Gazing at the Rijksmuseum

Public History Student Blog, History Lab, Uncategorized

I think I had to read Decoding the Visitor’s Gaze at least four times before starting to get a sense of what the chapter by Gordon Fyfe and Max Ross is actually about. And even now, I’m not sure whether I understand what their findings truly entail. But I’ll give it a go anyways.

In order to get a better understanding of how groups and subjects ‘read’ museums, Gordon Fyfe and Max Ross did in-depth interviews with visitors (and non-visitors) in the Stoke-on-Kent region. Instead of asking closed answers, Ross and Fyfe let respondents reflect on their lives, and their sense of place and time.

The interviews showed that visitors’ way of observing during a museum visit is determined by their grid and group. Grid and group are acquired through education and socialization. What does this all mean? If acquiring grid and group is a social process, than museum visiting is ‘a social relationship that is interwoven with dynamics of households, families and life-histories. Different types of ‘gaze’ can be found among different people because households can take up different museum positions within the socio-physical space that they inhabit and think of as the locality.’

So what does this mean for museums?

Image result for The presence of the past
The Presence of the Past by Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen (1998)

The research by Fyfe and Ross, much like that of Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen in Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life, shows that museums had to reinvent themselves and find new ways of interacting with their audiences. For Presence of the Past Rosenzweig and Thelen did in-depth telephone interviews with randomly selected respondents too, in order to find out what their connection to the past is. In a way, their findings agree with Fyfe and Ross: for most respondents social relations shape their perspectives and interpretations of the past. So far, these sociological approaches to historic research have turned out to be rather fruitful.

I think both research projects show that museums have to consider, and in many cases, reconsider the ways in which they interact with their audiences. Different groups have different types of ‘gaze’ that are constructed by their social relations and habitus. That means everyone interprets exhibitions and items displayed in museums in different ways. Museums have to try to get track of the various ways in which audiences interpret what is displayed, in order to accommodate more than one gaze.

Visiting a museum in the 19th century

Instead of the dominantly white middle class male gaze from the nineteenth century, museums nowadays face all sorts of audiences. These audiences interpret exhibitions and displayed items in different ways. Luckily, more and more museums take into account that they have different audiences, all with different types of ‘gaze’.

Maybe this is a little bit farfetched, but all this talk about the ‘gaze’ made me think of an newspaper article I read two weeks ago about a new research project at the Rijksmuseum. The Rijksmuseum announced that it will start a new project to get a better idea of how it obtained certain objects from its colonial collection.

Kanon van de koning van Kandy (Rijksmuseum). One of the research project’s objects.

Why?

The museum no longer wants to store objects that have been obtained unlawful. This announcement represents the changing ways in which museums in the Netherlands deal with their collections, and, more importantly, their audiences.

It represents shifting ideas of national history and shows that museums like the Rijksmuseum are slowly but surely more observant and respecting of all these types of gazing. A museum like the Rijksmuseum can only attain its relevance and status as ‘mediator between identity and structure’ if it acknowledges and accommodates these different types of gaze. By starting this new research on the origins of some colonial items, the museum tries to show its willingness to be transparent and openness to dialogue and other perspectives. 

Next to averting being on the ‘bad’ side of history (the most important motive for starting the project) the Rijksmuseum  provides new perspectives, and makes more people feel like their story is told, that they are included in history too. Thus, the Rijksmuseum meets the needs of its audiences and helps conceptualizing both locality and identity. 

Although Fyfe and Ross’ research doesn’t offer any solutions to their own questions (What is the museum’s role in interpreting the gaze? Whose gaze is to be accommodated?), I’m positive that their research has lead to museums being more aware of the fact that there are indeed different types of gaze and that audiences need various perspectives in order to be satisfied, participate and come back. 

Zará Kars

28 thoughts to “Gazing at the Rijksmuseum”

  6. Online casinos review will help you to know more about the online:You can know about the casinos where you can play the games safely and securely?
    Obviously, on the off chance that you are at the casino at any rate, you presumably have a superior possibility of succeeding at an aptitude game than a game where you depend totally on shot, so this may be a fun choice for you. 릴게임

  7. Great article! That is the kind of information that are meant to be
    shared around the net. Shame on the search engines for now not positioning this
    submit higher! Come on over and discuss with my web site .일본야동

  9. This increase came as a surprise to officials who’ve been working to combat problem gambling. In recent years, the number of pokies have been frozen across the state. In addition, pokies have been limited in areas with more vulnerable players, and daily cash withdrawals have been curtailed. 바카라사이트인포

  13. I’m really impressed together with your writing talents as well as with the layout in your blog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent high quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a great blog like this one nowadays.. looking for online casite site? we highly recommended this 100% trusted site and one of the most best site in online casino, if your interested feel free to visit our web site for more information by clicking here 바카라사이트

  14. Excellent post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck. For those online casino fanatics, we highly recommeded this 100% trusted site of ours! One of the most trusted site among other online casino site. this 100% proven and tested. If you guys looking for fun and if you guys interested, feel free to visit to our website, feel free to ask . kindly click here 토토
    . Try you luck now, We asure you will Have the fun and and joy your looking for!

  18. Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback. 토토

  22. Baccarat is a popular casino card game with a history rooted in Italy . The dice that decided the fate of the blonde woman Baccarat, an Italian gambler named Palgir , invented a game of baccarat based on an ancient Roman legend . Legend has it that the nine gods had a blond-haired maiden throw a nine-sided dice, and her fate was decided based on the outcome. 온라인카지노 Among the casino games, it is one of the games with the highest probability for the player and is the most preferred game in the oriental world.

  27. When someone writes an article he/she maintains the plan of a user in his/her brain that how a user can be aware of it. Therefore that’s why this piece of writing is great.
    Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.