Modern museums implicitly promise to make us more knowledgeable as we walk their halls. In walking the museum, however, we also become aware of the paths not walked and the knowledge not gain. This paper explores how walking reveals the attainment of knowledge and awareness of knowledge's limits.
Paper long abstract:
Modern museums, built on what Alice Proctor calls the ‘classroom’ model, implicitly promise that we will be smarter and more knowledgeable about the world when we leave than when we enter. Many museums offer specific pathways for the acquisition of specific knowledges – a path for families to the most awe-inspiring and child-friendly objects; a path for archeology buffs; a path to objects that centered on a theme, LGBTQ+ say, or colonialisms. Further, it is well accepted by now that such pathways are a form of culturally specific knowledge, encultured training in ways of seeing. Yet, there is a correlation, these museum curatorial departments suggest, between the process of walking through the museum itself and the process of gaining knowledge, a correlation built from the narrative structure of folk tales. In walking the museum, however, we also become aware of how much we are not seeing, the paths we chose not to walk and thus the knowledge we will not gain. This paper explores both sides – the attainment of knowledge through walking and the increasing knowledge of what we do not know that such walking reveals.