dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Can the concept of industrialism be preserved?
I’m very pleased to get the opportunity to give a
presentation at this conference. Not only because
it is a pleasure to include a neighbouring field of
work – i.e. preservation – into my cultural-historical
perspective on museum work, but also because this
invitation prompted me to reflect on my own field
of interest from new angles.
I will now take you on a tour through the mind (or
part of it at least) of a curator working within the field
of industrialism. This might be a scary experience,
especially since I will make an assassination attempt
on the physical object as the sole true object worth
dealing with in a museum. I promise you, however,
that in the end I will try to get back on track!
I am a curator at a museum which in a Danish
context has changed the way the public meets our
most recent industrial history. The museum has
used the interior principle in direct connection with
thematic exhibits. Simply by putting the thematically
organized showcases next to real living rooms the
museum (as an expert) reaches out to the visitor and
enlists the visitor himself as an expert.
We have done so by focusing on aspects of history
which have been perversely neglected by historians
and museum institutions - we have focused on the
everyday industrial culture of ordinary men, women
and children.
What is Industrialism?
Let me now move to the subject of this presentation.
In the abstract given beforehand I talked about
industrialism as an era giving birth to a new kind
of materialism – a materialism best described as the
principle of the non-unique object.
Over the last 150-200 years society has changed
dramatically and most of the changes – at least when
we focus on the physical representation – have been
Keynote speech
Jacob bJerring hansen
caused by the industrial revolution and constant
changes of the industrial production in order to meet
and exceed society’s demands for goods.
Industrialism is characterized by a number of
features; most importantly seen from my museum’s
point of view is the restructuring of the social hierarchy
into a class society. But I will focus on two other key
concepts: Mass production and big structures, and
the concept or principle of standardization.
Mass Production and Big Structures
Production of a product in huge numbers has clear
implications on the mode of production: Rational
use of machines, division of labour, control of the
workforce and constant boost of efficiency are
essential parts of the industrial apparatus.
This form of production has grave implications for
the materialism of the consumer. In the industrialized
society, the consumer is actually invented by the
industry in order to meet not the demand of a single
buyer, but the demands of larger consumer groups.
As opposed to the pre-industrialized industry where
the consumer was the person, group or merchant
that ordered the product.
Mass production changed the mode of production:
Lots of people became workers in the ever growing
industry, the workers worked with and at the
machines and the product was no longer the result
of a unique hands-on process.
Another clear physical evidence of mass production
is the growth of the production apparatus. Machines,
machine halls, transportation facilities – everything
got bigger!
The big structures of industry are evidently causing
problems in today’s preservation strategy, a problem
I will address later.
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