Visual Studies

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Descendants of the modernist museum: tracing the musealisation of Swedish national parks

Emelie Fälton

To cite this article: Emelie Fälton (2021): Descendants of the modernist museum: tracing the musealisation of Swedish national parks, Visual Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2021.1884501 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2021.1884501

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Published online: 25 Mar 2021.

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ARTICLE

Descendants of the modernist museum: tracing the musealisation of Swedish national parks

EMELIE FA¨LTON

Swedish national parks face a shift, transforming them from its understanding of tourism as a threat to nature spaces where tourism is a sub-interest into spaces where (Lundgren 2009, 2011). This kept tourism at bay for tourism is a primary focus. Through the establishment of decades (Zachrisson et al. 2006). new instructive installations, the intention is to make these parks Europe’s most popular nature-based tourism Today, the parks face substantial regulatory changes (Mels destinations. Such installations construct the non-human 2020), but also a displacement1 in their approach to tourism, world, often depicted as nature, and contribute to shaping whereby it is being transformed from a sub-concern into human understandings of nature. In this article, I seek to a main interest (Fälton and Hedrén 2020). In this article, I argue trace, make visible, and problematize how knowledge of that they are about to reach the culmination of what Starbäck nature is put to work and how power operates through predicted over a hundred years ago – a musealisation process. these installations, but also how the non-human world is The agency responsible for nature conservation, The Swedish produced visually, and how all of this produces specific Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter SEPA), has ways of seeing it. This is enabled by a discourse analysis invested heavily in transforming the national parks into with visual ethnographic influences, in which I focus on tourism destinations. Among other projects, strategies for representations with an emphasis on design, content, and creating a collective identity (SEPA 2011a), a brand (SEPA posed rationality. The analysis is designed in a reflexive- 2011b), and a visual design platform (SEPA 2012) have been explorative manner, where the empirical context leads the developed to create a united trademark. Related to these, SEPA analytical direction while the research process and its steps has revealed its hope of making the parks popular nature-based are presented systematically. Through this analysis, I argue tourism destinations that let tourists take part in ‘enriching that the national parks are transformed into museological experiences in Sweden’s most notable nature’ [my transl.] organisations similar to the modernist museum, centred (SEPA 2011a, 13). around educating visitors by displaying ‘real nature,’ and that this has implications for how the non-human world is Like national parks worldwide, those in Sweden are understood. The most prominent of these is that a distance positioned as environmental protectors of the non- is promoted between the tourists and the non-human human world, often depicted as nature (Mels 1999, world. 2020). To encourage people to cherish nature, SEPA concludes that increasing the number of visitors and a strong focus on displaying nature visually are the keys to success. Hence, the agency has made extensive efforts INTRODUCTION to upgrade the instructive installations in the parks In 1915, six years after the first Swedish national parks (SEPA 2011a), which today number 30 (SEPA 2020a). were established, the nature conservation enthusiast In other words, the emphasis on the visual, and Karl Starbäck anticipated that their establishment displaying the non-human world to visitors in order to would lead to the creation of national outdoor educate them are central components in the ongoing museums, with the potential to attract visitors tourist displacement, which corresponds to an (Conwentz and Starbäck 1915). Despite his predictions increased role for visual experiences in contemporary and the growing tourism movement’s efforts to enable societies in general (e.g., Evans and Hall 1999; Mirzoeff travel to the parks, they did not achieve such a status 2009, 2013; Mitchell 1994; Rose 2016; Sandywell and due to the growing nature conservation movement and Heywood 2017).

Emelie Fälton is a Doctoral Candidate at the Unit of Environmental Change, Linköping University. Her research inhabits the intersections among visual culture, environmental humanities, critical tourism studies, cultural geography, and media studies, where problematisations of how the non-human world comes into being through human ways of making sense of it constitute the core.

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 2 E. Fälton

Despite an increasing number of studies on national into being and how its relationship to the human world is parks as visual, discursive, and/or meaning-making posited, a reflection upon the installations’ potential spaces (e.g., Cronin 2011; Grusin 1995, 2004; Mels implications for how humans understand and relate to the 2002; Patin 1999, 2012b; Rutherford 2011), studies non-human world will be enabled. This can provide new approaching their installations with visual insights into the national parks and their instructive methodologies are sparse. Grusin (2004) and Mels installations as products of systems of discourses, rather than (1999) have briefly touched upon visitor centres as uncomplicated acts of nature conservation (e.g., Cronin display facilities, and Cronin (2011) has focused on 2011; Grusin 1995; Patin 1999, 2012a; Rutherford 2011). In a museum exhibition about national parks. Besides other words, a primary focus of this article concerns how the these examples, there exist two studies that focus non-human world comes into being through the specifically on displays in national parks. Patin (1999) installations and what the productive effects of their has conducted a visual rhetorical analysis of how representations are. techniques of display borrowed from paintings and museums in US parks have turned them into museological institutions. A similar study was carried The Non-Human World out by Bednar (2012), who analysed display When using the term non-human, I refer to the world that technologies in US parks and problematised their most Western societies talk about as ‘nature.’ In modern naturalisation as ‘obvious’ representatives of nature, times, it has come to be understood as a world that is while proposing an approach to them as (re-) producers disentangled from the human one and is considered to of nature and the gaze of the visitor. However, both of represent everything that is not a product of humanity (Bird these studies focus less on installations and their 1987; Bird Rose 2015; Castree 2014; Hedrén 1994; Lövbrand constructions of nature, and more on built et al. 2015; Soper 1995; Wilson 2019). Within this environments in the parks and how their material understanding, nature is wild, authentic, and original. It infrastructures produce landscapes. This, together with exists beyond the borders of human societies, is where wild the fact that almost a decade has passed since the last of animals roam, and can only be properly understood via the above-mentioned studies were conducted, natural science premises (Castree 2014; Cronon 1995; emphasises the need for contemporary studies on Demeritt 2001; Grusin 2004). With its wide usage, the national parks’ installations and their construction of concept has become one of our time’s keywords and is used the non-human world. Besides, this small research field without any reflection upon its implications for how we contains an overrepresentation of North American relate ourselves to the non-human world (Descola 2013; studies, which need to be broadened. Jameson 1994; Williams 1976).

The Swedish context, with its ongoing tourist displacement, The problem with such an uncritical approach is that it the massive attempts to use instructive installations as ignores nature’s social dimensions (Wilson 2019). As a means to create competition, and the emphasising of the a counter-reaction, scholars have questioned it by role of the visual underlines the relevance of focusing emphasising potential consequences. They have also research attention in that direction. In this article, I seek to proposed the importance of understanding nature as 2 trace, make visible, and problematise how knowledge of a socially constructed phenomenon created by human nature is put to work through the new installations in meaning-making practices and discourses. Within this Swedish parks, how power operates through them, how they argument, the use of the word ‘non-human world’ produce the non-human world visually, and how all of this becomes a way of highlighting what the word ‘nature’ creates specific ways of seeing the non-human world. Thus, has come to represent while simultaneously creating a national context other than the Northern American one is a distance from that usage (e.g., Bird Rose 2015; Castree problematised, and focus is directed towards the kinds of 2003; Cronon 1995; Gordon-Walker 2019; Macnaghten installations that we need to know more about – those with and Urry 1998; Soper 1995; Wilson 2019). the intention of instructing visitors. Some of these scholars argue that to tackle With the intent of broadening existing research and environmental challenges and build a more inclusive providing a contemporary study on the subject, I focus on world, we need to overcome the idea that the non- how the non-human world is constructed through these human world lacks meaning, value, and ethics, but also installations, rather than focusing on the creation of challenge the belief that the human worldview is freed landscape. This provides a problematisation of how the from it. An important step towards such work is to world used to attract tourists to the national parks is illuminate and problematise human ways of making constructed and commodified. By scrutinising how it comes sense of the non-human world and our relation to it Descendants of the modernist museum 3

(which this article does). Because only then can the (Behrent 2013, 55). On the other hand, I am inspired by implications and consequences be brought to light, to previous research on national parks and questions of promote discussions and hopefully self-reflexive actions displays, which mirrors how the term has been used in towards non-human-friendly and conscious ontologies studies of museums (e.g., Bennett 1995; Macdonald (Bird Rose 2015; Haraway 2016; Wilson 2019). 1998). In their studies of national parks in North America, Patin (1999), Bednar (2012), and Cronin Inspired by this, I offer a problematising perspective, (2011) have used the term when referring to the actual whereby I approach nature as something socially tools and techniques used to display the non-human constructed that comes into being through human ways world. According to Behrent (2013), Foucault’s use of of making sense of it. This implies that our the term referred ‘not to tools, machines, or the understanding of nature says as much about the non- application of science to industrial production, but human as it does about ourselves (Castree 2014; rather to methods and procedures for governing human Chaloupka and Cawley 1993; Cronon 1995; Rutherford beings’ (Behrent 2013, 55). Thus, these perspectives of 2011). Thus, my focus is on epistemological and using the term seem to collide, but I argue that they ontological rather than ecological matters (see Grusin could be combined in fruitful ways to complement each 2004; Patin 2012a), and even though I see the non- other. human and the human as part of the same world, I use the terms as divided since their establishment as such is Foucault’s use of the term enables scrutinising those so profoundly grounded in contemporary Western procedures and methods that inform how the non- societies and, not least, ‘institutions of nature’, such as human world is displayed in the installations and national parks (Cronon 1996; Descola 2013; Gordon- therethrough govern not only the non-human world Walker 2019; Grusin 2004; Patin 1999). To tear these but also how tourists see, understand, and relate to it. down, we need to question them and their productive But Patin’s, Bednar’s, and Cronin’s use enable a close effects, but before doing so, we need to trace their focus on the actual installations in themselves, as tools existence and constructions. through which those procedures and methods get embodied. To understand the methods and procedures, Contextualisation of Aim through the Three Concepts of I think it is important to also pay attention to the actual Institutional Apparatuses, Technologies of Display, and tools since they are part of the governing process. Thus, The Tourist Gaze I approach technologies of display both as those This article’s character is mainly inspired by Michel methods and procedures, but also tools used to display Foucault (e.g., Foucault 1982, 1991a, 2001) and his the non-human world in the parks. Such an approach interest in the production of knowledge and operation means paying interest in the politics of display of power. Instead of replicating his work, I have been (Macdonald 1998) and how power operates through the inspired by his critical ethos (see Ashenden and Owen act of displaying (Bennett 1995), which is mobilised to 1999) and problematisations. Such an approach means tell stories based upon certain kinds of knowledge not only paying interest in how ideas journey through (Macdonald 1998). This indicates that the installations different spaces and times, or focusing on what is taken in themselves could be seen as technologies of display, for granted, but also elaborating on the productive just as the methods and procedures that inform those. effects of such and reflecting upon what their implications could be for different contexts and beings By encouraging tourists to search for specific (Foucault 1986, 1991c). To make a conceptual experiences, the display of the non-human world in contextualisation of this article’s aim, three explanatory the national parks support certain ways of seeing concepts with inspiration from foremost Foucault will (see Hooper-Greenhill 2000), which can be be used: technologies of display, the tourist gaze, and understood as a tourist gaze. This concept has been institutional apparatuses. formulated by Urry and Larsen (2011), who in turn have been inspired by Foucault’s (1994) medical Through the new installations in Swedish parks, the gaze, which he described as the medical act of non-human world becomes an object on display. To seeing. In his work, he traced how the medic’s gaze understand how this display takes place, I use the term migrated through space and time while illuminating of technologies of display. My approach to this term is how present discourses on health, illness, and death one the one hand, inspired by Foucault’s use of have been formed during centuries. With inspiration ‘technologies,’ which he used to understand how from him, Urry and Larsen (2011) focused on ‘modern social and political systems control, supervise, tourists’ gaze, which is connected to the visual and manipulate populations as well as individuals’ dimensions of consumption-oriented experiences. 4 E. Fälton

This gaze can be understood as a cultural product of display, and the tourist gaze that inform the that is socially organised and affects tourists through installations. a specific lens of ideas, skills, expectations, desires, and mediated material, such as installations in the ANALYTICAL APPROACH AND DESIGN Swedish national parks. Urry and Larsen describe, in line with Foucault, that the act of gazing can be While the analytical ethos of the article is inspired by understood as socially constructed ways of seeing, Foucault, the design of the actual analysis is inspired which are discursively determined. To understand elsewhere. Foucault has been criticised for his lack of such ways of seeing, they ‘elaborate on processes by consistency and stringency when conducting analyses which the gaze is constructed and reinforced, and (Simons 1995). This critique has made me aware of the consider who or what authorises it, what its importance of reflecting upon my role as a researcher and consequences are for the “places” which are its being both structured and transparent when explaining object and how it interrelates with other social how the analytical process has been designed. Based on practices’ (p.2). Thus, this gaze is by no means this, I am also inspired by Sarah Pink (2012, 2013) and isolated from other contexts than the touristic one. Gillian Rose (2016, 2017), who both work with developing Instead, it is always in an interchangeable visual methodologies where the voice and the gaze of the relationship to other parts of societies and could be researcher are visible and part of the presented research. understood as processes through which tourists are Pink focuses on ethnographic studies, where visual taught ‘proper’ ways of seeing. In this article, I am dimensions are central but also sensory ones. In her work, interested in the tourist gaze that the new she emphasises the importance of researchers reflecting installations in the Swedish national parks construct. upon their own ontological and epistemological perspectives and how they influence the research result The technologies of display and the tourist gaze are (Pink 2008, 2013, 2015). With inspiration from Foucault, both informed by institutional apparatuses – those Rose (2016, 2017) has developed two kinds of discourse forms of power and knowledge that constitute their analyses focusing on pictures in themselves and organisation (e.g., statements, morals, and regulations), institutions but has also written about the importance of but also the discourses that become articulated through reflexivity when conducting visual studies. them (Bennett 1995; Foucault 1980, 1998; Hall 2013; Macdonald 1998; Rose 2016). According to Foucault Following their research ethos, I strive for a transparent (1980), these are the apparatuses’ elements, while ‘The presentation of the research process and its included apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be choices. My analysis is designed in a reflexive-explorative established between these elements’ (p.194). He manner, which implies that I allow my empirical context describes how apparatuses have dominant strategic to lead me in analytical directions, rather than diving into functions and could be seen as emerging from the it based on pre-existing directives (see Foucault 2001) intersections of power relations and knowledge existing while simultaneously being reflexive. Initially, I only at a particular time. In accordance with this, the new formulated the article’s overall aim, while I wanted to installations in the Swedish national parks are saturated specify the research questions based on deepened with the normalising effects of institutional knowledge of the empirical context later on. Such an apparatuses, which mediate and manifest approach enabled a close situating in the actual empirical understandings based upon their dominant values context and made it the centre of attention. By reflecting (Bennett 1995; Foucault 1980, 1998; Hall 2013; upon my worldview and how it influences how I conduct Macdonald 1998; Rose 2016). Accordingly, the parks research, simultaneously as I work without predetermined can be interpreted as productive sites of power that themes to look for, I want to illustrate the possibility of produce knowledge about the non-human world working in an explorative way while being as aware as (Cronin 2011). possible of my own ways of seeing. An essential part of this is to describe my research process, which is divided Thus, these three concepts mirror this article’s into six steps and retrospectively presented below. interests – how knowledge is put to work through the new installations in Swedish national parks, how power Step 1: Choosing Analytical Approach and operates through them, how they produce the non- a First Set of Analytical Concepts human world visually, and how all of this creates specific ways of seeing the non-human world. In other The initial step of the analysis concerned choosing an words, it is possible to say that the interest of this article analytical approach and a first set of analytical concepts is a tracing of the institutional apparatuses, technologies that enable tracing institutional apparatuses, Descendants of the modernist museum 5

technologies of display, and the tourist gaze that inform knowledge by defining what is considered to be the truth the installations. Like Foucault, who saw his analytical and worth knowing, while the corpuses of knowledge enable contributions as part of a toolbox that anyone could use the power relations (Foucault 1991a). What counts as in any research field, and however they wish (Scott knowing is a result of cultural, social, and scientific processes Hamilton 2020), I see myself as a carrier of a toolbox that shape what knowledge is produced and what is from which I can choose tools depending on the considered to be defined as rationality (Foucault 1982). analytical context. The concepts are grounded in my ontological and epistemological stances of the world as Accordingly, power, knowledge, and truth imply each socially constructed, but also my interest of other and cannot function without others’ existence. approaching it through a discursive lens, and Behind every recognisable discourse, and its anchored understanding how the visual is part of the social and knowledge and truths, there are constituted power vice versa. These are used to understand how different relations that give rise to it, and behind all power ‘phenomena’ come into being and which concepts relations there are always correlative relations of I employ depend upon each empirical context, which knowledge and truth that encompass the effects of that means that I allow myself to exploratively ‘pick up’ particular body of knowledge through discourses concepts during all stages of the analytical process. (Foucault 1980, 1991d, 1998). This has implications for how social practices are shaped, which means that Due to the social constructionist and discursive discourses and their power relations subjectify subjects orientation of my stances, but also inspiration of into specific ways of behaving (Foucault 1982). Foucault, and grounding in the explanatory concepts of With the concepts of discourse, power, knowledge, and institutional apparatuses, technologies of display, and truth set, I decided to design an analytical approach that tourist gaze, there are a few analytical concepts that could embody their focus – a discourse analysis. I found I have chosen to work with as the foundation for the such an approach suitable since it deals with how analysis: discourse, power, knowledge, and truth. To practices make meaning and construct different enable a reflexive understanding of these, it becomes phenomena (Foucault 1980; Rose 2016). I also decided crucial to reflect upon how I approach them. Starting that my analysis will be based upon fieldwork in the with discourses, which I see as meaning-making parks, and because of that, I choose to combine this ensembles of representations that assign meaning to approach with influences from visual ethnography. By both social and physical realities, thereby shaping combining such analytical approaches, an interpretation human understandings (Castree 2014; Foucault 1982). of representations, knowledge production, and ways of This definition is mainly inspired by Foucault (1982), seeing produced in the parks’ installations would be who approached discourses as groups of statements enabled, alongside a problematisation of my own ‘posing the problems of its own limits, its divisions, its representations, knowledge production, and ways of transformations, the specific modes of its temporality’ seeing as a researcher (see Pink 2013). (p.117).

My use of the term ‘representation’ instead of ‘statement’ lies in my understanding of statements as only oral or textual. Step 2: Fieldwork in the National Parks Representations open a broader approach to discourses and With this orientation set, I travelled to the national invite other forms of expression, such as visual ones (Castree parks during the years 2018–2019. A traditional 2014). When investigating the operation of discourse, understanding of fieldwork rests on the notion that the meaning-making practices are central, but also the researcher ‘collects’ the material before ‘going home’ to production of knowledge, the establishment of truth, and the conduct the analysis. In contrast, I build on approaches productive effects of power (Hall 2013). Through their in which the analytical process is seen as something that divisions, limits, modes of temporality, and transformations, starts as soon as the context is set (Fetterman 1998; discourses define norms and deviations in societies Pink 2013). This denotes my understanding of (Foucault 1982, 1991a), but they also outline ‘rules’ by fieldwork as tangled together with the analytical contouring what is considered true or false, acceptable or process, rather than a preparatory step. unacceptable, thinkable or unthinkable, sayable or unsayable, seeable or unseeable (and so forth) (Castree 2014; By moving along the visual milieus that the installations3 Foucault 1991d, 2001). This indicates that discourses are created along the trails4 (Bal 1996; Lund 2013), dependent upon the claim that a particular corpus of I immersed myself in my empirical context and knowledge is true and worth knowing (Rose 2016) and that conducted an embodied analysis in order to trace their power relations constitute and enable corpuses of technologies of display, institutional apparatuses, and 6 E. Fälton

a tourist gaze. While knowing that discourse, power, more shapes than this one while most older ones were knowledge, and truth were central concepts for this, no formed as in Figure 1a. predetermined themes in relation to those concepts had been formulated. Instead, I let the empirical context guide Because of the difficulties of knowing beforehand which me in different discursive directions and interpretations. parks had newer installations, I ended up visiting 265 out of 30 parks and covered all the parks that had new Initially, a visit to Tyresta National Park in Stockholm was installations up until the end of 2019. Depending on their conducted, mostly because the visitor centre ‘The House of size and number of installations, I spent between one and the National Parks’ [SWE: Nationalparkernas hus], three days in each park. After a few ones, I realised that representing all Swedish national parks, is located there I needed a narrower concept than discourse and more (SEPA 2020b). This allowed me to deepen my installation-directed concepts than power, knowledge, and understanding of the national parks’ communication and truth in order to trace all the bits and pieces of the test ways to develop my analysis during the fieldwork. technologies of display, institutional apparatuses, and Practically, this meant that I systematically visited the forms of tourist gaze that these render. Because of this, but entrances, looked at what installations the maps pointed also due to the representative character of the installations, to, followed the paths to reach those installations, watched their rich details, and my approach to discourses as and read what they displayed, and documented everything ensembles of representations, I decided to dig into my by taking photographs from various angles. This way of toolbox and work with the concept of representation. taking visual notes enabled tracing my analytical gaze (Grasseni 2004; Orobitg Canal 2004) and was inspired by By this, I am referring to the process of representing the reflexive action of Bal (1996) and Johns and Pontes something, and making sense of it, but also of the products (2020). I continued this analysis in other parks and, due to it creates (Castree 2014; Hall 2013). To me, representations the differences in characteristics among their installations, constitute fragments of discourses, which means that they soon realised that it was difficult to know beforehand could be seen as the cornerstones of such and that which parks were incorporating the new installations discourses in themselves could be seen as systems of (most were hybrids, with both ‘old’ and ‘new’). Soon, representation (Hall 2013). Furthermore, I approach I learned how to recognise the new installations, which discourses as massive systems that could be difficult to corresponded to the photographs I had seen in SEPA's grasp without tracing their fragments, which is why an (2012) design platform. Figure 1a and Figure 1b provide analysis of representations is suitable. Through such examples of old and new installations to illustrate how a focus, I was able to pay attention to how the installations they differed. The main differences were their use of created meaning, but also to pinpoint the ‘what’ of that colours, the fonts, the layout, and use or non-use of meaning-making. For example, when encountering an photographs. Another difference was their sizes and installation about moose, I focused on the representative shapes. The installations in these figures are approximately characteristics assigned to moose and how they were the same size but have different shapes. However, as will portrayed, but also reflected upon the implications of such be visible in the result, the new installations took way representations for how moose are understood.

FIGURE 1. a. This is an example of how the ‘old’ installations were designed, here in Ängsö National Park. b. This is an example of how the ‘new’ installations were designed, here in Tiveden National Park. Descendants of the modernist museum 7

Step 3: Processing Previous Analytical Steps questions function as the research questions for this article and share the structure of the components After the fieldwork, I used my visual notes to sketch out identified during my visits to the parks (design, content, what I had paid attention to, what kinds of questions and rationality). They also build on the concepts of I had addressed, and how I had worked with tracing representation, discourse, power, knowledge, truth, and representations. These reflections enabled me to notice visuality. the structures that informed my ways of taking photos, my ways of seeing, my relation to the installations I had Design: What characteristics do the photographed, but also why I made certain installations display in terms of design? What interpretations (see Pink 2013). While doing this, aesthetic structures do they have? How are I noticed that I had unconsciously paid attention to tourists supposed to interact with the three components of the installations: their design, installations? Through which senses are the content, and rationalities. visitors supposed to interact with them? What hierarchies are produced through the spatial I had focused on what kinds of installations I encountered placements of the installations? in the parks and what their visual expressions were, but also Content: What characteristics do the how these components were related to their content. I had installations have in terms of content? What also asked what kind of knowledge was communicated kinds of orientation does the content pose? Do through the installations, who was presented as the they present a joint storyline or individual producer of knowledge, how the suggested pre-knowledge stories? What objects and beings become and needs of tourists to learn more were imagined and visible or invisible? What knowledge is justified, and how tourists were expected to experience emphasised and communicated? What is certain characteristics of the parks. Based on this, considered to be relevant knowledge? How is I recognised the importance of using the three concepts of this knowledge communicated to tourists? design, content, and rationality to understand the Who is the knowing subject, and who is the installations’ complexities. Furthermore, I also realised that receiver? Which instructive values become prominent through the content? I had paid attention to the visualities and invisibilities produced through the design, content, and rationality. Rationality: What thoughts and standpoints are Based on this, I choose to include yet another concept from the installations imposing on visitors? What is my toolbox – visuality. This term concerns what is made considered to be rational or irrational? What are visible or invisible, which is interesting because considered to be norms and deviations? Which representation functions just as much through the unseen relations between humans and non-humans are as it does through the seen (Foucault 2001; Mirzoeff 2011). imagined and justified?Are there any normalising or naturalising processes present – if so, what This concept enabled me to get a sense of normalising and kinds of norms or unquestioned truths do they naturalising effects, but also of power relations (Bednar contain? Are tourists encouraged into certain 2012; Foucault 2001), since its determination of the relation behaviours – if so, what and how? of the visible and invisible dwells within the productive effects between power, knowledge, and truth (Bal 2003; Foucault 1994; Mirzoeff 2013; Rutherford 2011). The seen and the unseen of the installations in the Swedish national Step 5: Identifying Representations and parks assures the holds of power that are posed on them Choosing Empirical Examples through institutional apparatuses (see Foucault 1991a) and With the analytical questions in mind, I went through my can in themselves be seen as part of the technologies of photographs again to trace and problematise the display. installations’ institutional apparatuses, technologies of display, and constructed tourist gaze. To enable this, I used Step 4: Developing Analytical Questions the questions to contextualise and deepen the tracing of representations that I had developed in the parks. This After adding these concepts, I formulated three sets of process was inspired by Foucault’s (e.g., 1980, 1982, 2001) analytical questions to deepen the analysis in my quest work on discursive formations, which could be understood to understand how knowledge is put to work through as the systems of representations that constitute discourses. the new installations in Swedish national parks, how They create order within the discourses and relate power operates through them, how they produce the themselves to each other, thus constructing discursive non-human world visually, and how all of this creates meanings. When describing his analysis of discourses, specific ways of seeing the non-human world. The Foucault wrote: 8 E. Fälton

It remains for me now to invert the analysis Apart from the installations at the entrances, which and, after referring discursive formations to often have a joint storyline, most installations are not the statements they describe, to seek in another reliant upon being consumed in a particular order to direction, this time toward the exterior [. . .] make sense. This is probably because it is impossible to what can be discovered through them, how make sure that all tourists encounter them in the same they can take their place among other methods order (Ryan, Foote, and Azaryahu 2016). The majority of description, to what extent they can modify of installations are placed along the trails, which could and redistribute the domain of the history of be seen as a strategic attempt to keep tourists on the ideas. (Foucault 1982, 117) trails, where they can look but not touch (see Mills This article’s result is the product of such a process, 2003). Reinforcing this is the overall design of the where I have identified representations but also related installations as two-dimensional signs, which them to each other and reflected upon what they encourages tourists to let vision be the main narrator by ‘require and exclude’ (Foucault 1982, 117). Thus, my assigning it a dominant role over the other senses identified representations could be seen as discursive (Foucault 1994; Rutherford 2011) and neglect other formations and, in this step, I merged my sensory interactions. Within these common interpretations from steps 1–4 to identify three sets of denominators, I have identified three significant representations. These are named as follows: 1) representational structures: elitist branding Branding Representations; 2) Exploring representations, exploring representations, and Representations; 3) Enlightening Representations. I also enlightening representations. pinpointed the rationality that these rendered and selected empirical examples to present my results (and therethrough my analytical gaze). Experiencing Quality through Elitist Branding Representations

Step 6: Tracing and Problematising Institutional With a diameter of almost two metres, a height of Apparatuses, Technologies of Display, a Tourist about one metre, and a golden colour that shimmers Gaze, and Their Productive Effects in the sun, the massive crown placed in the landscape Lastly, I identified the characteristics of the institutional is practically impossible to pass without noticing apparatuses, technologies of display, and tourist gaze that (Figure 2a – 2c). The name of the national park is became visible through the identified representations and carved into the top of the crown, and its positioning their forms of rationality, but I also problematised their in front of one of the park’s main attractions productive effects by reflecting upon what their indicates that it functions as some kind of implications might be for how we as humans relate extraordinary marker (see Bednar 2012). As described ourselves to the non-human world. Such reflection is initially, SEPA (2011a; b) works intensively to important when studying how the non-human world establish a collective identity and brand for the parks, comes into being through cultural practices (Grusin 2004; which becomes visible through these crowns. They Patin 2012a; Rutherford 2011) since it can shed light on are three-dimensional versions (or extensions) of the the discourses of which they are part and illuminate those Swedish national park symbol: a golden star. relations of power, knowledge, and truth that constitute them (Rose 2016). My reflection can be found in the Traditionally, crowns have been used to mark power, concluding remarks of this article. sovereignty, and quality (Balmer, Greyser, and Urde 2006), and the national park version is no exception. SEPA has declared its intention to place a crown in RESULTS: TRACING REPRESENTATIONS each park, since it ‘contributes to the feeling and Design and Content knowledge that the national parks are the finest nature we have’ [my transl.] (SEPA 2018). Thus, the crowns’ The installations have different orientations; some are instructive value lies in symbolising quality, whereby educational-oriented, some highlight the parks’ unique tourists are promised experiences of the finest nature characteristics, and others direct tourists to notice available in Sweden. Together with the two- details in the landscape. Thus, not all of them have dimensional symbol, which is primarily visible on a ‘traditional’ focus on communicating information, signs, the crowns are used as ‘difference machines’ that with some making other messages visible. Nevertheless, highlight the parks as unique vistas standing in contrast there are some things that all of them have in common. to the tourists’ everyday spaces (see Bednar 2012). Such One such feature concerns their distribution. divisions and assignment of status create Descendants of the modernist museum 9

FIGURE 2. a. The crown in Store Mosse National Park, placed in front of the park’s main attraction – its vast bog. b. The crown in Stenshuvud National Park, placed next to its Naturum (visitor centre), with the path leading down to its famous beach in the background. c. The crown in Björnlandet National Park, placed in the middle of its pine forest.

a hierarchisation (Foucault 1991a) and assign the articulated through more informative installations. These national parks an elitist status. are always placed next to the entrances and communicate information about the parks and their bonds, but also Before visiting the parks, I had read about the crowns. create an instructive frame. One such installation of sign Because of this, I immediately knew what I was approaching character in Sonfjället National Park (Figure 3a) when I saw something glittering further down the trail. exemplifies this. On the left, the two-dimensional version However, that is not the case for all visitors. Even though the of the symbol is accompanied by the heading ‘Discover crown is one of our time’s most widely recognised visual Sweden’s National Parks,’ and the text: symbols (Balmer, Greyser, and Urde 2006), it is not obvious why such a thing should be placed in the parks. Out of the National parks represent the very finest areas of countryside. Together the national parks parks I visited, only one had a sign explaining the crown create a magnificent assemblage of different I had encountered. This was surprising because many of the types of landscape [. . .] They represent our other installations (which I will illustrate) worked intensely most precious countryside, our natural to explain details of the natural world, whereas the crowns heritage, for us and for future generations to were placed in the landscape without any attached appreciate and enjoy. Welcome! instructions or explanations. Rather, their aesthetic structures, with their traditional crown shape, massive size, and golden colour, are expected to speak for themselves. Below, there is a world map illustrating all the national parks on earth. It explains that two percent of all the Besides functioning as markers of quality, these crowns world’s land has national park status and that ‘these not become representatives of the parks’ brand, which is also only offer breath-taking experiences of nature, but also 10 E. Fälton

FIGURE 3. a. An installation in Sonfjället National Park, providing information about all Sweden’s national parks but also national parks as a global phenomenon. b. The exact same installation presented in Djurö National Park, but here with the two signs placed closer together. c. Yet another version of the same installation in Gotska Sandön National Park, but here presented as a larger sign with a quite different layout and more photos from the different parks. Otherwise, the content is the same. a myriad of life and a gene bank invaluable to our kind of installation focuses on simultaneously marking survival [my transl.].’ At the bottom, there are photos the high quality of the national parks, establishing their from eight parks, which are numbered on the right, brand, and, not least, commodifying this kind of nature together with the other 22 parks. Their locations are by turning it into a desirable tourist product (see marked with the golden symbol on a map of Sweden, Castree 2003). while descriptions further down explain the specific characters of the parks and what tourists can experience there. This exact installation is present in all national parks with new installations but could take some different variations, exemplified in Figure 3b and Figure 3c.

These kinds of installations not only tell a story about what the Swedish national parks’ brand stands for – great experiences of nature – but also that it is our responsibility to preserve, protect, and nourish them. This intense proliferation of branding deems a visit to any of the national parks as essential and desirable, rendering the parks into iconic places of ‘must-see’ character centred around responsible tourism FIGURE 4. Installation in Åsnen National Park that informs the tourist (Rutherford 2011). In other words, the intention of this about what they can do and experience in the park. Descendants of the modernist museum 11

Experiencing Nature through Exploring pointing to different sites worth visiting, it visualises places Representations where the loon can be spotted through illustrations picturing the bird’s silhouette. The more parks I visit, the more aware I become of the focus on exploring nature. The installations embodying Another thing that characterises such maps is their firm this make tourists aware of what they can experience, marking of the park’s boundaries, through which they and there are almost always installations at the give the impression that it is only within these borders entrances that set this orientation. These are designed that everything worth experiencing is available. The as two-dimensional signs arranged in groups and areas on ‘the other side’ are rendered invisible by being explain what is unique about the park, what tourists can erased or blurred, which is a way of underlining the do, what they should explore, and where to find parks’ special character. This presentation of the services. observable and the unobservable (Hooper-Greenhill 2000) makes them appear as isolated islands located One of the entrance signs in Åsnen National Park outside of the realm of everyday spaces (Bednar 2012). (Figure 4) exemplifies this. Reading from left to right, This separates different narrative spaces (Ryan, Foote, it starts with the text ‘Welcome to Åsnen National and Azaryahu 2016) and constructs the parks as spaces Park,’ followed by an explanation of the characteristics characterised by their ‘otherness’ (see Said 2003). of the area. At the bottom middle of the sign, ‘the voice of Åsnen’ is explained – also known as the black- Once tourists have passed through the entrances and been informed about what is worth experiencing during a visit to the throated loon’s singing. Readers are told when the bird can be spotted during the year and about its living national parks, they are constantly reminded to stay on this conditions and way of life. Below, there is track. This is achieved primarily through signs with aesthetic values, where pictures and illustrations are used to attract a photograph of several black-throated loons, and although they are depicted at the bottom of the sign, visitors. These kinds of installation govern their progress the photo extends across the whole sign and through the parks and serve as mechanisms of control (Lekies constitutes its background. In its design platform, and Whitworth 2011), as they make certain parts of the parks SEPA (2012) stresses that it should be easy to absorb visible and others invisible. Thus, these installations work the information presented in the installations and that actively to steer tourists’ experiences in specific directions by more images than text should be used. It is striking telling them where to go and what to experience. how great an influence this orientation has. From a distance, the loons catch the eye of the beholder, who Experiencing Knowledge through Enlightening has to step really close to read the small text. Thus, this Representations design’s primary orientation is not that of didactic On an installation of sign character in Dalby Söderskog telling but rather to create visual and aesthetic National Park, it is stated that: ‘Everyone benefits from experiences (Bedford 2014; Braden, Rosenthal, and spending time in nature. To gain insight into how nature Spock 2005). This way of displaying nature echoes how looks and works, people need opportunities to explore it art galleries provide display spaces (Alberti 2008; Patin [my transl.].’ By making details visible and offering 1999) and become a way of mirroring the thorough explanations of how the non-human world surroundings based on a visual grammar focusing on natural beauty (Rutherford 2011).

At the bottom left, there is a speech bubble encouraging children to see how tall they are compared to differentbirds. From the speech bubble to the other side of the sign, a dashed line with pointed measurements is visible. Above the last measurement marker, two small boxes present the parks’ regulations ‘in brief’ and explain the map symbols placed to their left. This marks out traditional map characteristics, such as borders and typography, but also services such as visitor centres, trails, toilets, and entrances. By highlighting things that can support tourists, the map emphasises the parks’ orientation as tourist destinations but, rather than only presenting practical information, it FIGURE 5. An installation in Hamra National Park on ‘the poor mire’ also focuses on what tourists should experience. Besides presents natural scientific knowledge to the tourists. 12 E. Fälton

functions, such installations seek to educate visitors rather display of knowledge, nature is arranged and presented in than encouraging them to explore nature or recognise the a way that seeks to reveal its plan or true self, but also to parks’ brand. Instead, these installations provide detailed prescribe a kind of authenticity. It is classified, measured, information that classifies, orders, and makes nature documented, and assessed based on the premises of knowable according to scientific discourses. Animals’ natural science in order to create truthful stories for appearances are depicted, with descriptions of their lifestyle, visitors. This could be an attempt to lend coherence and distribution, typical behaviour, and eating habits. Plants are authority to the parks, through which a regime of truth is portrayed in their finest attires, with descriptions of what produced (see Foucault 1986; Rutherford 2011). This family of plants they belong to and how they have been used positions knowledgeable natural scientists as naturalised by humans over time. Natural phenomena are portrayed as specialists possessing the ability to interpret and know the wonders of nature that can be studied by humans, and non-human, which becomes a spectacle for tourists to geological processes are described as providing clues to how experience (Rutherford 2011). a landscape has evolved over time. The ‘mire installation’ presents information about nature Instead of simply observing aspects of nature, tourists and the typical features of Hamra National Park in broad are encouraged to get to know their characteristics. In terms. Instead of highlighting particular details in the this way, the non-human world becomes classified and surroundings, it is the details of the signs themselves that are ordered according to the premises of a kind of in focus, which is a way of assuring that the visualised details encyclopaedia (see Ekström 1994), exemplified by the are always available to tourists. The depicted plants can be installation in Figure 5. Designed as a sign, it informs challenging to see if one is not actually crossing a mire, and tourists about ‘the poor mire’ in Hamra National Park. some of them are only visible in their physical form for a few Two moose roaming across the mire form the months of the year, while the chances of encountering background and are accompanied by an introductory a moose at the exact placement of the sign are slim. By text at the top left, which describes the biological focusing tourists’ attention on the sign rather than its processes taking place in a mire. Tourists are taught environment, the visible and the invisible can be visualised why the mire is poor in nutrients, and below, there are simultaneously, which makes the signs less anchored in three photos with text focusing on the characteristics their placement. Accordingly, these installations teach of mires. In the top middle, there is a text about ‘the tourists what they should look for but do not point to it in king of the wetland’ explaining how moose have the surroundings. adapted to the conditions of the mire. Below, there are three illustrations of antlers, demonstrating the In contrast, other installations do point to details rather differences between the antlers of moose, roe deer, and than visualising correlations in nature. These have reindeer. In the middle of the sign, there are a narrower focus and are more ‘object-oriented’ as they illustrations of different mosquitos with their Swedish are placed next to, or in close relation to, the object they and Latin names, accompanied by an informal text seek to visualise. In Abisko National Park, there are about the types of mosquitos in Sweden and some of ‘explorer points’ (Figure 6a – 6c), designed as stations their characteristics. with three peer-pipes and associated signs. The signs explain what tourists will see while gazing through the Tourists are also provided with a novelty component peer-pipes, which are fixed in position and require that tells them which smells attract mosquitos and them to look in a specific direction. Instead of which repel them. Closest to the ground, there is a life- encouraging them to look for certain things on their size illustration of a moose hoof and, at the top right- own, these installations work intensely to direct the hand side, there is an illustration of plants living on tourists’ gaze by ‘forcing’ perspectives on them. This the mire and the pH-values of different parts of the can be understood as an effort to help tourists recognise mire, followed by an explanation of the biological the objects presented on the signs, but it also deprives differences between mires, mosses, and swamps. them of the opportunity to explore this on their own Lastly, it is explained and illustrated that a mire offers and the thrill that a more exploratory approach offers. difficult living conditions for plants, which need to Thus, these installations oblige tourists to look in have any of three features (pipette, snorkel, or lungs) a specific direction, rather than only encouraging them to survive. to do so.

The installation’s focus on visualising natural correlations Some installations focus more on aesthetic values rather within the mire forms its identity and presents the things than providing detailed information. In Gotska Sandön and beings that compose it (Bednar 2012). Through this National Park, I came across an installation (Figure 7a) in Descendants of the modernist museum 13

FIGURE 6. An explorer point in Abisko National Park, which makes details in the landscape visible to tourists by using peer-pipes. One part of the explorer point consists of signs, which describe what the peer-pipes are directed towards. The red peer-pipe in this explorer point emphasise the hole in the rock that the sign describes.

which the silhouettes of birds were used as both decorative ‘shadows.’ Thus, the focus is on their silhouettes, while ‘eye-catchers’ and informative portrayals of their size other characteristics, such as colour, are rendered differences. Through small photos at the bottom left of the invisible. This simplifying of appearances collides with sign, visitors are provided with general information about the natural scientific orientation that seeks to reveal the number of birds living in the park, their Latin names, nature in a detailed and instructive manner. The and a few words about their characteristics. The general text installations displaying birds’ silhouettes will not make ends with the line: ‘Here you can see some of the island’s it easier for a tourist to tell a white-tailed eagle from most common birds life-size [sic], ranging from the vast sea a golden eagle, and thus it seems as though these eagle to the minute goldcrest. Compare your own size to the installations are privileging aesthetic values above birds’.’ Thus, this sign functions as an invitation to visitors to educational ones. step close and compare themselves with the birds’ size. Even though the primary function of these installations seems to Despite their different focuses, the installations be decorative, knowledge about nature is claimed through adhering to this representational structure allude to their aesthetic convention (Patin 1999). Instead of providing ‘the truth’ by telling stories about how nature detailed information, they offer visitors a perspective and an ‘actually’ works and nudge tourists into the roles of opportunity to compare. The framing of silhouettes was unaware observers in need of firm direction about present in other installations, too, as visible in Figure 7b – 7c. what to look for, what to know, but also what to see. This serving up of ‘ready-made’ interpretations These kinds of illustrations are common, with primarily encourages tourists to become consumers of branded animals and plants being illustrated as monochromatic and commodified nature who need explanations from 14 E. Fälton

FIGURE 7. a. An installation in Gotska Sandön National Park, visualising birds’ silhouettes. b. An installation in Hamra National Park, where silhouettes of both threes and animals are combined with text, a background photograph, and illustrations of cones. c. An installation in Björnlandet National Park, where silhouettes of plants and animals are combined with text and a background photograph.

experts. This naturalises nature into an object to be observed, and tourists into visitors who want to interact with nature as a ‘given’ landscape on the premises of self-evident and two-dimensional interactions. In this way, tourists lose the opportunity to interact with their surroundings in a bodily, independent, and spontaneous way (Bednar 2012; Lekies and Whitworth 2011; Lund 2013; Rutherford 2011; Senda-Cook 2013).

Besides the natural scientific orientation, there are surprisingly few perspectives presented to tourists. Some knowledge about people who have interacted FIGURE 8. Through the enlightening installations such as this one in with the areas are presented, but almost always from Abisko National Park, tourists are invited to the world of natural scientists. a historical perspective. Contemporary knowledge produced by local inhabitants who interact with the areas daily is sparse. In parks situated in Sápmi,6 Rationality some personal stories and knowledge are shared by Sámi reindeer herders, but in parks outside of Sápmi, Despite their different focuses, the installations are all the perspectives of local inhabitants are almost trying to cultivate an interest in the non-human world invisible. and nature conservation. In this way, the national parks Descendants of the modernist museum 15

become visual spaces for tourism and environmental operations, governing structures become embodied education. Even though it is not stated directly within through the construction of certain truths (e.g., that the installations, there is an implicit hope that opinion nature should be approached scientifically) (Foucault will germinate in society and turn people into 1991b, 1998). In this way, visitors are being tutored environmentalists who cherish nature and nature into behaviours and actions that correspond to the conservation. By making nature visible, knowable, and rationalities projected by SEPA (Bennett 1995; sensible, but also by underlining the importance of Foucault 1980, 1986, 1991d). This is not to suggest that national parks, the message is that tourists should care the agency exercises repressive power over them, but for those places and nourish them. rather that they become vehicles of power as they adapt to SEPA’s truths and rationalities (Foucault Via the elitist branding installations and their emphasis 1980). Even though I cannot make any statements on the value of the national parks, tourists meet about the reception, it is evident that SEPA has such a storyline of the unique and ‘fragile earth’ (see intentions: Macnaghten 2003), threatened by human exploitation and in desperate need of protection. On a sign in Dalby By focusing on displaying protected nature, we Söderskog National Park, a text underlines this: ‘Dalby can increase knowledge among the public and create a positive attitude towards protecting Söderskog is an oasis in an otherwise intensively nature [. . .] More visits will lead to more cultivated landscape. [. . .] Since Dalby Söderskog knowledge about nature. And more knowledge became a national park in 1918, the aim has been to let will lead to an increased [sic] public opinion. the forest develop naturally without the influence of Everything is connected. [my transl.] (SEPA man.’ Thus, the national parks are situated as 2011b, 5) environmental organisations that are attempting to save nature. This effort is often approached as an innocent These statements reveal a search for transformation. In endeavour, but what it really does is impose the effects an attempt to win over the hearts and minds of tourists of power by regulating and governing both the non- and discipline them into nature-lovers and human and human understandings of it (Grusin 2004; environmentalists, the installations enact a kind of Patin 2012a; Rutherford 2011). Through the explorative green governmentality (see Bednar 2012; Bennett 2018; installations, tourists are taught that they should visit Rutherford 2011). In this case, it is considered rational these kinds of spaces to explore nature and experience it to visit the parks and support them as environmentalist primarily as a visual world filled with exciting animals organisations. Instead of encouraging tourists to leave and phenomena to look at. This is emphasised through these spaces ‘untouched,’ they are invited to go there as statements such as this one from Kosterhavet National consumers of nature threatened by destruction. This Park, which is by the sea: ‘Snorkel with a cyclopean and encouragement promotes a kind of environmental experience nature under the surface. In exposed places activism, whereby the non-human is commodified into [. . .], there is the opportunity to see seabirds such as a touristic space driven by consumerism (see Castree European shag, black-legged kittiwake, and northern 2003; Fletcher 2014; Fälton and Hedrén 2020; gannet [my transl.].’ These kinds of texts, together with Rutherford 2011). the strong emphasis on helping tourists ‘get to know’ nature through the enlightening installations, make the CONCLUDING REMARKS: DESCENDANTS OF THE parksdestinations of edutainment rather than MODERNIST MUSEUM entertainment (Rader and Cain 2014; Rutherford 2011). Nature is turned into an arena of knowledge in which Via a focus on the representations of the non-human natural science is the norm, and interpretations are world that become visible through the design, content, made according to the classifications and orientations and rationality of the new installations in Swedish of that kind of science (Figure 8). national parks, I have traced, made visible, and problematised the bits and pieces of institutional By inviting tourists to the parks and helping them to apparatuses, technologies of display, and a tourist gaze. get to know nature, the hope is to create a form of self- When putting these bits and pieces together, I contend surveillance among them, such that they function that the new installations emerge from a discursive simultaneously as both objects and subjects of process involving institutional apparatuses of nature knowledge (Bennett 2018). Instead of making it an conservation, science, and museology. obligation to exercise the tactics of SEPA, tourists are provided with knowledge encouraging them to do so. At the core of the installations’ discursive expressions, Throughout these normalising and disciplining there is an emphasis on nature conservation, 16 E. Fälton

environmentalist thinking, and the importance of exhibiting. Instead of collecting and transferring ‘things’ getting to know the non-human world. These are to an exhibition site, as is usually done in museums, the classical components of national parks’ ethos, in both parks’ installations transform whole areas into Sweden and the USA (Mels 1999; Patin 2012a) and have preserved archives filled with displayed artefacts and become part of the promises of what they have to offer. phenomena. As illustrated, the installations’ profile in In SEPA's (2011b) branding strategy, a vision of three the parks is mostly of classic ‘sign design,’ which elements that the parks should offer tourists are listed: transforms nature in the parks into exhibited areas experiences of nature, quality, and knowledge. As my where institutionalised stories about nature are analysis has shown, the representations I have identified presented (see Gupta and Ferguson 1997). This could correspond to these, with the elitist branding be seen as a way of bringing the museum into nature representations characterising experiences of quality, and thereby enclosing it within the museum’s logic the exploring representations experiences of nature, and through conventional exhibition techniques. This is the enlightening representations experiences of something that Patin (1999) has pointed out in relation knowledge. Through these experiences, the to US parks too. Through the new instructive conservation status becomes a quality indicator, installations and their representations, a museological through which tourists are promised unique tourist gaze is imposed upon tourists, through which experiences as part of an environmental stance. An they are taught to look upon national parks as a kind of essential part of this is the possibility of exploring museum (see Patin 1999). More specifically, they are nature through a natural scientific lens and becoming governed into seeing national parks as museological educated. In this way, the non-human world is organisations within which the non-human becomes constructed into a distanced world that is available for the object on display and the knowledge offered is based humans to study and observe via the natural sciences’ on the rationale of natural science (see Bennett 1995, premises, where nature is challenged to ‘reveal its 2018; Hooper-Greenhill 2000; Macdonald 1998; secrets to the positive gaze of scientists’ (Escobar Rutherford 2011). This makes the national parks akin to 1996, 328). science museums, which build an emphasis ‘on public education to present themselves as experts in the Scientific discourses are often tied to educational mediation between the esoteric world of science and institutions (Foucault 1980), which the national parks and that of the public’ (Macdonald 1998, 13). As Bednar their focus on enlightening tourists are examples of. Via (2012) has discussed in relation to US parks, such the installations’ intense focus on exhibiting the non- a scientific orientation makes it appear as though human world, these conservationist and scientific tourists are unable to see and explore nature without processes become visible. Their interplay with the being guided, while there is a notion that the park museological institutional apparatus incarnates what Karl authorities know what visitors want (or need) to know Starbäck predicted when the first Swedish national parks more about. In this case, they are considered to be in were established over one hundred years ago – that they urgent need of more knowledge about the ‘actual’ would become large outdoor museums (Conwentz and workings of nature – because otherwise they will not be Starbäck 1915). Many of the parks’ installations have able to recognise its values. Thus, tourists are taught ‘museum characteristics,’ such as their focus on ‘show and ‘appropriate’ ways to see nature, which they are tell’ (see Bal 1996), and educating visitors by positioning encouraged to reproduce (Rutherford 2011). them within an exhibited space (see Hooper-Greenhill 2000; Macdonald 1998). In fact, through their new Besides being akin to the science museum, I contend installations, I argue that the parks are becoming that Swedish national parks are primarily descendants museological organisations informed by the process of of the modernist museum, which evolved during the musealisation, defined as: nineteenth century and reached its culmination at the beginning of the twentieth century. These were said to [. . .] the operation of trying to extract, depict ‘reality’ and ‘truth’ by visualising ‘how things are’ physically or conceptually, something from its and approached their visitors as passive subjects in need natural or cultural environment and giving it of instruction (Hooper-Greenhill 2000; Reeve and a museal status, transforming it into a musealium or ‘museum object’, that is to say, Woollard 2020). Massive drives to invite the working bringing it into the museal field. class were conducted to provide education and cultural (Desvallées and Mairesse 2010, 50) experiences for ‘workers.’ These invitations were considered significant enlightening projects of idea This argument is reinforced by the character of the dissemination and opinion formation. The idea was technologies of display, which centre around the act of that, through such visits, workers would become more Descendants of the modernist museum 17

knowledgeable and thus better citizens (Ekström 1994). [3] I have concentrated on the new outdoor installations In one way, this is precisely what the new installations only; the installations within the visitor centres in the Swedish national parks are seeking. By inviting (Naturums) are not analysed in this article. people to visit the parks and educating them about [4] Even though trails can be seen as a means for displaying nature, it is expected that they will become nature, those were not part of the new installations and therefore not included in this analysis. environmentalists who cherish nature and nature [5] Due to practical circumstances, I did not visit conservation. Thus, it is a museological and Haparanda Skärgård, Sarek, Padjelanta, or Vadvetjåkka. environmentalist gaze that is laid on the tourist. In the last three, I knew that there were no new installations and did not deem it necessary to go there. Unlike the modernist museums, a significant segment When problems arose while trying to find a boat trip to of today’s museums (and not least scientific-oriented Haparanda Skärgård, I decided not to go there either as ones) works intensively to incorporate interactive I had already visited parks of similar character. elements into their exhibition spaces (e.g., Bedford [6] Sápmi is the indigenous homeland of the Sámi people, 2014), involving communities (e.g., Crooke 2020), and encompassing the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, reflecting upon their curational role (e.g., Fowle 2007). Finland, and western Russia. Surprisingly, the new installations in the Swedish national parks take little inspiration from this vast DISCLOSURE STATEMENT development and seem to be stuck in the modernist mindset of displaying nature in a one-way manner. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the This is reinforced by the installations’ homogeneous author. configuration, with the majority of them taking the form of two-dimensional signs with no interactive ORCID elements. Instead of having bodily experiences where all the senses are involved, tourists are supposed to Emelie Fälton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7235-2967 look at the signs to get information and a firm direction of what to look for, what to know, but also References what to see once they look beyond the installations. Alberti, S. J. M. M. 2008. “Constructing Nature behind the From this article, we learn that, above all, the Glass.” Museum and Society 6 (2): 73–97. Ashenden, S., and D. Owen. 1999. “Introduction: Foucault, musealisation process of the Swedish national parks Habermas and the Politics of Critique.” In Foucault creates a distance between the visiting individuals and Contra Habermas: Recastingthe Dialogue between the non-human world, whereby an intellectual relation Genealogy and Critical Theory, edited by S. Ashenden, is sought rather than one based on feelings and 1–20. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE. impressions. Tourists are encouraged to ‘see’ rather Bal, M. 1996. Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural than ‘do,’ or ‘feel,’ which invites them to experience the Analysis. New York: Routledge. signs rather than the non-human world in which they Bal, M. 2003. “Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual are situated. Thus, the official version of nature Culture.” Journal of Visual Culture 2 (1): 5–32. produced through these installations tells a story about doi:10.1177/147041290300200101. a commodified world made for us to look at, learn Balmer, J. M. T., S. A. Greyser, and M. Urde. 2006. “The from, experience, care for, and be amazed by. It is not Crown as a Corporate Brand: Insights from Monarchies.” necessarily one to interact with spontaneously, where all Brand Management 14 (1/2): 137–161. doi:10.1057/ palgrave.bm.2550031. the senses are involved, and an appetite for discovering Bedford, L. 2014. The Art of Museum Exhibitions: How Story independently is encouraged. and Imagination Create Aesthetic Experiences. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. Bednar, R. 2012. “Being Here, Looking There: Mediating NOTES Vistas in the National Parks of the Contemporary American West.” In Observation Points: The Visual [1] Inspired by Michel Foucault’s use of the term in e.g., Poetics of National Parks, edited by T. Patin, 1–28. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (1991) and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences Behrent, M. C. 2013. “Foucault and Technology.” History and (2001). Technology 29 (1): 54–104. doi:10.1080/ [2] Inspired by Michel Foucault’s use of the term in, e.g., 07341512.2013.780351. Madness and civilisation: A history of insanity in the age Bennett, T. 1995. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, of reason (2006). Politics. London: Routledge. 18 E. Fälton

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