MALRAUX AND DELOCHE – A CONVERSATION ON THE MUSEUM

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This paper is dedicated to posing questions arising from contemplating the concepts of imaginary and virtual museums. Since a virtual museum, as interpreted by Deloche, primarily represents an imaginary museum (as defined by Malraux) it is necessary to establish a relation between these two similar concepts and point to their potential importance for understanding the museum as such. By implicit rejection of the distinction between museology and new museology for being futile in solving museological antinomies, this paper fully submits to the contemplation of the museum and its disciplinary definitions from the position of Deloch’s interpretation of museology as a ‘’philosophical discipline’’.

CHALLENGES OF NEW MUSEOLOGY IN PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DISSONANT HERITAGE

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There are only a few countries in the modern world that have not been established as a result of violence and conflict. Material evidence and oral traditions remained after these events, but science has not yet reached a consensus on whether they should be kept, let alone on how to present and interpret them. This paper deals with the challenges and obstacles that management of such heritage puts in front of the new museology. The emphasis on the personal experience and participation, addressing current, existential issues and hardships, deinstitutionalization, stepping out to open spaces, popularization of the content, decentralization, involvement of the local communities and therefore society as a whole – all of these are elements on which the new museology has been based for nearly half a century. The challenge lies in finding the right balance and ensuring systematic, methodological applications with the introduction of certain standards. So far, the principle – all is possible and nothing is a must – has failed to achieve results. It is up to the museologists to be arbitrators of sorts and to motivate, coordinate and lead local communities in the efforts to preserve each layer of dissonant heritage from oblivion.

NEW MUSEOLOGY AS A FACT OF CONTEMPORANEITY

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This essay is on new museology and its essential concepts. The discourse is based on the concept of new museology as a utopian project that emerged as criticism of the, so-called, traditional museum. Although its foundation is usually dated back to 1989, in Peter Vergo’s seminal The New Museology, we are more inclined to date it in the mid-1970s, linking it to broader artistic, social, economic and political movements of the post-1968 world. The idea expressed in this paper is that “the new museology” has not lost its currency, as we believe is shown in Key Concepts of Museology, published by ICOM in French in 2009, and in English 2010.

EDITOR’S NOTE

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FROM UNDERSTANDING TO LOVE

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THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL POLICY SUPPORTING A SUSTAINED CULTURAL ACTIVITY

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The paper focuses on the work of the Terra International Symposium of Sculpture in Kikinda and the way the state cultural policy regarding this cultural institution, its importance, functioning and its plans about sustainability and development. The first step was to analyse the cultural policy which needs to be implemented in order to enhance the country support to the culture (to its sustainability and development). Then the subject was considered by focusing on the current state of cultural policy in the Republic of Serbia. The level of the state budget income decides on whether a country will have long-term strategic plan on cultural policy to be implemented by authorities, or its tactical and operational decision making process will remain on an ad hoc basis. The latter represents the less favourable way, as the lack of strategic plan (even a short-term one) diminishes the chance for making a vision come true. The paper considers reasons behind the foundation and the activities of the Symposium, its basic engagements, mission, vision and strategic plan. It is concluded that in the most turbulent social circumstances Terra has managed to realize its goals and implement its adopted vision, mainly due to correct assessment of the state of play as well as of its own capacities. The high level of creativity in a global perspective proves the stability of Terra even in unfavourable conditions. Terra´s plan on further activities shows a clearly determined multidisciplinary approach consisting of creative, educational and museology and tourism related activities. Realization of a strategic plan in terms of multidisciplinary practice at this moment depends on Terra´s ability to obtain working space in a short time, by adapting of the venues that are already in its possession and also by including the cultural policy in the solution of this problem. The final part of the paper considers some possible actions of the state authorities that could be implemented in interdepartmental and intergovernmental cooperation on a municipal, provincial and state level. This intervention will enable Terra to achieve its sustainability and financial independence. A well-designed action plan will expand the Terra´s influence in the region, make better involvement of adopted disciplines in European and world trends. Once the country joins the European Union, further vision development will be possible with the assistance of European development funds.

ANTINOMIES OF THE YOUGOSLAV ROCK-N-ROLL IN THE SIXTIES

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The author gives a parallel comparative overview of the Yugoslav society in the 1960s on the one hand, and the rock-n-roll music which established itself as a dominant music trend of the young generations of the decade, on the other. An attempt is made to answer the question of how rock culture as a phenomenon of capitalist and imperialist America has found a place in the cultural map of a socialist anti-imperialist country such as Yugoslavia. The article considers the “crossroads” in which Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia had found itself: while the society had programmed its development in accordance with the materialistic grounds of Marxism (with relevant ideology) its culture unintentionally followed the Weber idealistic perspective. The author aims to prove a thesis under which rock-n-roll, although it came from outside, was not forcefully imposed to Yugoslavia (economically or politically) because rock-n-roll itself represented opposition to the dominant culture of the American society in which it originated. In this part of the article, the author holds an argument with the conspiracy theorists who believe that rock-n-roll had the role of a Trojan horse that would later speed up the ruin of communism. The main reason for such a quick and warm reception of rock-n-roll by the young is found in the fact that even pre-war Yugoslavia had a well grounded tradition of jazz and pop music with adequate culture that rock-n-roll leaned on and enriched. However, rock-n-roll was not that simply assimilated in the land of the communist and antifascist fight heroes. Its acceptance entailed many contradictions, quite different from the ones that were dominant in the USA or Great Britain. The contradictions here arose from the features of the social system and the traditional cultural patterns. According to the author, the acculturation wave that carried the rock-n-roll to Yugoslavia was successful because rock-n-roll is the kind of music that has universal significance and outreach. It cannot be clean cut down to the attributes of its overall esthetic expression – social, anthropological or psychological.

COPY/PASTE JOURNALISM AND THE INTERNET: A USED PRODUCT IN THE NEW MEDIA

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Widely spread online journalism and emergence of the internet portals are bringing democratization of public speach. However, they are also carring some risks and dangers that are affecting the already shaken position of journalistic profession, and are arising questions of professionalism, ethics and jurnalism codes. Copy/paste journalism includes not only the recycling of previously published information, but also taking news without publishing sources, plagiarism, taking informal statements from the social networks as formal ones and so on. The reasons behind this futile job, without reference to the basic principles of journalism, are different – but the most obvious ones are of lucrative nature.

NEW MEDIA OR NEW INTERFACES – THE CONCEPT OF INTERFACE IN LEV MANOVICH’S’ THEORY OF NEW MEDIA

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The subject of this text is Lev Manovich’s concept of the interface, as it is formulated in his influental book The Language of New Media. Manovich uses the term cultural interface to denote different ways of representation of digital objects of culture in the modern era. In his opinion, the ways of representation of cultural objects are not unique and inherent to specific material form, due to the more than one possible technolgical method of its representation. Critically analyzing this thesis, the author of this article suggests that Manovich’s notion of interface dabbles the traditional notion of the media, as a means or material of artistic expression. The author considers Manovich’s semiological approach, in which the computer interface is defined as “the code” and argues the need for a new non-semiotic theoretical framework in which the interface would be postulated as an important epistemological concept which can be used for a much needed reconceptualization of the media theory.