Our(Future>Past) by Anyhoo. Used under Creative Commons

We could look at the past and future in two ways. Either the past is a primary source of social traditions or a lot of failed dogmas holding back progress. The future will either be working towards a positive utopia or an apocalyptic wasteland.

Presentism takes the view that the future is unpredictable beyond what we build towards right now and the past is so alien that it holds no more meaning than a source of recyclable fashions. Presentism means an emphasis on short term goals, quicker gratification, speedier technology, here-and-now and constantly moving from place to place.

Since museums deal mostly in historical information, what does it mean for them when the past is alienated so much? The problem lies in Presentism culture of consuming-at-speed and a visitor’s attitude that struggles to relate to seeing more than one roman coin or three hundred examples of medieval pottery. It’s an attitude of wanting more, experiences new things and taking enjoyment from the act of rediscovering things in a new light. If this is the case, how many return visits from this kind of person can a museum expect if they do not change the displays? Presentism in museums is about consumerism and consumers vote with their feet.

Past, Present, Future all muddled up by freshelectrons. Used under Creative Commons.

With so much of history highly documented and rarely different between museums in the same field, what this does to museums is a creeping syndrome I’ve called the “Museum of Last Tuesday”. There seems to be a movement in museums to obtain relevancy though exhibitions about increasingly recent events. Such examples would include exhibitions about current ongoing news topics, cultural movements only just considered the mainstream and still-living celebrities. So when the Exhibition of Emo appears, just remember that I called it first.

Whether Presentism is a positive or negative depends entirely on the purpose. Museums tackling current affairs, acting as reporters as much as conservers and taking the risk at holding an opinion appears to be an exciting route they could take. On the other hand, they could be accused of being monuments to fads or opportunism.

This category will track outbreaks of Presentism in museums and offer analysis on what the greater outcomes will be.