Title:
Views across boundaries and groupings across categories: the morphology of display in the galleries of the High Museum of Art 1983-2003

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisor Peponis, John
dc.contributor.author Zamani, Pegah en_US
dc.contributor.department Architecture en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2010-01-29T19:55:59Z
dc.date.available 2010-01-29T19:55:59Z
dc.date.issued 2008-12-01 en_US
dc.description.abstract Exhibition design conjoins distinct architectural and curatorial requirements. It is proposed that the common language of architecture and curatorship is space: how displays are arranged to be viewed in particular sequences and visual frames, placed in fields of co-visibility or grouped according to their spatial arrangement as well as their stylistic, historical or other classificatory labels. As visitors become immersed in exhibition space they are exposed to an informally staged pedagogy aimed at enhancing their enjoyment and understanding of the exhibition. The second floor of the High Museum of Art, with the permanent collection of objects, opened in 1983, is chosen as a case study. Meier designed the original building and decorative arts exhibition. Scogin and Elam produced a significant modification in 1997 to house a thematic exhibition. Lord Aeck and Sargent restored a simplified version of the original layout in 2003. Rigorous quantitative analyses document these successive changes and identify the fundamental shifts in exhibition design principles that they represent. Visual relationships, the break up of space and patterns of movement are analyzed using standard space-syntax methodologies. New techniques are proposed in order to describe and quantify overlapping patterns of spatial grouping. It is shown that the original design encouraged visitors to view and compare objects in alternative ways, generating open-ended readings and multiple understanding. The 1997 layout dictated sequences of viewing and framed frontal views in order to communicate how art engages human experience, including the body or the environment. The 2003 layout re-instated multiple viewing points and comparative groupings while emphasizing the individual work. The dissertation examines how architecture and curatorship interacted in a unique building which provides great experiential richness as well as design constraints. In addition, it demonstrates how descriptive theory can help bridge between architectural and curatorial intents by capturing the principles of arrangement which are fundamental to both. en_US
dc.description.degree Ph.D. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31823
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Co-visibility en_US
dc.subject Exhibition design en_US
dc.subject Curatorial design en_US
dc.subject Spatial grouping en_US
dc.subject Display space en_US
dc.subject Cross-visibility en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Museum architecture
dc.title Views across boundaries and groupings across categories: the morphology of display in the galleries of the High Museum of Art 1983-2003 en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Peponis, John
local.contributor.corporatename College of Design
local.contributor.corporatename School of Architecture
local.relation.ispartofseries Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Architecture
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication f95b3f83-26ab-42f8-add3-259d8e13ac11
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication c997b6a0-7e87-4a6f-b6fc-932d776ba8d0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 0533a423-c95b-41cf-8e27-2faee06278ad
relation.isSeriesOfPublication 1e9dd6c5-039f-4195-b3b6-bc27d2df5b9f
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
zamani_pegah_200812_phd.pdf
Size:
10.89 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Theses and Dissertations