TELEVISION •R? and the - METROPOLITAN \Z MUSEUM of ART
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- TELEVISION •r? and the - METROPOLITAN \Z MUSEUM OF ART By Lydia Bond Powel A Study of The Division of Psychology Institute of Educational Research Teachers College Columbia University m 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I What Need Has a Museum of Television? 1 What the Museum Has to Offer 2 Techniques of Extension 3 What is Television? 4 Radio as Clue to Video Programming 5 The Decisions Involved for the Museum 7 CHAPTER II Television' s Long History 9 How Television is Produced 10 Producing a Television Picture 12 Scanning 13 Television is Not Concealed in Tele\±iones 14 How Television is Broadcast 15 What a Television Studio Looks Like 15 The Control Room 17 Directing the Cameras 17 Duties of Program Director ana Technical Director 18 Motion Pictures and Records in Television 19 Sound Effects 20 Television Transmission 21 Line of Sight Transmission 22 Stratovision 23 Companies Operating Transmission Facilities 24 CHAPTER III What Frequency? A Television Controversy 26 Wire Communication 27 Radio Communication 27 Color Television 32 Importance of Color Televi sion to the Museum. 34 CHAPTER IV Television on the Threshold ... 36 Who Controls Television? 37 Film for Television 38 Two Types of Television 39 Other Controlling Interests in Television 41 Electrical Manufacturers as Television Broadcasters 41 New Applicants for Television Broadcasting Licenses 42 CHAPTER V Publishing and Television 44 Newspaper and Magazine Video Previews 44 Museum Extension by a Popular Magazine 45 Museum Masterpieces in the Subways 46 Response to Museum Subject Matter 47 .1.11 £_£_. CHAPTER VI Which Way Television Programs? 49 Audience Prejudices Against, Educational Programs 50 Program Tastes in the Metropolitan Area 52 Form and Quality in Educational Broadcasts 52 Form of Museum Programs in 1940-41 54 Can Television Script Writing be Learned?. 54 CHAPTER VII Dramatic Form and Museum. Material 56 A Dramatic Presentation 56 Sequence of the Program, 58 The Armorer's Shop 60 Radio with Illustration vs. Visualization with Commentary. 62 Preliminaries of the Armor Program 64 Cash Outlay for Arms and Armor Program 67 Additional Museum Programs 68 The Fashion Promenade 69 CHAPTER VIII Cost of Television Equipment and Productions 72 The Museum's Two Currencies 73 The Museum's Bureau of Publications - A Parallel 75 Video Now or Later? 77 How Should the Museum Prepare for Television? 80 Training for Television 80 Organization of a Television Program by the Museums End... 81 Recommendations 84 CHAPTER IX Suggested Uses of Television for a Museum Preview 86 Suggestions for a Museum Television Series 88 Television for the Schools 89 Television Programs at the College Level 90 Veterans 90 Adult Education 91 The General Public 92 Subject Matter 93 The Pictorial Magazine as Collaborator 94 A Theme Developed Chronologically 95 CONCLUSIONS 100 RECOMMENDATIONS 101 AFPENDIX Museum Film for Educational Extension 104 FiLm for Television 104 Type of Film Now Available 105 Motion Picture vs. Film Strip 107 Uses of Film Strip 108 Suggested Subject Matter for Film Strip 108 IV BS** "Thinking is more interesting than knowing but not so interesting as looking." ^ — Maxims of Goethe "I must study politics and war that my sons s^ may have liberty to study mathematics and j^ philosophy. My sons ought to study mathe- ^^ matics and philosophy, geography, natural J^ history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, agriculture in order to give their j^ children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, ^*m porcelain." ^* — Familiar Letters to John Adams to His Wife, Abigail. Paris, ^ 1780. / INTRODUCTION It is a pleasure to transmit the enclosed report on the application of television to museum education and museum extension made by the Divi sion of Psychology, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University under' a grant from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The major responsibility for the report was given to Mrs. lydia Powel, Research Associate, in the Division of Psychology, Institute of Educational Research. Mrs. Powel has developed the background for her study and has collected the materials for it by participating in television production with the various organizations in the field. Every effort was made to obtain facts and opinions from all relevant sources to make for the kind of generalizations that may guide the director and trustees of the Metro politan Museum of Art in establishing policy for museum extension through television. As such, then, this report emphasizes the relationship of television to the program of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The need for acquainting the public with the diversity of the museum's collection of cultural evi dences and ideas necessitates a complete evaluation of television as it is now and as it may be. Such an appraisal has been rendered more difficult by the rapid developments and changing notions in television itself. The happy ending of the war, moreover, increased the tempo with which new in ventions and innovations became available. Mrs. Powel has appraised the dynamic readjustments of television to itself and the implications of it for museum extension. Television is a medium that, in conjunction with other media, may "take down the walls of the museum" and extend its rich cultural collection to the public. The use of television, however, as a new medium of communi cation by the museum requires the development of a staff within it who not only know the museum's resources, but also know the techniques for project ing them pictorially to the museum's many publics. The arts and skills needed to communicate to the various publics in general education, in dustrial design, merchandising, fashion, publication, theatre arts as well as specific subject matter areas are extraordinarily important today. The development of television as another means of communication will help the museum to extend it3elf to a very widening public. May 16, 1946 Irving Lorge Executive Officer Division of Psychology, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University. 1. CHAPTER I What Need Has a Museum of Television? To the casual person who hears a museum and television coupled for the first time the connection is not always clear. Why should the Metropolitan Museum want, or need to project itself beyond its own walls? Are not the various techniques of education and extension if now uses, such as lectures, loans, publications and special exhibitions sufficient? The answers to these questions may be found in the current social concept, held by many museum directors and policy makers of the museums' responsibility to extend their cultural resources and to expand their services to the public. This concept is well expressed in the Harvard Report on General Education in a Free Society: "Enlargement of the common concern is indeed the distinc tive character of the age." If democracy means equal opportunity to enjoy and profit from great achievements of civilization represented in the museum collections of this country, then a great institution such as the Metropoli tan Museum must, to justify its existence and support by the taxpayer, use all tested means and constantly be ready to explore new techniques to extend its resources to an ever widening community. The era of musuems as vast uncharted storage warehouses for works of art is past. Today the museums are more than guardians of the great documents of civilization; they are the skilled showmen and interpreters speaking to the many as well as to the initiated few. Those who use museums, professionally or for pleasure, have long since taken for granted their new role and attendant services of education and extension. Unfortunately however, for some, the old memories of the incomprehensible exhausting museum tours of childhood still persist. Television would not only correct false impres sions, but it would be a direct and far-reaching means of showing the public what a great art museum really represents and how its rich resources may be used. 1 What the Musuem Has to Qffer» In the Metropolitan Museum of Art the collections record approximate ly 5,000 years of human achievement and culture in visual form. The museum assumes that its fundamental duty is to make available to the people of this country the evidences of the development of their civilization. A clear state ment on the purposes of the museum has been made by Mr. William N, Ivins Jr.: "A great museum of art, such as ours, the collections of which range over the long histories of many civilizations, has many different functions to fill. The objects in its collections are works of art, but also depending upon the directions from which they are approached, they are important and vital documents for the history of thought, belief, economics, and social life in many of their most interesting aspects. They are also of the utmost value to all who concern themselves with design and production in the various arts and handicrafts, both as examples to be followed and as sources of inspiration for future work. In a certain way it may be said that the great museum and the great library constitute the two halves of the community's memory of the past. It is hardly necessary to lay stress upon the importance of a long and rich memory for a community as well as for the individuals that compose it." The museum then is not only the custodian of works of art but also the keeper of visual and tangible records that illustrate the endurance of spiritual values. As such it does not stand alone but must take its place with schools, libraries, universities, and also with the publishers of books and periodicals documenting and interpreting the ideals of humanism and democ racy on which our country was founded. Therefore, the museum's problem is to interpret art as a function of every day life and to find the means of making the great wealth of its collections comprehensible, not only to those who seek them out, but readily accessible, enjoyable, and useful to the largest possible ^ Ivins, William N.