The museum message: between the document and information
Ivo Maroevi􀃼
 
 
Introduction: cultural heritage
 
Cultural heritage, materialized in the surrounding world, is one of the elements linking past and present in a given space. Cultural heritage establishes very close links with the space it lives in, so its cultural qualification is the result of various social processes through which it has acquired the designation `cultural'. Culture is, among other things, `the ability of a community to recognize, identify and produce symbols in identical ways' (Tu􀃿man 1983:137). Symbolic values obtained by objects of cultural heritage were established in the past and transferred to the new times; then new forms of life and meanings were created in a society which took old values and transformed them. Culture and the meaning of cultural heritage originated in a social environment, and their symbolic and other values accumulated in the material world that surrounds us. In that sense, the material world with its physical substance and the way it is shaped carries over all the layers of meaning deposited through time, many of which are illegible or incomprehensible because the cultural contexts of the objects' life have been changed.
Cultural heritage in space is considerably more stable in that sense, because it does not change its environment, but it has been changing together with the environment, and so part of the meaning is transferred to the space. Resistance and the long duration of communications in space or the existence of toponyms, the continuity of sacral spaces and their titulars are but examples which confirm that in space the continuity of material forms is not very often crucial or decisive for the continuity of symbolic values. The continuity of material forms is often covered by shells of new forms or functions. On the other hand, movable cultural heritage, including museum objects, has different characteristics. Here the stability is not so much linked with the given space, but rather with the material structure of objects. An object carries its symbolic and other semantic values within its structure, and the context of a new environment enables it to state these values or to have them settle as part of its own history, and reveal them to all those able to understand them.
 
24 BETWEEN THE DOCUMENT AND INFORMATION
 
Museum object
The museum object is an object of reality, a part of the movable cultural heritage. Transferred to the museum, the object becomes a document of that reality from which it was selected (Stransky 1970:35). Thereby it becomes a document of those realities in which it lived earlier, but in a way which is not obvious or intelligible at first sight but only after closer study. The study shows the multiple layers of the museum object and its multilayered identities ranging from the conceptual, through the factual, the functional and the structural, to the actual identity (van Mensch 1989:90). This multitlayered nature of meanings and symbolic values, which can be identified in the study of the museum object, constantly changes the field of its museal definiteness. The object can then be used to convey these multilayered values and meanings. The museality of a museum object as its basic museological determinant is increased by the widening of the field of its museal definiteness (see Figure 3.1). Delibas ic says that
 
in the process of the establishing of the meaning of a museum object the essential factor appears to be the individual and collective experience^1/4as well as the relationship with other objects and with the space where the object is placed.
(Delibas ic 1991:34)
 
This brings us to the conclusion that `by establishing a number of different meanings of the same sign, the prejudice that museum objects can contain within themselves the objective truth of the extra semiotic universe is proved invalid' (Delibas ic 1991:34). Though Delibas ic does not consider the existence of a communication pattern to be a framework for communication, he rightly claims that the significance of a museum object and its objectivity in reflecting reality are relative phenomena. The museum thus never ceases to be a medium which uses objects as signs.
 
Document
When we speak about a museum object and its value as a document, it must be clear that in a museological context the object reflects one or several manifestations of its changeable primary context or, less frequently, of the archaeological context in which it appears as a discarded or socially used-up artefact. The documentary value of a museum object is manifested only in the museological context, while the subject-matter of the documenting process can be found either in other contexts or in the identities of a museum object or in the museological context itself. The documentary value of a museum object is expressed on the temporal axis, because during its lifetime the object accumulates the traces of time and events on its material and formal structure. At the same time, by its material structure and form it transfers the preserved values into the future. The continuation of the material structure as an expression of the documentary value of the object is shown on the axis of chronological time (see Figure 3.2).
A museum collection is a multilayered set of museum objects. Most frequently, it acts as a unit composed of individual objects, so that it accumulates and transfers the documentary value of museum objects to a higher level. The collection is not a mere sum of museum objects, because by its very nature it may be enlarged or perhaps reduced in scope. It is a live organism, which in certain situations, when precisely defined subject-matter or related cultural and historical milieux are concerned, could play the role of a museum object, which viewed as a whole has the meaning and value of a document. In that case, the documentary values of the individual objects are accumulated together with the value of the collection as a whole.
 
The documentation processes evolving in museums are integrated with the other processes which contribute to establishing the documentary values of museum objects or collections. The perceived read-off values of the objects as documents are transferred to other media and so the documentary layer of the museum object is modified in media terms. The data on an object, its appearance and structure, its history and environment, its meaning and specificity are transferred to the medium of a text, a paper, an illustration, a film or a magnetic record. Thus documents on a museum object are established. They provide knowledge about the object, including its perceived characteristics and values in certain information and documentation systems. These systems will be able to operate and function independently of objects and museums, preserving part of the social consciousness about the object and its values, and contributing to the stabilization of knowledge about the heritage in museums and galleries. The documents cannot be substitutes
for the museum object, but they can give us a definite notion about it. The wider the general knowledge about the object, the better our understanding of it.
 
Information
Information is a fundamental element of knowledge. It lives and is actualized as a result of communication processes between individuals and the world around them. It is not identical with the document (or object as document), because it is not a copy of the document (Tudman 1983:47±9). It contains both the perceived characteristics of the object and its interpretation. However, recorded information or data, i.e. sets of data, are inbuilt in human knowledge. In the museum world, especially in museological processes, information originates from various forms of communication between individual and object, the information being the articulation of what has been noticed or experienced during the communication process. This means that the information in museums is always revived, because with time conditions change as well as the people involved in communication processes with museum objects. It is therefore to be expected that information should appear on the axis of society just as the document appears on the axis of
time (see Figure 3.2). Information, by its non-material quality, establishes a relationship between the object as a document and the society in which it is actualised. It makes its way into society and is the result of specific social relations.
 
Scientific and cultural information
The museum object and the collection are the sources of two kinds of information, scientific and cultural. In simple terms, the main scientific disciplines in museums (such as art history, archaeology, anthropology, ethnology or natural and technical sciences) deal with the consolidation of scientific (selective) information, while museology deals with the consolidation of cultural (structural) information. If information is the reaction of a user to the content of a message, then scientific information is more precise, and it tends towards greater objectivity and stricter verification. It is analytical because it proceeds from the user towards reality and discovers natural laws of regulation within the object. These laws are dealt with and regulated by the basic scientific disciplines. Together with ethical neutrality, the criterion of truth is of foremost significance for scientific information. Cultural or structural information has no strictly defined subject-matter. It is contained within the object and its meaning is determined by the context, by the physical or social environment. Cultural information is synthetic because it proceeds from reality towards the user. It discovers secondary meanings in the object such as value, importance, meaning or necessity. Cultural messages are those which produce cultural information structured on particular evaluation systems (ethical, aesthetic or political). It is difficult to format cultural information although it can be recorded and stored in an IN-DOC system (Tudman 1983). Using this distinction between cultural information and cultural messages, we see that museology deals with cultural information, because it examines the reaction of the individual or society to museum messages or investigates the meaning of museum objects within a certain social or cultural context. It does not bring into question the truth of any scientific information. By interpreting this information, museology opens up new worlds of meaning in which even ideological manipulation is not excluded.
Scientific information is in a way selective as it can be formatted in accordance with precisely defined categories of data. It is possible to define the field of interest of such information and then to check it by applying formalized rules. The quantities of such information increase exponentially. Selective information does not allow subjective choice, but rather diminishes the amount of relevant information necessary for a particular purpose. Cultural information is of a structural type in that it enables the user to structure the fields of the subject-matter of the documents on the basis of experience if and when required. Whatever criteria the user requires are allowed for but it is difficult to format this information in such a way that it can be easily retrieved. Attempts are made to establish a relationship between structural and selective information in museum documentation systems, although by its nature this information resists consistent classifications between structural and selective systems.
The museum is a museological institution in which museum messages are created.
One of the main museological determinants of the museum is that it represents a medium for transmitting certain messages and ideas. The medium could be defined as a manifold set of simultaneously used channels in which a system of signs is realized. The museum is, therefore, filled with signs or systems of signs, which are at the disposal of those who know how to interpret them.
(Delibas ic 1991:28)
At the same time, Delibas ic states that research in the museum could be carried out along two different lines. The first deals with the exhibition as the real form of the museum message, the second with the study of the structure of the museum message (Delibas ic 1991:28). A long time ago J.Glusberg said that `the museum was a sign which contained in itself other signs' (Glusberg 1983: 27) and so he linked museology with semiology, considering the museum as being practically identical to the message.
 
Museum message
The museum message is a means by which the museum communicates the information contained in its collective resources and stimulates the production of new information within the museological context. The authentic museum message is expressed by the form of the object and it occurs within the given context, i.e. on the space axis. The first two axes, time and society, have already been explained: the time axis reflects the material quality of the object as a document, while the meaning of the object and the information derived from it are reflected on the axis of society (see Figure 3.2). Time and society are joined in space. The time, space and society axes determine museology as a symbolic activity defined by the sequential relation between the symbolic system of museality and the system of symbolic objects, i.e. museum objects (Tu􀃿man 1990:142). Only by the production of the museum message is the symbolic activity of museology manifested in the world around us. In other words, the full interrelationship between museum objects and the museality which they carry within them is expressed in space, especially at an exhibition. Thus museality enables the objects to express and convey various messages. At the same time, the new meanings of museality are stated through the relationship between the object and the space, with the active assistance of the audience. Museality exists and is always rediscovered in the numerous communication processes between the visitor and the cultural heritage.
The exhibition is a typical museum medium for expressing the museum message, though exhibitions may be set up outside museums and are not the only form used for expressing the museum message. It should be noted that there is a distinction between the museum and the museological message. The museum message is formulated and expressed within the museum as the most common form of a museological institution, therefore it is connected to the museum as a system. The museological message implies the formulation of messages of heritage as a cultural phenomenon. The interpreted or spontaneous message of an archaeological site, a ruin, a historic building or a historic town, produced by using museographical aids and appliances, has the meaning of a museological message as well as of the message created in the museum. The museological message is an organized one resulting from the interpretation or the statement of the values of the material objects' world of heri tage.
 
Exhibition
An exhibition is an event where society and time meet and link in a defined space. Chronological time is transformed into communication time in the exhibition which thus becomes a closed system. Various heritage objects represent different chronological or historical times available at close quarters in the ambience of an exhibition reality. Thus completely new relations are established. Historical time has been changed into communication time due to the heritage objects which are documents of a past time and past events. At the same time they enable communication with the past in the present. Independent of the amount of knowledge and information existing on one side, and the objects as documents being inbuilt in the exhibition as a system on the other, they behave like an integrated entity. The museum message of the exhibition is realized only in the communication time and `availability' of the exhibition to the audience. It is expressed by means of museum objects as documents and by organized representation of the scientific and partly cultural information. This information results from the earlier accumulated knowledge of the author of the exhibition and of the broader environment so that the exhibition is placed within a communication pattern. The exhibition thus becomes a creative act in which its space or ambience, the objects and knowledge of them are joined in a unique system, the final intention of which is to communicate defined messages and to discover new forms of museality of objects or groups of objects. Another aim is to enrich human knowledge and cultural awareness. Some authors make the act of creating an exhibition look like an artistic act. They consider the exhibition to be a specific work of art (Sola 1992).
From a semiological standpoint the exhibition fits with the chain of the communication process. In his linguistic analysis D. suggests that the chain has six elements. On one side of the chain there is an emitter, on the other side a receiver. They are human beings who, individually or as a group, participate in the process. The emitter chooses the message from the common system and realizes it through a channel. The channel represents matter by which communication is transferred and it is necessary for both the emitter and the receiver to be acquainted with the organization of the channel. At an exhibition the museum objects and the museographical aids are the channel. The realized message always relates to a certain context which is copied into signs within a semiotic system (Delibas ic 1991:16; 1985:21). In the museological context this refers to the relation between museum objects and reality, or to the communication pattern in a wider sense which is defined by the ambience of the social environment in which the exhibition takes place. People as social beings have been closely connected with their physical environment. They are influenced by the experience of the social environment in which the exhibition takes place, as well as by the tradition, the culture and all other relevant social relations. The creation of the policy for museum exhibition politics becomes an extremely important factor in this context. Here the museum retains a certain independence from the social environment, as is obvious in the selection of exhibition themes or the definition of the dimension or content of particular exhibitions connected with the two basic motives of any exhibition, the social and the educational element of communication (Maroevic 1991:77, 78).
The individual creates the exhibition, emits the museum message and interprets the selected museum material. He/she articulates the exhibition space and contextualizes the museum reality. From the collective resources and from the world around us he/she selects objects as the carriers of museality according to the criteria of scientific truth and social importance, at the same time discovering common elements of knowledge concerning the objects selected for the theme of the exhibition. The exhibition is also designed by establishing relations among museum objects, and making them more readable with museographical aids and appliances. So the museum message is formulated through the conscious creative intention of the exhibition author. Nevertheless, the message reaches the visitor partly transformed by the numerous possible communication processes taking place between the museum objects and people. Beginning with the entire basic content and on to the specific features of particular details, the message depends on the levels of the social context of the environment in which the exhibition is installed.
 
E-T-Ac-S-A complex
If we try to elaborate this question, then we shall see that we can apply Tez ak's E-T-Ac-S-A complex model to it (Tudman 1983:196) (see Figure 3.3). Each exhibition contains a tension between emission and absorption. Creators of the exhibition who prepared the emission formulate the message and the goals of the exhibition, transmitting their own experience to their target audience. The exhibition as communication is by this fact limited to the public it is intended for. The larger the conception of the exhibition the wider the public intended, the more noise there is in the communication channel. The noise can be removed by such a conception of the communication appliance as will enable more versatile links on various levels. The public, who are in the absorption role, receive only what has been emitted; part of the audience receives perhaps insufficiently articulated messages that may emerge at the exhibition, messages which have been created by the context of the exhibition or by the capacity to understand, which depends on each individual visitor. In other words, in the exhibition everybody can find some special interest or special message, regardless of the intentions of the creator of the exhibition. The museum message therefore can be both an intentional target and a spontaneous one, the result of the receiver's individual inc linations.
What is meant by transmission, accumulation and selection, the basis of Tez ak's double pyramid model, the tops being emission and absorption? Accumulation is understood as the collecting of the relevant material for the exhibition. It has to support emission, because selection can be made only from the accumulated museum material, sorted and ordered in view of a possible message to be emitted.
The selection is a creative choice in which the goal of the exhibition becomes the dominant selection factor. Selecting objects for the exhibition we shall again confront scientific and cultural information systems and criteria. In the museum exhibition these two criteria are equal. The basic scientific background of the material (from the standpoint of the basic scientific discipline) is a conditio sine qua non, while the cultural component in a subjective interpretation, which depends on a set of elements of cultural evaluation of the museum activity in the environment concerned, is the factor which corrects the scientific requirement for an unambiguous interpretation. The selection procedure aims primarily to explain itself, and forms of communication will depend on how it does so. Finally, the transmission will respond to how the selection was made and it will do so by a series of museographical aids and means facilitating transmission of a complex message by the selected objects. The object, being a document, should play its role in the message, that of cumulative and individual information carrier. The object is a carrier and transmitter both of a common message and also of individual messages which will be disclosed only to those qualified or trained to receive them. The transmission will not deal with how the individual messages are formulated and transmitted. It will be an effort to encourage a statement (expression) of knowledge being originated at the exhibition. The statement should be clear but not predictable in all its elements. At the same time the transmission should be organized so as to explain the representation of knowledge by means of figurative, textual or multimedia instruments. The transmission should also be complementary to the museum objects and assist in their explanation of the target message.
 
Communication pattern
The exhibition is an event which is limited in time. It is also a space where the message is created and transmitted by the objects-documents and the information which they carry. The information has been actualized partly at the exhibition and partly during its preparation. It is then represented at the same exhibition as part of human knowledge. Can the exhibition become a set communication format? A communication format in a narrower sense is that for exchanging data. It is used to standardize the extent, number and quality of data in documentation centres and databases so as to ensure exchange of selective information. The exhibition is a more complex organism where the communication formats of particular elements can be noticed. For instance we can speak about the format of a caption or description of an object, about the format of catalogue data, or in a wider sense about the communication format of a synopsis or a scenario of the exhibition even if it does not serve a direct exchange of information. In its final form the exhibition surpasses the framework of a communication format and is transformed into a communication pattern. This follows from the fact that
the relationship between the creators, the information and the users (i.e. the creators, the cultural heritage and the audience) is defined by the communication pattern¼. [It] is the measure and the model of understanding between the creators (emitters) and the users. It is a model which will be established by means of information as projection; it makes the common basis which provides the meaning and facilitates the function of information in society.
(Tudman 1983:173)
This means that the museum exhibition as a communication pattern of the museum message has united several factors whose parameters are changeable in relation to time and society. At different times and in different social relations the same museum material can therefore emit different museum messages and create different communication patterns of understanding by individual subjective creative acts. We must not forget the influence of different social spaces within which the different information `topias' (from the Greek topos) have been developed. The museum exhibition as a communication pattern is brought about by the formal `topia' of the information space represented by the museum as an institution. Consequently, the museum environment and the context influence the understanding of the message. The communication effect is not the same if the exhibition is organized in a museum or the town square, the street or at a cafe. An informal information `topia' in the town creates a level of socio-cultural integration other than the museum with its own status and cultural meaning. Each subculture, culture or social community has its own ways of thinking which determine the rules within the communication pattern. Many different things are to be perceived in that context: the museological communications of particular objects, zones or the ambience of cultural heritage in space. Integrated in the various information `topias' they contribute to the humanization of life and to the permeation of consciousness by messages about the historical space around us emitted by the heritage. Though they are not museum exhibitions, they are nevertheless forms of museological interpretation of the heritage, which directly influence the (re)presentation of historical reality.
All the specific features of communication within a particular communication pattern determine the variety of extents to which the field defining museum objects of the heritage (i.e. museal definiteness) can spread. The layers of meaning of museum objects are extended, their museality is enriched and their information content expanded as well. Information about things and their mutual relationship is thus accumulated outside temporal relations. The information is a result of
communication processes and messages received from various communication patterns.
The museum message is a concrete and actualized form of the content of a museum exhibition of any kind. The exhibition is an action which functions as a communication pattern with several messages composed as a logical unit. The character of the exhibition determines the specific structure of the messages and their forms. The museum message does not appear autonomously outside the document or the information because it is both information as a social fact (being actualized in society) and document as a material fact (Tudman 1983:108). This means that the museum message is based on those material objects selected as documents of a certain phenomenon. The product of the message is the information received and stored by those who visit the exhibition in order to participate in the communication. The objects functioning as documents belong to the inventory of the material culture. The information resulting from a communicated and actualized message belongs to the sphere of knowledge or non-material culture. This culture materializes in documentation (records, books, audiovisual means, etc.). The transformation of a document into knowledge, in order to be documented again, is performed by means of the communication patterns which reflect the phenomena of the social reality in which the communication takes place. Each society and every environment in which exhibitions take place, and where the museum message is formulated, is different and results in different information. Only the material side of the message is stable, i.e. the object functioning as a document. The message is generated in the object and it is actualized in the social environment which represents the communication pattern in a wider sense. This is to say it represents the framework and the distinctive features of the social environment in which the communication takes place. The communication pattern in a narrower sense is the exhibition itself as a form of the message. The instability of the social nature of the message and the information resulting from the communication process can be neutralized by recording the expressed message and by the creation of new documentation different from the object-document, but with recorded knowledge about it. Such steps extend the field of its scientific and museal definiteness.
 
Artistic exhibition
Artistic exhibitions are special phenomena, where meaning merges with the irrational, unreal and emotional. Eco said that objects with an aesthetic function play a complete and unreduced role. Museum messages with aesthetic functions have an ambiguous structure in relation to the system of expectations represented by the code. This ambiguity becomes productive at the very moment when it stimulates us to make interpretative efforts (Delibas ic 1991:5; Eco 1973: 72). Later it allows us to discover the direction of decoding. `In the apparent disorder, which is contrary to the normal state of affairs, we can find a more essential order than the one that precedes the redundant messages' (Eco 1973:2). This is why the message of artistic exhibitions is particularly individualized. It is different from those museum messages in which works of art do not have a part and it becomes a complex of parallel communications in which the speech of the museum exhibition is intertwined with the formal visual speech of particular works of art, groups or wholes. The receiver of such a message must be capable of receiving formal visual messages. Works of art can have a part in making other museological messages concrete but then their infinity is limited by the context of the exhibition in which they participate (for instance a work of art in a historical exhibition or as part of an exhibition of the natural sciences collection).
 
Conclusion
The exhibition is a complex museological information system and a specific communication pattern. The museum message, constituted in every individual visitor according to his/her interest, knowledge and imagination, is transferred at exhibitions to the users by means of museum objects/documents. Therefore all aids and appliances must be geared to the single objective of making the basic content of the exhibition readable (Maroevic 1988:91). The museum exhibition is an event which transforms reality, as well as being the place where the new reality is constituted and where new knowledge about the past is born in the clash of past and present time. Knowledge about the past is integrated in the present not only through the media, but through the actual witnesses and the participants of the past as well. The museum message which is created and communicated to the visitors represents a world of ideas which is hidden in the museum, captured within the physical structure of the objects functioning as documents. Such a world of ideas is expressed and represented by the information which is created and formulated as a message to be received by the visitors. The visitors then create their own world of meaning while the museums transfer the new information to the world of knowledge. The museum message thus brings the past world nearer to the present and refines the present world by suggesting new possibilities in the understanding of the future. At the same time it is deeply anchored between the document and the information, and inseparably connected with them. In this manner the museum message justifies the existence of museums.世联翻译公司完成文学专业领域英文翻译

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