Multiplying Munch: New Digital Practices at the Munch Museum, 2019

The following project aims to uncover, describe and analyze museum practice of visual copying in art museums. The thesis's overall research question is: what kind of ontology does digital copies of museum objects have? What is the motive behind digital copies, and how are these created? Looking at digitization as a copying practice is a new point of view in relation to today's approaches to digitizing the museum's collections. The thesis therefore demonstrates that digital age is not just about the distribution of images in museums, but also about the spread of different types of actors involved in image creation. The examination of copies using ethnographic analysis tools illustrates a practice that has hitherto been little represented in research of digital imaging (reproductions of oil paintings, see article 1), documents (letter facsimile, see articles 3 and 4) and historical objects (souvenirs based on Edvard Munch's bedspread, see article 2) in a leading European museum: The Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. The use of material semiotics and actor network theory has made it possible to flatten the landscape and analyze different actors involved in the production of copies in a symmetrical manner. This prevented a "black boxing" of technology, which is often taken for granted and tends to be invisible. The images have been shown to be actors capable of acting, as part of the incorporated "assamblages" of human and non-human actor networks, which circulate between different levels of museum work. Pictures of works of art, documents and objects are constantly being processed, updated, multiplied and moved around. As the articles in the dissertation show, an art museum can be read as an ever-growing player network of relationships where authentic objects and copies are embedded. Producing a copy in a museum is a collective process, and several human and non-human actors act simultaneously in this process. Reproductions of paintings, letter facsimiles or patterns printed on souvenirs are a result of clashes and tensions between various actors involved in this dynamic and impossible-to-schematic process.

For further information about ”Multiplying Munch: New Digital Practices at the Munch Museum, 2019”, please contact the principal investigator.

本项目旨在揭示、描述并分析艺术博物馆中视觉复制的实践。研究的核心问题是：博物馆藏品的数字复制品具有何种本体论（ontology）属性？数字复制的动机是什么，又是如何产生的？将数字化视为一种复制实践，相对于当前博物馆藏品数字化的主流方法而言，是一个全新的视角。因此，本研究表明，数字时代不仅关乎博物馆中图像的传播，更涉及图像创作过程中各类参与主体（actors）的扩展。借助民族志分析工具对复制品展开研究，揭示了欧洲顶尖博物馆——挪威奥斯陆蒙克博物馆（The Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway）中，数字成像领域研究（油画复制品，参见文章1）、文献（信件传真件，参见文章3和4）及历史物件（基于爱德华·蒙克床罩的纪念品，参见文章2）相关实践此前未被充分呈现的一面。物质符号学（material semiotics）与行动者网络理论（actor network theory）的应用，使得我们能够扁平化研究图景，并以对称方式分析参与复制品生产的各类行动者。这避免了技术的“黑箱化”（black boxing）——一种常被视为理所当然且易被忽视的现象。研究表明，图像作为人与非人类行动者网络整合“集合体”（assemblages）的一部分，是具有行动能力的主体，其在博物馆工作的不同层面间流转。艺术品、文献及物件的图像持续被处理、更新、复制和流转。正如论文中的文章所示，艺术博物馆可被解读为一个不断扩展的关系网络，其中嵌入了原真物件与复制品。博物馆中复制品的生产是一个集体过程，人类与非人类行动者在此过程中同步发挥作用。

如需了解《复制蒙克：2019年蒙克博物馆的新数字实践》（Multiplying Munch: New Digital Practices at the Munch Museum, 2019）的更多信息，请联系项目负责人。