如, 2017年斯旺西舞蹈日围绕着气候变化和海洋脆弱性这一主题, 但是与永久性收藏相比, 游客们对环境影响的参与度有点低。本文扩展了对博物馆介绍的一般理解, 探索了如何将景观、表演和记忆的创造性地理, 整合到更传统的博物馆和空间叙述中。

En cuanto es el más nuevo de los siete museos nacionales de Gales, el Museo Nacional de Waterfront cuenta la historia de la industria y la innovación galesas. En un análisis detallado del trabajo de reconstruir memoria, este artículo traza la construcción y el compromiso de las quince galerías de ese museo como paisajes de representación. Enfocándose en el elaborado discurso del museo, las narrativas del visitante derivadas de cómo ellos lo experimentan, y las representaciones que con regularidad ocupan los espacios del museo, presentan una oportunidad única para el análisis del paisaje dentro del contexto del trabajo de registrar la memoria en un museo. Los Días del Baile de Swansea en 2017, por ejemplo, se centraron alrededor del tema del cambio climático y la vulnerabilidad del océano, en tanto que los visitantes estuvieron ligeramente menos involucrados con los impactos ambientales, según se presentan en las colecciones permanentes. Este artículo se extiende más allá de la típica comprensión del discurso del museo para explorar la incorporación de las geografías creativas del paisaje, la representación y el recuerdo entre las más tradicionales narrativas espaciales y museológicas.

Key Words:

• industrial heritage
• landscapes
• memory
• museums
• Wales

关键词:

• 工业遗产
• 景观
• 记忆
• 博物馆
• 威尔士。

Palabras clave:

• Gales
• herencia industrial
• memoria
• museos
• paisajes

Notes

1 When these data are viewed in comparison with the other six national museums, the National Waterfront Museum is second in visitor experience of personal or Welsh history only to St. Fagans, the history museum.

2 The Senghennydd, or Senghenydd in English, colliery disaster resulted from an underground explosion in 1913 and remains the deadliest single nonmaritime industrial incident in UK history.

3 The Energy Gallery is completely text and material-based, whereas the Landscape Gallery is almost entirely digital with its long wall of projected landscapes and only a handful of drawers with text and objects inside.

4 Funding and support for the 2017 Dance Days came from Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Government, Swansea University, and the organizations Articulture and Creative Bubble in addition to the National Waterfront Museum. In 2019, funding was also provided by the Swansea Council (who also partially fund the museum alongside the Welsh Government).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Alan Rhodes

MARK ALAN RHODES II is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931. E-mail: [email protected]. He teaches and advises industrial heritage and archaeology and environmental and energy policy MS and PhD students, and his research critically examines the intersections of memory, identity, culture, and landscape, particularly in Wales.