May 2009 - April 2012
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
The project focused on the relationship between the entities museum, archive and science, which is currently under transformation. This interdisciplinary mission was carried out by the Knowledge Media Research Center, the ‘Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach’, the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Study and the Institute for Art History at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen.
The project’s objective was to analyse the transformation of museum objects from initially being archival material to finally entering into the exhibit. One aspect of the research (within the sub-project "Presentation practice and Evidence attribution" headed by the KMRC) was the creation of evidence by the curator und the reception of this evidence by the visitor and how this communication process can be improved. Other aspects of our research were “spaces of literature”, “iconicity of literature” and “materials of literature”. The results of each research section has influenced the conception of the exhibition on literature in the epochal year 1912, which opened in 2012 at the Museum of Literature in Marbach.
Beyond this focus, we wanted to work out general methods and models of scientific museum research that can also be applied to contexts other than ours. Additionally, a new kind of cooperation between university and museum was being tried out. And, not least, we wanted to train qualified staff in theoretical and practical terms. The project has been completed by the opening of the exhibition on literature in the epochal year 1912. The project was coordinated by Dr. Thomas Niemeyer (Ludwig-Uhland-Institute for Empirical Cultural Study and Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach).
