Slides for project presentation at the NORDLAC seminar Mai 21 2012 at Roskilde University.

1. RADIO AS INTANGIBLE
HERITAGE
IN
A MUSEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
A research project
by
Christian Hviid Mortensen
University of Southern Denmark

2. RADIO
• LARM: Audio Research Archive
www.larm-archive.org
• Radio as a ressource of cultural heritage.
• The CHAOS platform. (Cultural Heritage
Archive Open System)

3. CHAOS

4. MUSEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
• Museum = an institution “[...] which
acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and
exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its
environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment”
(Desvallées & Mairesse, 2010, p. 57).
• Acquirement and conservation of Danish media heritage
is done by the State Library and to some extent by the
Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).
• Research is done at the universities.
• Which leaves the communication and exhibition of our
media heritage as the Media Museums unique task.

5. SOUND IN EXHIBITIONS
• Sounds of artefacts, not sounds per se (as auditive
artefacts).
• Soundscapes.
• Soundeffects.
• Oral history (historic testemonies)
• Sound Art.

6. INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
• 2003: UNESCO ratifies the convention for The
Safeguarding of the intangible Cultural Heritage.
• Defined as: ”…the
practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills
– as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and
cultural spaces associated therewith that
communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals
recognize as part of their cultural heritage.”
(UNESCO, 2003, p. 2).

7. EXHIBITING RADIO
• Conceptualizing radio in a museological context
as artefacts to be exhibited.
• Delineating these intangible artefacts.
• Designing strategies for exhibiting radio
artefacts.
• Implementing these strategies in actual
exhibitions.
• Analyzing how the audience experience the
exhibits through user studies.

8. FIELDS OF INQUIRY
• Museology.
• Exhibition design and design theory.
• Communication (the exhibition as medium).
• Museum didactics.
• Media studies (radio history).
• Cultural memories studies (cultural heritage and
nostalgia).
• User studies (e.g. video ethnography).

9. NOSTALGIA
• Retroculture and nostalgia is a prominent trend
in todays media (e.g. Mad Men and The
Chronicle, DK).
• Therefore: Can this trend be used as a
motivating design strategy for exhibiting radio
history?
• Case: The Danish Rock Museum.

10. BLOG
Radiocurator.wordpress.com

11. SLIDESHARE
• www.slideshare.net/christianhviidmortensen

12. REFERENCES
• André Desvallées, F. M. (2010). Key Concepts in
Museology: Armand Colin.
• UNESCO: Convention for the safeguarding of
the intangible cultural heritage(2003).