29333 - Archaeological Museology

Learning outcomes

Syllabus

The course is composed of frontal lessons, visits to yards, sites, exhibitions and archaeological museums. The student will pass through a final test, in which he/she will study a particular archaeological museum or exhibition, using the specific report supplied by the teacher. He will have to design a poster (100x70 cm) and a video in which he must describe the city that holds the museum.

Course contents

1. At the beginnings of archaeological museology

From Mouseion to ICOM definition. Museology and museography: historical outline and examples

2. Museum as a percective space

Museal container and contents of the exhibition

The archeological find and its expository space: the art of display

The exposition route: the way the visitor moves inside the expository spaces

3. The communication plan:

Themes, posters, captions

4. Comfort conditions towards preservation of the finds

Light, temperature and relative humidity

5. The visitors

Pause and relaxation space inside temporary and permanent expositions

6. Archaeological site and parks

Relationships between the archaeological area and the landscape.

Comunicating the absence. From anastilosis to recostructions. Route signs.

Readings/Bibliography

 

Bolzani P. 2008/2 - Riti e miti del progetto allestitivo, in Otium. L’arte di vivere nelle Domus romane di età imperiale, Catalogo della mostra (RavennAntica, 2008) a cura di Carlo Bertelli, Luigi Malnati, Giovanna Montevecchi, Ginevra-Milano, Skira ed., 2008, pp. 71-73

Bolzani P. 2008, Dallo scavo alla Domus. L’allestimento museale, in G. Montevecchi (a cura di), Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra di Ravenna, Collana del Sistema Museale della Provincia di Ravenna: 8-15

Bolzani P. 2010, Comunicare il teatro romano, in M. R. Borriello, L. Malnati, G. Montevecchi, V. Sampaolo (a cura di), Histrionica. Teatri, maschere e spettacoli nel mondo antico, catalogo della mostra Histrionica, Complesso di San Nicolò, 20.03 -12.09.2010: 59-63

Bolzani P. 2012/1. San Nicolò come laboratorio di sperimentazione museografica, in Tamo. Tutta l’avventura del mosaico di Ravenna, a cura di G. Montevecchi e P. Racagni; Provincia di Ravenna: 13-19

Bolzani P. 2012/2. La realizzazione della “Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra”. Appunti di progetto e di cantiere, in Montevecchi G., Bolzani P., La Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra. Un sito archeologico nel cuore di Ravenna, in L’architettura privata ad Aquileia in età romana. Atti del Convegno di Studio (Padova, 21-22/02/2011) a cura di J. Bonetto e M. Salvadori, Padova University Press: 665-684

Bolzani P. 2012/3 Il progetto di allestimento come parte del progetto di comunicazione. Dalla Domus dei Tappeti a Tamo, in Musei: narrare, allestire, comunicare, a cura di E. Gennaro, Convegno di Studi a cura della Provincia di Ravenna: 67-76

Bolzani P. 2014. Lo spazio delle Muse. Una proposta metodologica per l’analisi e il progetto delle esposizioni permanenti e temporanee di tipo archeologico, in Ocnus, 22/2014, pp. 119-137

Cataldo, Paraventi 2007, Il museo oggi. Linee guida per una museologia contemporanea, Milano, Hoepli, 2007; In part. cfr. parti terza, quarta e quinta: 90 ss.

Falletti V., Maggi M. 2012 , I musei, Bologna: Il Mulino

Ferrara 2007, La comunicazione dei Beni Culturali. Il progetto dell’identità visiva di musei, siti archeologici, luoghi della cultura, Milano: Lupetti

Mottola Molfino 1991¹, 1998², Il libro dei musei, Torino: Allemandi,

R. Francovich e A. Zifferero (a cura di) 1999, Musei e parchi archeologici, Quaderni del Dipartimento di Archeologia e Storia delle Arti, Sezione Archeologica, Università di Siena, Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio

Prete 2005², Aperto al pubblico. Comunicazione e servizi educativi nei musei, Firenze: Edifir

Tomea Gavazzoli 2011² - M. L. Tomea Gavazzoli, Manuale di museologia, Milano: Rizzoli Etas

Vitale 2010 2010, Il Museo visibile. Visual design, museo e comunicazione, Milano: Lupetti

Teaching methods

Every temporary or permanent archaeological exhibition focuses on communicating of much as possibile qualified informations about some objects coming from the past with their ancient histories. Exhibition design is an important moment of this communication plan, too, but only if it is really in service of every archaeological object and of architectural spaces, especially if archaeological museum takes place in a historical building. In this way all the exhibit designer’s choices help the scientific project to transfer messages coming from objects, explaining us their meanings and shapes, starting from the relationships with the archaeogical site. So it’s very important what we’re able to design, especially getting the best museological space and display cases, the right task lighting and ambient light, and transforming the archaeological museum in a special place for all the types of visitors (age, cultural and social conditions, and so on). Editor, cultural project responsable and exhibit designer work together to come it true, telling special histories to every target of visitors. In this process we transform a very ancient functional object in a «tangible and intangible heritage of humanity» (as ICOM tells us). In this paper the taking apart designing process is shown in detail, according to a Checklist, made by the Author for his students in Archaeological Museology teaching subject at the University of Bologna, starting from his professional experience in exhibition designs. The Checklist concernes the following order of items:

1. urban environmental vs archaeological museum building; architectural cases and spaces vs sequence of archaeological objects:

2. entrance of museum: reception and bookshop

3. The exhibition route: the way the visitor moves inside the expository spaces in archaeological museums or parks

4. the archeological find and its expository space and case: the art of display

5. conservation strategies: comfort conditions towards preservation of the finds: temperature (T; °C) and relative humidity (UR; %)

6. active and passive protection strategies of objects

7. museum lighting between natural light (LN), artificial light (LA) and archaeological objects protection

8. communication plan (themes, panels, captions) and plan of colours

9. visitors: pause and relaxation spaces inside the exhibition route

10. museum management: TQM and benchmarking

Assessment methods

The Students must study an archaeological musem, following the teaching checklist. Then they have to make a video and a poster about the city containing the archaeological museum. Finally they have to plan the exhibit layout design of a temporary archaeological exhibition.

They preliminary have to show all these documents before the final test to the teaching and then he will decide if they are ready to get to the final test.

Teaching tools

The teaching staff puts on students'disposal his instrumentation (thermometer, hygrometer, luxmeter, ecc.)

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Bolzani