Meditative Museum Texts & Allegorical Artefacts: A Curatorial Investigation into the Strategies of a Documentary-Fiction Film-Essay as a Source of Innovative Approaches to the Interpretation and Narration of Artefacts in the History Museum.

This thesis undertakes a case study analysis of Patrick Keiller’s documentary-fiction film-essay London (1994) from a curatorial perspective, in order to explore how the film’s narrative strategies open up new avenues for thinking about the interpretation of artefacts in the history museum. The in-depth case study analysis of Keiller’s London – looking to the film’s use of narrator as an ‘observational witness’ that passes down second-hand the observations of the film’s larger than life ‘distant’ protagonist, the fusion of ambient story narrative and structures of the essay form, the presencing of characters absent from screen through ‘empty stage’ city landscape shots, and the use of footage of everyday city space as an expressive allegorical setting for the cultural commentary relayed by the protagonist – generates a critical discussion about how the film’s strategies resonate with and challenge existing approaches to interpretation and display in the history museum and at heritage sites. The potential for innovation suggested by the film’s strategies is assessed in a short interpretive exercise. This exercise has been designed to test the film’s formal devices on a particular type of historical artefact – the topographic artwork – using items from the collection at the National Library of Wales. The interpretive exercise is followed by a critical analysis of the adaptation of the film’s strategies to the interpretation of the topographic artworks, and their perceived potential for constructive application to a history museum learning experience. Whilst engaging closely with perspectives from across disciplines in the analysis of Keiller’s film, and drawing upon various types of scholarship to give an account of the visual character of the topographic genre, the thesis intends to make its central research contribution to discussions within the field of innovative museum design and learning experience.