WHAT IS A MUSEUM?

What is a Museum? 

This studio chooses to look closely at the museum, its genealogy and its ontology. Through a careful analysis it seeks to ask what might a contemporary museum be?  

Week 1 and 2: Undertaking archival studies of the genealogy of the Museum across the world; reading texts, putting together drawings and images on a timeline through an archeological process. The questions to ponder over are: What was the societal structure that emerged? What were the critiques?  How was knowledge organised? What new programmatic ideas were introduced vis a vis the museum? What new spatial structures emerged? What were the meanings associated?

Week 3: Programme building and Conceptual Ideas: To ask a new question about the museum from the contemporary. Museum Of? Museum As? What new critical social structures does this museum seek to create? What new psycho spatial experiences does it generate? 

Drawing Method: Working with Collages and Montages 2D and 3D (conceptual models)

1. To generate new typological responses (from reworking drawings from genealogical studies) 

2. To generate new psycho spatial atmospheres that respond to the above questions.

Week 4: Consolidating Architectural diagrams, Siting, Scaling design responses 

Week 5: Detailing: Spatial layouts, Material and structural ideas, landscape ideas, 

Week 6: Design Development  and Argumentative drawing 

Week 7: Argumentative drawing 

References

Thapar, Romila. 2014. “Museums in India: Past and Future.” Kolkata: India Seminar. https://www.india-seminar.com/2014/659/659_romila_thapar.htm.

Chandrasekaran, T. 2017. “Origin and Development of Museums in India.” Shanlax International Journal of Arts Sciences & Humanities Volume 4, no. Issue 3 (January). http://www.shanlaxjournals.in/pdf/ASH/V4N3/ASH_V4_N3_006.pdf.

Singh, Kavita. Material Fantasy, The Museum in Colonial India. www.academia.edu accessed on Jan 10, 2022.

Agamben, Giorgio. 2009. “What is the Contemporary?” In What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bennett, Tony. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics. Culture : Policies and Politics. London ; New York: Routledge, 1995.

Choi, Esther. The Interpretation. E Flux Architecture, https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/solicited-proposals/422047/the-interpretation/

Foucault, Michel;. 1997. “Panopticism.” In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. London and New York: Routledge.

Jacob, Sam. “Architecture Enters the Age of Post-Digital Drawing.” Metropolis (blog). Accessed November 15, 2021. https://metropolismag.com/projects/architecture-enters-age-post-digital-drawing/.

———. “Empire of Ice Cream – Sam Jacob Studio.” Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.samjacob.com/portfolio/empireoficecream/.

Horn, Kathryn. Possibilities in Post Digital Architecture. Unpublished thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184&context=archthesis

Marotta, Antonello. “Typology: Museums.” Architectural Review (blog), December 19, 2012. https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/typology/typology-museums.

Sarda, Shveta, and Raqs Media Collective. 2016. Why Not Ask Again: Blue Print Guide Book. Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press.

Aesthetics and Politics. WHAP!: Tristan Garcia & Anna Longo, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx7BN1gn6BE.

Vidler, Anthony. The Third Typology and Other Essays. United Kingdom: Actarbirkhauser, 2015.