We need to talk

<i>We need to talk</i> was a collaborative creative work by the feminist collective LEVEL - Rachael Haynes, Courtney Coombs, Caitlin Franzmann, Anita Holtsclaw and Courtney Pedersen. LEVEL was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) to stage this event as part of the Re-School Program. This work utilises reflexive and discursive strategies to move beyond the script of feminism as a historical moment and back to the lived experience of feminist art as political understanding and social engagement.<br />

Scanning Animafest: the 24th Animafest

Animafest&rsquo;s 24th iteration in Zagreb, Croatia brought two innovations. The Animafest Scanner Symposium and the third outdoor screening at the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU), both noted by Daniel &Scaron;uljić, the Festival director, in his introduction to the festival&rsquo;s dense and detailed catalogue. The amount of quality animation and the array of technique on display in the specialist showcases, the student and competition programs overwhelmed. So many sweets, so many bitter pills, so much technical innovation in search and in service of the human condition.

Developing a collections management policy for the Ethnology Division of the National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery of Botswana

The culture and political environments of Botswana influence the collections management policy of its' National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery. The emphasis of this research is to make the museum relevent to the needs of the local people by developing more suitable ideas. The developed policy is intended to reflect these unique needs.

Representing experience : changing audience relationships in contemporary art

By practice and research this exegesis includes the audience in the making of art, by using the responses of others that inhabit the artwork. It also establishes 'not-knowing' as a methodology to examine changing relationships to audience in contemporary visual arts.

Picturing the nation : The Celtic periphery as discursive other in the archaeological displays of the museum of Scotland

Using the archaeological displays at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, this paper examines the exhibition as a site of identity creation through the negotiations between categories of same and Other. Through an analysis of the poetics of display, the paper argues that the exhibition constructs a particular relationship between the Celtic Fringe and Scottish National identity that draws upon the historical discourses of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as a place and a time 'apart'. This will be shown to have implications for the display of archaeological material in museums but also for contemporary understandings of Scottish National identity. <br />

Defining national identity? Visiting the architectural spaces of the Museum of Scotland

National Cultures construct identities by producing meanings about the nation with which we can identify, meanings which are contained in the stories which are told about it, memories which connect its present within its past, and images which are constructed of it. A museum, the repository of a nation&rsquo;s culture, which connects the past to the present through recounting stories about the artefacts of past cultures is clearly significant in representing the culture of a nation.<br /><br />This paper explores the architectural spaces of the new Museum of Scotland, which opened in Edinburgh in November 1998. The museum has opened at a crucial time in Scottish history. The Scottish cultural renaissance is manifested in the increase in cultural production and call for Scottish cultural institutions. Parallel to this renaissance are political developments with the re-creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. When the idea of &lsquo;Scotland&rsquo; is itself in a state of flux, the stories of the nation told in the museum, which attempt to give a sense of location, a connection between the individual and the nation are especially important.<br /><br />Thus, issues of identity and &lsquo;self&rsquo; are crucially important in understanding the contemporary museum. Within this, the relations between the production of these narratives and their consumption by the public are little understood. The majority of studies have concentrated, although not exclusively, on the production of museum displays, primarily with the &quot;politics and poetics&quot; of display. This paper analyses the relationship between producer and consumer within the Museum of Scotland, attempting to reconnect the forces of production and consumption. In doing so, it focuses primarily on the differing conceptions of the ability of the Museum to be able to narrate the nation.<br /><br />Based on interviews both with museum staff and with visitors to the museum, it argues that an understanding of the relationship between the museum and Scottish national identity can only be considered through an understanding of the tension between the producers&rsquo; intentions and the way in which consumers conceptualise the museum as a space for &quot;telling the nation&quot;.

The Museum of Doubt

Is there a God? Does my bum look big in this? Why doesn&rsquo;t my house cost only the materials used to build it? Is Video Art dead? When Peter Hill curated his first Museum of Doubt exhibition at Zeppelin Projects in Brunswick, these were some of the questions his artist friends wrote on one wall of the gallery. Those artists included Jon Cattapan, Phil Edwards, Julian Goddard, Ceri Hahn, and Peter Ellis. Others, who are also in this second outing of The Museum of Doubt, include Louise Weaver, Patrick Pound, Josh Foley and Michael Vale. How do we know what is true or false in any given visual statement? How willing are we to suspend our disbelief? And does that even matter if the artworks can be enjoyed for their own formal beauty, angst, or inquisitiveness?&ldquo;I have a great sympathy with both doubt and faith as beacons for navigating this sublime universe,&rdquo; says Peter Hill. &ldquo;Remembering that the sublime in art, as in life and death, hovers between beauty and terror. Doubt and faith are both on the same side of the same coin &ndash; a coin that has &ldquo;certainty&rdquo; on the reverse. Most of the problems we face today are caused by individuals and nations being &ldquo;certain&rdquo; that they have the answer. Don&rsquo;t listen to them. Be skeptical. The truth can be approached, as Karl Popper, the great philosopher of science tells us, but it can rarely be found. It can only be falsified.&rdquo;So bring your doubt and your faith to this Wunderkammer of Super Fictions and enjoy the lightness, the darkness, and the strangeness in the works of: Glen Clarke, Josh Foley, Tony Garifalakis, Grant Hill, Peter Hill, Patrick Pound, Michael Vale, Louise Weaver and Robert Zhao.

The romanticism of contemporary theory : institution, aesthetics, nihilism

&quot;Justin Clemens presents a valuable study of the links between Romanticism and contemporary theory. The central contention of this book is that contemporary theory is still essentially Romantic - despite all its declarations to the contrary, and despite all its attempts to elude or exceed the limits bequeathed it by Romantic thought.&quot; &quot;This study will be of interest to literary theorists, philosophers, political theorists, and cultural studies scholars.&quot;--BOOK JACKET.<br />