Thinking about what I do

I have been reading a very interesting book called Friends of Interpretable Objects, by Miguel Tamen, Professor of Literary Theory at University of Lisbon.

It is a small book, brimming with Portuguese flair and a taste for aesthetics – hence it felt very warm and inviting and triggered many memories of red-wine-fuelled philosophical conversations while writing my dissertation.

Tamen’s most exciting claim is that:

something becomes interpretable, and describable in an intentional way, only in the context of a specific “society of friends".

I am in the middle of dealing with a Friends group at a museum I am helping redevelop, and thankfully the society of friends he refers to is more a spiritual community, united by language and meaning making, than the technical definition comprising these wonderful – and voluntary – supporters of museums all over the world who have such a huge part to play in the renaissance of our sector.

Reading this book has provoked a shift in my perceptions of what I do. I understand all visitors (and possibly even non visitors) as constituting the society of friends that I work with. As an interpretative planner my job is to reflect on the process of meaning making, on how and around what do museum friends come together? In what way do they share meaning making? In Tamen’s terms: how can I help to “characterise language, interpretation and intention-attributing activities” so that messages and experiences that inhabit our museums are shared?

Of course, my answer cannot find expression in a paragraph on this blog. (Not only do I not own the language, I don't actually have the answer yet!) It emerges every day in working creatively around the challenges of an interpretative project. Every project team reveals different understandings and approaches. Even language itself is a cultural barrier in meaning making, as I discovered – for the upteenth time – recently, in my dealings with the Italian Ministry of Culture. My discovery was one of increased self awareness – little to do with professional capability, and lots to do with the need to re-align myself to a different culture of meaning making.

So my thought for this day: each society of friends impacts most profoundly on the interpretative plan that their museum adopts. But... how can we avoid self referentiality? And how does an interpretative planner deal with that? Suggestions?