Display by Design: Transformation of Museum Space

Lecture by Prof. Aysen Savas, METu-Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

The lecture title and its theoretical content have been highly influenced from the post-structuralist discourse developed after 1980’s. Theoretical shifts in historiography that had started questioning the linear flow of events and underlined the significance of memory and fragmented remembrance over institutionalized history; the developments in linguistic theories that presented the notorious arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified and the diachronic and synchronic strata of meanings associated with objects; the developments in visual culture that suggested a shift from the classical viewer to modern observer had formed the foundations of this program. The known aphorism: <<Museum “Dis-play” is a “Visual-Play”>> will be the motto of the applied project, which will aim to create a dynamic, interactive, flexible and aesthetic display environment.