Hasil untuk "Museums. Collectors and collecting"

Yiyuan Wang, Andrew Johnston, Zoë Sadokierski et al.

Recent digitisation efforts in natural history museums have produced large volumes of collection data, yet their scale and scientific complexity often hinder public access and understanding. Conventional data management tools, such as databases, restrict exploration through keyword-based search or require specialised schema knowledge. This paper presents a system design that uses conversational AI to query nearly 1.7 million digitised specimen records from the life-science collections of the Australian Museum. Designed and developed through a human-centred design process, the system contains an interactive map for visual-spatial exploration and a natural-language conversational agent that retrieves detailed specimen data and answers collection-specific questions. The system leverages function-calling capabilities of contemporary large language models to dynamically retrieve structured data from external APIs, enabling fast, real-time interaction with extensive yet frequently updated datasets. Our work provides a new approach of connecting large museum collections with natural language-based queries and informs future designs of scientific AI agents for natural history museums.

Carlos R. Cunha, Vítor Mendonça, André Moreira et al.

Material heritage typically has a whole set of associated immaterial heritage, which is essential to pass on to the visitor as a cultural mission of the destinations and those who manage them. In this sense, the interpretation of material heritage is a complex process that is not a fully efficient process with the mere observation of physical artifacts. In this context, it emerges as fundamental to provide visitors with a set of tools that allow them to correctly interpret the artifacts that come to fully understand the cultural dimension of the destinations and their heritage. Accordingly, the role of virtual reality can leverage the creation of innovative and immersive solutions that allow the visitor to understand and feel part of their own heritage and its ancestral component that defines the sociocultural roots of destinations and their civilizational traditions. This article, after dissecting and substantiating the role of virtual reality in the interpretation of heritage, presents a conceptual model, based on the use of virtual reality, which was, in part, prototyped in the scenario of the Portuguese Museum in the city of Miranda do Douro. This proposal is an ongoing contribution to the creation of innovative and immersive tools for the interpretation of heritage.

Richard Rhodes, Sandra Woolley

This forward-looking paper uses speculative design fiction to explore future museum scenarios where citizen curators design and share immersive virtual reality museums populated with tangible heritage artefacts, intangible virtual elements and interactive experiences. The work also explores takeaway 'asset packs' containing 3D artefact models, curation assets, and interactive experiences, and we envisage a visit to the future museum, where the physical and virtual experiences interplay. Finally, the paper considers the implications of this future museum in terms of resources and the potential impacts on traditional museums.

Nello Balossino, Rossana Damiano, Cristina Gena et al.

There are still many museums that present accessibility barriers, particularly regarding perceptual, cultural, and cognitive aspects. This is especially evident in low-density population areas. The aim of the ROBSO-PM project is to improve the accessibility of small museums through the use of social robots and social telepresence robots, focusing on three museums as case studies: the Museum of the Holy Shroud in Turin, a small but globally known institution, and two lesser known mountain museums: the Museum of the Champlas du Col Carnival and the Pragelato Museum of Alpine Peoples' Costumes and Traditions. The project explores two main applications for robots: as guides supporting inclusive visits for foreign or disabled visitors, and as telepresence tools allowing people with limited mobility to access museums remotely. From a research perspective, key topics include storytelling, robot personality, empathy, personalization, and, in the case of telepresence, collaboration between the robot and the person, with clearly defined roles and autonomy.

Jinhao Li, Jianzhong Qi, Soyeon Caren Han et al.

Digital transformation in the cultural heritage sector has produced vast yet fragmented collections of artefact data. Existing frameworks for museum information systems struggle to integrate heterogeneous metadata, unstructured documents, and multimodal artefacts into a coherent and queryable form. We present MuseKG, an end-to-end knowledge-graph framework that unifies structured and unstructured museum data through symbolic-neural integration. MuseKG constructs a typed property graph linking objects, people, organisations, and visual or textual labels, and supports natural language queries. Evaluations on real museum collections demonstrate robust performance across queries over attributes, relations, and related entities, surpassing large-language-model zero-shot, few-shot and SPARQL prompt baselines. The results highlight the importance of symbolic grounding for interpretable and scalable cultural heritage reasoning, and pave the way for web-scale integration of digital heritage knowledge.

Jose Miguel Campillo-Robles, Xabier Artetxe, Karmele del Teso Sánchez

The basic principle for achieving high-power capability on an electrochemical energy storage cell is minimizing the overall resistance. The resistance due to current collecting systems has not received sufficient attention in the past, presumably because it was not considered of significance for low-power batteries and supercapacitors. However, the necessity of high-power cells has reduced other sources of the inner resistance, and the current collector potential drop has become more important. Moreover, the miniaturization of energy storage devices could increase the ohmic loses in current collectors. In this work, we have developed an electrical model to assess the effect of the current collector thickness on the maximum potential drop. We have found that the thickness of current collectors is a critical parameter that can increase the maximum potential drop drastically. Indeed, the maximum potential drop of current collectors remains almost constant for thicknesses greater than 500 lm, but below this value, there is an inverse relationship between the maximum potential drop and the thickness. We have also analyzed the effect of the material and tab position in the maximum potential drop.

Fatema S. Mohamed, Rim Hamdy, Essam M. Abd-Elkhader

Peter Schröder

The Brazilian anthropologist of German origin, Curt Nimuendajú, is considered a central figure in the history of Brazilian anthropology. His biography is marked by multiple roles: a brilliant ethnographer, an indefatigable recorder of indigenous language materials, a pioneer in Amazonian archaeology, and an unyielding defender of indigenous rights to life and land; but he also became known for his collecting activities for Brazilian and European museums. The central question of this paper is: how should Nimuendajú’s collecting activities be characterised? Can they be interpreted as a typical colonial enterprise undertaken by a White heterosexual male? The answers can only be found via a study of the detailed documentation of his activities, archived in various Brazilian, German, and Swedish museums and partially published. A careful reconstruction of the circumstances and itineraries of Nimuendajú’s expeditions and field trips shows that his case is not suitable to confirm certain stereotypes about collectors’ practices for European museums. Unlike in other cases, Nimuendajú did not compile collections for museums by robbery, looting, or trickery. Instead, he often relied on wearisome negotiations, payments, barter, and incentives to reproduce objects no longer fabricated, always establishing symmetrical relationships with his indigenous hosts. This reinforces my main argument that the study of historical collecting practices for ethnological museums must be based on careful evaluation of collectors’ biographies in order to avoid the risk of repeating clichés and stereotypes.

A. Moreno

The art scene has become an increasingly significant dimension of cultural globalization, marked by the complex circulation of artworks, artists, institutions, and symbolic values. Within this dynamic ecosystem shaped by curators, gallerists, museums, and art fairs, this article positions the collector as a central figure whose influence extends well beyond the private acquisition of art. Acting as cultural mediators, collectors play a pivotal role in shaping access, determining value, and facilitating the international mobility of art, thereby contributing to the formation of transnational networks. While traditionally seen as private individuals motivated by personal or aesthetic interests, collectors also operate as agents of global cultural projection, enabling the integration of artists and artworks into international circuits. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and empirical evidence from data on Brazilian collectors’ behaviour, this research highlights how the collector behaviour influences the market dynamics and the international visibility of local art scenes. The findings underscore the potential of a more professional collector, an individual who builds a collection strategically and with long-term intent base to act as a catalyst for the growth and global integration of the Brazilian art market.

Jingling Zhang, Qianjie Wei, Xiaoying Wei et al.

Virtual Reality (VR) museums provide immersive visiting experiences. Despite growing efforts in VR museum design optimization, limited research addresses its efficacy for older adults. We sought to investigate the challenges of and preferences for VR museum visits among older adults through a user-centered participatory workshop. Our preliminary findings illuminate issues regarding spatial navigation, interpretive descriptions, collective aspiration for augmented multi-sensory interactions, and imagined content visualization. Based on our preliminary findings, we discuss potential design principles for enhancing the accessibility of VR museums for older adults.

Ghosh Biyas, Singh Rajdeo, Sawant Madhuri

The integration of digital technology, particularly virtual reality, is proving to be a pivotal tool in preserving and sharing the rich cultural heritage found within Cave art sites. This article deliberates on the use and application of digital technology in the field of cave painting conservation that provides an authentic and effective method of Cave art preservation for the future. Employing advanced techniques of photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanning, structured light scanning, and high-resolution photography can digitally preserve the intricate details of Cave art, while the utilization of humidity, temperature, and CO2 sensors may provide a comprehensive digital monitoring system to track the condition of Cave art over time. This paper deals with the evolving landscape of technologies and their application to safeguard Cave art from environmental degradation and anthropogenic factors. The digitization of cave art has the potential to accurately conserve a site if used in an effective manner while also allowing visitors to experience this art form in ways never before feasible. The application of advanced digital technology in cave art conservation is not merely a choice but a necessity, considering the impermanent nature of these paintings in their natural environment. This paper underscores the urgency and significance of leveraging digital tools to ensure the enduring legacy of Cave art, an example of how digital technologies, as they evolve, will play an increasingly essential role in the conservation and dissemination of our world’s extraordinary cultural heritage.

Alexander Whitehead, Anthony Sinclair, Christopher Scott

The pathogenic environment has been a constant shaping presence in human evolution. Despite its importance, this factor has been given little consideration and research. Here, we use experimental archaeology and microscopic analysis to present and support a novel hypothesis on the pathogenic properties of bifacial butchery tools during the Middle Pleistocene. Use-wear evidence from the Acheulean site of Boxgrove, Sussex suggests that a sample of flint bifaces were used for butchery tasks for a remarkably limited duration. Circumstantial evidence from other Acheulean sites, such as the apparent discard of bifaces at single-episode butchery sites, and biface caching sites, also suggest limited-use, and extend this interpretation beyond Boxgrove. There is no current utilitarian explanation for why such an apparently over-engineered tool would be discarded after such a limited duration of use. This pilot study demonstrates, via experimental investigation, that residual animal tissue from performing butchery tasks cannot be completely removed from the flake scars of flint bifaces using prehistorically available cleaning methods. It is argued that the animal tissue is likely to begin spoiling within hours of butchery, which poses a significant risk of introducing pathogens into foodstuffs if the biface is reused, resulting in foodborne illness. Subsequently, hominins likely learned to minimise this risk by discarding each flint bifacial tool after a single episode of butchery.

V. Livtsov, A. Chetverikova

The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of private collecting in Russia for creating a museum network, to identify the features of collecting in the province and the associated formation of collections of museums and galleries from the seventeenth to the first decades of the twentieth century. The author focuses on the problem of understanding the experience of preserving artistic (historical) heritage in private collections of people. The relevance of the study is caused by the lack of systematic data on the principles of acquisition of provincial museums, the importance of private collections in this process. Special attention is paid to the history of the emergence of art collections on the example of the Orel museums. Tracing the direct relationship between the activities of collectors and the emergence of museums became possible through the use of the historical and phenomenological method, which allowed us to reveal the connection between the processes of collecting personal collections of works of art and the formation of art galleries based on them. Chronological and diachronic analysis helped to identify the prerequisites that led to the study of the main directions of the development of private collecting. The historical and comparative method, based on comparing the features of private collecting with the formation of museum collections, allowed us to identify the specifics of the system of replenishment and acquisition of museum collections of works of art and private collecting at different historical stages. The authors have identified key trends and directions of private collecting in Russia from the seventeenth to the first decades of the twentieth century. Based on the results of the historiographical analysis, the regional specifics of the organization of the preservation of artistic heritage are shown. With the emergence of new directions of training specialists in the museum field by educational institutions, the topic of private collecting becomes a format of textbooks, but the issues of private collecting in the Russian province, especially the formation of collections of provincial museums, are still waiting for their research. The results obtained in the course of the study will become the basis for further analysis of the prospects for replenishing the collections of museums and galleries. Generalizations and conclusions can be applied in the development of models for improving the acquisition of provincial museums, where private collections are of particular importance in this process. The result of the study was an analysis of the activities of private collectors of the late XIX – early XX centuries, which allows us to talk about the identity of the process of the emergence of most provincial museums, caused by increased public attention to the need to create such institutions locally, as well as the spread of the trend of patronage. The studied history of the formation of the Orel art gallery (later Orel Museum of Fine Arts, OMFA), typical for the Central Museums of Russia, simultaneously reveals new names of collectors and their collections.

Georgina Grant, Ellie Swinbank

This paper explores the mineral specimens held by the Science and Technology department at National Museums Scotland (NMS). It examines what these objects and their provenance reveal about the Museum’s collecting methods and how they reflect and perpetuate colonial attitudes in Britain in the nineteenth century. It is informed by recent work moving the Science and Technology collection to new storage, prompting detailed examination of each object and its records.  Case studies show that stories of the people involved in mining and manufacturing processes are absent from NMS documentation while the collectors and Museum staff loom large. Archival research can remedy this to an extent, but it is time consuming and still leaves an incomplete picture.  The paper considers whether it is possible to set about retrospectively compensating for stories not told and how we can ensure documentation for our contemporary collecting does not follow a similarly biased pattern.

N. Markova

The article continues the historical outline of graphic art collecting in Russia and is concerned the 19th century. Over the course of this period, the circle of graphic art collectors has been significantly expanding and democratizing, with private individuals taking a leading position in this process; the graphic collections of newly established state museums and educational institutions were formed on the base of private collections. Many collectors demonstrated a decisive turn towards Russian graphics, as well as to thematic collections of prints focused on portraits, views, or book illustrations: extensive collections of drawings and prints were present in complex thematic collections. In the second half of the century, the role of art collections and collectors-connoisseurs increased. With the emergence of Art Nouveau, collectors turned their attention to Japanese prints, posters, book design elements as items of collecting; small collection of drawings for aesthetic pleasure became an important feature of the period.

Penelope Dransart

In this article, I explore the sale of pre-Hispanic textiles from Andean countries, especially Peru, demonstrating networks between collectors, auction houses and researchers. Sir Henry S. Wellcome (1856-1936) was a North American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. After transferring his commercial interests to London in 1880, he bought textiles and other antiquities at auctions. I outline the activities of Wellcome staff in registering the textiles in Wellcome’s store at Willesden, London. Textiles which preserve Wellcome labels now in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and the National Museums of Liverpool are described. I examine the case of a distinctive Wari tapestry cut into pieces, of which Wellcome acquired two fragments, as an Andean diaspora via Germany to the UK and the US. One of the fragments was donated in 1951 to the British Museum, London, and the other in 1965 to the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles. Between 1949 and 1983, the Trustees of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum distributed many artefacts to museums in the UK, the Commonwealth and the US. The sixth distribution (1951) is analysed in the light of hierarchical relationships between the museums involved. I reflect on Andean textiles lacking in provenance as orphans separated from their cultural context, especially in relation to Paracas textiles sold in a notorious Puttick & Simpson auction in 1933, at which Wellcome made purchases. En este artículo se examina la venta de algunos textiles prehispánicos del Perú, demostrando redes entre coleccionistas, casas de subastas e investigadores. Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1856-1936) fue un empresario farmacéutico norteamericano. Después de transferir sus intereses comerciales a Londres en 1880, comenzó a comprar textiles y otras antigüedades vendidas en subasta. Se presentan las actividades del personal de Wellcome en el registro de los textiles en el depósito de Wellcome en Willesden, Londres. Se describen los textiles, que aún conservan las etiquetas Wellcome y que ahora se encuentran en el Museo de Arqueología y Antropología de la Universidad de Cambridge y los Museos Nacionales de Liverpool. El caso de un inusual tapiz Wari cortado en pedazos, del cual Wellcome adquirió dos fragmentos, se considera como una diáspora andina vía Alemania hacia el Reino Unido y los Estados Unidos. Uno de los fragmentos fue donado en 1951 al Museo Británico de Londres y el otro en 1965 al Museo Fowler de Los Ángeles. Entre 1949 y 1983, los Fideicomisarios del Museo Médico Histórico Wellcome distribuyeron muchos artefactos andinos a algunos museos en el Reino Unido, la Commonwealth y los Estados Unidos. Se analiza la sexta distribución (1951) en la luz de las relaciones jerárquicas entre los diferentes museos involucrados. Se ofrece una reflexión sobre los textiles andinos carentes de procedencia como huérfanos separados de su contexto cultural, especialmente en relación con los textiles de Paracas vendidos en una notoria subasta de Puttick & Simpson en 1933, en la que Wellcome realizó compras.

V. Shaherov

The article is devoted to the issues of local history study of Siberia and the preservation of samples of its natural and historical and cultural heritage in the process of collecting mineralogical, natural science, ethnographic and archaeological collections. A significant role in the compilation of the first large collections belonged to the participants of academic expeditions, mining engineers and craftsmen, as well as individual enthusiasts from among the representatives of the local administration and merchants who are interested in the natural resources of Siberia, ancient monuments and unusual cultural objects of neighboring countries. From a simple collection of rarities and art objects, the most active of Siberian collectors have worked their way up to real researchers, contributing to the creation of local museums, libraries and art galleries. The most culturally saturated environment has developed in Irkutsk, where real merchant cultural salons have been formed on the basis of the collected home museums. The passion for collecting expanded the scientific and social horizons of Siberians, contributed to the knowledge of the region and awareness of their identity.

M. Â. Marini, Marcelo Assis, Nadinni O. M. Sousa et al.

Egg collections have been poorly studied and cataloged both in Brazil and overseas. In Brazil, there is a lack of both historical and current tradition of establishing and curating egg collections. This paper provides information about the size of collections, collecting dates, major collectors, geographic locations, and institutions holding egg sets of Brazilian birds. Through this effort, we recovered part of the history of Brazilian ornithology and provide general directions for those interested in studying egg sets deposited in scientific collections. We retrieved information from 5,888 egg sets collected in Brazil between 1818-2022, currently deposited at 45 institutions/museums. The four largest egg collections in Brazil are at MZUSP, MN, COMB and MPEG. However, around half of the egg sets are deposited in institutions from Europe (mainly at MLUH and ZMB in Germany, NMW in Austria, NHM in the UK, and CRRM in Romania) and the USA (mainly at the WFVZ). Most egg sets were collected between the 1890s and 1930s, and after 2010. In Brazil, 70% of the egg sets were collected in five Brazilian states (MG, SP, SC, PA, and RS). Overall, egg collecting was uneven in space and time. We traced ~330 egg collectors, but most egg sets were collected by José Caetano Guimarães Sobrinho, while Caio Guimarães Chagas was probably the greatest collection owner in Brazil. A recent increase in egg collecting shows a renewed interest in assembling this type of bird vouchers. A scientifically sustained, planned and ethical collection of eggs should continue in Brazil since the breeding biology of many species is still poorly known, and since egg sets are important to provide data for new studies on the ecology, evolution, and conservation of Brazilian birds.

Mar Canet Solà, Antonina Korepanova, Ksenia Mukhina et al.

Museum collection strategies are governed by a variety of factors, including topical focus, acquisition funds, availability of works in the art market, donations and specific coincidental opportunities. Yet, it remains unclear if more fundamental collection patterns emerge, exist, and are shared between museums, which could for example allow an established artist to estimate when a contemporary art museum would acquire their works. Here we collect and analyze data from 12 European contemporary art museums, taking into account artwork creation dates, collection acquisition dates, and the associated artist age at both points in time. From this simple quantitative construct we are able to reveal a striking gradient of museum profiles at the aggregate level. This lag can function to constitute a macroeconomic index of "mean museum collection lag", ranging from 3 years in the most dynamic cases (Kiasma) to 33 years in the most established institutions (Reina Sofia). Meanwhile, on the granular level, plotting artist age over collection year, and using artist-age vs artwork-collection matrices, a detailed picture becomes evident, where individual museums are characterized by shared patterns and a rich heterogeneity of ideographic details. Regularities include continuous acquisitions, systematic acquisition of older materials over time, and brief bursts, where whole oeuvres of individual artists join specific collections. Hence, we are able to shed light on the detailed collection history of museums, transcending the anecdotal nature of art historical storytelling via the provision of a quantitative context. Our approach of cultural data analysis combines expertise in art, art history, computational social science, and computer science. Our joint perspective builds a bridge between and serves an audience of museum professionals, art market actors, collectors, and individual artists alike.

Dario Rodighiero, Lins Derry, Douglas Duhaime et al.

Surprise Machines is a project of experimental museology that sets out to visualize the entire image collection of the Harvard Art Museums, intending to open up unexpected vistas on more than 200,000 objects usually inaccessible to visitors. Part of the exhibition Curatorial A(i)gents organized by metaLAB (at) Harvard, the project explores the limits of artificial intelligence to display a large set of images and create surprise among visitors. To achieve such a feeling of surprise, a choreographic interface was designed to connect the audience's movement with several unique views of the collection.