Residential Research Group

Winter/Spring 1999
Humanities Research Institute, University of California, Irvine

A pan-disciplinary shift from studying objects to studying processes is occurring just as the promises of new technology seem to indicate that knowledge will now most easily be examined, produced, and reproduced electronically. This suggests an imminent end to a phenomenon that began with the 16th-century Curiosity Cabinet: that of collecting material objects as a means for comprehending the world. Considered epistemologically, however, interesting parallels emerge between the associative process by which knowledge was generated in the curiosity cabinet in the 16th century and the web-crawling, net-surfng habits of Internet use in the late 20th century. Furthermore, material collections continue to allow not only for types of research and teaching not possible in electronic media, but they also serve as important constituent elements of institutional memory, totems of status, and a range of other social and cultural functions.

Part of a larger project organized by Mark Meadow and E. Bruce Robertson, the resident research group will focus its collective attention on how the University of California has itself functioned as a collector. Specifically, this group project will investigate the ways in which the objects collected within the University are used to produce knowledge. Part of the investigation will take the form of a set of exhibitions and symposia to be held in 2001-02 throughout the UC system and beyond. This residential research group will investigate the relationship of objects and knowledge in the broadest sense, including the following goals:

1. To analyze the function of objects in the University’s economy of knowledge.
2. To examine the historical roots of universal and microcosmic collections, consider their present organization, and suggest some paths to the future.
3. To express, in a concrete fashion, the results of our analysis through a series of public exhibitions and symposia.

{HRI Participants} {HRI Meetings}

{Research & Publications}

{Microcosms}