Extreme Collecting

极限收集探索了挑战正常可接受实践界限的收集过程。它包括由大英博物馆主办的一系列四个讲习班，旨在解决围绕21世纪有争议的极端收藏做法的社会、政治、材料和伦理辩论。它的目的是对博物馆的僵化采取批判性的方法，基本上保持19世纪的收藏理念，并确定英国博物馆收藏政策的优先事项，其中包括获取“困难的”物品。其中很大一部分将着眼于收集做法的可接受界限的问题和收集新战略的实施。极端收集可能适用于那些看起来如此平凡和大规模生产以至于看起来枯燥乏味的物品的收集。或者，它也适用于收集许多其他具有物理特征的物品--短暂的物质、大小和规模--使其无法获得和展示，或容易迅速腐烂。在一个审计文化和勾选框合规主导机构的世界里，收藏品的可持续性是一个至关重要的考虑因素。我们的关键问题是：我们为什么要收集这样的物品？那么，我们的责任是什么呢？管理我们收集的东西的实际、伦理、物质和政治辩论是什么？我们如何从人类学和心理学的角度来理解极端收藏？极端收藏代表着谁和什么？如果我们要规划和管理未来的博物馆藏品，这些都是需要解决的难题。一系列四个讲习班将通过以下主题探讨这些问题：1)合法和非法收藏：心理和智力基础：仍然存在发生非法收藏的重要情况，正确了解所涉及的心理动机可能有助于保护受威胁的遗产。我们如何从人类学和心理学的角度来理解这种极端的收藏？2)收藏和来源社区：来源社区如何看待西方博物馆的当代收藏？在21世纪以后的一段时间里，西方博物馆如何才能最好地为资源社区提供服务？这场辩论的因素将是北美和太平洋定居者社会中土著社区的当代收集政策。3)普通人的民族志：如果博物馆要采取一种更具战略意义的方法来为未来收藏，那么他们如何才能最好地发展日常收藏，记录日常生活，而不把博物馆变成难以管理的时间胶囊？4)规模、大小和短暂的：是否应该收集和储存超大物品，比如食物、植物髓、羽毛制品和纸张？与此相关的是短暂物品的自然腐烂问题。这些工作坊将有博物馆馆长、政策制定者、人类学家、社会学家和骨灰学家以及自然保护者、自然科学家和现世学者参加。我们打算通过为该项目设立的一个专门网站以及机构网络来传播讲习班方案。我们计划出版一本经过编辑的系列论文选集，并将论文提交给《博物馆实践》杂志和《物质文化杂志》。我们的目标是利用研究讲习班产生的辩论和讨论，为博物馆和文化遗产部门的政策制定和良好做法提供信息，以期建立一个关于极端收藏的主题专家网络。

Extreme Collecting explores the process of collecting that challenges the bounds of normally acceptable practice. It consists of a series of four workshops hosted by the British Museum aimed at addressing the social, political, material and ethical debates surrounding the controversial practice of extreme collecting in the twenty-first century. Its aim is to apply a critical approach towards the rigidity of museums in maintaining essentially nineteenth century ideas to collecting and move towards identifying priorities for collection policies in UK museums which are inclusive of acquiring 'difficult' objects. Much of this will look at the question of acceptable boundaries for the practice of collecting and the implementation of new strategies in collecting. Extreme Collecting may apply to the collection of those objects that appear so mundane and mass-produced as to appear uninteresting. Alternatively, it also applies to the collecting of many other objects that have physical characteristics - of ephemeral substance, size and scale - that make it impossible to acquire and exhibit or are prone to rapid decay. Sustainability of collections is a vital consideration in a world where institutions are dominated by audit culture and by tick box compliance. Our key questions are: Why should we collect such objects? and, what are our responsibilities? What are the practical, ethical, material and political debates that govern what we collect? How are we to understand extreme collecting from an anthropological and psychological perspective?Who and what do extreme collections represent? These are all difficult questions that need to be addressed if we are to plan for and manage the museum collections of the future. A series of four workshops will explore these questions through the following themes: 1) Legal and Illegal Collecting: the Psychological and Intellectual Foundations: There remain important circumstances where illegal collecting takes place, and where a proper understanding of the psychological motives involved might assist in protecting threatened heritages. How are we to understand such extreme collecting in anthropological and psychological terms?2) Collecting and Source Communities: How do source communities view contemporary collecting by Western museums? How best can western museums best serve source communities for a time beyond the 21st century? Factored into this debate will be contemporary collecting policies of aboriginal communities in settler societies of North America and the Pacific. 3) Ethnography of the Ordinary: If museums are to adopt a more strategic approach to collecting for the future, how best are they to develop collections of the everyday and record the mundane without turning museums into unmanageable time capsules? 4) Scale, Size and the Ephemeral: Should outsize items, of ephemeral materials such as foodstuffs, plant pith, featherwork and paper ever be collected and stored? Related to this is the question of the natural decay of ephemeral objects.The workshops will involve museum curators, policy-makers, anthropologists, sociologists and pyschologists as well as conservators, natural scientists and ephemerists. We intend to disseminate the workshop programme through a special website set up for the project as well as institutional networks. We plan to publish an edited volume of a selection of the papers from the workshop series as well as submit papers to the journal 'Museum Practice' and 'Journal of Material Culture'. Our goal is to use the debates and discussions generated from the research workshops to help inform policy-making and good practice in the museum and cultural heritage sector with a view to creating a Subject Specialist Network on Extreme Collecting.