A Philosophical Analysis of Objects and their Stories in the Macao Museum (2024-2025)
Objects in museum collections have stories to tell. These objects and their stories offer a glimpse into social, cultural, and political history, and insight into the experience of those who made and used them. By collecting, curating, and displaying these objects, museums keep alive the memory of the past and shape our understanding of the present. In selectively transmitting knowledge about the past, museums can have a
transformative influence on the present. This is why they are increasingly recognized as key agents of cultural change, which is significant as museums can now be found worldwide in virtually every major city, and even small towns are often home to them. While museums are globally important institutions, all museums are embedded in a specific local context and their practices of collection, curation, and display can only be studied within that context. Focusing on the permanent collection held by the Macao Museum, which contains objects resonant of past intercultural encounters that continue to impact Macao’s culture today, this project draws on the rapidly developing field of philosophy of museums to investigate the ways in which intercultural understanding and cultural identity are promoted and transmitted to museum visitors through their engagement with museum displays.
Philosophy of museums 