From aristocratic exclusive to popular culture

　　May 18 is International Museum Day, and the theme for International Museum Day 2022 is "The Power of Museums".

The museum is not only an important window to display a country and national culture, but also an important classroom for national education, popular science propaganda, historical culture and art edification.

As an important carrier for the dissemination of human civilization, the development of museums reflects the progress of human social civilization, as well as the continuous development of human economy, politics, science and technology.

The development of the museum is reflected in the aspects of function and space design.

Hudson's The Social History of Museums provides an informative introduction to the history of museums and discusses the direction of their development.

　　A museum, as its name suggests, is a place where objects are exhibited.

According to the functional positioning of its actual application scenarios, it can be divided into: cultural centers, science and technology museums, art galleries and other categories.

Early museums did not have the openness and publicity of modern museums. They were often represented by individuals, and the objects they served were relatively small.

In September 1989, the International Association of Museums revised the definition of a museum again. A museum is a non-profit permanent institution that serves society and its development and is open to the public. And show witnesses of people and their environment.

This is the most common and relatively stable definition of museum in the world so far, which emphasizes the publicity, service, non-profit and people-oriented spirit of museums.

　　As for the origin of the name of Western museums, in academic circles, it is believed that it comes from Greek mythology. In 283 BC, the Ptolemaic Dynasty placed treasures in the Temple of Muses. In the 17th century, Meusin changed into Museum, which is the proper name of modern museums. .

In China, people believe that the word "Nuwu" first came from the "Book of Mountains and Seas". During the Zhou and Qin dynasties, there were places to display cultural relics, such as palaces, ancestral temples, and arsenals. This can be seen as the bud of Chinese museums.

　　The development of Western museums can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage is the museum research before the 17th century, which is mainly a social place exclusively enjoyed by royalty or wealthy businessmen. Cultural institutions; the third stage is after the middle of the 20th century. With the development of the educational function of museums, museums began to be regarded as institutions that can promote social, economic and political development, which forced people to rethink the relationship between the museum itself and the community. A complete change in concept.

　　The first British Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology to be opened to the public is a museum of the type of private collection and exhibition to the society, as well as a museum with the characteristics of a modern museum.

The main service objects of the early museums were the nobles, and their main functions were collection and display. They were not open to the public, nor did they serve the function of disseminating knowledge and educating the public, let alone a place for public activities.

　　In the process of development, museums gradually assumed the function of social education.

The transformation of museums from a small group to the public not only means that the service objects of the museum have changed, but its functions and concepts are also changing.

Museums established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were based on the ideal assumption that people could gain knowledge and education from the objects on display.

In the United States, following the establishment of the first public museum in South Carolina in 1773, museums have sprung up everywhere, such as the Boston Museum of Natural History (1830), the Smithsonian Institution (1846), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1846). 1870), etc.

　　Beginning with the World Exposition held in London, England in 1851, the frequently held World Expos have created new opportunities for the development of museums. During the preparation, holding period or after the World Expo, the use of relevant resources including venues, exhibits, personnel, surplus, technology and even The idea of ​​creating a new museum has become an important ecological phenomenon in the development of the museum.

This intrinsic relationship between the museum and the World Expo continues to this day.

Beginning in the 1920s, people began to doubt the ability of exhibits to clearly convey information, which led to the increase of museum functions, that is, to improve the museum's information transmission function and enrich its educational nature by means of educational methods other than objects.

　　The exploration of museums in early Western countries began in the 16th century, and most of them took the museum itself as the main research object.

In 1566, Kunzibe, the Netherlands, proposed that the museum is an exhibition displayed to the public; in 1656, the Catalogue of the Tradskanter Museum was published in London;

In 1837, Clem published his first treatise on the history of museums, "On the History of German Science and Art Collections", which elaborated on the history of museums.

　　In the late 19th century, Peter Wergo put forward to pay attention to the positioning and development of museums under the multiple pressures of economy, politics and society in "New Museology", and expounded "the meaning of museums and artefacts" and "the views of visitors in art museums". With the development of society, museums gradually add new functions to meet people's needs.

Under this influence, some new types of museums, such as eco-museums, have been produced, and at the same time, they have had a huge impact on the traditional museum concept.

　　In the 20th century, Sharon Mastiny pointed out in the "Handbook of Museum Studies" that museums are not only educational, but also commercial.

Therefore, during this period, museums fully entered the field of socialization and became a part of popular culture in the development of society.

　　In the 21st Century, Janet Mastin articulates the changing faces of 21st century collections in The New Museum Theory and Practice, post-museum experiential music programs, critical museum participants, visits to virtual museums and as an academic research and institution Agreed with the view of the museum archives, etc.

With the development of modern society, the functions of museums are gradually increasing, and they also pay more attention to the interactive relationship with visitors.

　　The service group of the museum is more extensive, and it also carries more functions, and the design of the museum is constantly improved with the change of functions.

"New Concepts of Museum Architecture" edited by Caris Blot introduces a number of museum design cases using multimedia technology.

In April 2012, IBM Corporation cooperated with the Louvre Museum. The project made full use of the information management system to greatly improve the efficiency of real-time operation while simplifying the maintenance process, maximizing the safety of important assets and improving the Louvre. The management level of the palace.

　　Nowadays, museums tend to be more intelligent and complex, that is, with the transformation and development of society, economy and culture, the existence of museums is becoming more and more diversified, which is reflected in the development of various aspects such as form, function, space and operation mode. Make full use of limited resources, so as to realize the organic integration of the museum and the city, as well as the expansion, socialization and serviceization of its public functions, and at the same time promote the sustainable development of the museum itself.

　　The interesting and dynamic museum is a new model under the Internet model, catching up with the fashion trend with a new attitude.

The collection needs to be “moved”, which can be a three-dimensional experience of mobile phone web browsing; it can be the “object” of the museum itself that can be clicked and rotated; it can be a cartoon or a moving image with a storyline on the basis of the museum object; it can be Develop games and shopping for mobile apps with museum heritage.

Digital design brings new vitality to the museum.

(Author: Li Yuhong, professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Art, Renmin University of China)