Method of museum-exposition design as a basis of classification of museum expositions

Abstract

In this article are considered the possibilities of the problem of classification and specific features of a museum exposition. One of the most important classification criteria is the museum-exposition design method, since the choice of method embodies a certain type of thinking and knowledge of the exposition theme, and it directs the choice of means for creating a specific museum model of reality of a particular type. The method correlates with the modeling function of the exposition; it allows you to select the types of museum expositions according to the design method. Well-known categories (systematic, ensemble/landscape, thematic, museum-figurative, figurative-plot) are highlighted along with types of museum expositions: science; popular science (environmental, thematic, complex); and synthetic. A brief overview of the problem of classification and typology of expositions and exhibitions in foreign museology allows us to present several approaches. Based on the cultural-historical approach, E. Svetsimsky identified three types of modernization of expositions. Modernization aimed at ensuring the scientific nature of expositions has, since the 19th century, produced a type of systematic exposition. Modernization of a didactic character led to the formation of illustrative-thematic and illustrative-narrative expositions. Modernization subordinate to aesthetic principles contributed to the formation of artistic methods of exhibition design. The diversity of approaches to classification in foreign museology has been systematized by P. van Mensch. These type-specific schemes have many intersections with classification according to the method of exposure design and direct analogies with the kinds and types identified in it. Adaptation of this classification to the profile system of the museum is considered on the example of an artistic exposition. T. P. Kalugina characterized the following types of exposition: a decorative complex, an academic series, an exhibit in focus and a problem grouping. These types can be considered as a special case of a more universal classification, which relies on the cognitive approach.

Keywords:

museum science, museum exposition, classification, typology, cognitive approach, method of museum-exhibition design, foreign museums, art exposition