The New Face of Theatre Museology

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The New Face of Theatre Museology

Theatre museology: archiving memory

In the theatrical context, collecting and gathering memories and recollections always means gathering numerous and different small fragments that should complete the picture. Therefore, in the theatre museum, only fragments of memory such as a photograph, a picture, sound, video, costume, sketch, scene, text or notes can be found. Each of these fragments must aid the theatrologist in completing the picture in the effort to reconstruct it. Now we come to the key element in the process of archiving memory, and that is research and expertise – not only collecting and exhibiting as such. Theatre museology is a specific discipline which focuses on the further ‘resurrection’ of the performance through collecting different objects in various forms; it involves not only their protection, gathering, archiving and presentation, but also their further study, observation and use in various contexts and exploitation in future studies. Hence, we can say that the theatrical performance continues to exist, offering new metamorphoses of the act itself, transformations which are not only immanent to the theatre as an art form, but are also its fundamental feature. The theatre museum will always remind us of the great and grandiose performances, “those that we have seen and those that are legendary.” (Schoulvaloft, 1987:4). Its objective is to evoke, resurrect and bring back to memory theatrical performances.
My personal insisting on the need for a theatre museum and archiving of theatre memory is not initiated only by my personal attitude to the theatrical artifact, but by the growth of museology in the domain of culture over the past ten years or, more precisely, since the beginning of the new century. Why should an institution of the past intended to “receive or collect objects when, for some reason, they are no longer needed or when they can no longer serve the purpose for which they were originally made in the form in which they were created” (Vuk-Pavlović, Pavao, 1994:80) be needed in a time situated in a digital/virtual world which uses the simple abbreviation RL (real life) for the world of our everyday lives? The answer becomes obvious with only a brief look on the current and popular cultural phenomena, and that is collecting memory from the immediate past, memory on the level of microhistory or personal history. This is so since this complex transfer of information via the Net (Internet) facilitates the finding of other forms of archiving memory; however, this does not refer to one type of cohesive and institutionalized memory, but of a number of different memories of individuals that will be guided, collected and presented by a specific theme and will establish the original impulse and a mutual relationship. Therefore, the interest in the digitalization of the theatrical artifact and its diving into the expanses of the Internet and the possibility of accessing more theatrical phenomena can be situated at the same level. Just as the present-day culture needs the memory of different phenomena such as museums for children, chocolate museums or museums of dreams, so do we need theatre memory presented in a different and modern way.
In the past, the purpose of founding theatre museums was to collect, study and exhibit material related to the development of theatrical art (Šukuljević-Marković, 2000”16).Today, theatre museums serve as creative research centres of the same purpose; however, they archive memory in a different manner. The difference lies in the medium in which this memory is preserved, and then researched and presented.

Synergy – material and digital artifacts

The purpose of these considerations is to demonstrate that the final and ultimate synergy between the digital and material artifacts is the best option for the new theatre museum. Since we are dealing with a specific museological problem – fragments vs. the whole – the modern digital world allows for a different perspective on the new theatre museum. Digital technology facilitates archiving of memory and makes possible the longer preservation of its function as something which, by its very nature, is otherwise ephemeral in its ontology.
The artifact is part of cultural heritage; it is a causal concentration and a unique continuum of the heritage we acquire and enrich in the process of our overall involvement in art and culture. As Raymond Williams puts it, if analyzed, every tradition can be proved to be “a selection and re-selection of the important accepted and renewed elements.” (Williams, 1996: 201). The artifact is, in essence, a nucleus, the concentrated tradition and way of transmission of the past into the future. Therefore, every collection of memories is based on artifacts and on objects which have been taken over from the past and which are concentrated on a specific past phenomenon, and then transported into the future. Each cultural phenomenon has its own artifacts, but one artifact can be of the same nature for different cultural phenomena.
The theatrical artifact is a specific cultural and artistic specimen. In contrast to the artifacts that belong to other art forms, the theatrical artifact is a multiude of individual objects. If the performance as a theatrical work of art is defined as an artifact, it archives various forms: the play text, photographs, sketches, drawings, costumes, stage design drawings and models, musical notes and the stage manager’s notes, light design and the most recent forms, such as audio and visual recordings. The theatre performance does not have single meaning nor is it a one-dimensional artifact. This multitude of artifacts is the basis of its collection. The theatre performance cannot be preserved as a whole: we can only indicate the varied forms of its archiving. Hence, we speak of a symbiosis between the material, visible and palpable artifacts such as sketches, photographs, costumes, etc., and their presentation in a traditional way, and the potential of digital artifacts, audio and video recordings digitalized and archived in various different formats and then presented through the new media: CD ROMs, DVDs, computer presentation in various programmes, archiving in data banks, Internet presentations ranging from simple uploading of photographs (slide shows) to special virtual museum exhibitions that will resemble, and even evoke, the museum of our dreams, that is, the museum of our past. The research that has been carried out for the purpose of this study revealed that the need for the new face of theatre museology is essential also in terms of its popularization. The audience as the direct factor in the theatrical performance should be given an opportunity to continue to follow it through the classified and archived memories of it. Thus, the active model of reception of a performance will continue on the level of an active reception of its memory. I would also like to stress the possibility of bringing it closer to the home of the theatergoer through digital displays presented in the room of a virtual world and its accessibility to everyone on the basis of the original concept of the Internet. Personally speaking, I find such an approach possible, interesting and attractive both as a theatergoer and theatre researcher. That is why I would like to shift the focus on a concrete space and tradition, and that is Macedonia. Although the Internet is a globally accessible medium, nevertheless, the tradition that should be “propelled” to the global field is personal and national. Therefore the subject of my interest is my personal theatrical tradition.

2018-08-21T17:23:05+00:00 December 15th, 2007|Categories: Essays, Literature, Blesok no. 57|0 Comments