An exploration of themes pertinent to curating and museum/exhibition design, followed by a case study of Conflictorium - a participatory museum on conflict

1. A TRIP
THROUGH A
WORLD OF
IDEAS

2. curious (adj.) mid-14c., ―eager to know‖ (often in a bad
sense), from Old French curios ―solicitous, anxious,
inquisitive; odd, strange‖ (Modern French curieux) and
directly from Latin curiosus ―careful, diligent; inquiring
eagerly, meddlesome,‖ akin to cura ―care‖ (see cure (n.)).
The objective sense of ―exciting curiosity‖ is 1715 in
English. In booksellers’ catalogues, the word means ―erotic,
pornographic.‖ Curiouser and curiouser is from ―Alice in
Wonderland‖ (1865).

3. curiosity (n.) late 14c., ―careful attention to detail,‖ also
―desire to know or learn‖ (originally usually in a bad sense),
from Old French curiosete ―curiosity, avidity, choosiness‖
(Modern French curiosité), from Latin curiositatem
(nominative curiositas) ―desire of knowledge,
inquisitiveness,‖ from curiosus (see curious). Neutral or
good sense is from early 17c. Meaning ―an object of
interest‖ is from 1640s.

4. curio (n.) ―piece of bric-a-brac from the Far East,‖ 1851,
shortened form of curiosity (n.).

5. The Great Exhibition of 1851

8. …an erotics of showing/seeing?

9. memory (n.) mid-13c., ―recollection (of someone or
something); awareness, consciousness,‖ also ―fame, renown,
reputation,‖ from Anglo-French memorie (Old French
memoire, 11c., ―mind, memory, remembrance; memorial,
record‖) and directly from Latin memoria ―memory,
remembrance, faculty of remembering,‖ noun of quality
from memor ―mindful, remembering,‖ from PIE root
*(s)mer- ―to remember‖ (Sanskrit smriti ―remembers,‖
Avestan mimara ―mindful;‖ Greek merimna ―care, thought,‖
mermeros ―causing anxiety, mischievous, baneful;‖ SerboCroatian mariti ―to care for;‖ Welsh marth ―sadness,
anxiety;‖ Old Norse Mimir, name of the giant who guards
the Well of Wisdom; Old English gemimor ―known,‖
murnan ―mourn, remember sorrowfully;‖ Dutch mijmeren
―to ponder‖). Meaning ―faculty of remembering‖ is late 14c.
in English.

10. history (n.) late 14c., ―relation of incidents‖ (true or false),
from Old French estoire, estorie ―chronicle, history, story‖
(12c., Modern French histoire), from Latin historia
―narrative of past events, account, tale, story,‖ from Greek
historia ―a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of
one’s inquiries, history, record, narrative,‖ from historein
―inquire,‖ from histor ―wise man, judge,‖ from PIE *widtor-, from root *weid- ―to know,‖ literally ―to see‖.
Related to Greek idein ―to see,‖ and to eidenai ―to know.‖ In
Middle English, not differentiated from story; sense of
―record of past events‖ probably first attested late 15c. As a
branch of knowledge, from 1842. Sense of ―systematic
account (without reference to time) of a set of natural
phenomena‖ (1560s) is now obsolete except in natural
history.

11. ―The struggle of man against power is the
struggle of memory against forgetting.‖
― Milan Kundera

13. Umberto Eco –
Travels in Hyperreality

17. Itihasa, as it has come down to us, consists of
the Mahabharata and the Ramayana (sometimes
the Puranas too, are included). The
Mahabharata includes the story of the
Kurukshetra War and also preserves the
traditions of the lunar dynasty in the form of
embedded tales. The Puranas narrate the
universal history as perceived by the Hindus –
cosmogony, myth, legend and history. The
Ramayana contains the story of Rama and
incidentally relates the legends of the solar
dynasty. (wikipedia)

18. ―No word matters. But man forgets reality and
remembers words.‖
― Roger Zelazny

19. Death of the Grand Narrative
—Jean-Francois Lyotard

20. Seeking to save the planet - with a Thesaurus

21. Anticipating reception and
staging/subverting it

22. THE
CONFLICTORIUM
STORY

25. IMAGINING CONFLICTORIUM
• Participatory Museum
• Community Arts centre
• Cafe
• Gallery
• Co-working space
• Part formal/part casual
• Performance/Screening
• Legal aid center
• Library/reading/writing room
• Conversation + Dialogue
• Intervention
• Organically growing
• Melting pot – artists, researchers, students, teachers,
housewives, musicians, tourists, community around,
engineers, geeks, foodies, parents, dancers, weavers, farmers
and many other kinds!

26. Perspectives. A sculptural installation that illustrates the core of
every conflict—differing perspectives of the same reality/fact
Gallery of Disputes. A collection of artefacts from history that have
divided people, often violently
Responsorium. A series of pods where the individual enacts various
modes of response to a provocation—thereby experiencing being at
the different corners of a conflict
Law|Truth|Justice. A mini-light and sound show on society’s
instruments to establish facts and deliver justice
Kshamayachana. A Jainism- and Zen-inspired silent space where
people awaken and cleanse their conscience
Café. Delicious light snacks and beverages served without any fixed
price or foods from conflicting groups served in combination or food
from the two sides of Ahmedabad city served in the same place
Charchā no Chotro. A mini-amphitheater for debates, discussions,
jan sunwais and performances
Bazaar-e-Ahimsa. A fair trade store with a range of eco-friendly
and violence-free personal and home accessories/mementos and
publications

27. The Participatory Museum
— Nina Simon

42. THE
BATTLE
OVER
NARRATIVE

43. Kavita Singh teaches art history at the School of Arts and
Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her courses cover
two broad areas: the history of Indian painting (Mughal and
'Rajput') and the history and politics of museums.
She is currently working on a book on the place of museums
in post-colonial India.

44. ―Far from being a curious local phenomenon, this blurring of the boundary between museum and shrine
is, we believe, emblematic of the shape-shifting of key cultural institutions in response to the needs of
the new cultural economy that art history as a discipline must acknowledge and to which it must
respond.‖

45. THE BATTLE OVER NARRATIVE