MoDA Museum Report

Pleased to share new research with the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), now published online.

Cataloguing the ‘Oriental’ (2023) brings together case studies and reflections, unpacking the term ‘oriental’ in MoDA’s Silver Studio Collection. Used by designers to describe a vague set of motifs conjuring an exoticised ‘East’, the word carries inherent assumptions and issues of power. Museum cataloguers have tended to continue using the term uncritically.

The report considers what we mean by ‘decolonising’ the database, and makes suggestions on how museums can unsettle power structures within their documentation ~ and wider practices.

Find my full report and recommendations here.

Read more about the project in this series of guest blogs for MoDA, and for the Collections Trust.

~ 

_{This project was part of the Culture& New Museum School with University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies. This programme aims to expand audiences and nurture a museum workforce that better represents the diversity of the UK.}

_{Update: MoDA is currently in the process of closing and finding a new home for the Silver Studio Collection and this research.}