10. Arts, Cultures, Cultural Industries and Heritages: Shifting Objects for STS

Mylène Tanferri, Université de Lausanne; Tatiana Smirnova, UNIL; Fischer Elodie, UNIL; Sarah Waeber, CHUV; Dominique Vinck, University of Lausanne

Posted: February 28, 2022
Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês, Spanish/Español/Espanhol, Portuguese/Portugués

This panel aims to convey different propositions working on artistic, cultural and/or heritage objects and projects with an STS perspective. Cultural and heritage institutions and projects can be productively described with the help of STS notions, especially in these different perspectives: they rely increasingly on digital tools (Lewi et al., 2019); their activities regularly involve scientific knowledges and technologies to act on their materials (Domínguez Rubio, 2016; Kreplak, 2018), or their publics and frequentations (Patel et al., 2016); they represent infrastructures in their own rights (Almqvist, 2016) and produce knowledge infrastructures of importance (Beltrame, 2012; Wouters et al., 2013). Cultural and heritage objects can also stand at the intersection between different groups and can be engaged in conflicting descriptions and controversies (Caswell, 2021). In these different acceptions (and potentially more), culture and heritage objects and projects can contribute to STS. By displacing their traditional focus on labs, techs and sciences to offer new venues they might help to explore STS concepts and notions.

Almqvist, J. (2016) ‘Cultural Institutions / Infrastructure’, in Culture and Human Rights: The Wroclaw Commentaries. De Gruyter, pp. 136–139.

Beltrame, T. (2012) Ethnographie de la patrimonialisation?: numériser, inventorier et classer la collection du musée du quai Branly. These de doctorat. Paris 10.

Caswell, M. (2021) Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work. London: Routledge.

Domínguez Rubio, F. (2016) ‘On the discrepancy between objects and things: An ecological approach’, Journal of Material Culture, 21(1), pp. 59–86.

Kreplak, Y. (2018) ‘On Thick Records and Complex Artworks: A Study of Record-Keeping Practices at the Museum’, Human Studies, 41(4), pp. 697–717.

Lewi, H. et al. (eds) (2019) The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites. 1st edition. Routledge.

Patel, M. et al. (2016) ‘Playing with words: creativity and interaction in museums and galleries’, Museum Management and Curatorship, 31(1), pp. 69–86.

Wouters, P. et al. (eds) (2013) Virtual knowledge: experimenting in the humanities and the social sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Contact: tanmilena@outlook.fr, tatiana.smirnova@unil.ch, elodie.fisher@unil.ch, sarah.waeber@chuv.ch, Dominique.Vinck@unil.ch
Keywords: Culture; Arts; Heritage; Cultural Industries; Cultural Infrastructures



Published: 02/28/2022