A way of seeing...

Museums give a person a heighten sense of awareness of what can be represented. Many Americans have access to endless information and photos online but a photo with text on a computer doesn’t do justice in comparison to a museum exhibit. For example, pottery designs made by the Native Americans; stuffed endangered animals; or dinosaur fossils. Museums can change the way one sees an object. It’s something about the actual object that gives one a deeper insight, seeing the item to scale, so to speak. Sometimes even the smell of a museum sets one in the mood to learn and desire a deeper understanding of what’s on display. Some of my favorite museums are dinosaur museums. To be next to the actual fossilized bones of an animal that once lived and dominated the planet long before humans is a feeling of ah and wonder. In addition, that brings up a point that museums, in many cases, display objects removed from their original context. Going back to the Native American pottery designs, we don’t see how the object was used or made. The object sits there behind glass or a roped off area with a tag that states what it is and what it may have been used for. One must still have an imagination in order to see the full picture and sometimes creating that image by use the museum’s exhibit. Museums may set the exhibit as a way they want one to feel when one sees an object. For example, in the Connor museum most of the animals on display are stuffed and mounted in lifelike poses. The majority of people that see this exhibit many never be close to the living animal, for this reason, viewers want to see objects lifelike and not road kill. Museums provide an experience beyond an online photo with text, which may not be true in its context, but it may be safe and more cost effective than traveling to the other side of the world, for example, to see a live tiger in its actual habitat.

Spiral Jetty

Does Spiral Jetty make the Great Salt Lake a Museum?

No. In Susan M. Pearce’s book, Museums, Objects and Collection: A Cultural Study, “a museum is an institution which collects, document, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit”(Pearce, page 2). Spiral Jetty is, more or less, a point of interest for public viewing, much like the clock tower on Bryan Hall at Washington State University. Both things are human made but neither make its location a museum. If one could move Spiral Jetty to a location in a building, or area, outside its original location the building might be considered a museum. One could take pictures of Spiral Jetty and display the photos in an art gallery, or even a museum of art. Utah could name the site as a point of interest. I think it would be interesting to see the changes made naturally by the salt water and weather over a period of time. In this case, someone would take photos of the work of art over time. If Spiral Jetty were to be maintained or altered in anyway the artist should be notified. If the artist is deceased, only by private donation and the vote of locate officials should there be any changes made to the art piece. Again, Spiral Jetty could be listed as a point of interest so people all around can see its beauty, and also to protect it from destruction or alterations of any kind. Once more, Spiral Jetty does not make Salt Lake a museum.