7 . MM-U at Museum of History of Ukraine , 2015 , Kyiv . Photo by Clémentine Deliss
future . The organ , removed from its pulsating environment , becomes the testimonial that will lead to the enactment of human agency . Collections are also ominous vital organs for future knowledge . Their value lies in their mediatory potential and their diversity . While collections may denote the nomenclature of a given museum ( art , natural science , anthropology , etc .), their semiotic and semantic potential exceeds this .
Academic iconoclasm incorporates a diagnostic , ergonomic , and agonistic stance . The diagnostic is the subject ’ s alertness to changing conditions , the ergonomic speaks of the awareness of the subject ’ s body , and the agonistic refers to the subject ’ s mood of engagement and critique . Aspects of counter-conduct can be read in how we deploy ourselves in the museum and how we are made to engage with existing curatorial models , and their underpinnings in the canons and industries of arthistory , ethnology , or the sciences . Counter-conduct also incorporates the subjective , the unfinished , the diffuse , and the desire to stimulate another
kind of focus , in our case , on what can be done with historical collections , how they impact on different people ’ s lives , and how we can coax ( or coerce ) museums into becoming agents of inclusive transdisciplinary knowledge production for future generations . The democratic intellect is embedded within this process . It positions itself against specialisms .
Perhaps the questions we are looking for will come up once we have brought sufficient contentious materials together in both a prophylactic and iconoclastic manner . With contention , there is something that is both unclassifiable and which shouldn ’ t be spoken or shown . And this goes to the heart of the colonial problem , the “ nefandum ”. overview
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