Work

Affective Collecting: Ethics, Emotions, and Collecting the Holocaust

Year: 2025

Type: article

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.

Source: Collections A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

DOI: 10.1177/15501906251345400

Author: Victoria Van Orden Martínez

Institution: Lund University

Language: English

Topic: Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400

Funder: Vetenskapsrådet