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Affective Collecting : Ethics, Emotions, and Collecting the Holocaust

Martínez, Victoria Van Orden LU (2025) In Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals
Abstract
Before curation, there is collection. Before visitors engage with objects in an exhibition, collection managers engage with the objects and, in some cases, also the donors. It makes sense that especially when difficult pasts are involved, collection managers have affective encounters with the materiality before visitors do. So why has the affective turn focused mainly on engaging visitors’ emotions? In this reflection, I work backward from the ethics of curating Holocaust materiality—particularly the ethics of visitors’ affective engagement with this materiality—to focus on the ethics of collecting Holocaust materiality, with a focus on the affective engagement of the individuals collecting this material.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
ethics, collecting, emotions, the Holocaust, museums, archives
in
Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals
publisher
SAGE Publications
ISSN
1550-1906
DOI
10.1177/15501906251345400
project
Svensk hågkomst av Förintelsen - museer, politik och materialitet
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d253015f-36da-467b-b318-2f676a648111
date added to LUP
2025-05-26 10:14:38
date last changed
2025-05-27 13:50:13
@misc{d253015f-36da-467b-b318-2f676a648111,
  abstract     = {{Before curation, there is collection. Before visitors engage with objects in an exhibition, collection managers engage with the objects and, in some cases, also the donors. It makes sense that especially when difficult pasts are involved, collection managers have affective encounters with the materiality before visitors do. So why has the affective turn focused mainly on engaging visitors’ emotions? In this reflection, I work backward from the ethics of curating Holocaust materiality—particularly the ethics of visitors’ affective engagement with this materiality—to focus on the ethics of collecting Holocaust materiality, with a focus on the affective engagement of the individuals collecting this material.}},
  author       = {{Martínez, Victoria Van Orden}},
  issn         = {{1550-1906}},
  keywords     = {{ethics; collecting; emotions; the Holocaust; museums; archives}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals}},
  title        = {{Affective Collecting : Ethics, Emotions, and Collecting the Holocaust}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/15501906251345400}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/15501906251345400}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}