On The Hypermnemonic Structure Of The Museum

As an important public cultural institution,the museum has been responsible for the preservation of human memory since its establishment.Its collection system and exhibition narrative represent the ethos of the times,while its transitional development model has also become a very important issue.Based on concerns related to my curatorial practice,the museum is regarded as an existing social institution in this dissertation.Thus,by examining several important stages of the evolutions of the museum,this dissertation intends to sort out the entangled relationships between memory and knowledge,experience,and information mediated by the museum.In the context of metamorphosis,and thus entering the context of hypertext media,the possible forms of future museums and the model of public memory they carry are deduced.This study explores the archaeological excavations of the museum's intrinsic hyper-memory structure in a cyclical way,from knowledge/classification,experience/the day-to-day,media/archive,and several intertwined orientations.Through the review of artistic memory,the relationship between archiving of self-technology and museumization of memory is examined.And through the analysis of the history and characteristics of museums in the classical period,the core cultural composition of the museum is interpreted.Through the epistemology of naming,classification,and hoarding of things,it leads to speculation on encyclopedic museums and historical relations between the spirit of enlightenment and museum development characterized by rationality,order,and public education since the eighteenth century.The dialectical retrospection of the Enlightenment heritage indicates the inherent contradictions of the encyclopaedic museum and the internal logic of its transformation.The study begins with the research and criticism of current and contemporary museums,and dismantles,reorganizes,and traces historical materials within the existing museum mechanism to demonstrate the foundation and effectiveness of its development.Finally,by analyzing the three parts of hypertext,archivalization and cosmology,the hyper memory structure is proposed as a possible direction of museum transition.“Hyper-mnema” is proposed in the sense of "memory tools.” It uses museums as a place of realization and is an experiment in self-technique.“Hyper” refers to the infinite accumulation of memory under the hypertext structure,while “mnema” is the individual's conscious self-archiving,continuous discovery and collection of the infinite daily,and connecting to each other on a hypertextual level.The archives,through hypertext cyberspaces,look beyond the interior of the Hypermnemic Museum,from physical museums to hyper-memory networks that transcend the individual and space-time.The Hypermnemic Museum is therefore a memory theater where spiritual entities and digital files are interwoven.