Simulation response pg. 13-23
By: Tanner Morris
This next excerpt of Simulations describes the affect that science has on historical objects. Specifically, when they are discovered and taken out of their context and place of purpose. Baudrillard starts with an anecdote about a time when the Phillipino government decided to return remains of natives that had been discovered where they remained for eight centuries, deep in the jungle. They did this because the remains deteriorated rapidly as they were uncovered back into the elements. He uses this story to make the statement that ethnology lives once the object is dead. I assume this is because ethnology studies what was and science kills the very object it uncovers by removing it from its reality.
This next excerpt of Simulations describes the affect that science has on historical objects. Specifically, when they are discovered and taken out of their context and place of purpose. Baudrillard starts with an anecdote about a time when the Phillipino government decided to return remains of natives that had been discovered where they remained for eight centuries, deep in the jungle. They did this because the remains deteriorated rapidly as they were uncovered back into the elements. He uses this story to make the statement that ethnology lives once the object is dead. I assume this is because ethnology studies what was and science kills the very object it uncovers by removing it from its reality.
Towards the end of the excerpt Baudrillard notes how when a historical object is “museumified” or placed in a museum it’s killed at the same time. I can agree with this statement for the reason that I took an art Museum class last term and one of the main concepts we studied was the museum effect. This term identifies the way the space and context of a museum alters the perception of the objects within it. These objects are taken out of their original context and more times than not, not accurately presented to express their true history or altered to accomplish a particular motif by the establishment.
If not 'killed' literally (think he was thinking about wildlife specimens) the meaning of the thing is transformed completely and can never be the same again.
ReplyDelete