How to Reorganise a Collection While Moving It: Implementing Computer Tools for Relocation Planning and Virtual Reorganisation

Abstract

Relocating museum collections involves many challenges, but also provides a unique opportunity for extensive reorganisation, which further complicate the task. Common approaches to both moving and reorganising tend to be empirical, linear and coarse-grained. This limits their usefulness for planning long-term and detailed facility moves. However, issues ranging from space estimation, storage design, reorganisation and relocation all point to a unified solution. Our proposal is a custom computer tool that aims to describe, analyse and virtually manipulate an entire storage setting. With its current implementation in Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), staff at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG) planned the exact physical integration of the collection (75,000 objects) into the new storage furniture, months ahead of the move, adapting to new constraints along the way, and eventually reorganising the collection while moving it. A simple visualisation interface presents the data in a relatable way, while analysis functions help with decisions. Multiple storage scenarios were explored to fit pre-installed furniture. Storage bays could be prepared in advance, optimising move time and budget. Data collected before and after the move shows that, in some areas, virtual reorganisation provided up to half of the final available usable storage height (+43.2 m). Moreover, small scattered excess spaces could be regrouped and allocated where required. Useful storage space acquired through new furniture was strategically placed. Although it evolved in a specific context, the generality of our solution makes it relevant and transposable to other institutions and other purposes, and points to a more integrated view of collection management.

Keywords:

• collection management
• museum collection
• RE-ORG Method
• storage setting
• case study

Notes

1 A very brief presentation of our approach was published in Totem, the MEG’s former magazine (Freivogel 2019).

2 The word ‘level’ stands for any kind of specific location including ‘shelf ’, ‘drawer’, ‘pallet’, or ‘dolly’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephan Freivogel

Stephan Freivogel is a philosopher (University of Geneva), artist and teacher. He worked as a collection technician at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG) from 2011 to 2019. His philosophical research revolves around the philosophy of mind and aesthetics. He teaches visual arts and philosophy at public schools.

Lucie Monot

Lucie Monot has been a conservator at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG) since 2013. After earning a Master’s Degree in Art History and Anthropology from the University of Lausanne, she trained in conservation at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.

Carine Ayélé Durand

Carine Ayélé Durand is a social anthropologist and completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2010. She has worked in various curatorial and research capacities in France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain for nearly 20 years. She is currently Head Curator at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG).