MUSEUM FATIGUE

A Change of Approach?

January 9, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

When I began this blog long ago with more long-form pieces, in my mind it has always been a place for longer writing and observations. I think, however, this has been the reason that writing here stalled out—the pressure of longer (and more polished) writing always kept me away. This morning, however, it occurred to me that I really need to try (yet another) new approach. Would it be possible to just use this as an online repository for much […]

Categories: Reading Notes • Tags: Reading

Treasures in the Trash: Transmuting Value

September 23, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Every semester that I teach museum anthropology we begin with few weeks of discussion and analysis of collecting and value. During this period we look at the impulse to collect, the way objects are given value in sociocultural contexts and how this happens through social practices. This past weekend I came upon a great little short documentary which tells the story of a discerning sanitation worker—a connoisseur of trash—who rescues pieces he identifies as potentially valuable, and brings them together […]

Categories: Collecting, Museums, Museums, Exhibitions and Representation, Value • Tags: garbage, trash

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Mystery Object #27: Bible Faith Prosperity Handkerchief

February 27, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Yesterday the mailman delivered an amazing mystery object right to my door. The moment I saw the envelope I was captivated. The outside of the letter informed me that the Holy Spirit had instructed someone to loan me something inside that would “turn things around for me!” It was something that I could use that would bring blessings. The back of the letter actually had a prayer printed on it that made reference to divine power, and a sealed prophecy […]

Categories: Mystery Objects, Objects of Power, Religion • Tags: bible faith prosperity handkerchief, handkerchief, prophecy, the gift

Mystery Object #26: Anti-Seat Belt Device

February 26, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Every strategy of control has a tactic of resistance. While going through some photos this afternoon I was reminded of this fact by a photo I took of this little ingenious device that I saw in Nanjing last year. It is an “anti-seat belt device”—a buckle-shaped slug with a cute plastic bear head that inserts into the front seatbelt buckle to fool the car’s seatbelt warning signal. I’ve seen a few of these from time-to-time, but always forget to take […]

Categories: Hacking, Mystery Objects • Tags: automobile, everyday resistance, seat belt, tactics and strategies

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Mystery Object #25: Chinese Rockery Fountain

February 23, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

While visiting the Nanjing Confucius Temple area a few months ago with some visitors, I happened cross an incredible object. It was a water fountain for sale in a tourist shop at a dramatic discount. I was immediately captivated by its motion and drawn in by its fascinating and unconventional details. My companions initially thought that I was joking when I stopped to watch the fountain, and then after I inquired about its price, they realized I was serious. Look […]

Categories: China, Culture, Mystery Objects, Objects of Power, Uncategorized • Tags: water fountain

In Defense of Serendipity, Some Notes

February 22, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

I’m too busy these days to have time for any kind of review of the books that I’m reading, but I have been wanting to post more on this blog and since I type notes up on my books anyway, I might as well share some of my comments and choice quotes. I encountered Sebastian Olma’s book, In Defense of Serendipity, through a reference in another book to the preface, “The Great Digital Swindle,” written by Mark Fisher. In Fisher’s preface he asks […]

Categories: Books • Tags: Mark Fisher, Repeater Books, Sebastian Olma, serendipity, Silicon Valley

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“Scan & Go” at Watson’s: Checking Out on the Sales Floor

January 24, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Yesterday for the first time I experienced a retail store employee as a “checkout point.” I visited a nearby Watson’s store to buy a pack of Bandaids and when I went to the cashier’s counter to pay for my purchase, I noticed a sign that said, “Scan & Go” in English and Chinese. I was a bit mystified because for most of the past two years I always pay with things by “scanning and going”—pulling out my phone, opening Alipay, […]

Categories: Digital Payments, Retail, Surveillance, Technology • Tags: Alipay, WeChat

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The Nanjing River Bridge Gets a Facelift for its 50th Anniversary

December 30, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

Two years ago, in the fall of 2016, the Nanjing River Bridge (南京长江大桥) was closed for extensive renovations. The first Chinese-constructed bridge across the Yangtze river, when it opened in December 1968 it was extolled as an example of China’s “spirit of self-reliance” (自立根生). Its opening was also the high point of the rustication program of “sent down youth” during the Cultural Revolution, and former zhiqing with whom I have worked over the years have commented on the significance of […]

Categories: China, Objects of Power • Tags: Cultural Revolution, Nanjing River Bridge

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No Earthrise in China?

December 28, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

This week was the fiftieth anniversary of the perspective-changing image of the Earth taken from Apollo 8 while in lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968. The iconic photograph of the Earthrise—the first color image of Earth from space—and its effects on our understanding of our home planet were the topic of many articles in the media this past holiday week. So imagine my utter surprise when I showed this photograph to a classroom of over seventy Chinese college students at […]

Categories: China, Environment, Photography, Scripts • Tags: Earthrise

Crowd Control at the Beijing Station Ticket Window

December 26, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

One of my earliest memories of life in China was fighting for tickets at railway stations and movie theaters where the idea of lines was a culturally alien one. Decades later while it is common to see folks in urban China line up for everything in a way that is familiar, some spaces are still being negotiated. As interfaces between the urban and rural, train stations remain just such a potential space. Urban China, however, has numerous examples of design […]

Categories: Bodies, China, Discipline, Uncategorized • Tags: Beijing Railway Station, design, queue

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