I have watched people in museums for many years and it is rather… — The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine, Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and Museum Professionals, 1967, full transcript of a seminar at the City Museum of New York, October, 1967, edited by William Buxton, published by U. of Alberta Press, 2026, p 71

A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

I have watched people in museums for many years and it is rather interesting, both in Europe and America. You find a person will walk up to an object and look at it casually, read the label, give it a cursory glance, and walk on. They have not really looked at anything, because they are data oriented and they figure that now they’ve got th4e answer to that and they know it is tenth-century this or that, so they walk away from it. So the idea of setting up a gallery which just asks questions is going to force people to look at that or touch it if possible but at any rate look at it.

The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine, Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and Museum Professionals, 1967, full transcript of a seminar at the City Museum of New York, October, 1967, edited by William Buxton, published by U. of Alberta Press, 2026, p 71

Quote #3101

Year: 1967

Chapters: Interval | Audience, Public, Mass | Tactile, Touch

↪ Also at #6650, #567