At has always been stored and preserved in museums, especially today to educate and entertain the major public however, there have been some critical issues with the display case of the ancient works argues Joan Brahman. Brahman states in her article “Sacrality and Aura in the Museum: Mute Objects and Articulate Space,” that when curators take ancient artifacts out of context the original meaning and function of the piece are nullified. For example, she quotes from Philip Fisher, “’Take the crucifix out of the cathedral and you take the cathedral out of the crucifix,’” (p. 35) meaning if you take out the main intentions and historical context of an artifact, it no longer is what it originally was supposed to be just as the analogy suggests, a cathedral without a crucifix is no longer a cathedral.
Her thesis includes why taking ancient, historical artifacts out of context is problematic and then included specific examples of different museums which have demonstrated this issue, such as the Rockefeller Museum, the Walters Art Gallery, and
…show more content…
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In the Rockefeller Museum she mentioned the “soreg” (p. 36) which was an artifact to warn against the “impure” Jews from entering into the sacred temple or they shall face a painful death. She explains how it was taken from the mountains from where it was once guarding the sacred area but now it sits in the corner of a museum and lost its purpose and function, no longer protecting anything. The Walters Art Gallery located in Baltimore had the possession of the art piece named “Holy Image, Holy Space: Icons and Frescoes from Greece” (p. 39) which was a sacred piece used as an icon for worship. She claimed that taking it out of the environment it was originally in no longer holds the spiritual feeling it once held. Not only that but certain paintings and artifacts only created a spiritual feeling when in a certain environment or certain spoken words or gestures for prayer to create the effect it originally was meant to produce. The final museum she mentions is the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She argues that the museum fails to educate and is solely based on emotion and shock factor but doesn’t include who the Jews were and what they believed in. Instead they made it in a way to associate all Jews with the holocaust rather than showing all aspects such as their culture at the time and their beliefs and what made the Jews, Jews at that time. Although Brahman’s argument is sound, it is heavily biased and opinionated because she failed to properly address the other side of the argument.
Another issue that promotes bias is that the author tends to be very repetitive and continues to stretch out the issue more than it should be. The points she make are valid but because she continues to talk about the same issue for extended periods of time, not only does this create bias to leaning one side, but it also loses the readers’ interest in the article. The fact that the author did expand on each issue for a long duration may imply the strong feelings she had for the issue at hand. But it is not the authors place to bring personal feelings into an article like this. In order to inform the reader of the issue and the take on the problem the author must provide both sides in an unbiased manner and then pick which side the author prefers and what the issue is with each
technique. This article is relevant to our class discussion because, history and context of artwork is important to learn from history and how the artwork affected society at that time. However, if the art was placed out of context with very little information on the subject then a different meaning emerges from the piece and the original is eventually lost. Another connection that can be drawn is that it somewhat symbolizes a type of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm, as discussed, is a type of destruction of art. Even though the decontextualization of art isn’t true iconoclasm, it is in a way loss of history when the general public no longer knows the true history and context between art pieces. Overall, Brahman’s claim is well thought out and makes a valid point; art pieces shouldn’t be decontextualized and alienated from its context. However, the idea of comparing pieces from different time frames and different cultures is an interesting idea. Even though Brahman bashes it, it may be a good concept to ponder upon; however this can only be successful if the viewer has prior knowledge of the historical background and context of each piece to truly compare the artifacts and to create new ideas and boundaries. It may shed more light onto similarities and differences between the cultures. The only true way this can be successful is to bring the historical context and the environment of both cultures and information for each artifact to truly give the effect. What made Brahman’s article interesting was that she also formatted her article to mismatch the images from the written context to further demonstrate that not only is it inconvenient but also confusing for the reader to follow along with, similarly how it is in museums where there are multiple misarranged art pieces which have no correlation to each other.
In the Stossel video about media being bias Goldberg talk how the media is filter through group think and how that affect how the news is delivered. Goldberg states that groupthink filters a way of thinking that makes everyone think the same way and therefore bias occurs when the new is delivered to the public.(Dealing With Bias) Bernard Goldberg claim can be trusted because he is the author to the number one seller called Bias A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort The News. Goldberg continues on how the media and most of the people in mainstream media change and show only what they want to to the viewers. The workers and news believe they are informing the public with truths but in reality it has bias in it. When the majority agrees or believes a certain way the rest adapts and starts think the same way as everyone else around them. Therefore bias occurs and the news being more and more bias. Also they talk about in the video how the media is bias not because of conspiracy but because of people thinking a certain way and as a result news deliver bias information. Political and other news like politics are greatly bias due to media wanting to portray a way of thinking and agreeing with the same belief as the majority in the big corporations. Media wants to make the viewer agree with the views on politics and make it seem like bias does not occur in mainstream
Imagine that one piece of history that is taken from a town. This piece of history tells l people how this town was built and all the important people that were apart of the community. “Returning Antiquities to Their Countries of Origin” by Joyce Mortimer can many people about how objects are getting taken from Museums. They should be returned immediately. There are so many artifacts out there that could be so important to people, and if someone can just imagine what it would feel to have one of the most important object taken from a museum and to be never returned again. Many people enjoy seeing these objects so why are they being taken?
“The old argument that the networks and other ‘media elites’ have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it’s hardly worth discussing anymore…No we don’t sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we’re going to slant the news. We don’t have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.” (Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News) This example is tremendously important in the author’s discussion because it proves that news stories do manipulate people through bias. Popular news networks are viewed by thousands of people every single day, thus making it have a huge impact on the public since they believe what they see. When news reporters present their news segments, it is natural for them to give their insights due to human nature being instinctively biased. “The news media is [sic] only objective if they report something you agree with… Then they’re objective. Otherwise they’re biased if you don’t agree, you know.” (CNN’s American Morning) In this quote, the readers are presented to current panelists agreeing that news consumers have a very hard time separating their own view of the news from the perspective of the news reporters because they are presenting their own opinions throughout their segments. This problem exists once again because of the bias that is contained in media
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves
Many works of art can be considered artifacts that hold volumes of information regarding the culture of the people that created them and the historical context in which they lived.
There is always going to be the opposing side to the writers ideas and presenting this opposition could either hurt or harm the article. This time, Balko’s team won the race. Balko’s presence of the opposition helped his argument more so than harmed it. The opposition is stated when he says, “President Bush marked $200 million in his budget for anti-obesity measures. State legislatures and school boards across the country have begun banning snacks and soda from campuses and vending machine.” (396) While reading that statistic I thought, “How Awful!”. By stating the opposition it makes the reader wonder, “Who should really take the blame?” This helps enforce the writers argument it doesn 't harm it all. It actually attracts the reader to the position of Balko’s argument due to strong and effective statistics. In contrast, Zinczenko’s article does the complete opposite when he says, “Kids taking on McDonald’s this week, suing the company for making them fat. Isn 't that like middle-aged men suing Porshe for making them get speeding tickets? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?” (391) The writers opposition actually sounds more effective than his initial argument and that should never happen. The writer would 've been better off not stating the existence of the opposition at all. The opposition didn 't help enforce the side of the writer it only made it look less appealing. It leads the reader to
But, personal experience can shadow a reader’s judgment on the article. For example: my sister’s boyfriend lives in the U.S. and he does not have a social security number. He travels to different states working and picking corn among several other difficult jobs. He would like to buy a car, but the group travels too much and he would have no one to sign off on it. He is doing his best to provide for his family. If he were to read this article, he would understand it on another level. He would understand the long hours, not being able to talk back, and haunted by the thought that his employer can crush his dream with just two words, “You’re fired.” However, there is no bias because the writer avoids the expression of her personal opinion. Taking a stab in the dark, I would say that since the writer’s name is hyphenated, it can be assumed that the writer’s spouse may be Mexican or of Hispanic descent. A personal anecdote from Gomberg-Muñoz would have done wonders for her writing and would have definitely helped the audience better understand the perspective of immigrants. This would have been possible because she can better communicate her story or her husband’s story in respect to her extensive background in writing. But, she does not use this to her advantage. Instead, the writer just sticks to being the narrator and
For years on end, countries have been fighting with big museums from other countries for ancient artifacts that belong to the original countries. The argument of whether or not the museums should be able to keep them still remains. It is the right of the country to have their own artifacts. It is imperative for countries to be able showcase their historical artifacts, therefor museums should return them to their rightful owners.
Baxandall, Michael. "Exhibiting intention: Some preconditions of the visual display of culturally purposeful objects." Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display (1991): 33-41.
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
Through some of these artifacts, we can see how the christian spiritual world has been shaped, leaving a great affect for the cuter generations who build off of it. and it is through Museums can future generations grow from the foot steps of the tools of our ancestors to help promote our future. Museums are also known to captivate the minds of many with the wonders of the ancient world all there to be seen and learned about. The Dunham Bible Museum accomplishes that task of offering knowledge to those who seek it through the rare and amazing pieces of history.
In the essay, “At the Buffalo Bill Museum, June 1988”, by Jane Tompkins, the author describes her trip to the museum and her perspective on the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. In her essay, she expresses her thought of the museum as, “the most disturbing places I have ever visited. It is also a wonderful place” (588). In the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, she admires the beauty, details, and veracity of paintings. However, she feels arts are not respected in there, for their meanings are altered. As Tompkins claims, “someone had taken the trouble to ferret out Remington’s statement of horror” (588). Moreover, she perceived, “Remington’s paintings and statues … are imperialist and racist” (590). In the Buffalo Bill Museum, there is no sign
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
Andrea Fraser saw what others could not see; she brings into light concepts and situations that cannot be seen with the bare eye, or institutional wrongs that noone dares to point out. For example, have you ever thought of the relationship between a jail and a museum? What about the blurred line between art and prostitution?
4. What are the weaknesses of the author’s argument? For example, do you see any unstated assumptions or biases in the article? Is this a limitation to the author’s credibility? Why or why not?