Presenting the spectacular double act of the photograph and the taxidermy specimen

Murphy, A. C. (2016) Presenting the spectacular double act of the photograph and the taxidermy specimen. Paper presented to: 2016 Annual Conference of the British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS): Consuming (the) Victorians, Cardiff University, Wales, 31 August - 02 September 2016. (Unpublished)

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Abstract:	Through psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s metapsychology, this project explores dialectical connections found between the photograph and the museum taxidermy specimen. The nineteenth-century museum illustrated what Tony Bennett, in his book, The Birth of the Museum, called the ‘exhibitionary complex’ – a public display of objects, previously hidden in private collections. As with Michel Foucault’s definition of heterotopia, the museum became an encapsulated institutional display of order, knowledge and spectacle. Museum displays and dioramas meticulously constructed by the conservationist’s craft of preservation, recreated archetypal ecological environments to present specimens defiant against decay and death. In pursuit of life, the Victorians explored preservation processes in both photographic and taxidermy crafts, attempting to defy death of both the physical object and the representational subject, thereby fashioning a cultural ‘celebration of death’. This project considers the probability that as a consequence of Victorian cultural and scientific endeavors, both the taxidermy specimen and the photograph, in a defiant double act, can simultaneously represent and defy the death-drive.
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > DA550 Victorian era, 1837-1901 T Technology > TR Photography N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) > N61 Theory. Philosophy. Aesthetics of the visual arts
Creators:	Murphy, Alexandra C
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:	Faculties > Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology > Fine Art
Date:	31 August 2016
Date Type:	Publication
Event Title:	2016 Annual Conference of the British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS): Consuming (the) Victorians
Event Dates:	31 August - 02 September 2016
Event Location:	Cardiff University, Wales
Event Type:	Conference
Language:	English
Status:	Unpublished
Related URLs:	Conference
URI:	http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/8372

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