This eBook is part of the TREeBOOK Gallery Collection. It was created in 2009 during the Master of Science at the University of Lugano inspired on an article by Professor Anna Lisa Tota. All rights reserved by the artists. Feel free to share this eBook. To contact TREeBOOK Gallery please write to bia@freeyourideas.net TREeBOOK Gallery is supported by Free Your Ideas. www.freeyourideas.net.
Otherness or alterity is the philosophical principle of exchanging one's own perspective for that of “theOther�.
The concept of “otherness� is crucial for museums because it directly affects their role as institutional forms of cultural mediation and their commitment to represent differences.
Occidental cultures tend to consider “theOther� as someone different from me and it is the first step to justify war because if there is another one different from me it could be dangerous...
If I consider “theOther� just like me and not a different and dangerous one I will not make war against myself.
According to the Human Web Theory, everybody is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth, so between all of us there are just six degree of separation.
So “theOther” is at most six steps away from me. It means that “theOther” is not so different from me.
We are all different but at the same time we are almost the same. No culture is any better or any worse than another. They are simply different.
Each culture is a precious piece in a giant puzzle of human beings: the planet Earth.
Once museums understand this, instead of merely interpret “theOther�, they begin to promote these very cultural differences as a way to know ourselves.
So to meet “theOther” is to have the idea of infinity.
Is “theOther” the other or is “theOther” myself? “TheOther” is someone else who is not me, so “theOther” is different from me. If I consider myself as the referential, “theOther” is really the other.
But if I consider “theOther”, the different from me, as the referential, then “theOther”, the different is myself.
The concept of “theOther” is also a point of view that is always changing. This changing of referential is the main characteristic in “net societies” like ours.
The ability to change and to consider other points of view is strategic. Being able to change referential is becoming a kind of commodity for human beings.
Museums must understand the net society to be able to represent “theOther�, otherness and other cultures.
For museums, “differences� are raw material because cultures are based on differences.
The truth is just a point of view.
The interpretation of cultural differences is the daily work of museums even if they think it's to protect objects.
Museums interpret different cultures every time they show or exhibit objects and things.
We often and automatically tend to consider the museums's point of view as “the truth�. But it's not.
When a museum is exhibiting it is speaking about something from its partial point of view.
A museum exhibition is a planned communication, a message, from people (author, curator and director of the museum) to other people (visitors, audience).
Accept the museum's point of view as the only way to interpret something is to delegate our ability to think and to build our own interpretation about the truth.
In this sense, “theOther� is like a bridge to know myself.
Free Your Ideas www.freeyourideas.net
created and produced by Bia Simonassi images by Peggie Wolfe (wolfepaw / deviantart) text by Bia Simonassi inspired on Anna Lisa Tota, Tiziano Terzani and Emmanuel Levinas thinking revised by William Johnston promoted by Free Your Ideas www.freeyourideas.net
This eBook is part of the TREeBOOK Gallery Collection. It was created during the Master of Science Technology Enhanced Communication for Cultural Heritage, University of Lugano, Switzerland 2010. To contact TREeBOOK please write to bia@freeyourideas.net TREeBOOK is supported by Free Your Ideas. www.freeyourideas.net. All rights reserved by the artists. Feel free to share this eBook.
Free Your Ideas www.freeyourideas.net
Created and Produced by Bia Simonassi Inspired on Anna Lisa Tota, Tiziano Terzani and Emmanuel Levinas thinking Revised by William Johnston Images by Peggie Wolfe at Deviantart.com Promoted by FreeYourIdeas.net Find more at TreeBookGallery.blogspot.com
This eBook is part of the TREeBOOK Gallery Collection. It was created in 2009 during the Master of Science at the University of Lugano inspired on an article by Professor Anna Lisa Tota. All rights reserved by the artists. Feel free to share this eBook. To contact TREeBOOK Gallery please write to bia@freeyourideas.net TREeBOOK Gallery is supported by Free Your Ideas. www.freeyourideas.net.
De Luxe Edition Bia Simonassi Switzerland 2010