TED's talk: Weaving narratives in museum galleries by Thomas P. Campbell, director MET

I have been watching some TED's talks that develop the notion of narration and came across this one about interpretation  and constructing narratives in the museum, by MET's director, Thomas P. Campbell.  One of the interesting quotes was about the encounter between visitors and real objets in the museum:

“Bringing people face to face with [museum] objects is a way of bringing them face to face with people across time, across space, whose lives may have been very different to our own.” 

"As the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas P. Campbell thinks deeply about curating—not just selecting art objects, but placing them in a setting where the public can learn their stories. With glorious images, he shows how his curation philosophy works for displaying .....  (from TED's website)

Use of audiovisuals at the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

Review visits to museums after a prolongued period of time is a good exercise for refletion, photographs and videos are the main source for helping the memory to remember and reproduce the experience of the visit.

exterior of the museum

In the post "Indian Jewelry" exhibtion in Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (NL) from last  January, I offered the immediate review of my visit to the temporary exhibit within the museum.  Months after looking ofr some images that would illustrate the use of audioviduals in museums, I have rescued these images from the main rooms of the museum that at that moment were the only ones in the main building showing part of the collection.

one of the entrances to the museum

Other rooms were in renovation.  I am keeping here in the images the sensation of ceremonial darkness that surrounded me during the visit, as well as the blue colored atmosphere that all use of audivovisuals projected in the rooms.

The huge wall-to-wall and panoramic video projections dominate the mise-en-scene and are the most powerful tools used in the display

and serve as an evolving background to the objects in glass cabinets that reflect in different directions the images and the darkness does not prevent from enjoying the beauty of artifacts showed.

Bright colors are used for the labels and panels with texts

And small screens in front of cabinets are used for texts or more audiovisuals,

  

This image from the post Museum Volkenkunde Leiden - collection of hats, shows also the effect produced by the low lights.



All in all, the scenography chosen was powerful and succesful.