Research Project and Books (1986-2008)

8/14/2019 Research Project and Books (1986-2008)

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RESEARCH PROJECT AND BOOKS

juan carlos rico1986 2008


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RESEARCH PROJECT

General principles of the investigation

The characteristics I am going to list here are to us the fundamental base of ourconception of the work. They have been shaped over these two long decades, butwe are increasingly convinced that their correct application leads, if not to the perfectsolution, at least to certain coherence and the possibility to learn from our mistakeswith a view to future work.

1. A pragmatic project

The rejection of mere theoretical speculation by suggesting formal solutions whichfacilitate reflection and criticism on the part of the reader (The difficult survival of

museums)

With these words of presentation of the book, I tried to communicate something wethink is very important: surpassing the theoretical level that usually reigns in thehumanities, and offer real (in our case formal) solutions wherever possible, offeringthe reader practical ideas which are easier to analyse. Therefore, this researchproject simultaneously accepts the three levels we have talked about to complete itsdevelopment:

Theoretical research, in which (as it name implies) symptoms are studied andsituations are diagnosed; this is reflected in theoretical protocol.

Practical experimentation, based on these predictions and which differentcomputer-based, mainly virtual methods allow us to prove in a formal manner even if only partially. This is precisely what this book is about.

The actual construction of the work, a phase which we unfortunately do notdecide upon, and which hence does not depend on us.

We essentially work on the first two aspects, for obvious reasons, and, in any case, Ithink that we are contributing, as far as our possibilities allow, to a part of the

experimentation process, which would only contain the final parameters if we couldverify its results in reality. At least it is something.

2. A collective project

None of us alone is as intelligent as all of us together.Japanese proverb

Mainly for the sake of efficiency, we have decided to work collectively at all times,i.e. involve as many professionals or students as possible who are interested in thisproject and share the same concerns. We also understand that cultural themes,

although they have reached us through the personalisation of a few names, are


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achievements of many and had been evolving little by little until at a given moment intime a huge step forward was taken by a concrete individual (the only information wehave). Historical reality, however, shows us that without the previous collectiveprocess, that author would not have been able to find the new road.

3. Who do we choose as our travelling companions?

Professionals of recognised prestige

In principle, the most logical approach in order to obtain formal answers seems to beto engage certain famous specialists, architects and designers and present themwith the suggestions resulting from the theoretical research for them to experimentwith freely. This is how it usually goes, and there are countless concrete examples ofthis way of searching for new ideas and solutions.

However, when analysing the results more slowly and with certain detail, it can beobserved in most cases that the prestigious author, besides problems related toavailability, tends to pay more attention to other aspects than the experimentationitself and the inevitable risk involved. I therefore understood that, whenever possible,we would have to look for another way, a freer involvement, look for independentpeople who are not afraid of taking risks, who would have nothing to lose in casetheir idea was not a success (something inherent to experimental processes wherethe right solution and error are equidistant), and who would be able to dedicate alltheir time and energy to this work with uncertain results.

Students in their final year, or, even better, students who had recently finished theirstudies and who were not yet immersed in the social career process, but who werestill experiencing a strong desire of success (with the corresponding vanity) seemedmost appropriate. This is why I turned to the university for help.

4. The university is underused

I have always said that in the world of museums, it seems inconceivable that there isso little interaction between these two institutions, especially when their cooperationturns out to be essential. Unfortunately, however, this lack of encounters, dialogueand joint effort seems to extend to all the other fields within the humanities; the

amazing potential of cooperation, which is paradoxically one of the premises for thegenesis of the university itself, seems to remain ignored.

Learning also means investigating and experimenting in an environment of freedomand absence of pressure, in short: of intellectual comfort, a condition that will rarelybe present again in a persons professional life. Reality has more than confirmed thisto me, as it is eager to do so; the students show it whenever they are offered eventhe smallest opportunity and so do the proposals for collaboration we receivecontinually. Let us take advantage of all this.

It is true that our students should be prepared to defend themselves in the real world

and in this sense the university should be attentive to how these professional


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mechanisms work out there. However, with the same emphasis I defend that societyshould be aware of all the aims set by studies, research and universityexperimentation. This is its mission. People do not reflect on things anymore, andhardly ever discuss anything. This should be a two-way street; otherwise universities

will turn into agencies that defend social interests, which is certainly not the purposefor which they were created.

5. What is and what should be

We have the obligation to teach the students to perform in society with professionaleffectiveness, while at the same time making sure that they do not lose the ability tojudge their work, or, in other words, that they are able to distinguish between whatthey are doing (for whatever reasons, as all of them are justifiable) and what shouldbe done.

I would like to emphasise the previous reflection as there is a big difference betweenthe attitude of a professional who is doing work of which he is perfectly consciouswhether it is correct or not, and the attitude that consists in fooling oneself andmaintaining that what one is doing is the only thing that can be done.

The reader should understand that it is very important to me to stress this, and thatin no case am I making a moral judgement and telling future professionals what todo or what not to do. I am only asking him to be aware of the distinction, as we allknow that in these complicated times no one can afford to reject jobs; the only thing Iam trying to point out is that there is an important difference between those who areaware of having delivered poor work, and those who think their project is the onlypossible option. The former still has the possibility to change, the latter does not. Letus teach students to know reality and manage it efficiently, but without letting themlose their ability to innovate.


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Project phases and periods of reflection

These twenty years of research could be structured into four parts that can bedistinguished quite clearly chronologically, according to intentions as well as results:two of them comprise study and analysis in the strict sense of the word, and theother two, intertwined with the first two, are what could be called periods ofreflection.

When immersed in a technical process it is sometimes recommendable to stop and

look at what one is really doing from a more personal point of view, to step back inorder to see things from a broader perspective, as in most cases the very mechanicsof research do not allow one to see the wood for the trees. The publication of thesepersonal and immediate reflections has helped us, among other things, to radicallychange the direction in which we were thinking of continuing the investigation. Itsomehow meant a return to the origins.

How to teach the cultural object


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1st phase: History, professionals and languages

Once I had arrived at the museum after a series of observations and reflections onthe professional environment in which I moved, I understood that I needed to look

into four different fields with a view to the serious problems that I at least perceived:

1. Analysis of the three components of the exhibition (space, work andtechniques) from a historical perspective, i.e. studying the information otherprofessionals before me managed with respect to the themes that concerned me.

2. Professional teams and composition. Based on my first impressions I not onlynoticed the lack of communication I have already mentioned in the introduction,but also that the problem would get worse in the following years due to theinevitable addition of new professions. In the following sentence, which came tomy mind in those beginning years, that sensation is expressed quite well: Some

professionals who are in museums should not be there, and others, who are not,should.

3. Understanding each other. It was important to look for the mechanisms thatwould allow us all to understand each other, although this clearly belongs to avery different aspect of the investigation.

4. Practical experimentation. Parallel to this whole process, the things we learntand the conclusions we drew from the theoretical investigation were graduallyapplied to certain exhibition projects.

Container and content

What is the use of history? Tradition inspires a huge sense of respect in me, and Iconsider it fundamental however, not from the point of view of erudition, whichpeople often try to revive. When a project generates a problem, which iscoincidentally the same as the one an author had with a certain project, it is essentialto know how he solved it. In other words: it is essential to know history right to whereprevious authors left off, because we must take the baton from them and continue not lose ourselves in repetition or waste time walking the paths they have alreadygone down.

NO to chronological reading. Following the previous idea, one must considerordering knowledge according to ideas and not according to dates, names or styles.I sincerely believe that the result is much more effective, for the simple reason that itstays much closer to reality. (Extract from Why do they not visit museums?)

I started working with the above criterion, which six years later would lead to thetrilogy Museums.Architecture.Art, which contained studies of the closed space as acontainer, of the work as content and the technical knowledge that contributed to themeeting of both.


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The technical knowledge

When one does not have knowledge of a certain theme, the fastest way is to contactsomeone who really knows the matter well (if I insist on something that seemsobvious, this is because unfortunately everyday reality shows me that it is not). I

looked for professionals who had a thorough knowledge of very concrete themes,such as lighting, conservation and many other, newer themes, such as audiovisualmedia, or the application of computer science, the perception of space, etc.

With all these experts, we started on the third part of the trilogy, in which the fifteenteams shaped a manual in which it was possible to at least bring all of themtogether, and which would serve as a technical guide for exhibition designers.


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Will we be able to understand each other?

Finally, there was the last problem to be solved, and also the most important of all:achieving that the different professionals would be able to at least understand the

same language, if not speak it. It is obvious that this was something that had to besolved in a different way. I chose teaching.

The creation of a Masters course

So in parallel I created quite a singular Masters course dedicated to these themes. Icall it singular because rather than a traditionally taught course, what we try to do(and in part achieve) is to look at it as a laboratory where in addition to contrastingour new research we are able to try out all kinds of dialogues between professionals,practical experiments, etc.

Effective dialogue between all was the first thing we had to achieve with ourstudents, to enable them to work in an efficient and coherent way. At the beginning,for instance, getting an artist to talk to a physicist to explain to him how he wantedthe lighting for a work, finding adequate technical solutions and making the artistunderstand how light works from a physics point of view was an almostinsurmountable process, which was little by little adequately solved.

I have always defended that all professionals involved should get to know each otherbetter. At meetings I have promoted between different groups within the Masterscourse, the results not only confirmed the above, but solutions were found whichwere more than surprising. Moreover, there are more and more comments thattestify to the participants personal enrichment.

Experimentation of theory

During the six years of work involved in this phase of the investigation, variousexhibitions were mounted which, as I mentioned earlier, served to apply some of thenew ideas we had deduced theoretically. A lot of these are described in the secondvolume of the trilogy Museums. Architecture. Art II: Mounting Exhibitions, groupedaccording to the themes in the following chart:


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2nd phase: A halt along the way

Where in the first stage the difficult relationship between the architecture and theobject and the problematic understanding between the specialists were the point of

departure of the project, the first impressions and the information we received fromthe audience are what started this second part, which had unforeseenconsequences for the future of the research project.

All the information we had, whether obtained directly or based on analyses by otherprofessionals, took us in the same direction I have already mentioned: despite thefact that museums had never had so many visitors, everything indicated that thedegree of satisfaction was minimal. People went because of social motives ratherthan personal ones.

Two parts

The project took more than four years to carry out and was divided into twocompletely different parts:

During the reflexive period we investigated the issues that had lead us to sucha situation, basing ourselves on a series of questions, most of them withoutanswers. (Why do they not visit museums?)

The following period tried to reflect all these thoughts in a more pragmaticmanner. (The difficult survival of museums)

Having said before how important it is for any researcher to spend some time alongthe way, in order to be able to think with certain calm and distance about what one isdoing and obtain a more general view of things, the consequences have been muchmore important, as they completely changed our direction for the future: whereasbefore we thought we would continue deepening our knowledge of spatial, designand technical themes, this intermission took us to fields that had been unimaginableto us (several roads, several typologies), such as e.g. the commercial world, makingthe old programme move to the background. This is when the present idea for theproject for The Glass Box first arose.


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Specific characteristics

During this period we learnt three very important things, which in my view are allmethodological. They are the result of, firstly, reflection, and, secondly, its practical

application.

To return to the origins. We had the impression, from the very moment westarted to ask ourselves questions, that a research project needed to follow acertain order, and that all the work we had done during the first stage (whichwas certainly not discarded) was based on a concept we now considerederroneous. If we wanted to find more or less coherent answers to thequestions that concerned us, we would have to take a step back and startfrom the beginning.

To extend the team. As we tried to reflect the practical side of our thoughts,

we felt unable to accomplish this alone, which is why we decided to call inmore professionals to help us. This is how our singular contact with theuniversity (as described earlier) was initiated. We timidly approached theEscuela Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid, and the results were surprising.

The laboratory that was part of the Masters course was insufficient toanalyse and contrast all these new experiences. We needed much broaderforums to present new doubts and problems. We decided to promote varioustalks, seminars and workshops in different institutions, universities andcountries, in order to discuss the new themes.

An incomplete process

However, regardless of whether its ideas would be accepted or not, it is evident thatthis was only the start of a process and that there were still a lot of matters to beresolved:

1. The lack of solutions, or at least some guidelines that would help the readermanage all the questions (accepted by most) that have not been answered;only sporadic suggestions were available.

2. The insistence in most professional environments on the continuation of thesemore or less personal reflections, which within a process of greater scientificrigor although there would not be answers to all the questions asked would narrow down the path for investigation and experimentation.

The continuation of the process was therefore still unclear; we will talk about this inmore detail further on.


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3rd phase: the new roads

Each of the roads described in The difficult survival of museumswill be treatedindividually and in more detail from here onwards. In order to structure this project,

which as a result of its scope will always remain incomplete, the work has beendivided into four parallel lines:

A. From the point of view of tradition, which encompasses all thoseprofessionals and ideas that assume that, even though it is obvious bynow that the museum needs a change, in its social conception as well asthe planning of its offer, its organisation or its spatial typology, this must bedone by developing what we have. They propose the use of two traditionallanguages as the start and basis of research.

B. Museums? Many other specialists prefer to propose a clearer break with

what we cannot use anymore (at least not as a whole) and look forsolutions that have the weakest possible link with their predecessors,although all agree that the elements that are valid today must bemaintained.

C. Exhibition techniques. The knowledge of other specialisms that useexhibition as a means to achieve certain aims can teach us interestingexperiences and techniques which we can perfectly apply in our fields.Hence, it is worth it to break down the barriers in order to work togetherand get to know each other.

D. The aim of this last section is to continue working in all the complementaryareas of bringing professionals together, understanding languages,technical knowledge, teaching, practical experimentation and theconstruction of the designs.

A. The traditional typology

This first road is precisely where the work we are discussing, The Glass Box, a newmodel of museum, is situated. We will therefore not go into detail here, as it will bediscussed at length. I would like to remind the reader of the fact that there will be

experimentation within the historical museum, with its traditional languages as adeparture point for evolution or creation.

There are, however, certain specific characteristics that are worth mentioning, asthey will not be repeated in other contexts:

This is the first project with an important international scope, as it has beendeveloped with the help of four important schools and faculties of architecture.Moreover, as several countries are involved, a new multicultural dimension isadded, which, in my opinion, is in accordance with the magnitude of thetheme. The more modest successes of previous experiences encouraged us,


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and everything indicates (we will leave this for the reader to judge) that theexpectations will be more than met.

It continues in an obvious way the general criteria that consist in giving

research a practical component, in the sense of not remaining stuck in meretheoretical speculation (as described in The difficult survival of museums), sothat the scholar can see concrete solutions and has more informationavailable to reflect and base his judgement on.

Its experimental character is obvious, given that (as one will discover whenstudying the theoretical work protocol that everyone involved has beenprovided with) it puts the search for new ideas above any otherconsiderations.

Perhaps this fourth characteristic is the most peculiar of all: as a fortunateresult of the circumstances (this was not planned), both lines of work involvedare carried out in parallel at the same time. The development of The GlassBox, a new model of museumis accompanied by the reflection of a historian,an artist and an architect in The exhibition of a work of art. It is thereforeinteresting, and perhaps it will offer us a new perspective for the future, tocombine experimentation with reflection.

In summary, this first line of work could be described as very productive within thedevelopment of the whole project. In this phase, in which theoreticians (historian,artist and architect), who in some way represent the three components of the

exhibition (thesis, work, space), reflect on that relation, while over sixty teams of lastyear students and architects propose new spatial solutions for it. I think this is quite aprivilege, which hopefully we will be able to take full advantage of.

The last characteristic is a study of architecture carried out from a point ofview that has never been analysed before (not even within the disciplineitself), namely its perception by the visitor, i.e. seeing it as just anotherelement on show. This is divided into four clearly differentiated sections:

1. As an object placed either in the landscape or in the city, studyingall the occasions in history where projects were designed based on

this concept;2. Architecture inside museums, either via graphic documents or

models (monotony), or by including life-size buildings inside thegalleries (scale problem), with special attention to the problem ofshowing the interiors (access problem);

3. As a vehicle for the exhibition of murals, graffiti and other types ofart and their location at the base, on the face or in the roof area;

4. And finally, architecture as a building, as a museum, as a container,and the complex relation with the work.


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B. Other exhibition typologies

In The difficult survival of museums, together with those in favour of using traditionas a basis for the evolution of the architectural typology, many other ideas weredescribed with regard to the future. These included different alternatives, rangingfrom the most moderate to the most radical. This is a line of thought that is still to bedeveloped, and we will do so in due course. For now, we can only list the mostimportant ideas in the three working groups we are thinking of developing.

Collections. Museums dedicated to culture, and more specifically to art, arepractically the only ones left whose contents continue to be made up ofunique and irreplaceable pieces. In all other cases, technology has effectivelysubstituted these objects. By way of example, we could think of areproduction of a mine at scale 1:1, or all virtual simulations.

We expect that in future this will divide museums into two differentmuseographical organisations: that of museums of objects, and that of

museums of performances, each with completely different technicalcharacteristics so that we will be obliged to change the exhibition conceptsexisting for the former when dealing with the latter.

Mounting designs. In parallel, the process is completed with experimentationwith a series of designs for the mounting of exhibitions which, evenmaintaining the traditional space, looks for new alternatives. In theprogramme, we refer to this as open exhibitions (in which there is room forall plastic conceptions) and multiple exhibitions (which try to achieve variousways of understanding the same exhibition)


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New plastic expressions. There is also an account of many of therequirements of different collectives, who demand practical solutions thatperfectly adapt to their needs, such as the interrelation with other arts, thedesign of very specific spaces, or the projection of collections of images and

videos that cannot easily be exhibited in the existing spaces (museumsconsisting of stages, welded constructions and screens)

Location

There is another group of professionals who opt for finding new ways that arecapable of creating a meeting place for visitors and which they think will bemore effective. What are some centres proposing in order to change in thissense? The answer is very simple: invert the terms. If people do not come tothe museum to see us, we will go to them in their everyday lives, almost as ifby chance and without altering their daily rhythm, as they roam the city

Why do they not visit museums?

This idea, which more and more museums are putting into practice (althoughonly timidly for now), is what served as a basis to structure the three optionsoutlined in the table below: loggias, portable museums and parasiticmuseums.

In the case of the loggias, the recovery of this type of urban spaces from theRoman and the Renaissance periods, which also work when adapted to theexhibition, is proposed. What would they be like in the 21st century?


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C. Other exhibition uses

It is incredible to see the insuperable barriers that exist between the differentprofessions and specialisms; it looks as if we still have not been able to dismantle

the old professional guilds from the Middle Ages

These are the first words of the book Practical Manual of Museology, Museographyand Exhibition Techniques, aiming to draw attention to that absurd attitude ofprofessional isolation from other specialisms and collectives. Where before wereferred to the inability to work as a team in a coherent manner and the difficulty tounderstand each other, we are now adding this new difficulty.

From museology to exhibition techniques

Since those first years in which we introduced ourselves in the world of exhibitions

from museology, a lot of time has passed. We have considerably changed ourconcepts and, especially, our investigation processes: we do not talk aboutmuseums anymore, but about exhibition spaces; we have substituted the field knownas exhibition mounting for exhibition techniques based on four concepts: theclosed space, the landscape, the commercial exhibition (the current work) and thevirtual exhibition because we believe it expresses much more clearly the work weare doing today, at the beginning of the 21stcentury.

The commercial exhibition: shops and shop windows, stands and fairs, departmentstores and shopping centres

This third line of work will precisely be dedicated, on the one hand, to connecting toall these other uses, dialoguing with its specialists and getting to know theirtechniques and experiences and, on the other hand, to transferring all thisknowledge to our cultural field. Once more, we all have to try to work together. Let usnot put more obstacles on our path.

There are three priority areas: firstly, the breaking down of the physical barriers ofthe closed space in order get out into the city and nature, i.e. the landscape asexhibition space; secondly, the commercial world, which, even though its purposesare quite different from ours, can teach us a whole range of techniques that are

perfectly applicable to our museums; and finally, the world of virtual reality as a newlanguage for communication and the Internet, as a new space with previouslyunseen dimensions (still to be developed further).

The city as an exhibition gallery, nature as a museum without walls

I would emphasise four themes from this work, which was one of the most complexthat we undertook, requiring a lot of time and the involvement of a large number ofpeople.


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The necessary perception of space

It is inevitable to know some of the laws that steer the way we see things, in

order to understand the problems that arise in the outside space. Therefore,we worked with the help of the relevant departments of the faculties ofpsychology (repositories responsible for so important a matter).

But this lead us to something we considered much more important: Why hadnobody in the world of museology mentioned this? Why was it not included inany university programme of architecture, art history or fine arts, taking intoaccount its fundamental importance? How can we work on the exhibitiontheme without knowing how our brain works in this respect?

A container and a very complex content

Secondly, there is the realisation that the landscape as an exhibition spacecomprises three basic components: the city, architecture (which is mediumand object at the same time) and nature,


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I hope that the reader has realised how essential knowledge in this area is for futurespecialists, both in order to reinterpret these concepts inside museums and to workoutside them.

Exhibit in order to sell

In the concrete theme of art, my students and I always asked ourselves what thedifferences were between exhibiting a work with the idea of showing it or of selling it.This was the start of a line of work that turned out to be both complex and surprisingand which, just like what occurred with the landscape, besides teaching us a lot ofthings, changed part of our mentality.

I would like to highlight, as I have been doing up to now, certain aspects fromcommercial exhibition that have been interesting for the whole of the researchproject.

Three well-defined parts

The commercial world originates in three tendencies which have a clearinfluence on its conception, and it consequently employs three methods ortechniques with which three different kinds of work are carried out.

Shops, and more concretely window dressing, with a clear reference tothe cultural exhibition and consequently the museum;

Commercial fairs, which developed from the industrial shows of the 19thcentury;

Department stores, and especially shopping centres, which apply therules of consumption.

A step further in the collective work

Given its complexity, the work was carried out by several multidisciplinaryteams with professionals for specific themes, and once again the universitywas called in to work out some of the ideas. Hence, it was a joint effort. The

result has confirmed just how appropriate that structure was for theinvestigation, and it encourages us to continue in this direction.

Maximum effect, visitor flows and signs

As we have pointed out already, there is a great deal of experience that otherexhibition specialisms should take advantage of. Here are just three examplesthat should definitely be studied by (and taught to) museum professionals:

The singularity of each work. Like no other, the specialist who preparesthe commercial object knows how to place it in order to give it special

importance when this is what he is interested in. He has a lot more


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resources available than we do in museums when we want to attractattention to a work.

Visitors movements itineraries, crossroads, areas of interference

between flows have been studied right to the smallest detail. Anotheraspect we should learn about.

Signs. We continuously rack our brains on how to organise theinformation and signs in our museums; we all have the feeling that wedo not achieve the necessary fluency, a feeling which is confirmed bythe visitors sense of disorientation. There is a lot we can learn from thecommercial world in this respect.

I have the hope that in the near future all professional barriers will have been brokendown, and that we will be able to openly communicate in all directions and share

knowledge, techniques and experiences. Without a doubt we would all benefit fromthat.

So what shall we do with the virtual world?

It is time we started investigating on all the possibilities opened up by the numerousapplications of digitalisation in many of the aspects that affect the world ofexhibitions.

This project is divided into the three areas that we consider have been transformedmost radically by this medium:

The use of the new audiovisual installations in exhibitions (traditionalexhibitions, that is) and the enormous spectrum of possibilities this opens.This will be carried out by the videoLAB team, which is made up of architects,engineers and computer scientists associated with the University of A Corua.

Virtual works, exhibitions and museums, which are the departure point forresearch into this new communication language, from a creative point of viewrather than a connection to reality as in the previous paragraph. This will bedone by the team of Juan Ramn Alcal, director of the Museo Internacional

de Electrografa (International Museum of Electrography) in Cuenca.

The digital media in the teaching of exhibition techniques, given theastounding change they have produced in working methods in the pastdecade, and the new programmes and media, which are resulting in the needto prepare students in a totally different way. This will be taken on by JuanCarlos Ricos team.

It is interesting to see how this research project is the work of three teams of well-respected experts, compared to the previous one which was carried out by youngand practically inexperienced professionals. I think it is important to make it clear to


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the reader that each theme requires different methods and that it is important to takeall the existing levels into account, as they all contribute valuable aspects.

D. Teaching and experimentation

We are of the opinion that in any research project teaching is extremely important;however, it should be understood as joint reflection and complicity with the studentson the development of the work, rather than the traditional subject matter with itsprogrammes and classes. Therefore, we have always understood, right from thebeginning, that it was essential both in the Masters course we have alreadymentioned and in the various courses, seminars and workshops in differentuniversities and institutions, to share each step forward and talk about the progress

of the work. I must say that the complicity shown by the students has always beenimpressive. The best proof of this is, without a doubt, this book.

We have developed different fronts, all based on the Masters course, which is thereal laboratory of all experiences, where partial projects based on the more punctualthemes of courses, seminars and practical workshops come together. I would like topoint out that in the midst of all this, the theme of methodology within the project ofmounting an exhibition has always seemed very important to me.

Thus, this fourth line within the third phase is dedicated to reflection and theexpression of all our experience and achievements in this respect in books.


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A practical manual

In the previous section, we talked about exhibition techniques as an extension, inevery sense, of any of the different specialisms of exhibition, including museology.

This first work helps to understand how important a change in mentality (opening upto these new fields) would be. Here, three new points should be introduced:

1. If the reader so decides, a series of punctual practical exercises(there areover fifty) can be done on one of the themes that are being dealt with. Aftermore than fifteen years, the experience of their use in the Masters course haspolished and corrected them and revealed the amount of personal reflectioninvolved when we work with them.

2. At the end of the analyses and summaries of each part of the exhibition, acomparative studyis made of different points in order to make clear how

absurd it is to remain so isolated from each other, instead of working togetherand obtaining a better results and greater efficiency.

3. The teachingof this whole new framework of concepts, subject matter andprofessionals, especially now that the number of programmes teachingmuseology and museography is increasing geometrically in many universitiesat an international level, even though, paradoxically, based on a structure thatis similar in space and repetitive in time. Let us change and broaden. It isworth it.

A substantial amount of information

One of the experiences that seem basic to us when teaching these themes is thepractical part: the Workshop on Mounting Exhibitions, which in the Masters course after having considered many alternatives, such as first theory, then practice, theoryand practice at the same time, or theory subordinated to practice we have decidedto organise as the very core of the whole course, on which everything else depends,even theory.

We believe that we really learn when something interests us or we have concreteproblems to solve, like in the design project, and this has been confirmed with time:

the students learn more and faster and, even more importantly, they acquire a moresolid knowledge.

In these Mounting Workshops, real laboratories, the students, in multidisciplinaryteams (once more breaking through the absurd barriers), work on an exhibitionmounting project in a concrete space (always the same) for one year. In the courseof these two decades, over four hundred experimental projects have been developedand contributed important ideas and solutions. All this work deserves to be known,as it can help professionals to open up new paths of research and encounter newsolutions.


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In addition, this project is very closely related to the one we are dealing with here. Ina sense, we could say that it is a collection of experimental projects for The GlassBox. Therefore, in the near future we are going to work on a new book that gathersand shows all these achievements, neatly ordered by specific themes. Without a

doubt, this will be a very important theoretical and practical document, as time willshow.


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4th phase: Another period of reflection

We have said that the readers of Why do they not visit museums?suggested wecontinue this process. I owe a lot to this book of reflections, as the initial intentions

of a project are rarely maintained in reality with such exactness as they have beenhere. And this is not because everyone agrees with its points of view and itssuggestions this is definitely not the case: it has been criticised (in the best, mostresponsible and welcome sense of the word) by different professionals from themost diverse specialisms and places, who have achieved something of enormousimportance, namely that the reflection process has stayed alive and is continuingright now, opening up new roads for research (including, for instance, the presentwork).

Thus, I am indebted to a book that like no other has generated Internet forums, talksand round tables in various universities and numerous conversations at many

different levels. I have learnt a lot and met great new professionals from differentcountries. What else could I ask for? (How to teach the cultural object)

A much broader problem

Although in the first book we already intuited that the problem of the disconnectionbetween audience and museums was much more extended and surpassed theexhibition itself, we did not understand at the time that we were talking about a partof a whole, and that if we wanted to continue working along that road, we woulddefinitely have to broaden our view. The same is true for other cultural themes:historical town centres, monuments, etc.

Five projects (and books) between them

However, it is important to understand that between the cause (Why do they not visitmuseums?) and the present proposal a lot has happened: we now manage anenormous amount of data we did not have before; we have worked and cooperatedwith specialists in completely different subject matters than before; we have visited,exhibited, discussed and carried out projects in collaboration with a whole rangeuniversities from very diverse countries and cultures. Therefore, it is evident thatthere will be a cause-effect relationship between them, but only up to a certain point.

Anyhow, we will try in this new book to answer all the questions we asked ourselvesduring the preceding investigation and which professionals insisted that we provideanswers to. This is not an easy task I do not even know whether we will be able toaccomplish it. However, it will undoubtedly be a much more scientific and detailedproject, especially thanks to the suggestive line-up of authors:

The team of Manuel de la Calle, geographers specialised in the study ofaudience behaviour in tourist activities, which included analysis of the views ofcities and monuments and their relationship with other complementaryactivities.


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The team of Juan Antonio Garca Fraile, who, as an expert in educationalstudies would investigate the themes most specific to teaching, focussingmainly on the diagnostic and, where possible, on the therapy.

The team of Juan Carlos Rico, which completes the information on visitorbehaviour in the exhibition, already extended to many other areas ofspecialisation. An approximation, from general to specific, could be: city,monument, museum, collection, etc.

Symptoms, diagnostic/prognosis and therapy

We have opted for using these medical terms in order to divide the work into threeindependent parts.

The symptoms. Visitor behaviour what is happening? Here, the audiences

preferences are described, always within a strict scientific framework, basedon analysis of the relationship between citizens and the cultural heritage andapproached from the point of view of tourism: how do they organisethemselves, what are their preferences, etc.

Diagnostic and prognosis. Education: can the reasons be found here? Thissecond section will have a special component which will dominate all others:education and the teaching of the themes under study, from the perspective ofconstructivist learning (where diversity and integration are the new priorityvalues) and their subsequent application in the concrete world of museums.

Therapy. Could it be done like this? Here, all the possible guidelines, ideasand solutions would be included. I do not know whether we will get to definethese, but, in any case: if we manage to complete the first two parts, we willhave advanced a lot already with respect to Why do they not visit museums?,and, in our view, this publication will be justified. As always, the reader iswelcome to share his views.


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Ephemeral architecture

The acceptance the project is receiving has made the expectations of growth rise to

a point where it has become impossible for us to manage it alone. We need help,because it would be a shame for all these ideas and projects to be discarded.

Therefore, in agreement with one of the publishing houses we work with, we havedecided to start a new collection of publications under the generic title Ephemeralarchitecture, i.e. broadening even further the field of research in which the world ofexhibitions is included. The idea is to create highly scientific, serious and cheappublications that can be accessed by all professionals.

Although in principle we will dedicate all our efforts to treating the specific themes(fundamentally the technical themes related to exhibitions, which are so necessary

for us), the more ambitious collection comprises three lines of development:

Museums and exhibitions

Scenography and presentations

Art, design and constructions

At present, the first projects, outlined in the table below, have already been entrustedto specialised and fully competent teams.

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Research Project and Books (1986-2008)

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