NORDISK MUSEOLOGI 2005 G 2, S. 17-27 Annotating the environment. 17 Heritage and new technologies PETER VAN MENSCH Based on a lecture held at “Museums of the future”,1 Copenhagen, 13 June 2005 This article attempts to make a general inventory of the different initiatives – by institutions as well as private persons – to increase access and interpretation of the environment as mindscape, as network(s) of lieux de mémoire charged with historical and collective memory. Museology is about musealisation, which ba- rical memory and collective memory, without sically is the creation of heritage. In our socie- the collective memory being alienated (“sto- ty, musealisation is to a high degree institutio- len”) from those whose memory it is. nalised. A wealth of professional institutions New Museology has always been concerned define heritage, i.e. define memory. This is about the attribution of meaning and signifi- what Halbwachs (1992) refers to as historical cance, and the question of who is in control of memory. But there is also heritage that is ex- this attribution. One of the manifestations of perienced as collective memory by groups of New Museological practice is the ecomuseum. people themselves; heritage that is not, or at An examination of the range and nature of least not yet, institutionalised. Part of this col- current ecomuseums worldwide suggests that lective memory is connected with places and regional cultural identity (and a pride in it), a things: lieux de mémoire. These lieux de mé- sense of community, the need for economic moire form multi-layered networks. One place regeneration and the potential loss of “herita- might be part of different networks, i.e. part ge” are the main driving forces in the creation of the collective memory of different social of ecomuseums (Davis 1999). The driving groups. It might be possible that such place is forces behind the application of new techno- already recognised as historical memory, but logies in the heritage field seem to be compa- this could well be only one layer of meaning. rable. Modern technology appears to provide new De Varine (1988) provided a four-point plan possibilities to increase access and interpreta- for ecomuseums or community-centred mu- tion, but also to bridge the gap between histo- seums. He identified four principal objectives: PETER VAN MENSCH 18 a as an object and data bank for the commu- Roman Catholic church, in a period when pu- nity blic avowing of this religion was forbidden in b to serve as an observatory of change (and to Holland. In 1888, the building and its inte- help the community react to changes) rior was musealised. The present museum uses c to become a laboratory – a focal point for the history of the building to discuss the his- meetings, discussions, new initiatives tory of Roman Catholicism in the Nether- d a showcase – revealing the community and lands. In 2004 the museum organised the ex- its region to visitors. hibition “Van Doop tot Dood. Verhalen op The same objectives can be recognised among Solder” (From Christening till Death. Stories new initiatives which can be identified as ma- in the Attic). During this exhibition, visitors terials of a virtual ecomuseum. The overar- were asked to contribute by sharing a personal ching concept is cultural biography. Rooijak- story concerning the seven sacraments (Oud kers uses this term in reference to the traces of & Oostdam 2005). Objects related to these man in the landscape by way of settlements, stories were photographed on a so-called “Ver- reclamations, roads and other (infra)structu- halen Altaar” (story altar). The collected stories res. These structures are the keys to presenting were presented on a special website (www.verha- the various lifestyles that may differ according lenopsolder.nl). The project followed a new to time, place and social or cultural groups. trend among museums to use oral history as The material culture of domestic utensils, im- component of exhibitions (Chew 2002). plements, buildings and works of art bears Imagine IC (Imagine Identity and Culture) tangible witnesses of these lives, which are me- is a centre for the visual representation of mi- aningful only in their ecological and cultural gration and cultures, located in Amsterdam contexts. Consistent focus is the relation of Southeast. Imagine Identity and Culture is the man with his surrounding world. This inclu- first cultural organization in the Netherlands des the life-cycles of individuals, human to highlight the culture and identity of mi- beings of flesh and blood, as they condensate grants as seen from their own perspective. It – seen from a long-term perspective – into ac- invites people to describe their history and cumulated histories of families, neighbourho- culture by means of various activities. These ods, communities and regions (Rooijakkers stories are used to create exhibitions, audio-vi- 1999). The landscape as a mindscape, i.e. a sual programs and digital productions for mental category instrumentalized by people to both newcomers and residents (Seriese & give meaning to the world in which they live. Tangkau 2003). In 2000, Stefan Olivier started the Bruxelles nous appartient/Brussel behoort ons toe RECORDING STORIES (Brussels belongs to us) project. The project aims to create a biography of the city by col- The Museum Amstelkring (also known as lecting stories of its citizens. People are invited “Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder” = Our Lord in to interview a fellow citizen. This interview, or the Attic) is a small museum in the historical rather dialogue, is shared via the project’s bi- centre of Amsterdam. This 17th-century canal lingual website (www.bna-bbot.be). house was in 1661 transformed into a secret In 2003, the Amsterdams Historisch Mu- ANNOTATING THE ENVIRONMENT. HERITAGE AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES seum organised an exhibition about the peop- chogéographique de Paris”, a map showing 19 le’s history of the part of Amsterdam called the city as filtered by subjective experience, “East”. The title of the exhibition was “Het “measuring” on oneself and in comparison geheugen van Oost” (Memory of East). Part with others the affections and passions that of the project was the creation of a website, take form by visiting places and listening to following the same principles as the three pro- one’s own inner impulses (Careri 2002: 102). jects mentioned earlier (www.geheugenvano- New technologies, such as television, promp- ost.nl). In the meantime, the website contains ted Lucio Fontana in 1952 to initiate the more than 400 stories, related to people, arte- “Manifesto del Movimento Spaziale per la facts and places (De Vreede 2005). televisione”: The four projects are intended to give people the opportunity to share their stories and their For the first time throughout the world, we Spatialists heritage. Although there might be some cura- are using television to transmit our new forms of art torial intervention, people are basically in based on the concepts of space, to be understood control of the memory they want to share. from two points of view: the first concerns spaces that Participation and exchange is facilitated by the were once considered mysterious but that are now structure (interface) provided by the organiser. known and explored, and that we therefore use as Surplus value results from the possibility of plastic material. The second concerns the still interaction between the stories. The “Brussels unknown spaces of the cosmos – spaces to which we belongs to us” and “The memory of East” address ourselves as data of intuition and mystery, the projects provide materials for a virtual bio- typical data of art as divination. For us, television is a graphy of the city or a neighbourhood. The means that we have been waiting for to give complete- Imagine IC and “Stories in the Attic” projects ness to our concepts. We are happy that this Spatial focus on the collective memories of people manifestation of ours is being transmitted from Italy with shared experiences. Through the stories, – a manifestation destined to renew the fields of art. It personal identities are linked with collective is true that art is eternal, but it has always been tied identities. down to matter, whereas we want it to be freed from matter. Through space, we want it to be able to last a millennium even for a transmission of only a minute. PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY Our artistic expressions multiply the lines of the hori- zon to the infinite and in infinite dimensions. They are Many of the stories collected by aforementio- a form of research for an aesthetic in which a painting ned projects relate to places. Artists have long is no longer painted, a sculpture no longer sculpted, been fascinated by the urban (or rural) fabric and in which the written page leaves behind its typo- of personal lieux de mémoire or the absence of graphical form. We Spatialists feel ourselves to be the it (the “amniotic fluid” of the Surrealists). artists of today, since the conquests of technology are Francesco Careri (2002) has described in de- now at the service of the art we profess (Bloem 2005). tail how actual and virtual structures in the city played a role in Dada, Futurism, Surre- The Situationist’s interest in psychogeography alism, Situationism and Land Art. Situationist and the Spatialist’s adoption of new technolo- Guy Debord created in 1957 his “Guide Psy- gies return in a series of contemporary pro- PETER VAN MENSCH 20 jects in which artists explore the conscious only the place itself, neither the buildings nor and unconscious layers of urban geographies. the people are crucial for that reminiscence, Thanks to new locative media and a rising but also other conditions are essential. Maybe interest in social issues among many artists, the heavy rain makes you remember how lost psychogeographic works are exploding around you where at that city, walking alone.