Healing in the Museum A Geographic Perspective Presenter Hamish Robertson Visiting Fellow University of Technology Sydney AUSTRALIA Tenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum
Healing in the MuseumA Geographic Perspective
Presenter
Hamish Robertson
Visiting Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
AUSTRALIA
Tenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum
Contents
• Introduction
• The great convergence
• Places of healing, places as healing
• The museum as place
• Healing in and through the museum
• Current practices and future developments
• Conclusion
OECD Countries - Older Populations % of Total 1970-2014Source: https://data.oecd.org/pop/elderly-population.htm
The Great Convergence and the Museum
• Major demographic changes are ongoing, developmental and diversifying
• Big 3 - population ageing, disability, socio-cultural diversity (migrations, generational shifts)
• Dynamic social categories and improving inclusions (disability, sexuality, aged-related conditions)
• Age/disability conditions - physical, intellectual, psychological (inc.trauma, PTSD etc.) and cognitive impairments (neurological, neurodegenerative, pain etc.)
• Updating museum studies (criticalities) for this century, its enduring cultural conflicts and the implications of convergence
• Situating the museum as a locus of care and identity - represented by, present and participating in the museum
Population Ageing and Chronic Disease
• Ageing is closely correlated with chronic disease, disability and a growing variety of neuroepidemiological conditions
• Chronic disease is already the largest source of morbidity and mortality globally (WHO) and this trend is rising
• Women live longer than men, on average, and have higher disability rates –ageing is both a female and a feminist issue – ageing policy prism
• In many rich countries chronic disease rates are approaching 50% prevalence –the myth of universal health and healthcare?
• Marmot etc. prove social inequality gradients in life chances persist and many marginal groups do much worse (the Glasgow effect, the DC train line effect etc.)
• Health inequalities are spatially patterned, often to the level of microgeographies– life expectancies can vary dramatically within a matter of a few city blocks
• These scenarios can only continue to develop as population ageing progresses
Clinical Aspects of Ageing Include;
• Visual impairments including macular degeneration
• Hearing impairments including Deafness/deaf/deaf-blind/HoH/tinnitus
• Cognitive, memory and behavioural problems associated with neurodegenerative disorders/diseases
• Dementia spectrum including MCI and AD – 50:50 chance of diagnosis in primary care (Draper et al, 2011)
• Movement disorders including PD and gait ataxias
• TIA/stroke – aphasia etc.
• Persistent pain – e.g. post-operative and post event, headache, neuralgia, severe/persistent dental infections etc.
• Delirium versus dementia – misdiagnosis and consequences
• Polypharmacy – multiple drugs and their interactions in frail older people
• Disability status, cause and consequences for daily life
On Not Being an Extension of the Medical System
• The risks of medicalization – every symptom a potential illness to be treated
• The Alzheimer’s industry promotes no identity without memory, as though memory is reliable, stable and objective
• Diagnostic overshadowing – the diagnosis becomes the only health issue –bad news for older people and people with disability (then and now)
• The risk dimension – physical and psychological accommodations in the museum experience – how best to manage?
• Culture, memory and continuity – what happens to people’s artifacts when the individual is gone?
• The long-term orientation of the museum as a plus for people and their individual and collective memories
• Luciano Floridi and others on ‘digital remains’ – is this an opportunity for the museum, an extension of the cultural and caring principles?
Places of Healing, Places as Healing
• Healing, not necessarily curing…but in time perhaps?
• Reconciliation to and not alienation from the conditions people are living with (e.g. dementias, disabilities)
• The politics of care and the role of the museum – Monique Lanoix etc.
• Providing care in situ as a place-creation process -> care as placed
• Reconsidering space-place relations (e.g. health and medical geographic theory)
• Places as sites of healing – cultural shifts and continuities
• Healing in and through place and place-based effects (and vice versa)
• The museum is emerging as a healing place
Healing In and Through the Museum
• In-house and outreach activities – spaces become places through engagement, attachment and identification – museum extends itself
• Contribution to the art and science of ageing – building the knowledge base through cultural and memory/experiential work
• Contribution to the social care for older people, people with disability etc.
• Cultural heritage institutions and their role in a broader conceptualisationof care and healing
• Museum staff become experts in their own corpus of knowledge on ageing, disability etc.
• Exhibition and event design as inclusive of the need for healing
• Museums join the spectrum of healing places by engaging with the care of these important social categories of person and their experiences
Current Practices, Future Developments
• Current projects underway UK, USA etc. on open-ended engagement with people who are unwell
• Social prescribing in the UK -> preventive potential as well as interventional?
• Specific projects aimed at physical, psychological (and mixed) conditions – individual and collective (categories, groups, communities) scenarios
• Intergenerational engagements – the life-course museum?
• On not medicalising the museum – this would be a step backwards
In Conclusion
• We live in rapidly ageing societies, a global trend that is expanding and diversifying – ageing, disability, sexuality etc.
• The museum is, increasingly, a locus for care work and, therefore, a place of potential and even actual healing
• Cultural memory work is hugely important for individuals and groups, this will grow as social inclusion expands
• Neuroplasticity suggests the potential for expanding the role of the museum – the brain can and does adapt (e.g. Ellen Langer’s work)
• This work should be parallel, not subordinate to the healthcare system
• Museums are places and places can have healing qualities
• Cultural heritage and geography offer a practical and theoretically rich potential for this emerging ‘landscape’ of care