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

Episodic Museum Contributions 1996-2017

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