I get tired in big museums. Really, for some reason I always yawn as soon as I walk in the door. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them, it’s just that I want to see it all and I know that’s impossible. To conquer “bigness” and the avoid museum fatigue I like to seek out a unique, contained, experience rather than running around attempting to see the entire museum and instead absorbing very little. So, when I saw a pamphlet at the British Museum titled, A History of the World in 100 Objects I quickly scanned the brochure for a map of the gallery where I could see the show.
Well, no gallery. Turns out the objects are scattered throughout the museum, and as I said it’s no small museum. Talk about museum fatigue. The experience lost its appeal and I decided to make a b-line for the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone. But I was still curious about the program’s execution so I sought out one object on the list to find out what the visitor pay-off was. I chose a sculpture from the Parthenon and when I found it, in Room 18, I was sad to discover no interpretation at all indicating it was part of the 100 object theme. I felt like a kid on an easter egg hunt who finally finds the plastic egg, cracks it open, only to discover there’s no chocolate inside.
I like the idea of a focused exhibit of artifacts reflecting one perspective on the history of the world – it’s very compelling. However, as a visitor I would like to see the objects side-by-side, accompanied by interpretation supporting the theme. And if they can’t be together then I want some kind of reward when I find the object – a reward can be as simple as a graphic with interpretation about how this object supports the theme and why it was selected. To be fair, the History of the World in 100 Objects program is also part of a BBC radio broadcast and a website with photos of the artifacts – so there’s lots of interpretation, it’s just not in the museum.
