Sandnessjoen, 18 April 2018 Tomislav S. Šola · 2018-04-30 · •Banks takeover •Usurious loans •Financialisation •„Grocery racism” ... a panorama of personalities of

PUBLIC MEMORY AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE Sandnessjoen, 18 April 2018

Tomislav S. Šola

A TESTIMONY FROM THE SOUTH–EAST OF EUROPE & EU,

ON IMPORTANCE OF BIG PICTURE AND THE BROAD BRUSH

Any professor of Heritology

or Mnemosophy is a geek:

https://www.mnemosophy.com/

Education: Architecture, History of art,

English, Journalism, Museology...

„Museology”: with G H Riviere and

Kenneth Hudson (Zagreb, Paris, Ljubljana)

Career: curator, director, editor, professor,

consultant, conference organizer, writer.....

ICOM, EMYA, Europa Nostra

The Best in Heritage

The world around us,

the context of our concern?

http://wallpaper-s.org/42_~_Heaven's_Rays.htm

Donald Trump Is a 24-Hour Reality Show We Can't Turn Off

velvet totalitarianism….

CONSTANT WARS AS CHAOS

MOCK DEMOCRACY

MEDIA MANIPULATION

FISCAL SLAVERY

INSECURITY AND FEAR

MERCANTILISATION OF CULTURE, EDUCATION..

PAUPERISATION

POLLUTION

UGLIFICATION

HYPOCRISY

GREED „IDEOLOGY”

CHAOS OF THE CHANGING WORLD ORDER

……..

&tc.

© Tomislav S. Šola, 2014/2018

In brief:

© Tomislav Sola, 2015

„Everything goes” turned into ”Nothing matters”

Happily enough, in the de-valuated world

MUSEUMS ARE ABOUT VALUES !!! …….

Museum is created where there is a dying heart of an identity, a

value, a quality that deserves continuation

ENDLESS TAKING

BRINGS MISERY AND RAGE

"And may we continue to be worthy

of consuming

a disproportionate share of this planet's resources"

The Rich world's prayer

What is public memory

and why would it be important?


Some 200 years

of heritage protection history

is long enough to inspire

and too short to oblige.

Why not finally a PM sector

and finally a profesion?

Five main reasons

for convergence

Concept

Working process (3C)

ICT

Users

Mission

Public memory as common

denominator

Museums

Archives

Monuments and sites

Knowledge bases

networks

DB inst. &systems

Privately owned

heritage

Living heritage

Libraries

WHY the invention of „GLAM” (galleries, libraries, archives, museums)

again underplays both, - the facts and the potentials

© Tomislav Šola, 1996/99/2014

Urban

action

Private

musem

forms

Civil

society

Heritage

Interpre-

tations

Political

urbanism

and public

visualisati

on

Heritage

industry

Tourism

industry

(visitor

attractions

and

interpretatio

ns)

„Museum-facts by AAM”:

• Museums Are Economic Engines

• Museums Are Community Anchors

• People Love Museums

• Museums Serve the Public

• Museums Partner with Schools

• Museums Are for Everyone

• Museums Are Trusted

• Museums Save Species

http://www.aam-us.org/about-museums/museum-facts

Impeccable and propper wording. Good start. The rest is infinite striving for the content:

OWN SCIENCE, AUTONOMOUS PROFESSION…

© Tomislav Šola, 2018

© Ivica Kiš &Tomislav Šola, 1997.

©Ivica Kiš,1997

Mr. Lowry, director of MOMA.

$1.8 million a year in salary.

Rent-free $6 mil. Apartment.

Over his tenure,

the full admission price tripled,

from $8 to $25

Future will require „licensing”

beyond usual registration & acreditaion

assuring:

• Encouraging functional unity of PM sector

• Promoting creation of PM profession

• Insisting upon non-profit status

• Supporting only public commitment


Why are museums

(also) about democracy ?


… so the heritage is, also, - of the people, by the people, for the people

Democracy depends upon:

• Availability of unbiased information • Rule of justice and law

(equal chances, right to difference)

• Secularity of society • Choosing the decision makers by their

competence

• Humanist definitions of heroism

• Quality interpreters of reality (schools, culture, heritage)

• Self-knowing and self-respect • Plausible system of values


The qualities of democratic society

Equal chances

Humanist ethics

Objective information

Free knowledge

Free social security

Respect for ancestral heritage

Respect for nature


The meaning of heritage

is the wisdom usable

for quality of life

(provided by the cybernetic

counter-action )

Culture and heritage can contribute

to prosperity

by

promoting, generating, and acquiring recognition for

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LITERACY

BECAUSE, DEMOCRACY BASED UPON

MANIPULATED, SEDUCED AND ILLITERATE MASSES

IS A STAGED SPECTACLE, A DANGEROUS ILLUSION

© Tomislav Sola, 2005/2018

IDENTITARIAN MOVEMENT IS OUR FAILURE

• Information society

Drowning in data but thirsty for information

(80s)

• Knowledge society

Drowning in information, but thirsty for

knowledge

(90s)

• Wisdom society

Drowning in knowledge, but starved for wisdom

(2000)


Three stages of modern society

Ideally, heritage is wisdom

Tomislav Šola © 2006/ 2015

(our future) PM profession is

about the noble alchemy

of turning nowledge into wisdom

Recognising threats – offering counter-actions contributing to solutions

(some examples)

1. Educate users, citizens, voters..

2. Educate patients

3. Promote healthy diet and living

4. Educate hedonists for noble life

5. Reintegrate old persons

6. Celebrate childhood

7. Affirm qualities of arts & harmony

8. Praise nature and beauty

1. All sorts of Illiteracy

2. Terror of pharmaceutical industry

3. Biochemical degradation of food

4. Uncritical, indifferent consumption

5. Lack of trans-generational experience

6. Poor quality of childhood

7. Rudeness, imbalance, violence

8. Pollution, ugliness

© T.Šola, 2007/2018

Any threat has its opposing potential,

We are part of social cybernetics.

The nervous system

and the automatic machine

are fundamentally alike

in that they are devices,

which make decisions on the basis

of decisions they made in the past.

Norbert Wiener

PROFESSIONS AND THEIR

INSTITUTIONS ARE PRIMARILY

CONCEIVED AS MECHANISMS

OF GUIDANCE AND STEERING

OF SOCIETAL SYSTEMS

„POST-TRUTH AND POST-FACT SOCIETY ?????

We always had fake news. What has changed is:

• increasing quantity of fake, decreasing quantity of correct news

• absence of shame

• new legitimacy of lying: spin doctoring, trolling

BUT, HONESTLY, COULD YOU IMAGINE

A BETTER CHANCE FOR MUSEUMS?

The faces of Europe

or about sustainable strategy

for its future


The Three Faces of Europe

The Mother Europe

that of culture, - carring mother embracing her lost children

The Aunt Europe

that of politics, kind, concerned, confused,

never fully trusting its straggled nephews.

The Step-mother Europe

that of economy, - avaricious and ruthless,

with no nationality or cultural background.


Europe looks best in Bruxelles and from Bruxelles Holly bureaucracy!

1. ….the poorest of the three I

2. ….the one of democracy and rule of law, of security and common wealth F

3. ….usually discussed without context in a self-congratulary circle

4. ….the only stable, durable structure of united Europe

Europe cannot survive mere economic integration

The Mother Europe, that of culture, is…


European Union is surely European dream

but is it really THE European project any more?

= if

Hitler 'Outreads' Harry Potter in Latvia

Identity of Europe Politics and economy & Culture and identity

Do you know the difference between: European Council, Council of European Union and Council of Europe?

LOBBYING IS MOCKING DEMOCRACY

So, Eastern Europe has become a supply zone to the rich countries!

CASE STUDY:

treatment prescribed to a feverish transitional countries:

• Enforced privatisation

• Total deregulation

• De-industrialisation

• Banks takeover

• Usurious loans

• Financialisation

• „Grocery racism”

• Speculative investors

• Depopulation

IS THIS A CONSPIRACY THEORY?

© Tomislav Šola, 2006/2018

Since the early 1990s, some 18 million

of eastern Europe’s young, most talented workers

have left their countries

Any trace in museums?

What consequences upon identity & self appreciation?

Europe should have the strategy for heritage

• Harmonized PM sector (legislation, network)

• Spaces of functional synergy of PM sector

• Innovative, global activities, events and institutions

• Network of micro-museums

• „European contribution” spaces

• Obligatory, innovative, education for PM sector

• Major contribution to world’s heritage movement

© Tomislav Sola, 2014/16

IS CULTURE REALLY

EXPENSIVE ?

or

MILITARY

INDUSTRIAL

COMPLEX

HAS BETTER

ARGUMENTS ?

By knowledge, one can manage a corporation.

To manage society, one needs wisdom.

©Unknown Croat, 2018

www.mnemosophy.com

http://www.mnemosophy.com/

Conferences are about cracking the code of success!

Benchmarking experience and insight


The Best in Heritage

Projects of Influence

26-28 Sept 2018

Takk og se deg i Dubrovnik neste september!!

A virtual museum - travelling exhibition

www.BridgesOfEurope Shared identities

a panorama of personalities of shared identities

• Great personalities of shared identities: El Greco, Van Dyck, Paracelsus, Beckett, Rousseau, Liszt, Handel, Offenbach, Corbusier…

• Legitimization of shared identity today

• Historic and present reality

• Institutional and individual perspectives


British Museum and other European institutions seek way

to create a permanent exhibition of looted artefacts in Nigeria

The helpless

Majority

(public, users, community…)

Professions

(TRUE)

elites


Where is your place in the social project?

Power holders

GROCERY

RACISM

OVER

103

MILLION

OF

EU

CITIZENS

Innovative answers

may redefine collecting….

• Whose past we document and communicate?

• Whose interests are reflected in collections?

• Product or process? object or concept? …

• Who is the owner?

• Who finances?

• Profession or occupations?

• Possesiveness or giving?

• PM system or selfish isolation?

• Mission or synecure?

© Tomislav Sola 2007/14

….from treasure to interpretive inventory ?

Can EU survive the mere economic integration?

• Can Europe of culture, the intellectual Europe, do something?

Why is culture still paid a lip sevice only? Intelectuall courage and ethics are retreating

making intelellectuals the endangered species. The Eros is gone and the sterile mutants

prevail by far. They are either obediently servicing the Machine or engage in harmless

armchair radicalism. The are often indignant but carefuly avoid displeasing anybody.

• Europe of culture is the one composed of citizens sharing consciously the European

values.

This membership is not founded upon mere selfish calculations. If oposite is the case, if

banal pragma creates Europe it will be also able to dismount it when interests and

advantages change.

• Fragmented interests as promoted by globalisation in fact cannot guarantee any stability

to any structure in face of changing economic interests. Ideological blocks gone and the

political ones expiring, only the cultural ones stand some chance. NATO is not about

defense, but about the loyalty to the leading political power and its economic bosses.


NO

ELECTIONS IS FORM,

DEMOCRACY IS CONTENTS

EUROPEAN COMPUTER DRIVING LICENCE

WHY NOT

EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY DRIVING LICENCE

EDDL

Healing influence of heritage

for community

• Identity consolidation by the values from the former

reality or unrealized one

• Defense of the concept of quality

• New attractive projects create development

momentum

© Tomislav Šola, 1999.

librarianship

Public memory and its science

archivistics

© Tomislav Šola, 1991/2006/2013.

museography

Mnemosophy

records

management

culture science ? museums

Collective

and social

memory

resources

Digital/DB

resources libraries

archives

Heritology Public memory

science

© Tomislav Sola, 2014

The age of museums

was the age of subdoing,

of conquest

and of taking.

The age of heritage

is that of recognition,

of returning

and of giving.


European Union is surely European dream

but is it really a European project?

By international law, a sovereign state is neither

dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state. Alcide De Gasperi, Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet and Konrad Adenauer and ? J. H. Retinger

museums

PAST USERS

THE POSITION OF PM INSTITUTIONS

© Tomislav Sola 1997

The reformed PM

institution serves

life by assisting its

vital forces.

musealisation communication collection & care

Wisdom as

perfect

memory

of the past

Libraries Archives

Museums

(varia)

Dgt-born contents

Theatres

Film and TV

Education

Industry

Knowledge

industry

Entertain-

ment industry

Heritage

Industry

Company

museums

A-v archives

Heritage ICT

networks

Privately owned

heritage

Museums

of documents

Museums

without objects

Temporary

museum forms

Conservation

and rest. inst.

Performing

arts

Exhibition

centres

Heritage

Market

Plastic arts

and literature

Public memory integrating entire heritage

© T.Šola, 1986/2002/2013.

Public memory

sector

Collective

memory

H

E

R

I

T

A

G

E

Social memory

sector

Javna memorija za društveni razvoj

MSU, Zagreb, 6. listopada 2014.,

Tomislav S. Šola

Which part of the body should the doctor examine ?

After the disaster, the Red Army conquers a

new audience.

The repertory of the

Red Army choirs is

expanding

Europe boasts rightfully with culture, taste, moderation….

and then entire Alexandrov choir is killed in plane crash…

Is Europe really independent from USA ?

The latest news: „Iran and N. Korea anti missile shield in Poland”


CAATSA

Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act

A SORT OF SELF CREATED INTERNATIONAL LAW

61 type of sanctions against 35 countries (40 % of world population)

February 5, 2003

US Secretary of State Colin Powell holding

……vial of anthrax while giving the presentation

to the UN Security Council

Future will require further PM„licensing”

beyond usual registration & acreditaion

• Not just endless accumulation of occupations state museum, gallery, library or archive, private museum, civil society

museum, company museum, confesional museum, temporary museum,

visitor centre, visitor attraction, heritage attraction, heritage centre,

ecomuseum, economuseum, heritage park, heritage trail, virtual

museum, hybrid museum, heritage museum(?)…

• But a united public sector, a profession approved, licensed, certified institution or action of public

relevance and meaning, not-for-profit, run with responsibility and

expertize for the public benefit


We shall have to make sure that

PM institutions and actions are or stay :

non-profit

maintained in public status and ambitions


The open society of Europe

• Direct participation of European citizens through the network of non-governmental organizations

• More resources for culture but less politicians and bureaucracy

• Accountable and reliable independence of Europe

• Moral and social state: development permeated by cultural reasoning

• Founding a Network of European Identity Interpretation Centres (NEIIC)


Can EU survive the mere economic integration?

• Can Europe of culture, the intellectual Europe, do something?

Why is culture still paid a lip sevice only? Intelectuall courage and ethics are retreating

making intelellectuals the endangered species. The Eros is gone and the sterile mutants

prevail by far. They are either obediently servicing the Machine or engage in harmless

armchair radicalism. The are often indignant but carefuly avoid displeasing anybody.

• Europe of culture is the one composed of citizens sharing consciously the European

values.

This membership is not founded upon mere selfish calculations. If oposite is the case, if

banal pragma creates Europe it will be also able to dismount it when interests and

advantages change.

• Fragmented interests as promoted by globalisation in fact cannot guarantee any stability

to any structure in face of changing economic interests. Ideological blocks gone and the

political ones expiring, only the cultural ones stand some chance. NATO is not about

defense, but about the loyalty to the leading political power and its economic bosses.


NO

So, what citizens should do against threats

in an alienated democracy?

• Trying to re-conquer the public institutions (health, education...)

• "De-profit" public institutions

• Protect integrity against corporative presures

• Denounce corruptive practice of politicians and administion

• Place religious institutions back into the realm of privacy

• Reinforce public control of the media (gone wildly corrupted)


The ideal of the age of heritage

• Influencing/correcting the governing value system

• Contributing to quality decision making

• Public perception of PMIs: actuality, truth and unbiased profession, responsibility and wisdom serving public good


• Drowning in the ocean of the useless

information • Hypermnesia

• The karaoke world

• Insecurity & fear • Pauperisation-precariat-oligarchies

• Uglification of the world • Loss of quality • The end of species option

©Tomislav Sola, 2004

Aren't we lost like never before? Where are we?

We have finally arrived into the Knowledge society.

10

The standpoint of the old

materialism is civil society;

the standpoint of the new

(materialism)

is human society or social

humanity.

Marx:

THE CIVIL SOCIETY IS LINKED TO THE STATE

AND REPRESENTS BOURGEOISIE

(Theses to Feuerbach)

Helping the Mother Europe to emacipate an prosper

• Political vision in global terms of some uniting quality

• Researching, teaching and sharing the European values

• Reinforcing political, economic and cultural fairness and solidarity

• Creating quality mechanism of unity: less administration and court, - more civil, common action

• Permeating the entire collective experience with contents and activities of European character

• Re-writing the history and communicating it as the "new" heritage(s) of Europe


All heritages are born equal

Documents

Sandnessjoen, 18 April 2018 Tomislav S. Šola · 2018-04-30 · •Banks takeover •Usurious loans •Financialisation •„Grocery racism” ... a panorama of personalities of