Understanding the role of affect in producing a critical pedagogy for history museums

Abstract

While the existence of uncritical exhibition practices that support nostalgic narratives about the past cannot be denied, this paper is focused on demonstrating both the existence of critical exhibitions and on explaining how they work. In particularly, this paper looks at the ways in which the production of affective, nonrational forms of experience aimed at inducing a heightened level of engagement on the part of visitors is being used to facilitate a more critical reflection on the relationship between past and present. My examples, drawn from curatorial practices in Australia dealing either with contact histories or histories of migration, will be used to explore how explicit forms of engagement with the senses in contemporary exhibition practices gesture toward not only a new understanding of the pedagogical role of museums but also to new forms of pedagogical practice.

Keywords:

• affect
• critical pedagogy
• critical exhibitions
• experience
• involuntary memory

Notes

1. The first three of my examples have been discussed elsewhere in Gregory and Witcomb (2007) and in Witcomb (2007, 2010). Here, I bring them into conversation with one another in order to bring out some new insights about them and to put them in conversation with my final example.

2. Mabo and Wik were two landmark High Court decisions that overturned the doctrine of terra nullius – the belief that at the time of settlement, the continent of Australia belonged to no one. In the Mabo case, named after Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander who lodged the first High Court action along with four other Murray Islanders from the Torres Strait, the High Court of Australia found that native title rights had existed and that they survived settlement though they were subject to the sovereignty of the crown. The decision led to a lot of uncertainly, especially on pastoral land. The Wik judgment, four years later, sought to clear up this confusion and determined that native title could co-exist with pastoral leases, depending on the terms and nature of the particular lease but that when there was conflict, pastoral rights would prevail.

3. The interpretation was done by Mulloway Studio architects in consultation with Paul Kloeden from Exhibition Services, both from Adelaide, South Australia.

4. A memento mori is an object used by its owner to remember the dead. An example would be a locket with hair belonging to a loved one that had died.