What colour was the Cold War?
Name
What_Colour_Was_the_Cold_War__24_11_12_17_58_34.pdf
Description
visibility:open
Size
1.9 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
s5vVBrpYsTc=
Resource type
Book chapter
Creator (person)
Douthwaite, Jessica
Date published
2024
Abstract
What constitutes museum experts’ foundational knowledge and presumptions about the Cold War? This chapter builds on ethnographic curiosity about colour in museum settings to answer this question. Colours are a useful lens onto personal and institutional perceptions as well as preconceptions. The act of being asked to call a colour to mind that represented the past was an important indicator of how professionals envisaged the Cold War in museums – infused with cultural references, nostalgia, highly specialised knowledge and sometimes personal memories. The chapter argues that given that the public space of a museum is always coloured, one way or another, and given that we all recognise the symbolic attributes of colour, a consideration of how it informs collections, displays and institutional narratives of the Cold War can enhance museum practice.
Project(s)
Materialising the Cold War
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
Arts and Humanities Research Council | AH/V001078/1 |
Book title
Cold War Museology
Editor
Nehring, Holger
Douthwaite, Jessica
Alberti, S J M M
Pagination
255-272
Publisher
Routledge
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
Full text available via the official URL
Collection