Un travail de Pénélope au musée

In Penelope’s Shadow: Weaving and Undoing a Museum Database: The development of a digital museum database creates new links between information, objects and persons. This article focuses on the reconfiguration of the collections of the quai Branly Museum, begun in 2001 with the digitisation of data and the indexation of objects through the device of classification “TMS objects”. Curators validate the information implemented by the persons working with the database. The interaction of computing logics and preservation logics lead to a creation of digital mode of existence for each object belonging to the collection. Through new classifications, links between information and its object are undone and modified into new shapes: the artefact merges with the digital index card (form). At the same time, the usual practices of both preservation and data management are confronted in the unlimited development of the thesaurus “categories” of objects. These encounters lead to the reset of customs and practices within the museum.