MUSEOGRAPHY: HISTORY AND WHAT A MUSEOGRAPHER DOES - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The museology is the group of techniques and practices that allow the operation of a museum. It is, for example, how to assemble and locate the showcases that keep certain objects, the walls where the works will be hung, the lighting or the multimedia supports that will be dispersed in a particular pavilion, or throughout the entire complex.

But be careful: there is a very similar word but it is not the same. Museology and museography live in a permanent state of confusion, but here we clarify it for you. According to the Royal Spanish Academy, the first is the "science that deals with museums, their history, their influence on a society, and the techniques of conservation and cataloging."

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Meanwhile, he describes museography as “the set of techniques and practices related to the operation of a museum.

So we can say that museology encompasses the museum in a broader, more comprehensive concept, while museography focuses on more particular themes of a museum itself.

What does a museum designer do?

The responsibility of the museum designer is to try to communicate clearly (and increasingly inclusive and entertaining) to the visitor. In the first place, his work deals with mounting the exhibitions, whether temporary or permanent within the museum.

It is also in charge of developing curatorial proposals in a material and visual discourse. That is why in the introduction we told you that it is increasingly about involving the visitor more with the exhibition, as well as using different technological resources to make their visit more entertaining, without departing from the formal canons that every museum must to have.

Another task of the museum designer is to design the furniture where the objects will be exhibited (showcases, shelves, shelves, etc.). In addition, they are responsible for lighting, key to placing more or less emphasis on certain pieces, as well as to create a unique atmosphere of what the visitor observes. Then, a museum designer gives material and graphic meaning to the museum's exhibits.

But if there is a task that is extremely delicate for the museum designer, that is to move the pieces that will be exhibited. Let us remember that there are museums of all kinds, but without a doubt each item exhibited has a very high value; otherwise it would not be part of a museum.

Finally, once the exhibition begins, they do not finish their work, since they are responsible for the maintenance of the room where the objects are exhibited.

To summarize, it is valid to quote the Mexican museographer Christian Andrónico, who maintains that “museography is a central point between architecture and graphic design. He is also an ephemeral figure, since he builds something in a concrete space that is not necessarily going to be eternal, and he does so based on the experience that a museum designer can provide to visitors ”.

Ways of working of a museum designer

All these phases that we have described can be carried out in different ways of working. Let's see:

-They are carried out internally: within the sample project there is its own work team, although personnel can also be subcontracted to carry it out.

- An external is hired: this happens when the project owner does not have a team or an expert professional. In many cases, the contracted museologist acts as an advisor, that is, he suggests or proposes ideas, while the one who has the final say is the owner of the exhibition.

-External museum designer creator of the project: in this case the owner of the project or exhibition hires outsiders to delineate the museum's dimension. Then the owner approves the project requesting changes or not.

Museography and other disciplines

The previous words of the Mexican expert serve as a trigger to crumble, to disarm the museography in order to understand it better.

According to the specialized French site Les Museagraphes, there is a fundamental collaboration between museography and scenography. The second is given by architects, set designers, designers and lighting specialists. They all work together to give identity to what is proposed by the museography.

And in this sense, the other discipline that is key to expressing content is graphic design. Professionals in this branch bring text to life and animate still images, such as when making icons, maps, diagrams, or timelines.

So, in each chapter of the assembly or of the conception, between the three disciplines there are exchanges, dialogues that adjust the form and content.

Museums in the 21st century

Today there are not a few galleries, cultural centers and museums that are "uploaded" to the internet, either on Google Maps or in the applications that each venue can generate.

Is this a challenge for museum designers? Yes. It is a challenge to figure out how to get people out of their homes, invite them to see the exhibition and how to get that person to go "done" or "done" after what they saw.

The continuity of museums during the XXI century is a matter of concern for experts. In January 2018, the heads of the main establishments in the world met in Paris at a meeting organized by the Louis Vuitton Foundation.

Glenn Glowry, director of the MoMa in New York, United States, defined the museums of the 21st century as a "laboratory." They must be "a place of hypotheses, experiments and possible failures."

The truth is that today, Google has the Arts & Culture division, which collects works from more than 1,500 institutions from 70 countries around the world. And that's not all: she also makes her own shows, as in 2018 the so-called urches Caras de Frida », a tribute with objects, pieces and works by the Mexican artist Frida Khalo.

References

1. Museography. (2019). Royal Spanish Academy of the Language. Recovered from: dle.rae.es
2. Museology. (2019). Royal Spanish Academy of the Language. Recovered from: dle.rae.es
3. Christian Andrónico (2913). Fill Magazine interview. Recovered from: youtube.com
4. Les Museagrphes (2017). Recovered from: les-museographes.org
5. Ivo Maroevic (1998). Introduction to Museology: The european approach. Recovered from: books.google.bg
6. Alex Vicente. (2018). "El País" newspaper of Spain. Recovered from: elpais.com