The Matter of Museums

Abstract

This essay provides a theoretical framework for thinking about the role of objects in the 21st-century museum. It explores the interrelationship between experience and objects within museums from their 19th-century origins to the present, and looks at the implications of objects as experience generators. Along the way it considers the ways in which the search for experience can redefine the authenticity or power of an object, and traces connections between ideas and experience. In conclusion it argues that the ultimate consequence of acknowledging the “slippery” meanings of objects is to unleash dialogue among visitors, and reconcile object-centered and people-centered museum approaches.