THE MANAGEMENT OF IDENTITY : A CASE STUDY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

In a museum, knowledge is selected, constrained and presented. Hence, it is intimately tied to identity definition and formation, as knowledge provides the structure for the understanding of the wider world. In addition, the museum represents an integrated and artificial experience, with acts upon objects placed within, imbuding them with a new meaning. This study springboards from the fact museum-building has become a new phase in Singapore. Thus, exhibition and experiences in the National Museum are examined, to extract the dynamics between knowledge and identity. Three social actors would be looked at in the construction of the museum experience. The state, which is a constraining social force, transmitting its perspective through the Museum. In setting up a universe which embeds Singapore in a competition for human capital, the Museum is used as a measure of providing the fodder for specific identities to be developed, to fulfil the needs of the symbolic universe as defined by the state. The curators, who also act as a force of social imposition, by limiting the knowledge audiences may react to. However, they do question bias in museum practice, as subuniverse knowledge also acts back on them, though the solution proposed are inadequate. Hence, they represent a potential source of change in society. The transmission of identify categories is possible because of the tacit link between viewing object and acquisition of real knowledge. However, because this link is undefined, the audience has the space to make their individual interpretation, through a personalizing of the museum experience. Here, the individual subjectivity asserts itself in the face of imposition. In tracing the relationship between knowledge and identity, one may also elucidate the dialectical relationship between society and individual, the fundamental sociological paradigm.