The scene: a bedroom somewhere in Budapest, furnished but as
of yet, unadorned. In the middle of the room: a suitcase. Open, piled
high, heaving with unfolded clothes. Smaller objects scattered across the shiny
wooden floor. All evidence of a recent move. The start of something new.
Unorganized. A mess. Just like my thesis proposal.
When writing my application I carefully considered my
interests, pinpointed my goals and objectives and wrote a few pages of text,
neatly organized and to the point. Later in the year I packed my luggage in
much the same way. Neatly and organized.
And then I arrived and the year started with a whirlwind
of orientations, classes, new impulses, inspirations, assignments… and suddenly
here I stand, clothes flung in all directions, the exciting terms I based my
proposal around just sitting there, on my proposal paper, are all jumbled up
and unorganized in my brain, each term tangled with the next and I am not sure
what to reach for first.
The research proposal I am currently working with
revolves around different concepts of heritage interpretation, focusing mainly
on the tools museums can utilize to communicate with their audiences in a
participatory and interactive manner. Back in January I had written the
following sentence to sum up the what I thought would be the main subjects of
my research: “Looking more practically at how museums can implement inclusion
and aid understanding through interpretation (as defined by Tilden 1977: 8),
the study must consider the specific ways and tools of showcasing heritage and
living culture (see e.g. the Smithsonian
Folklife Festival in Washington DC) as well as developments in
participatory museum practices and museum educational interpretations.”
However, the concept is both vague and vast, it is
unspecified.
Several keywords can be distinguished however: inclusion,
interpretation (including presentation), participatory museum and museum
education. I talk about tangible and intangible cultural heritage. About
traditional museum settings and events organized outside the museum
buildings. I write as if I knew exactly what I would like to research and
how I would go about doing it, but her and now I am lost.
I find my thoughts running around in desperate circles,
trying to find the loose end of the ball of yarn that is this thesis, and
unravel it in a meaningful and graceful fashion. That is I am struggling
to learn about all these concepts I had laid out for myself, as they are all
intertwined and I am not sure where to start and which one to begin
with. As I am starting to realize, this particular ball of yarn has no
single neat and accessible starting point, but a thousand threads to untangle
it by – and here the metaphor looses all meaning.
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So I am looking for a way in; a way to broaden my knowledge
while simultaneously defining the area of research, narrowing it to a feasible
and specific project, to lay the foundation based on which research can be
planned.
I will begin this work by
choosing a specific heritage site as a tangible example through which I can
understand the different concepts and approaches I am interested in. To this
end, the Hungarian Open Air Museum of
Szentendre will be my playground to explore approaches in
interpretation, community involvement and participation.
The museum was opened in 1972 and has taken a leading role
developing participatory museum education in Hungary. It was at this institution
that the Museum Education
andMethodology Centre (MOKK) was established in 2006. The center
organizes museum pedagogical workshops, trainings and publishes the journal Múzeumi Iránytű (Knowledge
Archive). Investigating into know the center and the work it does will no doubt
land me in the thick of it all, but in a graspable, contextualized manner.
The site itself will be a good place to start applying the
analytical methods I learn, as it works with heritage I am familiar with,
allowing me to focus on the narratives and presentational tools employed. The
site will serve as a reference point. It will be an example for me to keep
returning to when reading theories and learning to analyze heritage sites.
In the end, I am taking a threefold approach to orienting
myself within the field and finding my research subject within it: 1) I will
learn its terminologies and approaches through readings and explorations of
heritage institutions/sites, based upon which I will 2) choose a direction I
would like to take my research in, so that I can 3) choose a project (format)
and begin my thesis-specific research. This is my grand plan.
I have my ticket, I am going to Szentendre soon, armed with Lars Wohlers’ book on how to successfully present cultural and natural heritage, a notebook and a camera. I am ready to analyze, to take visual and written notes.
This is me, trying to take one step at a time.
It’s time to begin detangling my keywords.
It’s time to unpack my suitcase.
References
Lars Wohlers (2015) Informális
oktatás: hogyan mutassuk be sikerrel kulturális és természeti örökségünket.
Budapest: Kulturális Örökség Menedzserek Egyesülete (KÖME).
Tilden, F. (1977) Interpreting Our Heritage.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
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