Victoria and Albert Museum Critical Design - Essay Example

CRITICAL DESIGN Notably, the famous Victoria and Albert museum is largest and well-designed in terms of art and design; essentially,the building represents the creativity of humans for the last 3,000 years. The museum is made of a collection of diversity and scope. The museum has developed and undergone changes in the recent past. The efforts of the custodians have been restoration and renewal of the glory of the ancient time. The highlights of these changes include a Medieval Renaissance gallery that is made of surviving treasures1. Mostly, these treasures have makes the gallery a breathtaking and stunning; moreover, the museum represents the pride of the Britons. This building is a reflection of the history of this country in terms of designs and art. The facility proffers permanent fees that are unrivalled, extensive events program and temporary exhibition. Victoria and Albert museum is considered as greatest museum of art and design globally owing to the sumptuous patterns, stunning design, and exotic treasures. Moreover, this is the romantic side of Victoria and Albert Museum. The aim of forming this museum was to preserve the past, collection, and history of the Britons. Arguably, the preservation of the collections, museum, and the past has made the architecture of this building a matter of discussion2. This is a monumental architecture that has rewritten history of successive generation of tourists. Notably, museums are expected to endure the end of time just as a renaissance writer will perceive the pyramids. The museum has a collection of individual artifacts and works that have documentary and aesthetic value. Notably, museums are bound to change over time since the meaning of the objects ascribed to them reflects the cultural and social lifestyles of the people. The assumption is that the art institution, meaning of the collections and aesthetic value do evolve. Notably, a grand design in construction represents the continuous relevance of the themes, future of the museum, and collections therein. The Victoria and Albert museum differs with other museums owing to its collection, which are made of decorative and applied arts. Most of the collection in this museum is made of applied arts that attract an international appeal3. The museum contains the foremost holding of the Britons in terms of furniture, ceramics, silver, and textiles. The difference between Victoria and Albert museums with others is mainly on its focus on applied arts. However, most of the collections include paintings that represent the British history and lifestyle. It can be said that the museum do not contain comprehensive and works that are classified a applied arts. Essentially, the rich ambiguity of Victoria and Albert Museum merits the discussion and detailed investigations. This is critical since the investigations will establish whether the museum systematic and coherent contents. Arguably, the grand design of the museum has the selection of remarkable works that reflects he economic, social, individual, and political forces that led to its formation. Most of the collections have been redefined and used for artistic purposes since their formation4. The selection of the materials in the museum deals with issues that are essential and relevant to museum’s use and purposes. For instance, the texts are ascribed to the individual objects, the thinking of its formation, meaning, and history. The design of the museum denotes the intertwined histories on its formation, collection, and focus of works, as well as, reasons for its acquisition. Other interpretation relates to the personal taste and preference, chance on artifacts availability, considered policy, and motivation of the curators. The history of the display is a subject of discussion in establishing the meanings of the changes interpretation of objects. Notably, the history of display is achievable owing to guidebooks and surviving photographs. Victoria and Albert museum has a collection of materials that are essential in educating and impressing the viewer on the notion of spectacle. This is critical in gripping the imagination of the visitors to the museum. More so, the museums play a role in the preservation of the history, research for publication and research, as well as, preserving documents whose time has passed. The presentation of the museum is motivated by constant reformulation, changing attitudes towards artifact, and shifting notions of periods when materials were collected. The strategic thinking of the planners helped in developing a facility that enables visitors to tour using guidebooks. This is critical since personal viewing is encouraged to promote research and personal satisfaction5. However, visitors encounter with the artifacts depends on the personal biases, needs, fantasies and association. However, perceptions need to be based on institution recommendations. Imperatively, the history and the formation of Victoria and Albert museum have elicited the interest in studying other museums. In essence, the attention is on the history on the collections and museum as an institution. Essentially, the interest of studying these museums has been on antiquarian, growth of collection, formation, institutional structure, and detailed documentation of the sources of the artifacts. Additionally, other literatures examine the collecting practices in these institutions, system of knowledge in classification, variety of the institutions, issues of representation and strategies in display6. These critiques are essential in providing framework that questions these institutions on individual basis. Similarly, this paper uses the same methodology in inquiring the reconfiguration and formation of Victoria and Albert museums. Moreover, this paper questions how the museums represent peoples’ culture and the past. Conversely, there have been questions on whether museums should be international or represents British materials exceptionally. The growing role of museum in the country in articulating national identity is attributable to the schism when the imperial powers of the British began to wane. Essentially, the role of museums as an institution is linked to the underlying imperial structures. These structures are both on collection and interpretation of the collections. Essentially, the museums lack Indian collections, varied attitudes towards Japanese and Chinese collection, as well as, absence of African collection7. Notably, Victoria and Albert museums have African collections that are in the form of ethnography rather than art and designs. Moreover, the presentation and display of these collections propagates imperialism. Notably, the museum has aimed to present a predominant survey on applied arts. More so, the imperial assumptions are lodged in the way the museum display materials depicting the past and implications that the institution perceives the present and future post colonialism. The Victoria and Albert museum elicit such dilemmas and tensions owing to their history and agenda that they set; moreover, the continued debate on the museums future is raging. More striking is the museums canon of the applied art. Notably, the institution has a notion that led them to establish a canon that supposes masterpieces be made of great artist. The great events, major painters, and sculptors are will be stored in a masterpiece. However, there has been increased awareness campaign by the institution that the canon is subject of sociopolitical change and not absolute bore no fruits. The perceptions of the viewers have been that the masterpieces in the museums are natural. In applied arts, it is difficult to establish what masterpiece is made of and its appropriateness on display. Essentially, the bone of contentions is on the authorships. It can be noted that many of the sculptors and paintings are associate with artist; however, some artifacts in this institution lacks the origin of the maker. Essentially, Victoria and Albert museum display artifacts such as painting and sculptors without the name; they use unknown or anonymous prefixes8. This increases the skeptic approach on the essence of nameless works, which is a function of applied art objects. This is a critical criticism of the institution since they place the artifacts regardless of their original function. For instance placing a painting of a saint from the Baroque altarpiece, which was created for religious reasons make the art to lose its meaning. This is because the institution removes the art from its original context and when placed on the museum it is just another piece of art rather than an expression of the church dogma. Moreover, the furniture and the ceramics prompt questions on how the institution portrays the artistic qualities of that art. The ambiguities caused by lock away cases in glasses, or the out of reach display causes challenge in understanding the need of the artifacts. Viewers find it difficult to understand the functions of these materials. Moreover, people find it impossible to interpret of the applied arts and the institution. Notably, lack of aura caused by nonfunctional artwork and lack of connection to a name makes the artwork subject to negative perception. Moreover, this alerts the visitors on the subjectivity and artificiality of these institutions. In other words, placing artifacts with anonymous tag raises questions on the conventions that the institution employs. In sum, the grand design of the museums raises questions on documentation of the life and future of the museum. Moreover, questions on how the museum presents the past and future though the interpretation and formation of the collections is essential. Bibliography Davis, George. Penguin by designers: Saturday 18 June 2005, V&A Museum, London. London: Penguin Collectors Society, 2007. Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard. The Great Exhibition of 1851. New York: H.M.S.O, 2011. Malcolm Baker, Brenda Richardson. A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V & A Publications, 2009. Physick, John Frederick. The Victoria and Albert Museum, the history of its building. London: Phaidon, Christies, 2012. Read More