The Constituent Museum

What would happen if museums put relationships at the centre of their operation? This question inspires this publication, which offers a diverse, rigorous and experimental analysis of what is commonly known as education, mediation or interpretation within museum institutions. It takes the visitor not as a passive receiver of predefined content, but as a member of a constituent body, who it facilitates, provokes and inspires. Moving beyond the practice of mediation as such, the publication situates these practices within the social-political (neoliberal) context and the physical and organizational structure. Understanding this change in an integral, interdisciplinary manner is what this publication aspires to. This is explored by placing the museum's constituent, that is the relation museum organization–museum professional–active audience/co-curators–local and political agencies and context, at the centre of the museum organization, their positions in society start to shift. Issues that are addressed: ownership and power dynamics, collective pedagogy, pedagogy of encounter, collaboration, assent, dissent and consent, co-labour and co-curation (economies of exchange), precarity and working with interns, archives and how to activate them, broadcasting, digital cultivation, crowdsourcing, etc.