The 1 and 99 - De-curating the Unknown by Linus Cheng

De-Curating the Unknown

by Linus CL Cheng Museum Lab // Diploma Unit 15 Architectural Association School of Architecture // 2016-1017 Unit Master Giulia Foscari Unit Tutor Harikleia Karamali Collaborator Ekaterina Golovatyuk

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World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, British Museum, 15/02/2017.

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The 1 and 99: De-Curating the Unknown

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Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. 23/01/2017.

100% DISPLAY KEEP

0% pg // 4

British Museum, London. 23/01/2017.

1% 99% pg // 5

pg // 6 World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, British Museum, 15/02/2017.

The 1 from the 99 Adam had given names... but Noah was the first collector …1(Collage) Collecting objects was a primitive act against the deluge of time and the cabinet is its primitive site. In 1753 the cabinets as a site has manifested into a new typology of architecture: the encyclopedic museum: a permanent space of display that became the British Museum. In 2017 it has inflated into 8 millions artefacts, of which 99% are locked in archives. In the name of curation a portrait of the world is constructed, the inaccessible, 7.9 millions narratives neglected, . A small group of Trustees dictates the 1% on display which constructs our perceptions of collection, in an encyclopaedic museum, the world. This project is a question to the construction of such portrait, the loss of multiplicity of interpretations. By unfolding the contemporary condition of museum storages the 1/99 questions on our conception of keeping and displaying in relation to the accessibility and the static nature of objects in museum storages. What is the role of museum curation in the stream of automated feeds, our ever weaker appetite for self pace interpretations? We have come from Pliny to Wiki, from British to Google, and are now constructing the single universal museum the Google art institute. A question to be re-address is that: Who decides the seen and the unseen? The museum has turned from a place were each person has their own narrative to a place where a million people having one.

1 Cultures of Collecting, Introduction , John Elsner and Roger Cardinal

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A person enter the 100%, the order of objects was part of the museum. Each time he goes in he looks at a different object, a different narrative.

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A million people enter, here they looks at the 1%, arranged in the way just for them. The million people looks at the same object, they snapped, and shared it to a billion.

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British Museum, London. 23/01/2017.

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A million people enter, here they looks at the 1%, arranged in the way just for them. The million people looks at the same object, they snapped, and shared it to a billion.

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Frieze London, London. 08/10/2016.

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The million people looks at the same object, they snapped, and shared it to a billion.

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Open Storage , Brera Academy Museum, Milan. 15/11/2016.

“The five premises of the museum as an institution is To collect, to study collection, to interpret and the works, to preserve, and to exhibit” James Bradborne, Director of Brera Academy, Milan

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CONTENT The 1 from the 99 1. Prologue: The Cabinet

1.1. Primitive Keeping: Noah’s Ark 1.2. Primitive Order: Arca and Arhiva 1.3. New Order: The New World and Solomon’s House 1.4. The End of Personal OrderWilliam Courten’s Cabinet

2. The 1%

2.1. the British Museum: A Genealogy 2.1.1. The 100%: The Scale of Collecting

2.1.1. The Encyclopedic Museum 2.1.2. 1703 - Hans Sloane: Collecting Collectors 2.1.3. 1753 -British Museum Act 2.1.4. 1803 Sir Antonio Panizzi 2.1.5. 1853 Archeological Discoveries 2.1.6. 1903 Natural history Museum and Easter Island 2.1.7. 1953 Tutankhamun exhibition,1972.

2.1.2. The 1%: Spatial Expansions

2.1.1. Spatial Expansion: A Genealogy 2.1.2. Spatial Expansion: In the City 2.1.3. Montugue House 1679, opened 1759 2.1.4. The King’s Library Gallery (1823) 2.1.5. North Wing(1838) 2.1.6. West and South Wing (1847) 2.1.7. Round Reading Room (1857) 2.1.8. Northern Wing (1906) 2.1.9. WW1: The Mail Rail 2.1.10. The Great Court (2000) 2.1.11. WCEC (2003)

2.1.3. From British to National

3. The 99%

2.1.1. Timeline of BM’s Departmental Structure 2.1.2. Hunterian Museum (1807) 2.1.3. The Natural History Museum (1880) 2.1.4. The British Library (1997) 2.1.5. National Museums (1753-2017)

3.1. 99% of the British Museum 3.1.1. Spatiality of the Unseen 3.1.2. The Great British Museum 3.1.3. A National Exchibition 3.1.4. External Storage: Frank House 3.1.5. External Storage: Blythe House 3.1.6. Internal Storage: WCEC and Before 3.1.7. Storage in War: Mail Rail 1914 3.1.8. Loaning the British Museum

4. Neither 1 nor 99: Google the Curator 4.1. From Pliny to Wiki 4.2. From British to Google 4.3. From Cabinet to Pocket 4.4. Google the Curator

5. A 500 Years Tour of the 99% 6. Towards the free Movement of Arts

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1 Prologue : The Cabinet (or the Origin of Keeping)

1.1 Primitive Keeping: Noah’s Ark 1.2 Primitive Order: Arca and Arhiva 1.3 New Order: The New World and Solomon’s House 1.4 End of the Personal Order: William Courten’s Cabinet

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The Cabinet pg // 20

The Cabinet The first chapter traces back to humanities first attempts to keep, to collect. From the earliest cabinet found from the furniture set in Skara Brar from 2000 B.C, the Noah’s Ark, to the dawn of the museum, the Enlightenment. It traces the means of order from the arca (box) and archive, to the populous nature of the museum. Collecting objects has gone from preservation of the valuable to a portrait of the person. The meaning of the new world and the practice of collection that led to the earliest form of museum as cabinets of curiosity, intricate narratives between the person and the object, and the order of collection. During the Enlightenment we see the first re-order of personal collection to suits interests of the public, or close friends with William Courten’s Cabinet, which later acquired by Sir Hans Sloane and became an significant part of the founding collection of the British Museum.

The Cabinet pg // 21

1.1.1.

fig1.1,

Noah’s Ark, Mary Singleton, 1998. pg // 22

Primitive Keeping: Noah’s Ark Adam had given names... but Noah was the first collector. Before Noah there was Skara Brae, on the southern shore of Sandwick, Orkney, was a late Neolithic settlement that was inhabited between 3200 and 2200 BC. Eight prehistoric houses, connected by low covered passageways, have survived. Among the eight houses is what believed to be a dressur, a primitive storing unit made out of stone. Practical means of it is still undetermined, but the primitive cabinet also suggested the act of keeping, whether practical means of food or records of lives is a primitive act of humanity, we construct time through physical objects that linger in out memories.

fig1.2,

Skara Brae

(3200BC)

The Cabinet pg // 23

ἀρχεῖον (arkheion)

400BC

[Greek]

“public records, town-hall, residence, or office of chief magistrates”

archīum

arca

600AD

[Latin]

box

archives

1500AD

[French]

1600AD

archive [English]

an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are

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Primitive Order: Archive and Arca As mankind collects and grow, order are imposed at the beginning of civilisation, tracing the etymology of archive, it unfolds the spatialisation of a box rooted in both the box and order. As collections accumulates, order is inevitably imposed. From the Greek’s ἀρχεῖον (arkheion), to Roman’s archīum and arca (box), French’s archives. The Primitive order in arranging collections came from the order of governmental documents, which serves a substantially different means to personal collecting.

The Cabinet pg // 25

fig1.3, Solomon’s

House in Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis,1620. pg // 26

New Order: The New World and Solomon’s House (1627) : In search of Totality The practice of collecting has changed substantially after the discovery of the new world. At the birth of the Enlightenment, exotic plants, species from expeditions entered the cabinets of the wealthiest. Early formation of the cabinets of curiosity that are fuelled by the discovery of the new land. The virgin land triggered a different form of collecting. The Solomon’s House from Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis in 1627 envisioned a scientific institute that houses all knowledges in the virgin city Bensalem, a institute of totality that not only preserve machines but as an observatory. The early, enclycopedic museum built upon the image of a miniaturised world, in search of totality.

The Cabinet pg // 27

fig1.4, The

Artist in His Museum (self-portrait) by Charles Willson Peale, 1822. pg // 28

End of the Personal Order:

William Courten (1642 - 1720) Classifications in the Cabinets of Curiosity Like many seventeenth-century virtuoso cabinets, that of William Courten (1642-1702) contained prints, drawings and paintings as well as medals, natural specimens and other curiosities. After providing a general account of Courten and his ‘museum’ (which was inherited by Sir Hans Shane and thereby became part of the British Museum), this paper focuses on the roles of pictures therein. Fine botanical paintings, valued as accurate conveyors of natural htstoncal knowledge, were byfar the most expensive items in Courten’s collection. But he also owned a number of Old Master drawings and a large collection ofprints that he catalogued according to artist, subject matter and quality. In so far as virtuosi like Courten valued and classified a wide range of images in several different ways, it is suggested that the modern characterization of early collectors that distinguishes between ‘artistic’ and ‘nonartistic’ interests is inappropriate.

Source: CLASSIFICATION AND VALUE IN A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MUSEUM: William Courten’s Collection by CAROL GIBSON-WOOD The Cabinet pg // 29

Keeping

Evelyn distinguished th and paintings; Thorsby and medals; Lister studi use of the botanical and and two Danish physicia interested mainly in the

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Displaying

he botanical drawings y appreciated the coins ied the shells; Ray made d zoological specimens; ans sent by Lhwyd were minerals.

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fig2.1, Cabinet

of Curiosities, second half of the 17th C., Dommuseum du Salzburg, Austria.

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2. The 1%

2.1. the British Museum: A Genealogy 2.1.1. The 100%: The Scale of Collecting

2.1.2. The 1%: Spatial Expansions

2.1.3. From British to National

2.1.1. Timeline of BM’s Departmental Structure 2.1.2. Hunterian Museum (1807) 2.1.3. The Natural History Museum (1880) 2.1.4. The British Library (1997) 2.1.5. National Museums (1753-2017)

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The Encyclopedic Museum: 100%: Pursuing Totality: The Scale of Collecting The Birth of the Museum begins with the democratisation of the personal collection of upper class during the Enlightenment, this chapter looks at the development of the ideology of the Encyclopedic museum and its current state through an Genealogy of the British Museum. From Sir Hans Sloane collections being acquired by the government, to the archaeological expeditions. An anatomy of the departmental structure, the split and the growth of collection in its history that comes from a distinctly different interest in acquisitions comparing to earlier collectors. With more than 99% of its collection in storage, this chapter question the contradiction between of premise and the reality of the way the museum is exhibiting the collection.

fig2.2,

Montague House, British Museum 1753.

1903 940,000

1753 73,000

1803 178,000

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1853 186,000

2017 8,000,000

100% British, Europe and Pre Hisotry

1953 4,000,000

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1703

73,000 OBJECTS

fig2.3-7, Portrait, Sir Han Sloane, Sir Hans Sloane Milk Chocolate, Voage to Jamaica

Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753):

Collecting Collectors Hans Sloane, the British physician, naturalist and collector, known for bequeathing his collection to the nation as the parliament purchased the collection and established the trustee that run the British Museum. Started to collect natural history and other curiosity as he was young, he grow up to become a collector of collectors. Among with William Cureton which has his first pick. pg // 36

Arthur Rawdon

Irish landowner.

Christopher Monck soldier and politician

Edward Lhuyd

naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary.

John Ray

Plant biologist

Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham

John Locke philosopher and physician

Robert Boyle

naturalphilosopher, chemist, physicist

John Evelyn writer, gardener and diarist.

fig2.8-15, Portrait:Arthur Rawdon, Christopher Monck, Edward Lhuyd, John Locke, John Ray, Thomas Robinson, John Evelyn, Robert Boyle

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1753

73,000 OBJECTS

British Museum Act 1753: The British Museum Act 1753 (26 Geo 2 c 22) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The whole Act was repealed by section 13(5) of, and Schedule 4 to, the British Museum Act 1963. Bylaws, ordinances, statutes or rules in force immediately before the commencement of the British Museum Act 1963 under section 14 or 15 of the British Museum Act 1753 are not invalidated by the repeal of the British Museum Act 1753, but have effect in relation to each Museum, with such modifications as may be necessary in consequence of the provisions of the British Museum Act 1963, as if they were rules made by the Trustees of that Museum under paragraph 5 of the First Schedule to the British Museum Act 1963.

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Museum Act, 1753, 1963.

Annex 1

BRITISH MUSEUM ACT 1963 1963 CHAPTER 24 An Act to alter the composition of the Trustees of the British Museum, to provide for the separation from the British Museum of the British Museum (Natural History), to make new provision with respect to the regulation of the two Museums and their collections in place of that made by the British Museum Act 1753 and enactments amending or supplementing that Act, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. Royal Assent 10th July 1963 BE IT ENACTED by the Queen=s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:1.

Altered composition of British Museum Trustees

(1) From the commencement of this Act, the body known as the Trustees of the British Museum shall continue to exist as a body corporate, with perpetual succession and a common seal, having the general management and control of the British Museum, but shall consist of twenty-five persons appointed as follows, that is to say (a) one appointed by Her Majesty; (b) fifteen appointed by the Prime Minister; (c) four appointed by [the Secretary of State] on the nominations of the Presidents of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy, the British Academy and the Society of Antiquaries of London respectively; and (d) five appointed by the Trustees of the British Museum. (2) The provisions of the First Schedule of this Act shall have effect with respect to the tenure of office and proceedings of the Trustees. Annotations

Sub-s (1): in para (c), reference to Athe Secretary of State@ substituted by

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1803

178,000 OBJECTS

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) From 1778, a display of objects from the South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems, coins, prints and drawings by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the Museum’s reputation; but Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion.

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James Cook. Voyage of Capt. James Cook

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1853

186,000 OBJECTS

Battle of the Nile and the Rosetta Stone (1802) Turner brought the stone to England aboard the captured French frigate HMS Egyptienne, landing in Portsmouth in February 1802.[45] His orders were to present it and the other antiquities to King George III. The King, represented by War Secretary Lord Hobart, directed that it should be placed in the British Museum. According to Turner’s narrative, he and Hobart agreed that the stone should be presented to scholars at the Society of Antiquaries of London, of which Turner was a member, before its final deposit in the museum. It was first seen and discussed there at a meeting on March 11, 1802.

pg // 42 fig2.20-22, Aboukir-bay

French-Revolutionary Wars. 1907 Thomas Whitcombe - The Battle of the Nile. Rosetta Stone, British Museum.

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1903

940,000 OBJECTS

1840-1880: The Expansoin of West and South Wing and the expanding Collecting From Wider World Expansion of Collections correlates directly to the available spaces, the second significant growth of the collection occured when not only the major expansion of the museum itself (the West and South Wing in 1847) but also the space freed by the opening of the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum.

Sir Antonio Panizzi (1797-1879)

Reading Room 1857

West and South Wing 1847

Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the “second founder” of the British Museum, the Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi. Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now part of the British Library) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library, the largest library in the world after the National Library of Paris.

fig2.23-27, Natural

history Museum. Reading Room, British Museum, 1857. Portrait, Sir Antonio Panizzi. Plan, British Museum, 1857.

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fig2.28-30, Statue

of Easter Islan, Chile. Given by Queen Victoria, 1869. atural history Museum. Plan, National Gallery, 1824. Plan, Natural History Museum, 1880.

National Gallery 1824

Natural History Museum 1880 pg // 45

1953

Tutankhamun exhibition (1972) The genesis of the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition reflected the changing dynamic of Middle-East relations. It was first shown in London at the British Museum from March 30 until December 30, 1972. More than 1.6 million visitors came to see the exhibition, some queuing for up to eight hours, and it was the most popular exhibition in the Museum’s history

fig2.31,

Tutankhamun exhibition, British Museum,1972.

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4,000,000 OBJECTS

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2017

1% The ever shortage of Space

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8,000,000 OBJECTS

The overloading of museums is not so much an imperial residual.

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British Museum’s Expansion: A Genealogy fig2.32-35,

1746

1801

John Rocque’s Map of London 1746

Wallis Plan Of The Cities Of London And Westminster 1801

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1827

1908

Cruchley’s New Plan Of London 1827

Bartholomew’s Handy Reference Atlas Of London & Suburbs 1908

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British Museum’s Expansion: A Genealogy

Hunterian Museum 1807

43,800spm

22,200spm 14, 700spm

9300spm Gross Floor Area 3100spm

Site Coverage

1800spm

2500spm

Kings Library

North Wing

1823

1838

7200spm

Number of Levels

Montagu House 1715

1753

West and South Wing 1847

1903 940,000 Demolished

1753 73,000

1803 178,000

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1853 186,000

Montagu House

2017 8,000,000

Natural History Museum 1987

Round Reading Room 1857

79,050spm

58,200spm

54,900spm

3700spm

British Library 1971

1100spm

The White 1953Wing

4,000,000

1884

2350spm

4600spm

1400spm

The Great Court

North Wing

1906

2000

World Conservation and Exchibition Center (WCEC)

69 Town Houses

Partially Reading Room

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2013

Montague House

Built (British Museum) : 1715 (1753) Architect: Robert Hooke Site Coverage: 3100sqm Gross Floor Area: 9300spm

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East Wing Built (Construction) : 1828 (1823) Architect: Robert Smirke Site Coverage: 1800sqm Grossv Floor Area: 5400spm

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Built (Construction) : 1838 (1833) Architect: Robert Smirke Site Coverage: 2500sqm Grossv Floor Area: 7500spm

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Built (Construction) : 1831 (1826) Architect: Robert Smirke Site Coverage: 7200sqm Grossv Floor Area: 21600spm Demolishion: Montague House

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Built (Construction) : 1847 (1843) Architect: Robert Smirke Site Coverage: 3700sqm Grossv Floor Area: 21600spm

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Built (Construction) : 1857 (1854) Architect: Sydney Smirke Site Coverage: 3700sqm Grossv Floor Area: 11100spm

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Built (Construction) : 1884 (1882) Architect: Sir John Taylor Site Coverage: 1100sqm Grossv Floor Area: 3300spm

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Built (Construction) : 1914 (1906) Architect: John James Burnet Site Coverage: 2350sqm Grossv Floor Area: 7050spm Demolishion: 69 Town Houses

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Built (Construction) : 2000 (1999) Architect: Sir Norman Foster Site Coverage: 4600sqm Grossv Floor Area: 13800spm Demolishion: Round Reading Room Part

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World Conservation and Exhibitions Built (Construction) : 2013 (2010) Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Site Coverage: 1400sqm Grossv Floor Area: 9800spm

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British Museum Departmental Structure TImeline

Botanical branch

Source Wilson, David M. The British Museum: A History. London: British Museum, 2002. Print.

Botanical branch

Mineral & Geological Mineral & branch Geological branch

Natural History

Mineral & Geological branch

Zoological branch Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Antiquities

Natural & Artificial Production

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Zoological branch

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnograsphy

Oriental Antiquities Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print Print and Drawings and Drawings

Print and Drawings

1880

1870

1860

1840

1750

1810

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Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities Western Asiatic Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Western Asiatic Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnography

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Western Asiatic Antiquities

Medieval & Modern Europe

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Near East

Pre-history & Early Europe

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Medieval & Modern Europe

Middle East

Pre-history & Early Europe British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Ethnography Ethnography

Ceramics & Ethnograsphy

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Oriental Antiquities Japan Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings Print and Drawings

Print and Drawings 2010

Print and Drawings

1970

1960

1920

pg // 75

Print and Drawings 1990

Print and Drawings

1807

Subdivision of Human Spirits collection to Hunterian Museum

Botanical branch

Mineral & Geological Mineral & branch Geological branch

Natural History

Mineral & Geological branch

Zoological branch Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Antiquities

Natural & Artificial Production

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Zoological branch

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnograsphy

Oriental Antiquities Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print Print and Drawings and Drawings

Print and Drawings

1880

1870

1860

1840

1750

1810

pg // 76

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities Western Asiatic Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Western Asiatic Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnography

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Western Asiatic Antiquities

Medieval & Modern Europe

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Near East

Pre-history & Early Europe

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Medieval & Modern Europe

Middle East

Pre-history & Early Europe British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Ethnography Ethnography

Ceramics & Ethnograsphy

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Oriental Antiquities Japan Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings Print and Drawings

Print and Drawings 2010

Print and Drawings

1970

1960

1920

pg // 77

Print and Drawings 1990

Print and Drawings

1807

Subdivision of Human Spirits collection to Hunterian Museum

“In 1799 the UK government purchased the collection of the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter FRS (1728-1793). It was placed in the care of the Company (later the Royal College) of Surgeons. Hunter’s collection of around 15,000 specimens and preparations formed the nucleus of one of the greatest museums of comparative anatomy, pathology, osteology and natural history in the world.”

Hunterian Museum 1799. Plan, Hunterian Museum, 1799.

fig2.36-38,

pg // 78

British Museum

Hunterian Museum

pg // 79

1881

Subdivision of Natural History Museum

Botanical branch

Mineral & Geological Mineral & branch Geological branch

Natural History

Mineral & Geological branch

Zoological branch Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Antiquities

Natural & Artificial Production

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Zoological branch

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnograsphy

Oriental Antiquities Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print Print and Drawings and Drawings

Print and Drawings

1880

1870

1860

1840

1750

1810

pg // 80

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities Western Asiatic Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Western Asiatic Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnography

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Western Asiatic Antiquities

Medieval & Modern Europe

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Near East

Pre-history & Early Europe

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Medieval & Modern Europe

Middle East

Pre-history & Early Europe British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Ethnography Ethnography

Ceramics & Ethnograsphy

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Oriental Antiquities Japan Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings Print and Drawings

Print and Drawings 2010

Print and Drawings

1970

1960

1920

pg // 81

Print and Drawings 1990

Print and Drawings

1881

Subdivision of Natural History Museum

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

Natural History Museum Plan, Natural History Museum, 1881. Natural History Museum, 1881. British Museum Act,1963.

fig2.39-42,

pg // 82

Natural History Built (Construction) : 1881 (1873) Architect: Alfred WaterhouseSite Coverage: 2750sqm Grossv Floor Area: 8250spm

Annex 1

British Museum

Altered composition of British Museum Trustees

Hunterian Museum

Annotations

Sub-s (1): in para (c), reference to Athe Secretary of State@ substituted by

Governmental Independence : 1989

With the passing of the British Museum Act 1963, the British Museum (Natural History) became an independent museum with its own Board of Trustees, although – despite a proposed amendment to the act in the House of Lords – the former name was retained. In 1989 the museum publicly re-branded itself as The Natural History Museum and effectively stopped using the title British Museum (Natural History) on its advertising and its books for general readers. Only with the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 did the Museum’s formal title finally change to the Natural History Museum.

pg // 83

1997

Subdivision of The British Library

Botanical branch

Mineral & Geological Mineral & branch Geological branch

Natural History

Mineral & Geological branch

Zoological branch Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Antiquities

Natural & Artificial Production

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Zoological branch

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnograsphy

Oriental Antiquities Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print Print and Drawings and Drawings

Print and Drawings

1880

1870

1860

1840

1750

1810

pg // 84

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities Western Asiatic Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Western Asiatic Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnography

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Western Asiatic Antiquities

Medieval & Modern Europe

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Near East

Pre-history & Early Europe

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Medieval & Modern Europe

Middle East

Pre-history & Early Europe British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Ethnography Ethnography

Ceramics & Ethnograsphy

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Oriental Antiquities Japan Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings Print and Drawings

Print and Drawings 2010

Print and Drawings

1970

1960

1920

pg // 85

Print and Drawings 1990

Print and Drawings

1997

Subdivision of The British Library

British Library

Built (Construction) : 1999 (1982) Architect: Colin St John Wilson Site Coverage: 1930sqm Grossv Floor Area: 12000spm Collection: over 150,000,000 items 13,950,000 books[1] 824,101 serial titles 351,116 manuscripts (single and volumes) 8,266,276 philatelic items 4,347,505 cartographic items 1,607,885 music scores 6,000,000 sound recordings

Prior to 1973, the Library was part of the British Museum. The British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The Library is now located in a purposebuilt building on the north side of Euston Road in St Pancras, London (between Euston railway station and St Pancras railway station) and has a document storage centre and reading room near Boston Spa, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Wetherby in West Yorkshire. The Euston Road building is classified as a Grade I listed building, “of exceptional interest” for its architecture and history British Library, 1982. Reading Room, British Museum, 1853.

fig2.43-44,

Natural History Museum pg // 86

The British Library

British Museum

Hunterian Museum

The move allowed the British Museum’s Expansion in 2000 with the Great Court, where the round reading room is emptied. pg // 87

National Museums: The Enlightenment Dream - Extended

Imperial War Museum Act 1920 National Maritime Act of 1934 National Army Museum 1971 National Railway Museum 1975

Wallace Collection 1897

Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester) 1983 Royal Armouries The National Heritage Act 1983 Liverpool National Museums 1986 UK National Museums

1753 British Museum Act (1807) Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery 1824 National Gallery 1837 Sir John Soane’s Museum Private Act of Parliament in 1833 1852 Victoria and Albert Museum 1856 National Portrait Gallery, London 1857 Science Museum 1881 Natural history Museum 1897 Wallace Collection (non-departmental public body.) 1920 Imperial War Museum Act 1934 National Maritime Act of 1934 Chapter 43 1971 National Army Museum 1975 National Railway Museum 1979 Science Museum at Wroughton 1983 National Media Museum 1983 Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester) 1983 Royal Armouries The National Heritage Act 1983 1986 Liverpool National Museums 1993 Tate (formerly1897, as the National Gallery of British Art) Charities Act 1993 2004 National Railway Museum Shildon 2017 The Postal Museum

Science Museum 1857 Victoria and ALbert Museum 1852 Natural History Museum 1881 pg // 88

Pre-1900 1900-1990 1990-Present

National Museums at London

British Library 1997

Postal Museum 2017

British Museum 1753

Sir John Soane Museum1824

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery 1807

National Gallery 1824

Tate Modern 1993

pg // 89

From British to National: The Enlightenment Dream as a Network

pg // 90 fig2.45,

London, Satellite, Google Map, 2017.

UK National Museums 1753 British Museum Act (1807) Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery 1824 National Gallery 1837 Sir John Soane’s Museum Private Act of Parliament in 1833 1852 Victoria and Albert Museum 1856 National Portrait Gallery, London 1857 Science Museum 1881 Natural history Museum 1897 Wallace Collection (non-departmental public body.) 1920 Imperial War Museum Act 1934 National Maritime Act of 1934 Chapter 43 1971 National Army Museum 1975 National Railway Museum 1979 Science Museum at Wroughton 1983 National Media Museum 1983 Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester) 1983 Royal Armouries The National Heritage Act 1983 1986 Liverpool National Museums 1993 Tate (formerly1897, as the National Gallery of British Art) Charities Act 1993 2004 National Railway Museum Shildon 2017 The Postal Museum

pg // 91

“...The British Museum on the other hand was

a startlingly new idea: a collection bought by Parliament that was to belong not to the king, nor the state, but to every person in the land. It was to not so much a public museum as a private museum for every citizen, a ket instrument in achieving the Enlightenment dream of an informed and educated political community... ”

Neil MacGregor. former Director, British Museum

pg // 92

pg // 93 fig2.46,

Neil MacGregor’s at St Peter’s College on 03/11/2014 - Germany: Memories of a Nation.

99% pg // 94

3. The 99%

pg // 95

99%

The Unseen

7.9 Millions Untold Narratives at BM

“Users, especially the interested public, too seldom experience access to the 200 million items in the collections of English and Welsh museums as a public right. This is a service in which museums should excel.” - REPORT CONCLUSION - COLLECTIONS FOR PEOPLE, UCL.

pg // 96

pg // 97

Spatiality of the 99% What would it take to exhibits all of these legally public resources?

Displaying Keeping

99%

pg // 98

80,0000 Objects Displayed British Museum

92,000 sqm 7.2 MillionsObjects Displayed Museum Storage

21,600 sqm External Storage 9,400 sqm

pg // 99

Spatiality of the 99%

For BM it would take a 3 by 3 km Block

100%

Displaying Keeping

British Museum

pg // 100

pg // 101

Spatiality of the 99% A Great British Museum

pg // 102

pg // 103

Spatiality of the 99% A National Exchibition

at the national level network of 200 millions narratives in storage

Only 13% of museums significantly promote public access to stored collections. -REPORT CONCLUSION - COLLECTIONS FOR PEOPLE, UCL.

pg // 104

pg // 105

Spatiality of the 99%

225km2 = 200 Hyde Parks

pg // 106

pg // 107

External Storage: British Museum

6.3km

Blythe House

pg // 108

Frank House

3.4km

pg // 109

Frank House

fig3.1,

Frank House, Google Map, 2017.

pg // 110

pg // 111

Blythe House

pg // 112

V&A Clothworkers Center, Blythe House, London. 26/05/2017.

pg // 113

External Storages Blythe House: A Central Storage Receding The move to sell the property is part of a wider government drive to get value for money from the buildings in its estate. The consolidation of government buildings has released £1.4bn in capital receipts and reduced annual running costs by £625m over the last parliament.

6.3km

2.5km Blythe House

2.7km pg // 114

Science Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

fig3.2, DCMS

British Museum

pg // 115

settlement at the Spending Review 2015

External Storages Blythe House: The Relocation

Science Museum Old Oak Park “The 500,000 sq ft building will be the anchor for a larger cultural quarter close to a new Overground train station at Hythe Road.”

6.3km

Victoria and Albert Museum Blythe House

pg // 116 fig3.3, Science

Museum’s Plan at Pld Oak Common

fig3.4, V&A

East, Allies and Morrison, 2016.

V&A East The 18,000 sq m V&A East: a museum “for the digital age” will sit opposite the Aquatics Centre as part of a project in which the London College of Fashion, Sadler’s Wells and UCL are setting up home in Stratford.

World Conservation and Exhibition Centre (2013) British Museum

12.3km

pg // 117

Storage in War: Mail Rail 1914

fig3.5-6, Map, Rail

Mail. Post Office London Railway, a diagrametic drawing, 1926.

British Museum Paddington

Western Central District Post Office Mail Rail

The Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge, driverless underground railway in London that was built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, to move mail between sorting offices. Inspired by the Chicago Tunnel Company,[1] it operated from 1927 until 2003.[2][3] Part of the railway will be opened to visitors in mid-2017 pg // 118

At the British Museum, the fig3.7-9, Post Office London most valuable objects were also moved to the basement, Railway as British Museum’s but as the bombing intensified, Storage,photographs by Nick the Prime Minister and the War Cabinet ordered their Cunard/REX. evacuation to the abandoned underground railway tunnels of the Holborn Post Office

White Chapel

pg // 119

pg // 120

V&A Clothworkers Center, Blythe House, London. 26/05/2017.

pg // 121

pg // 122

V&A Clothworkers Center, Blythe House, London. 26/05/2017.

pg // 123

Interview with Anthony Spence Head of Collection Services, British Museum. Museum Lab (ML) Anthony Spence (AS) ML: What is the collecting strategies and growth in recent years and what are the factors that determine whether an object is archived vs displayed ? AS: It depends on the completion of each departments, we are pretty much done with Egyption. The AOA (American, Africa and Oceana), and Asia would be the one that are still growing through excavation and so on.

pg // 124

WCEC, British Museum, London. 15/02/2017.

ML: Around how many objects are on display and in storage per department ? AS: We try to put a fair representation of what we have in general, but overall it is a matter of multiple factors, some objects cannot be displayed longer than an amount of time, some are less important than the others. We do have over and under representation between departments, in particular Ancient Greece and Roman that we are over representing and American, Africa and Oceania under represented, it is also to do with what we are known for, people come to see the Pantheon. We started cataloging in 1986, 4 millions objects are still to go to be actually in the entry. I would say that within the next 10 years at least the entry level would be on and what would happen next is an massive audit, making sure the object is actually there. pg // 125

ML: What are the causes of departmental changes throughout the years, what is the intention of the major renaming in 2000 ? AS: This one is quite straight forward, it is when our new director came in at the time, basically what he was saying is that it would be what the department actually represented. ML According to the press release the storage at the WCEC is going to accomodate 200,000 objects from the Africa, Oceania and America’s Department and stones and fragments from the department of Greece and Rome. How would this effort compare to the condition of Blythe House and the moving out from it? How are the storages distributed among Frank House, Blythe House, and onsite in terms of proportion and how much did that change after the WCEC? AS: This actually slightly changed, we have deceided we can only take part of the holdings, we are not gonna bring them in here. It make more sense for us to move them into another external store. In the time table it is early 2023 that we need to move out. Currently about 2 millions items are in the Blythe House. What’s more important to arrange the planning and decision making, is the volume, but not so much the object numbers. We are always full, it’s one of those question you create a space, if we have space, it will get filled. If you planned for a 50 years expansion, most of it would get filled in the first 20 years, and then we say we need to slow down.

pg // 126

WCEC, British Museum, London. 15/02/2017.

“If you planned for a 50 years expansion, most of it would get filled in the first 20 years, and then we say we need to slow down.”, Anthony Spence.

pg // 127

“What’s much more important for the conservation of the objects is the gradual change of condition.... we avoid using plants, where we rung into the potential that things can be destroyed with the flick of a switch...”, Anthony Spence.

-1

Basement, West Wing, British Museum. 15/02/2017 pg // 128

WCEC, British Museum, London. 15/02/2017.

ML How is the storage condition in terms of climatic control compared throughout the storage spaces ( Blythe House, Frank House and on site )? AS We try to use the building as a buffer other than machinal systems. What’s much more important for the conservation of the objects is the gradual change of condition.... we avoid using plants, where we rung into the potential that things can be destroyed with the flick of a switch...

-4

WCEC, West Wing, British Museum. 15/02/2017 pg // 129

ML When did the digital archiving begin? What is the procedure in general and when is it expected to publish online all of the collections from storage ? AS Currently we have 2.9millions records online, only a million have images, I would say we are about 10 years away from the all 8 millions objects available online.

Previous Shelving System

pg // 130

“The New shelving system is done so that when we loan the objects they can be moved straight away”, Anthony Spence.

WCEC Shelving System pg // 131

Pre-WCEC: Lift

pg // 132

West Wing, British Museum, London. 15/02/2017.

Anthony Spener, Head of Collection Services, British Museum

The only lift in the west wing before the WCEC

pg // 133

WCEC: Truck Lift

pg // 134

ML How is the new Collections management hub contributing to the museum loaning system? What is the percentage of loaned objects from storage ? AS Its going to be very very low, 60,000, let’s say, but they are quality pieces, either of global, or region significance. Something that has started really from the 1970s. What the facilities do is to make packing and unpacking much easier. It can take 6 weeks to pack, not to include the time to plan, it is very much a bespoke effort and the new facilities allows greater Lorry Lift, WCEC

efficiency.

WCEC, British Museum, London. 15/02/2017. pg // 135

WCEC: Truck Lift

pg // 136

WCEC, British Museum, London. 23/05/2017.

pg // 137

BM - On Tour British Museum 80,0000 Objects Displayed

Displaying

Keeping

92,000 sqm 7.2 MillionsObjects Displayed Museum Storage

21,600 sqm External Storage 9,400 sqm

99%

pg // 138

20,000 - 30,000 Objects On Loan

60,000 Objects Exchibited in British Museum

pg // 139

Loans Policy

Loans Policy 1.

Introduction

1.1

This policy covers all loans of objects for exhibition both outgoing from and incoming to the British Museum, for any duration. It covers the entire range of loans from single objects to travelling exhibitions of a large number of objects. It does not apply to movements of objects outside the British Museum for conservation or study purposes.

1.2

Making objects from the collection available through loans is part of the core purpose of the Museum and the Trustees of the British Museum agree loans under powers conferred by section 4 of the British Museum Act of 1963. This states that: “The British Museum may lend for public exhibition (whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) any object comprised in the collections of the Museum: provided that in deciding whether or not to lend any such object, and in determining the time for which, and the conditions subject to which, any such object is to be lent, the British Museum shall have regard to the interests of students and other persons visiting the Museum, to the physical condition and degree of rarity of the object in question, and to any risks to which it is likely to be exposed.” No loan can be made that overrides the intentions of the Act.

1.3

The policy should be read in conjunction with The British Museum Policy on Acquisition, The British Museum Policy on Conservation, The British Museum Policy on De-accession, The British Museum Policy on Human Remains, and The British Museum Policy on Risk Management.

Principles

2.1

The Trustees of the British Museum make loans for the following reasons:  to further knowledge, understanding and scholarship relating to the objects in their care;  to make the collections more widely accessible within the UK and throughout the world;  to increase national and international co-operation by the exchange of material and exhibitions;  to enhance the reputation of the British Museum and its good standing nationally and internationally.

2.2

The Trustees of the British Museum will take into account the reasonable expectations of scholars and the Museum’s visiting public, and the rarity and significance of an object when determining whether to lend.

2.3

The Trustees of the British Museum will not make loans in circumstances that would be damaging to the Museum’s standing and reputation.

2.4

The Trustees of the British Museum will lend only in circumstances when the perceived risk to the object is considered reasonable and when the borrower guarantees that the object will be returned to the Museum at the end of the loan period (the Trustees will normally expect the borrower to provide assurance of immunity from judicial seizure or comparable assurance from a government body or representative of appropriate authority).

2.5

The Trustees of the British Museum will not lend to any exhibition which includes objects that are known to have been stolen, illegally exported or illegally excavated.

pg // 140 Source

https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Loans_Policy_approved_16_01_14.pdf

2.6

The Trustees of the British Museum will lend only to properly established organisations and to proper venues, whether run publicly or privately, and usually only to exhibitions that are open to the general public.

2.7

In order to secure a loan from the Trustees of the British Museum, borrowers will have to demonstrate that the objects they have requested form an essential part of their display, and that the exhibition itself is intellectually valid and will provide public benefit.

2.8

In requesting loans the Trustees of the British Museum will observe the same principles as those which they apply to outgoing loans and acquisitions. In particular the Trustees will not accept the loan for display or exhibition of any object where they have good cause to believe that:  the current holder is not legitimately entitled to retain the object;  the current holder cannot lend the object to the Museum free from encumbrances; or  the object was stolen, illegally exported or illegally imported.

This Policy was approved by the Standing Committee on 16 January 2014 and shall be reviewed not later than January 2019.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/tours_and_loans/how_to_borrow.aspx

pg // 141

Loans Policy

pg // 142

DCMS British Mueum Director D.Director of Operation and

D. Director of Public Engagement

D. Director of Public Administration

D. Director of Collections

Department of Learning and National Partnerships Loans

National Programs

National Partnerships

Regional Museums

Prints and Drawings

Britain, Europe and Prehistory

Portable Antiquities Scheme

Middle East

Greece and Rome

Conservation and Scientific Research

Coins and Medals

Asia

Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Africa, Oceania and the Americas

Tour

Storage

pg // 143

UK Museums with Loans from BM London National Maritime Museum Museum in Docklands, London V&A Museum of Childhood, London Tower of London Museum of London Tate Modern, London Sir John Soane’s Museum, London Courtauld Gallery, London Bitish Library Jewish Museum, London Royal College of Physicians National Gallery Christies, London Royal Academy of Arts Handel House Museum, London Tate Britain, London Tate Modern, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London Dulwich Picture Gallery, London England National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery Buckland Abbey, Yelverton Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter Russell Cotes Museum and Art Gallery, Bournemouth Southampton City Art Gallery Littlehampton Museum The Royal Pavilion, Brighton Pavilion, Royal Parade The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea Dover Museum Turner Contemporary, Margate Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery, Maidstone Watts Gallery, Compton Willis Museum, Basingstoke Highclere Castle, Newbury Wiltshire Museum, Devizes Holburne Museum of Art, Bath M Shed, Bristo The Egypt Centre, Swansea Abergavenny Castle & Museum Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Museum in the Park, Stroud Corinium Museum Museum of Oxford Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury Wardown Park Museum, Luton Rhodes Arts Complex The Bishop’s Stortford Museum Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury Swaffham Museum Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life, Norwich Lowestoft Museum, Suffolk Ely Museum The National Horse Racing Museum, Newmarket The Fitzwilliam Museum Compton Verney Barber Institute of Fine Art, Birmingham Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Powysland Museum, Welshpool Shropshire Museum Service Lichfield Cathedral Oakham Castle Derby Museum and Art Gallery Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery The Collection, Lincoln Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire Weston Park Museum, Sheffield Buxton Museum and Art Gallery Wrexham County Borough Museum & Archives Oriel Ynys Mon Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery, Bangor

Grosvenor Museum, Chester Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester Manchester Art Gallery Wilberforce House, Hull Cartwright Hall, Bradford York Museums and Gardens Kendal Museum Lakeland Arts Trust Kiplin Hall, Richmond Bowes Museum, County Durham Oriental Museum, Durham Palace Green Library, Durham Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens Bede’s World, Jarrow Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne Roman Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum, Hadrian’s Wall Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Scotland Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh Museum on the Mound, Edinburgh National Museum of Scotland Kilmartin Museum Perth Museum and Art Gallery The McManus, Dundee Inverness Museum and Art Gallery Museum nan Eilean, Stornoway Ireland Donegal County Museum

170 In Loans

2500 Musuems

pg // 144

pg // 145

Form of Storage: Tour (Current) Celebrating Ganesha

Writing for Eternity: Decoding Ancient Egypt

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth 16 June – 20 September 2015

Wrexham County Borough Museum 19 June – 5 September 2015

Museum of Oxford 26 September 2015 – 12 January 2016

Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle 12 March – 8 May 2016

Cartwright Hall, Bradford 16 January – 15 May 2016

Salisbury Museum 21 May – 3 September 2016

Bowes Museum, County Durham 21 May – 18 September 2016

Abergavenny Museum & Castle 16 September 2016 – 10 January 2017

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 24 September 2016 – 2 January 2017

Museum of Hartlepool 21 January – 24 May 2017

Horniman, London 11 February 2017 – 23 April 2017

Lines of thought Drawing from Michelangelo to now Poole Museum: 3 September – 6 November 2016

Brent Museum, London 29 April 2017 – 28 August 2017

Hull University Art Collection: 3 January – 28 February 2017

Manchester Museum 2 September 2017 – 8 January 2018

Ulster Museum, Belfast: 10 March – 7 May 2017

Wardown Park Museum, Luton 10 January 2018 – 29 April 2018 Reflections on Celts 24 October 2015 – 4 January 2016: National Civil War Museum, Newark 6 January – 9 March 2016: Littlehampton Museum 14 March – 22 May 2016: Old Gala House, Galashiels 25 May 2016 – 28 August 2016: Inverness Museum and Art Gallery 31 August 2016 – 26 March 2017: The McManus, Dundee Picasso linocuts Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight 24 June 2016 – 8 January 2017 Cooper Gallery, Barnsley 21 January 2017 – 30 April 2017 The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry 20 May 2017 – mid August 2017

pg // 146

pg // 147

pg // 148

Celebrating Ganesha Horniman Museum, London. 20/04/2017.

pg // 149

pg // 150

Celebrating Ganesha Brent Museum, London. 29/04/2017.

pg // 151

A Communal Based Curation

pg // 152

Celebrating Ganesha Brent Museum, London. 29/04/2017.

pg // 153

A Discourse Oriented Towards Oneself

fig3.10, Ydessa

Hendeles, Partners (The Teddy Bear Project), 2002. Photo: Robert Keziere Exchibition: The Keeper, New Museum, NYC. pg // 154

“...can objects ever institute themselves as a viable language? can they ever be fashioned into a discourse oriented otherwise than oneself?...” The System of Objects, Jean Baudrillard,

pg // 155

Of Everything being in one place

fig3.11, World

Museum, Cedric Price, 1967-68. pg // 156

... ‘becomes the main organisational drive, so the difference between those who display and those who observe is drastically reduced” and the necessity for all object to be in one place is less and less relevant. ,,, World Museum, Cedric Price.

pg // 157

Google as Curator: Neither 1 nor 99 pg // 158

4. Neither 1 nor 99: Google the Curator 4.1. From Pliny to Wiki 4.2. From British to Google 4.3. From Cabinet to Pocket 4.4. Google the Curator

pg // 159

fig4.1, Cedric

Price, “Nano Museum,” 2000, curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist. pg // 160

“...He began the museum in the 1990s, wanting a free and “portable museum” that could “host exhibitions anywhere...” Hans Ulrich Obrist

pg // 161

A Shift: From Pliny to Wiki

Aristotle : (322BC384BC) Animal

fig4.2-3, Natural

Natural History, Pliny the Elder (26-76)

Pliny uses Aristotle’s division of nature (animal, vegetable, mineral) to recreate the natural world in literary form. Rather than presenting compartmentalised, stand-alone entries arranged alphabetically, Pliny’s ordered natural landscape is a coherent whole, offering the reader a guided tour: astronomy, agriculture, mathematics, horticulture, geography, pharmacology, ethnography, mining, anthropology, mineralogy, human physiology, sculpture, zoology, painting, botany, precious stones.

History, Pliny the Elder (26-76). Logo, Wikipedia. pg // 162

Wikipedia (2001) 40 million articles, eqv: 18,000 print volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The English edition of Wikipedia has grown to 5,306,985 articles, equivalent to over 2,000 print volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Including all language editions, Wikipedia has over 40 million articles,[1] equivalent to over 18,000 print volumes.

pg // 163

A Shift: From British to Google The Site of the pursuit of totality is also shifting, from British to Google, now curating the single universal museum: specifically the Google Art Institute can currently partner with more than 625 museums worldwide.

British

British Museum, London. 23/05/2017. pg // 164

625 Museums Partners , 2017 pg // 165

A Shifting site of memory: From Cabinet to Pocket In the face of internet and its ephemeral feeds our sites of memories has slowly moved from the Cabinet to the Pocket: from a personal construct through physical objects to a constant flow of involuntary feeds. In the radical reform of distribution of knowledges, the project question the role of the loaning network and storage in the ever more dispersed form of knowledges and interests of in the stream of the digital. In the age of tailored news-feed, realities shows, instagram profiles, likes and shares. The physical curation of objects, the shift from private obsessions to public interests in collecting has removed the intimacy between the object and the person, the physical and the mind. What the digital can provide is what started the museums, the showcase of personal collections, obsessions and interests, a hole to peek into someone’s cabinets.

pg // 166

The digital provided the intimacy that the physical gradually failed to do, to look into someone’s life and moments, the wonder about person behind the screen. Dictated by algorithms the digital is a also a flux of juxtapositions between the public and private, endless updates and confusions. It provided the pleasure of peaking through the screen, but it also feels incomplete, controlled.

fig4.4, Emma pg // 167

Watson’s Instagram. A digital Cabinet of Curiosity

The Digital: Neither Seen or Unseen

DISPLAY KEEP

pg // 168

pg // 169

Google the Curator

fig4.5, Free

Fall, Google Cultrue Institiure, Experiment, 2017. pg // 170

pg // 171

Role of the Objects What does the role of curation mean in the growth of digital collection that ultimately dispersed the archive into millions of pieces. The British Museum is expected to finish its digital archiving within 10 years, what does that means to the museum as a remaining cabinet of physical objects in the form of knowledge ?

pg // 172

25%: 2 Millions Objects Online 2017

100% 8 Millions Objects Estimated to complete in 2027

pg // 173

fig4.6, A

Museum Filled with Ageless Animals , La Jetée, Chris Marker, 1962. pg // 174

Who is to decide what to be seen and unseen ? pg // 175

pg // 176

Tales of an age is told where the power of curating is redistributed as storage as we know it destabalizes. A series of speculative scenarios sets questions: 5. A 500 Years Tour of the 99% 6. Towards the free Movement of Arts

pg // 177

A 500 Years Tour of the 99%

pg // 178

pg // 179

A national tour of the 7.9 millions unknown artefacts is being launched by the British museum, it is estimated to take 500 years.

pg // 180

pg // 181

The director saids that the tour is the undoing of Noah’s Ark. Where touring becomes a form of collecting, a collection of alternatives narratives and intepretations rather than just the objects themselves.

pg // 182

pg // 183

Some say it might take forever, joining forces by all national museums, loaning requests has reached 200 millions.

pg // 184

pg // 185

Putting objects in crates has doubled the volume to be transported.

pg // 186

pg // 187

pg // 188

It let the artefacts drifts across the mundane, the extraordinary.

pg // 189

In crates the objects totals an area of 10,000,000 m3, they pauses, and open between 2000 destinations.

pg // 190

pg // 191

pg // 192

Objects lands in the most unexpected places:

pg // 193

pg // 194

they stretches to the end of lands.

pg // 195

The power of curation is redistributed.

pg // 196

pg // 197

Towards the Free

pg // 198

World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, British Museum, 15/02/2017.

Movement of Arts

pg // 199

At the Google Art Institute, we now don’t just work with museums but have developed a way to make the unseen available for all. Similar to how we named our fulfilment centres, our storage network works around the free ports around airports, connecting existing storages into a free flow of arts.

pg // 200

pg // 201

pg // 202

At LHR6 is where the global knowledges comes together, It was made possible by reshuffling the network of all museum collection’s storages:

pg // 203

Not departments, not museums, not chronology, not geographical origins: Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Middle East

British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Departmental Inefficiency pg // 204

Scale is the only, universal order. XS

pg // 205

Re-Order of Objects

Botanical branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Mineral & Geological Mineral & branch Geological branch

Natural History

Mineral & Geological branch

Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities Western Asiatic Antiquities

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

Zoological branch

Antiquities

Zoological branch

Greek and Roman Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

Ancient Egyptian Sudan

Western Asiatic Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnography

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Egyptian Antiquities

Medieval & Modern Europe

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Natural & Artificial Production

Greek and Roman Antiquities

Ancient Near East

Pre-history & Early Europe

Africa, Oceana and Americas

Medieval & Modern Europe

Middle East

Pre-history & Early Europe British, Europe, and Pre-hisotry

Ethnography

British and Mediaeval Antiquities & Ethnograsphy

Ceramics & Ethnograsphy

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Oriental Antiquities Japan Antiquities

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print Print and Drawings and Drawings

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

Museums’ Departmental & Storage Structure

1960

1920

1880

1870

1860

1840

1810

1750

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

pg // 206

Asia

Coins and Medals

Print and Drawings

1970

Coins and Medals

2010

Antiquities

Ethnography

Oriental Antiquities

1990

Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities

2500

pg // 207

It bypasses the departmental complexity behind any museum tours. DCMS British Mueum

Director D.Director of Operation and Projects

D. Director of Public Engagement

D. Director of Public Administration

D. Director of Collections

Department of Learning and National Partnerships Loans

National Programs

National Partnerships

Regional Museums

Prints and Drawings

Britain, Europe and Prehistory

Portable Antiquities Scheme

Middle East

Greece and Rome

Conservation and Scientific Research

Coins and Medals

Asia

Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Africa, Oceania and the Americas

Tour

Storage

Existing Tour pg // 208

National Tour

Travelling Museums

DDSS

Storing, Sorting, Displaying and Deliverying Center

DDSS Storing, Sorting, Displaying and Deliverying Center

Regional Museums National Museums

National Partnerships National Programs Collection and Research Departments

A National Tour pg // 209

Prints and Drawings

Britain, Europe and Prehistory

Portable Antiquities Scheme

Middle East

Greece and Rome

Conservation and Scientific Research

Coins and Medals

Asia

Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Africa, Oceania and the Americas

Storage

pg // 210

The storage becomes an interface of 55,000 museums around the world, where knowledges and stories now coming together.

pg // 211

This efficient type of organization by sizes liberates spaces for other programmes:

Screening/ Education

Viewing on Demand

Auction House

Conservation Lab

Research Lab

Curation Lab

XL Exchibition / Loading Bay

0.5km

Private Viewing

1km

pg // 212

research hub, exhibitions, conservations, auctions, on demand viewing: allowing a fluid global exchange of artworks.

pg // 213

Departmental Storage

Scale Oriented Storage:

Packing

Unified Packing Unified Storing/Retrival

Unified Shelving

Lottery Viewing Storing/Retrival

Viewing On Demand

XL In

Out

Our local nodes also arranged according to scale to become layover storage inbetween destinations. Amazon BHX1, Wheelhouse Rd, Rugeley WS15 1LX. 27/04/2017. pg // 214

Out

pg // 215

Amazon Swansea CWL1 800,000 SQFT

Amazon Hemel Hempsetead 450,000 SQFT

Amazon LCY2 500,000 SQFT

Amazon BHX3 450,000 SQFT

Amazon EUK5 800,000 SQFT

Amazon MAN1 600,000 SQFT

Amazon FC

Amazon LTN4 700,000 SQFT

Amazon LTN4 300,000 SQFT

Amazon LBA3 Doncaster 800,000 SQFT

Amazon GLA1 Gourock 800,000 SQFT

Amazon ED14 1,000,000 SQFT

Amazon FC & International Airports

pg // 217

Part the location of the objects are also entirely unknown, encrypted, in rooms, in back gardens, the letterboxes, only accessible by the owners and the system.

pg // 218

pg // 219

Storage nodes expands in the countryside, spaces has always been the limits collecting but is not anymore, the collections have grown exponentially.

pg // 220

The site of collecting expands, at an alarming rate.

pg // 221

pg // 222

Between enclycopedic totality and our forgetfulness, the 1 and the 99 is redefined, where it became an interface that is determined not by the state or the curator but through a personal act of intepretation.

pg // 223

Bibliography Books Aristotle: “De Memoria et Reminiscentia”, in De Anima, trans. Hugh Lawson-Tancred.

London: Penguin Classics, 1986.

Augé, Marc, Oblivion, trans. de Jager, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Baudrillard, Jean, and James Benedict. The System of Objects. London: Verso, 1996. Print. Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books, 2001. Borges, Jorge Luis, “Funes The Memorious” and “Library of Babel”, Labyrinths: Selected

Stories and Other writings, London: Penguin Classics, 2000.

Crary, Jonathan. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Deborg, Society Of the. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black & Red, 1977. Print.

Elsner, John, and Roger Cardinal. The Cultures of Collecting. London: Reaktion, 1997. Print. Groys, Boris. In the Flow. London: Verso, 2016. Print.

Koolhaas, Rem, and Hal Foster. Junkspace: With, Running Room. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. MacGregor, Curiosity and Enlightenment: Collectors and Collections from the sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century. 2007. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Use and Abuse of History. New York: Liberal Arts, 1957. Schönberger’s, Viktor. Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009 Weinrich, Harold. Lethe: The Art and Critique of Forgetting. Cornell University Press. 2004. Wilson, David M. The British Museum: A History. London: British Museum, 2002. Print. Lord/Lord/Martin. Manual of Museum Planning: Sustainable Space, Facilities, and Operations. N.p.: AltaMira, 2012. Print. Filmography Memento, Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2000. Insomnia, Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2002.

La Jetee. Dir. Chris Markers. Released in the U.S. by Pyramid Films, 1976. 2046, Dir. Ka Wai Wong. 2003. Happy Together, Dir. Ka Wai Wong. 1998.

pg // 224

Credits Voice Overs:

Barry Segal, Voice Over, Nationl Tour of the British Museum Kelsey Yuhara, Voice Over, Google Art Network

Media:

Sood, Amit. Every piece of art you’ve ever wanted to see — up close and searchable. Ted Talk. “https://www.ted.com/talks/amit_sood_every_piece_of_art_you_ve_ever_wanted_to_see_up_close_and_searchable” MacGrego, Neil. A History of the world in 100 Objects.

Images: fig1.1, Noah’s Ark, Mary Singleton, 1998. fig1.2, Skara Brae. fig1.3, Solomon’s House in Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis,1620. fig1.4, The Artist in His Museum (self-portrait) by Charles Willson Peale, 1822. fig2.1, Cabinet of Curiosities, second half of the 17th C., Dommuseum du Salzburg, Austria. fig2.2, Montague House, British Museum 1753. fig2.3-7, Portrait, Sir Han Sloane, Sir Hans Sloane Milk Chocolate, Voage to Jamaica fig2.8-15, Portrait:Arthur Rawdon, Christopher Monck, Edward Lhuyd, John Locke, John Ray, Thomas Robinson, John Evelyn, Robert Boyle fig2.16-17, British Museum Act, 1753, 1963. fig2.18-19, Portrait, Captain James Cook. Voyage of Capt. James Cook fig2.20-22, Aboukir-bay French-Revolutionary Wars Small 1907 Thomas_Whitcombe - The Battle of the Nile 1798, Rosetta Stone, British Museum. fig2.23-27, Natural history Museum. Reading Room, British Museum, 1857. Portrait, Sir Antonio Panizzi. Plan, British Museum, 1857. fig2.28-30, Statue of Easter Islan, Chile. Given by Queen Victoria, 1869. atural history Museum. Plan, National Gallery, 1824. Plan, Natural History Museum, 1880. fig2.31, Tutankhamun exhibition, British Museum,1972. fig2.32-35,John Rocque’s Map of London, 1746. Wallis Plan Of The Cities Of London And Westminster 1801. Cruchley’s New Plan Of London 1827. Bartholomew’s Handy Reference Atlas Of London & Suburbs 1908 fig2.36-38, Hunterian Museum 1799. Plan, Hunterian Museum, 1799. fig2.39-42, Plan, Natural History Museum, 1881. Natural History Museum, 1881. British Museum Act,1963. fig2.43-44, British Library, 1982. Reading Room, British Museum, 1853. fig2.45, London, Satellite, Google Map, 2017. fig2.46, Neil MacGregor’s talk at St Peter’s College on 03/11/2014 - Germany: Memories of a Nation.” https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ AKcffOn7mug/maxresdefault.jpg” fig3.1, Frank House, Google Map, 2017. fig3.2, DCMS settlement at the Spending Review 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dcms-settlement-at-the-spending-review-2015 fig3.3, Science Museum’s Plan at Pld Oak Common “https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_small/public/thumbnails/ image/2016/01/27/11/oldoakcommoncgi.jpg” fig3.4, V&A East, Allies and Morrison, 2016. “http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/va-s-eastern-promise-olympic-park-sitewill-be-museum-for-digital-age-a3230491.html” fig3.5-6, Map, Rail Mail. Post Office London Railway, a diagrametic drawing, 1926. fig3.7-9, Post Office London Railway as British Museum’s Storage,photographs by Nick Cunard/REX. fig3.10, Ydessa Hendeles, Partners (The Teddy Bear Project), 2002. Photo: Robert Keziere Exchibition: The Keeper, New Museum, NYC. fig3.11, World Museum, Cedric Price, 1967-68. fig4.1, Cedric Price, “Nano Museum,” 2000, curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist. “http://artfcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/smallexhibition-hans.jpg” fig4.2-3, Natural History, Pliny the Elder (26-76), Wikipedia, Logo. fig4.4, Emma Watson’s Instagram. fig4.5, Free Fall, Google Cultrue Institiure, Experiment fig4.6, A Museum Filled with Ageless Animals , La Jetée, Chris Marker, 1962.

pg // 225

Special Thanks British Museum Anthony Spence, Head of Collection Services Eleanor King, Project Coordinator: National Programmes. Brent Museum Antonia Harland-Lang, Heritage Officer, Culture Service, Community and Wellbeing, Brent Council. Horniman Museum Helen Merrett, Collections Officer. Museum Lab

Unit Master Giulia Foscari Unit Tutor Harikleia Karamali Collaborator Ekaterina Golovatyuk

Thesis Tutors

Mark Campbell Manolis Stavrakakis Francesca Hughes

pg // 226

De-Curating the Unknown

This book was produced by Linus (Chin Long) Cheng All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without written permission from the copyright holders. London 2017 Every effort has been made to trace the copyright owners of the photographs reproduced. Apologies for any omissions that may have occured.

pg // 227