Epis. 315: What goes on behind the scenes of a museum (specifically MoMA), and why it matters, with Fernando Dominguez Rubio, author of Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum, part 1

<p>In the first of several parts with <a href= "https://fdrubio.ucsd.edu/">Fernando Domínguez Rubio</a>, a professor of communications at UCSD and author of <em><a href= "https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo51203276.html"> Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum</a></em>, he talks about:</p> <p>How he got started with the massive eight-year project of this book, beginning with his post-doctoral thesis interviewing numerous people who work at the Museum of Modern Art; how he gained entry into the museum (hint: via the Conservation dept.); the hidden labor that’s done at the museum, as part of something he calls “mimeographic labor,” a process to make objects of ‘the same;’ how most art in the world is in storage – it isn’t <em>seen</em> art – which is definitively the case for museums; how much invisible labor goes into what visitors see in a museum, and to what extent that labor, spread around various parts of the museum and its numerous artworks, is sustainable.</p>