David Carrier's Article

Time Travel in the Museum

David Carrier starts his article by explaining the powerful and unique experience an art museum offers its visitors . Unlike in a historical textbook which only contains stories of the past , a photograph which presents still and lifeless images , or a movie that shows mere reenactment of historical accounts with the use of improvised props or sometimes make-believe gadgets , an art museum allows one to be immersed in an important historical event through the art collection it houses Every piece of artwork in a museum is a treasure

it tells of a distinctive culture and a rich story which a visitor can be a part of

Carrier goes on to describe this experience as a form of imaginative time travel or going back to the time and place these artworks existed For example , Carrier cited , a visitor can peak into the real story of Jesus Christ 's last meal with his apostles through Nicolas Poussin 's work , The Last Supper . Similarly , Jacques - Louis David 's Death of Socrates ' lets a visitor experience Socrates ' last few moments on Earth without having to travel thousands of years back in history

Then , Carrier introduces the museum skeptics - people who take a rather adversarial view on museums . For them , an art museum is exactly the opposite of what people think of it . Rather than protecting precious works of art , museums actually destroy them by taking them out of their context and by moving them away from the objects that are...