Playing and operating: functionality in museum objects and instruments

Museum collections are formed by selections of objects that represent snapshots of the complexity of the world at different times. As such their value resides as much in their physical supports, as in the representation of the cultural networks of meanings and interactions of which there were part. For some types of objects, this includes a particularly strong ‘performative’ element, where the object is a tool to accomplish an action: musical instruments, vehicles, clocks and watches, machinery and objects of science and technology are few of the most obvious examples. For decades, museum approaches have been divided between emphasizing the preservation of the material support of the object, and preserving its capability to operate, for reasons that include dissemination as well as research.