This new book recovers an innovative venture in museology from the late 1960s that has largely gone unnoticed. In 1967, media theorist Marshall McLuhan and his collaborator Harley Parker, pioneer of museum exhibit design, were invited by the Museum of the City of New York to moderate a two-day seminar on museum communication attended by leading museum officials from around the state and further afield. The seminar report, originally published in 1969, captures the extent to which the audacious views of McLuhan and Parker on rethinking the museum were greeted with puzzlement, scepticism, and consternation by those in attendance. Drawing on extensive archival sources, William J. Buxton sheds light on the context of the seminar, its main participants and organizers, its funding, and its reception. Also included is an essay on Parker and his close working relationship with McLuhan by Gary Genosko, and another on multi-sensory museology and the overall significance of the seminar today by David Howes. Charting connections to the Our World TV broadcast of June 1967, Expo 67, and the contemporaneous Electric Circus in Manhattan, this exciting work demonstrates the importance of this period of McLuhan's thought, his collaborations with Parker, and the cluster of work published between 1967 and 1972. The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine makes a unique contribution to McLuhan scholarship, cultural history, and museum history in the late 1960s.
With essays by Gary Genosko and David Howes.
DR. MCLUHAN: What about the possibility of designing for artifacts in museum environments that are also responsive, in which the audience could experience this participation? So that when they had recognized the nature of the artifacts, why the bells and buzzers would ring from all over the place!
MR. PARKER: Pinball machine?
DR. MCLUHAN: Yeah.
MR. PARKER: Large-room pinball machine. A new critical edition of a museum seminar report from 1967, featuring Marshall McLuhan and his collaborator Harley Parker. A new critical edition of a museum seminar report from 1967, featuring Marshall McLuhan and his collaborator Harley Parker. 12 B&W photographs, index
"The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine revitalizes early critical reflections on museology through the work of Marshall McLuhan and Harley Parker. It examines contemporary shifts in the field, offering a timely contribution to current debates in museum theory and practice." Richard Cavell, University of British Columbia
"The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine is a significant contribution to media studies, art history, and museum studies." Alex Kitnick, Bard College
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Towards "Total Museology"
• William J. Buxton
• 1 Trailblazing Follower: Harley Parker's Role as Museum Exhibit Designer, Collaborator, and Stand-In for Marshall McLuhan
• Gary Genosko
• 2 Exploration of the Ways, Means, and Values of Museum Communication with the Viewing Public: A Seminar, Museum of the City of New York, 1967
• Edited and Annotated by William J. Buxton
• 3 Postscript: Multi-Sensory Museology
• David Howes
• Index
