WHERE DID IT COME FROM??
The Mobile Museum was born from my interest in collecting and why people collect. I have worked in several museums and galleries, and see these as large-scale representations of approaches to understanding any number of ideas, objects, or histories. I've often walked through a museum and wondered at the mind (or minds) behind the collection. Collecting is of course, not isolated to museums and galleries, and as a child I was very interested in the collections my mother kept: rocks, shells, and a wide variety of plants. These objects functioned as trophies of understanding in an endless study of the natural world.
I see collecting as a means of “individuation”, defined by Jung as the psyche’s instinctive striving for wholeness. In individuation, the undifferentiated develops individual characteristics, and an individual idea (or person) is separated from the rest of the universe. Setting one object or idea aside can help locate that object’s role in the world, and aid in understanding the world as a whole.
The mobile museum is a way for me to engage viewers directly (and indirectly as the museum appears unattended) to understand the changing role museums and collecting play in people’s lives.
For more information on inspirations, and projects that have spun off of typical museum models visit these sites:
Cabinet Magazine:
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/20/olalquiaga.php
The Museum of Jurrasic Technology:
Marc Fischer's Public Collectors:
http://www.publiccollectors.org/
Devices of Wonder:
