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Originally Posted by drdavid
Even worse if the items were gifted to the museum.
The buzzword in many museums these days is interactive. The assumption is that people need to be entertained to be informed. The problem with that is we are told what it is we need to know, rather than allowed to decide what we are interested in knowing. Perhaps it is all down to shorter attention spans and the need for bells and whistles to capture those attention spans
On the other hand the concept of an interactive collection of edged weapons.....nahh, cant go there 
drd |
Interactive? Why not?
What I'd suggest for a keris and many other blades is a simple platform that can be rotated (slowly) by the viewer, so that they can see all sides of the object and its sheath. Right now, every weapon in an art museum is (sometimes tacky) wall art, and showing it in three dimensions really would help.
For a more military museum, they can do a great set of displays on shape, edge geometry and cutting for swords. Not that museum visitors would actually get to cut things, but I think a lot of blades would be appreciated more if there was a stack of cut reed mats, or a punctured target (or whatever) sitting beside it, along with a video showing how some of these things were used. Heck, even a display of how much rope (or whatever) various blades could cut when sharp would be useful. imagine a set of piles with a standard swiss army knife at one end, and some truly sharp blade at the other. Just as an example.
I don't have a problem with interactive. In fact, the reason I got angry at the SF Asian Art Museum was the lack of context. The weapons weren't properly named, properly mounted, or even stained and cared for to show how great they would look if cared for properly. The sin (read omission) of the museum in this case is that they're missing a great opportunity to introduce the public to an important facet of Indonesian culture by displaying these keris as mere curios. It's too bad.
Just a thought,
F