Four-Facet Framework

OK, this is going to get super-nerdy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

As part of our current genre jag, I tried to make a giant list of exhibition genres. Because that’s just an MtM kind of thing to do, you know? Painting show, costume show, dinosaur show, immersive show, hands-on science show …

But I kept getting stuck. At first I couldn’t figure out why.

Then I realized that the genre names we sometimes use in the industry aren’t all the same kind of category. Some are words for the subject of a show, some are words for what you do as a visitor in a show, and so on.

Hm.

There is a concept in library science called faceted classification, invented about 100 years ago. Basically, it lets you classify the same book by several characteristics at once. That same framework today lets you shop online by size, color, price, brand, and rating simultaneously.

And this can work for other things as well.

Here’s a four-facet framework we might use for exhibitions:

Facet 1: Subject
Art, history, science, fashion, animals, etc.

Facet 2: Experience Mode
Object-based, interactive, immersive, participatory, etc.

Facet 3: Curatorial Structure
Retrospective, thematic, chronological, biographical, etc.

Facet 4: Operational Format
Permanent, temporary, traveling, rotating, etc.

Examples:

A Dior retrospective: fashion subject + object-based experience + chronological curating + temporary format.

A touring dinosaur exhibition: natural history subject + animatronic-replica-based experience + geographical curating + traveling format.

A hands-on electricity gallery: science subject + interactive experience + thematic curating + permanent format.

Here’s the thing:

The genre names we sometimes use in the industry aren’t all the same kind of category. An exhibition can belong to several categories at once.

A four-facet framework, or another kind of faceted classification, might give us a more precise way to describe the genres of what we are making.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
None. If you got this far, you deserve a break.  :)