Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

museographie / museographes / scénographes

English translation:

museography, museographer, scenic artist

Added to glossary by Huw Watkins
Mar 31, 2005 14:30
19 yrs ago
12 viewers *
French term

museographie / museographes / scénographes

Homework / test French to English Tech/Engineering Architecture Open competition for renovation of a mesuem
Cette équipe peut être complétée par l'intervention d'autres membres tels que plasticiens, muséographes, scénographes,etc.

le programme encourage une expression architecturale et plastique résolument contemporaine et la création d'une muséographie innovante

Discussion

Dylan Edwards Mar 31, 2005:
sc�nographes made me think, first of all, of those 3-D animals-in-a-landscape displays in museums - or is that rather old-fashioned these days?

Proposed translations

+3
5 mins
Selected

museography, museographer, scenic artist

x
Peer comment(s):

agree Gina W
6 mins
neutral Tony M : I'm not so sure, please refer to my own answer for comment....
6 mins
agree Christine Carleton
9 mins
agree hodierne : scenic designers
36 mins
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I couldn't get really cheeky a try scenographer/y could I? :)) Thanks for all your feed back. I agree with Teresa's answer."
+1
19 mins

See comment below... [not for grading)

Well, the literal translation is certainly tempting, but as I always get a bit stuck witht his one myself, I got curious and checked with OED. Surprise, surprise, look what I found:

museography
The systematic description of the contents of museums. Also = museology

Now I think we'd all agree that here we are not talking about 'systematic description' so much as 'good presentation':

museology
The science or practice of organizing and managing museums.

Now it seems to me that, although the -ography version CAN also mean this, it would be much better to use the unambiguous -ology term --- and moreover, at least that way it doesn't look like one is being lazy!

As for 'scénographe', I tend to think of 'scenic artist' more in terms of someone who paints backcloths for a theatre [artist = painter], whereas here I see it as being something quite specific; more of a 'window-dressing' kind of rôle, wouldn't you say? I'd like to suggest perhaps 'display artist' as an alternative?
Peer comment(s):

agree Dylan Edwards : "Museography" is used, rarely, in the sense of (roughly) museum cataloguing, and most of the time means the same as "museology" (OED), i.e. organising, arranging, management of museums.
3 hrs
Thanks, Dylan!
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