Museums and Modernity

By Warren Harasz 8/7/2009 Dr. Fritz Davis and Dr. Michael Ruse Biology in Museums His 6934

The Bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarcely one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of natures forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraph, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, whole populations conjured from the ground- what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labor?- Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto. This statement of Marxs serves as an excellent depiction of some of the contradictions inherent in living in a modern capitalist society. Although modern life seems to be inextricably tied to the promise of progress from new methods of production, new technology, and new means of communication and transportation; the rise of urbanization only ensures a greater sense of alienation of the city dweller from his community, the rise of technology only furthered our anxieties over atomic, chemical, and biological warfare, and the rise of industry only served to exacerbate the disparity between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. While mankind moves into the modern era there is no sure footing in tradition and the ebbing tide of secularization makes it difficult to determine value and morality. As a modern society, Americans are challenged to answer these dilemmas created by the advances of modern capitalist civilization; new science and industry create pollution, warfare, and even a decline in moral values conveyed through religion. A perfect place to analyze these social responses to the issues of modernity are in our public institutions and museums as they serve as an interface between technology, industry, art, and cultural values. This paper will be an analysis of the ways in which The Chicago Art Institute, The Museum of Science and Industry, and the Creation Museum present the often contradictory fragments of modernism and convey specific cultural values as a response to the
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issues of modernity. Modernism and the contradictions of modern life are preserved and shelved in our Museums as an opportunity for society to marvel at its progress and reflect on its challenges as we fly at a dizzying pace into the future. The city of Chicago is a bustling metropolis full of fantastic public sculptures, beautifully landscaped gardens and parks, grandiose architecture, and, most importantly, edifying public institutions such as museums and art galleries. When standing in this city built from the rise of the American automobile industry1 along with numerous philanthropic gestures from such great industrialists as oil tycoon John D Rockefeller (the University of Chicago) it is difficult not to perceive Chicago as a marvel of modern Capitalist Society. When comparing this metropolis with Petersburg Kentucky, the home of the creation museum, one gets the feeling that not much has changed in the surrounding pastoral countryside since the highways were paved. Yet, this is not to say that Petersburg Kentucky and the Creation Museum are not equally confronted with the complexities and contradictions of modernity as the Art Institute and The Museum of Science and Industry are in Chicago. In fact, the rise of the museum itself can be measured alongside the rise of modernism as a burgeoning capitalist society sets to wondering at the dizzying heights of human progress. Daniel Bell in his article Modernism Mummified, supports the claim that museums are a byproduct of modernization saying The answer to when and how what we call the modern emerged has a large historical canvas. One can date it with the rise of the museum, where cultural artifacts are wrenched from their traditional places and displayed in a new context of syncretism; history mixed up and consciousness jumbled by will2 A unique insight into the collective understanding of modernity is provided by analyzing the ways in which the history
1. 2. Photo Appendix #1, Chicago introduces Automobiles to the world, Museum of Science and Industry photo by Eric Rogers. Daniel Bell, Modernism Mummified, American Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1, Special Issue: Modernist Culture in America (Spring, 1987), pp. 122-132 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pg 1

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and facts presented in these public institutions represent a conscious agenda to respond to modernity and its challenges in a certain context. The simplest place to begin looking for modernist themes and the agenda for the context in which they are presented is in the Art Institute of Chicago. In its halls the viewer is directly presented with the historical movement of modernism in art as a cultural critique of modern society, and immediately in displaying such images the viewer is faced with the modernist crisis of representation. Boasting a huge collection of modern masters from Picasso to Georgia OKeeffe to Salvador Dali` to Andy Warhol (to name some of the more notable figures) the Art Institute displays such a huge variety of styles of modern art (cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism) that it is difficult to find the underlying thread of the different works as belonging to the same artistic movement. However, the crisis of representation in modernism is what creates the diversity in these works for as modern society is constantly shifting and moving so must the means of characterizing it. Pericles Lewis in The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism describes the crisis of representation saying on the one hand, modernism means an end to all conventional forms of representation, and on the other hand that modernism means the creation of new conventions of representation more appropriate to the modern age.3 This search for more appropriate forms of representation of a constantly shifting modern landscape leads different artists to various and complex conclusions about the challenges presented by modernity. However, it is not problematic that the tradition of modern art spans from Picasso to the present for it is the nature of these shifting conventions to be created and destroyed and then to be recreated. TS Eliot speaks to this dilemma of modern art as a historical artifact in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot claims No poet, no artist of any art, has his

3.

Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge University Press 2007, pg 5

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complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists the past altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. 4 In the halls of the Chicago Art Institute the viewer is immersed in the tradition and redefinition of tradition of modern art as it has evolved into modern times. In running the historical gamut of artistic modernism within the museum one can experience the emotion and chaos, the variety and complexity which ensure that, much like modern life, change is the only constant. So how is it that art is capable of appropriately depicting modern life, and what are some of the themes and statements made about it? As was mentioned before the responses to modern society are complex and varied as the artists producing the works, not to mention the span of time over which responses to modernity have evolved. Christos Joachimides in his article The Age of Modernism characterizes this difficulty in establishing the modern saying What is modernism? Is it a period of art history, like, say, the baroque? Is it an historical phenomenon, an international style? Or is it an artistic attitude that retains its validity to this day, a dialectical quest that still remains very far from conclusionThe Age of Modernism is not over and done with: it is still in progress and still surprising us with new impulses, unexpected suggestions and daring surmises.5 The dialectical quest Joachimides was referring to was the engagement in a dialogue or conversation with society over the contradictions and consequences of modernization. Since modernity is an on-going process the artistic attitude of critique and analysis provide artists with a means to interject new vision in spite of tradition, allowing their

4. 5.

Quote taken from Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge University Press 2007, pg 27 The Age of Modernism Art in the 20th Century, Edited by Christos Joachimides and Norman Rosenthall 1997, pg 9

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art to exist at the still point of the still turning world.6 This unifying attitude of questioning tradition, progress, and authority is the thread that allows the viewer to compare such disparate works as Picassos and Warhols in similar context. What does each painting reveal about the nature of modern life, how does the artist feel about the reality he has depicted? What does it mean to me as a modern viewer? These are questions that allow patrons in the Art Institutes Modernism wing to find timeless truths about modern life from paintings that are no longer contemporary. When analyzing the ways in which modern art both depicts and makes suggestions about modern life Peter Blumes painting The Rock7 provides an excellent example. Blumes surreal landscape depicts interspersed individuals, perhaps representing the whole of mankind, working tirelessly to rebuild an edifice from the ruin and remains of what appear to be a globe in the center. The jarring image of workers with determined expression constantly moving forwards to build out of the destroyed remains of the structure on the viewers right in the painting. Grey skies are giving way to blue, the date of this painting was 1944 and there is a distinct impression of rebuilding humanity from the rubble of the Second World War. James Cuno in his book Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago supports this interpretation saying of the laborers They labor at the task of cutting the stone for the new structures that are to be raised on the rubble of the old. Looming above the figures is monumental rock, scarred and blasted, yet enduring, itself a symbol of mankinds tenacity and capacity to survive.8 The images of smoke and destruction, the themes of death and rebirth both illustrate the dangerous potential and unyielding hope for progress from the process of modernization. Analyzing Peter Blumes work

6. 7. 8.

TS Eliot Four Quartets copyright TS Eliot 1943, pg 15. Photo Appendix #2 Peter Blume, The Rock 1944, photo by Eric Rogers. James Cuno, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press 1998, pg 140

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is only a single work among many great paintings in the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago, but The Rock provides a specific instance of a work that is no longer contemporary that contains truth for the modern audience. For as we progress further technologically and culturally, the threat of the last great world wars still casts a dark reminder that the height of technology brought with it only a further capability of destruction. Although it is has become obvious how and where modernism is represented in the Art Institute of Chicago, the final question is why? What is the agenda for presenting modernism in the light that it is shown? As with finding elements of modernism in the Art Institute, finding the motivation to represent modernism as such is quite simple. Although there are some things at the Institute aimed towards children,9 for the most part it is a quiet gallery for mature patrons to come and enjoy pristine master works of art. However, the selection of specific pieces as parts of the collection is intentional and gives a specific representation of modernism and the Art Institutes roll in defining it. Indeed, James Cuno in his work Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago is quick to point out that Georgia OKeeffe spent a brief period at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago10 as well as recognizing that Leon Golub was a native Chicagoan and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute, Leon Golub expressed his commitment to the possibility that art can effect social and political change in often harrowing images.11 These lines help to demonstrate the Art Institutes conscious roll as creating part of the definition of modernism by its influence on the development of modern artists. Suzanne McCullagh in her introduction to Graphic Modernism: at the Art Institute of Chicago entitled The Gecht Collection and the Chicago Tradition demonstrates how collectors consciously shape the way

9. Photo Appendix #3, Spencer Davis runs the Gauntlet, Photo by Eric Rogers 10. James Cuno, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press 1998, pg 124 11. James Cuno, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press 1998, pg 163

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works are perceived and can even help define periods of history. For instance McCullagh states of the Gecht collection that It boasts numerous examples that, while they stand fully on their own as works of art, reveal the artists creative process. 12 This line clearly demonstrates the roll of collector as a guiding force in selecting the works that are to represent and reveal the creative processes of modernist painters, which may have been instructive to both patrons interpreting the works and students in the Chicago tradition, such as OKeeffe and Golub, creating their own works of art which now reside in the metropolis of the Windy City. Yet, there is something peculiar about creating a modernist tradition. A tradition which resists tradition taking part in putting modern works in a museum to be preserved timelessly as artifacts of our culture is a bit absurd. Daniel Bell in his work Modernism Mummified speaks to this dilemma saying The museum was the place the artist avoided. If one turns to the bombastic outriders of modernism, the repeated cry in the Futurist Manifestos of Marinetti is that museums are cemeteries of empty exertion, cavalries of crucified dreams, registries of aborted beginnings13 However, by influencing and educating new artists and new patrons about what has been stated about modernity in modern art there is a hope for new depictions and social suggestions. Whether it be from a greater appreciation in patrons or from students of the Chicago Tradition such as Leon Golub in the eighties who had a renewed hope for social and political action in art. This hope arises from the fact that modernism is defined by the audience living in the modern world, and their shifting interpretations remain autonomous from the intentions of the artist and the collector, allowing that modern works can exist as cultural artifacts and still reveal to us truth about modern life. Pericles Lewis speaks to the nature of autonomy in modern
12. Graphic Modernism: at the Art Institute of Chicago, Hudson Hills Press, Copyright 2003 The Art Institute of Chicago, pg ix 13. Daniel Bell, Modernism Mummified, American Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1, Special Issue: Modernist Culture in America (Spring, 1987), pp. 122-132 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pg 6

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art saying it becomes an almost hieratic object, containing a meaning that transcends not only its status as representation and understanding of its audience but even the intentions of the creator.14 Hence, the Art Institute of Chicago can take a role in defining the tradition of modern art without harming the preservation of the presentation of modernity contained within the works for the patrons. After analyzing the modernist elements and the motivation for presenting them in the Art Institute of Chicago, it is perhaps more interesting to study the interplay of modern issues in a less straight forward presentation such as at the Museum of Science and Industry. The Museum of Science and Industry is a celebration of mankinds progress through the development ofwell science and industry. The theme of this institution follows well with this essays opening quote from Marx, for this is the place people come to awe, intrigue, and indoctrinate their children with the wonder of sciences mastery over nature. This is the place where even a Marxist would stop prophesies of the downfall of capitalist society to admire the miracle of modern productive powers in industry. The themes of commerce and progress are central to the advance of modern capitalist civilization and the Museum of Science and Industry is a temple to the rational values we have built our civilization upon. Ross Poole in his book Morality and Modernity supports the claim that rationality and progress are driving forces of modern capitalist society saying The logic was progress: commercial society was civilization, and as such it was not just the result, but the achievement of history.15 In fact these themes of rationality and progress are virtually everywhere in Herman Kogans history of the museum entitled A Continuing Marvel: The Museum of Science and Industry. Kogan describes the museums awe inspiring modern marvels saying a visitor can create a rock fault or a rainfall or
14. Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge University Press 2007, pg 9 15. Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 22

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an electrical stormwork the controls of a submarine and peer through its periscope, move a forty eight hundred pound bearing with a fingertipWalk through a human aorta16 The list of modern marvels to be seen in the museum is extensive; however one thing is clear, science and industry mean rational progress. The creation of a museum to honor these virtues of capitalism truly gives one the feeling standing at the apex of modernity gazing down at the steep climb of civilization. It is not difficult to see how the concept of rational progress through science is valued in the Museum of Science and Industry. Unlike the austere and quiet environment of the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry is loaded with tons of hands-on, flashing buttons right at about eight year old eye level17. This is a place meant to indoctrinate the young in the values of our culture, a culture of commerce guided by scientific rationality. Probing into the values put on the process of modernization and mans domination of nature calls for the use of a hermeneutics of suspicion, or simply a gaze that looks beyond what is presented into the latent content of the material. Pericles Lewis in his book The Cambridge Companion to Modernism supports this modernist suspicious view saying the hermeneutics of suspicion involved an attack on all forms Kantian autonomy: individuals subject to unconscious forces, no longer regulated their own actions.18 In looking for the hidden or latent material in the museum one can begin to understand how an institution aimed mostly at the youth of our society is implanting the values that science solves, not creates problems, and that industry is rationally guided towards what is best for the consumers, rather than a constant struggle to drive down production cost by cutting corners without noticeable decrease in demand. Such concern for the latent content in the
16. Herman Kogan, A Continuing Marvel: The Museum of Science and Industry, copyright 1973 Herman Kogan, pg 1 17. Photo Appendix #4 glowing globe, shiny buttons, photo by Eric Rogers 18. Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge University Press 2007, pg 18

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museum demands that an analysis of how the material displayed therein provide a response to concerns of modernity. Industry is perhaps the easiest portion of the Museums displays to illuminate the latent content of specific cultural values as response to the problems of modern capitalist society. The tractor is displayed to the awe of many children.19 Behold, the enhanced ability of man to level the earth and make way for civilization, it enough to almost make you forget about the energy crisis and the lovely diesel smoke that these machines produce. In fact, right before walking in to see the giant green John Deer tractor, the patron is greeted by a plaque stating that Farmers are constantly developing cutting edge techniques using automation, chemistry, genetics, agriculture, and engineering to make farming more efficient and better for the environment.20 Just as the opening quote from Marx stated, progress and the wonder of modern production walk hand in hand with the advance of science. However, what is failing to be mentioned in the farm display is the huge ecological impact dairy and beef farming have on the planet, and with unlimited capitalist consumption driving the economy there is a real threat that sciences augmented production levels may not be able to keep up with its ability to protect the environment. Also, there is no mention in the plaque on the wonders of robotic milking 21 that the added hormones to the cows to make them produce more milk sometimes have adverse affects on human development, or that over milking by machines can cause infections in the cows udders leading them to be fed antibiotics which can remain in their milk. 22 Our capitalist society greatly values, efficiency, rationality, and progress but only insofar as it does not stand in the way of profit. The Museum of Science and Industry reveals its agenda through what it does not display, by never
19. 20. 21. 22. Photo Appendix #5, Kids love the tractor, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #6, Welcome to the Farm!, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #7 Hands Free Milking, photo by Eric Rogers http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/they-eatwhat-the-reality-of.html, they eat what!, Union of Concerned Scientists website

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showing the potential hazards or challenges of the enhanced productive capabilities needed to provide for modern capitalist society. Of course the productive power of industry could not have become so greatly magnified without great advances in science and technology. The innovation of the market through science is one of the inciting forces of urbanization, commercialization, and capitalist civilization in general. Ross Poole in his book Morality and Modernity states what is developed by capitalism is the power to transform nature. This has involved the introduction of new machinery, new forms of co-operative labor and new knowledge; it has called into existence new skills23 These new skills are the skills of innovation through technology, the new knowledge is science. Together these new skills and knowledge drive capitalist civilization ahead, to tame untamed wilderness, to claim unclaimed resources, to expand the market. In fact, the book produced by the museum entitled The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago puts forth that when the building opened its doors in 1933, its mission was grander still; to explore the unfolding destiny of the modern industrial world. That destiny lay in technology, in scientific and mechanical advances that were altering society in previously inconceivable ways. 24 The final explicit connection between science and progress as displayed in the halls of the museum is stated in the simple line from the introduction to The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, Most of all, this would be a Museum of Progress.25 A great display of progress through scientific advance can be seen in the Museums display on internet technology. They have set up a nice timeline from 1950 to the present show the advances in the amount of internet

23. 24. 25. 26.

Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 34 The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, copyright 1997 Museum of Science and Industry, pg 15 The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, copyright 1997 Museum of Science and Industry, pg 16 Photo Appendix #8 #9 #10, The great march of the Internet, photo by Eric Rogers

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users and relative connection speeds.26 Yet, once again in all the blissful hope for what the future speed of the internet will be like one almost forgets that the 225 million users the timeline boasts by 1999 represent less than a tenth of the worlds population at that time. Simply put, there are a great many people in the world who have yet to see the light of modern capitalist society shine into their homes. However, this is an American museum and it is important to show our children how modern capitalism, aka science and industry, has progressed our lives through its rational virtues, not to warn them that our commerce might lead to ecological ruin or that our great modern civilization comes at the cost of utter ruin in a weaker market somewhere else in the world. Teaching children these rational values and bonding as a nation towards scientific innovation of commerce in the hope of progressing our quality of life is the goal of Museum of Science and Industry. To pry further into the museums agenda using a suspicious eye, the goal of capitalist nationalism comes to the forefront in the display of U 505.27 However, it should be cautioned that the curators of the museum considered the dilemma of displaying war in an institute dedicated to acquainting children with the ways science progresses our lives. The book The Museum of Science and Industry underlines this concern saying Dealing with warfare posed a serious challenge. If not faced forthrightly, the exhibit might seem shallow. If featured too prominently, it could over shadow the Museums primary commitment to technological education.28 Yet, what better expression of Americas emergence as a modern capitalist power is there than a tale of how innovative technology and war strategy was used to defeat German Uboats, thus helping pull the world out of chaos by winning the Second World War. What better

27. Photo Appendix #11, U505, Photo by Eric Rogers 28. The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, copyright 1997 Museum of Science and Industry, pg 104

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way to stimulate a healthy dose of faith in the power of scientific innovation to lead our nation to the forefront of the international community? This motivation of the museum to create a nationalist appeal to Americas reliance on scientific innovation is not necessarily out of line with the goals of modernity, and specifically not modern capitalist society. Poole comments that While nationalism often appeals to premodern cultural traditionsit is a quintessentially modern phenomenonnationalism is an artifact of the modern world.29 By being a byproduct of the modern world, and specifically modern capitalism, nationalism provides an emotional appeal, provides a set of values with which to judge the value of scientific progress, after all it won us the war didnt it? Setting aside the issues of modern capitalist national agenda found in the displays of the Museum of Science and Industry, there is still one last latent implication as a result of the Museums dedication to rational scientific progress, belief in theory of evolution through natural selection. As a nation of scientifically guided, innovative capitalists it is important to demonstrate our complete mastery of nature through the decoding of life.30 There is no finer example of the extent of mans progress through science than the ways in which Darwins theory of evolution and its modern synthesis with molecular biology has brought forth the advent of the genetic revolution. With the capability of creating designer genes and DNA databases there are new possibilities in medicine, justice, agriculture, and ecology, to name just a few. However, this display is one of the few in the Museum that actually stops to consider potential moral consequences of this modern technology. A fine example of this can be found in the display on genetic databases where, right at eight year old eye level, is a wheel asking the patron to decide

29. Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 92-93 30. Photo Appendix #12, Decoding Life, photo by Eric Rogers

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what moral concerns they have for this new technology.31 However, moral considerations and all, there is still an implicit message of universal scientific acceptance of the theory of evolution, albeit with a caveat that this does not reduce individuals to a mere confluence of genetic material.32Yet, the confidence in the technology and the hope for future advances is all based on acceptance of the concept that variation in genes combined with environmental factors drive natural selection. This type of argument for the theory of evolution through the modern advances it has brought us is a form of instrumental reasoning. Poole describes the instrumental rationality of the modern capitalist saying Individuals are rational in this sense if they select from the range of possible actions which are open to them that action which is, on best evidence available, most likely to achieved a given goal.33 As a nation of rational consumers the Museum of Science and Industry is careful not dismiss the unique, individual nature of humans, but the potential to innovate and improve civilization through genetic technology means that we want our children to recognize the instrumental value of belief in the theory of Evolution. Analyzing the concept of instrumental rationality in modernity as it relates to the Theory of Evolution provides an excellent point to begin probing the Creation Museum in Kentucky for it specific stances on modernism and modernist issues. By and large, the Creation Museum is very anti-modernist and much of it has to do with responding to those who would have us accept the Theory of Evolution based upon its instrumental value. However, rather than outright rejection of modernity and appeal to ancient texts of the Bible, the Creationist fall right into an act of modern rationality34 and scientific enquiry in an attempt to cast doubt on Darwins theory.

31. 32. 33. 34.

Photo Appendix #13 The Wheel of Moral Choices, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #14 Identical Twins are still Individuals, photo by Eric Rogers Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 37 Photo Appendix #15 The Institute for Creation Research, photo by Eric Rogers

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There are plaques with interspersed evidence35 of how Noahs flood created the Grand Canyon in forty days and wiped out the dinosaurs depositing their bones under a thick layer of sediment. There are even claims that creation scientists are using the same facts as other modern scientists but coming from different starting points.36 However, the veil of rationality does not carry far before the Creation Museum starts making its emotive moral appeal to why we should reject the views of modern science and how such a religious world view can enhance our lives and protect us from the perils of modern life. Indeed, despite its attempts at rational scientific inquiry it is not difficult to begin to pick out the modernist elements in the displays of the Creation museum as suggesting a strongly anti-modernist view. Yet, it seems only natural that fundamentalist religions should be weary of those who would employ a cynical hermeneutics of suspicion to the world around them. Pericles Lewis describes the opposition to religion and support of natural selection by modernists saying The masters of suspicion preached the death of God and the limitations of human self understandingScience had shown that man had evolved from apes rather than being created in tact by God37 These are the very claims that creationists wish to dispel and an effective way to do it is to show that the modernist supporters of evolution have no basis for objective morality. Moving beyond the presentiment of evidence and more specifically to elements of modernism in the displays of the Creation museum, it is important to note that the creationists rejection of modernity is motivated primarily by the assumption that modern beliefs (such as the Theory of Evolution) provide no basis for objective morality. Pooles supports the theme of disenchantment and devaluation of the world claiming To live in the modern world is to

35. Photo Appendix #16 The Evidence for doubt, photo by Eric Rogers 36. Photo Appendix #17 Same facts different views, photo by Eric Rogers 37. Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge University Press 2007, pg 25

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recognize that values and meanings only exist insofar as they are created by us. If science defines the realm of cognitive rationality, then values fall outside of that realm.38 It is no wonder that the creationists claim that without belief in the bible there is no way for a person to judge incest as morally taboo39 because before God banned it, the descendants of Adam and Eve had no choice, hence it was morally permissible at one time. It interesting to analyze the ways the creationists argue that modern scientific views are nihilistic and devoid of value, thereby reaffirming the modernists paranoia about the progress of civilization bringing greater suffering to the world. The best example of this paranoia can be seen in the World without God Display. Here the patron is shown several examples of modernist themes such as the death of God40 and the rise of scientific rationality as leading mankind into a cursed and painful modern existence devoid of value41. However, it is important to point out that although reaching to age old claims of religion to explain the creation of the world, it becomes evident what the agenda for doing so is, it is a response to the concern that the rationality of modern life leaves little in the way of meaning and value. Although it has been clearly shown through several examples the anti-modernist agenda of the Creation Museum, using a truly suspicious lens may help to reveal that this museum is not completely antithetical to the institutions already considered in this paper. It is difficult not to be blinded by the shear anti-modernist sentiment in the display stating Gods word of I am that I am versus mans reason of I think therefore I am.42 Also, from the photo it is difficult to see the titles of books in stack labeled Mans Reason, however many of them are modernist texts such as Descartes Cogito, Newtons Pricipia Mathematica, and Darwins Origin of Species;
38. 39. 40. 41. 42. Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 67 Photo Appendix #18 Incest isnt wrong unless God says so, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #19 The death of God, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #20 The Dangers of Relative Morality, photo by Eric Rogers Photo Appendix #21 Mans Reason vs Gods Word, photo by Eric Rogers

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three books which have single handedly revolutionized modern philosophy, modern physics, and modern biology respectively. The key, however, for understanding the creationists antimodernism must not be from considering the instrumental value of these works as contributing to produce modern capitalist society and all of its modern amenities, but rather their lack of moral worldview by taking up such scientific rationality. A common argument heard from the creationists sounds very much like Mr. Jason Lisle of Answers in Genesis who claims that In an evolutionary world view, why should you have things like absolute morality? Why would it be wrong to kill someone? I'm not saying that evolutionists aren't moral. I'm saying they have no reason to be moral.43 However, if the creationists are worried about the loss of moral values created by modern society, then suddenly they can be unified with the other institutions mentioned as reacting to the same elements of modernity. A way to draw this connection between the anti-modernist Creation Museum with the extremely Modern Art institute and Museum of Science and industry is to look at how these institutions are united in their establishment as reactions to modernity. Although their responses may be antithetical, their concerns about the consequences of modernization are the same. For example, at the Creation Museum there is a door with multiple locks on it with the words The world is not safe anymore44 scratched into the surface. This kind of modernist paranoia depicted in the images of death, starvation45, and nuclear war one encounters when passing through the door announcing the world unsafe, support the idea of a shared concern for the consequences of modernity nicely. Just as the Museum of Science and Industry turns away from these consequences of modernization in hopes of creating a sense of unbounded progress through
43. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=3211737&page=1, article entitled Creation Museum Unites Adam, Eve, Dinos, quote taken from abcnews.com 44. Photo Appendix #22, The worlds not safe anymore, photo by Eric Rogers 45. Photo Appendix #23 Why isnt the world safe now?, photo by Eric Rogers

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scientific rationale, the Creation Museum presents nuclear war, starvation, human devaluation, and other consequences of modernity as the reason for needing God to bring values to our lives. Whereas the Museum of Science and Industry merely has a plaque saying that genetics cannot reduce the individuality of a human,33 which is hardly strong valuation of human worth, the Creation Museum presents us with the solution to our modern concerns, reject modernity and embrace God. Poole supports the argument that in a modern world stripped of meaning there is no basis for judging one worldview as better than the other saying The world is disenchanted not because the objective procedures of science have revealed it in its bleak actuality, but because the values it serves lie outside it. The meaningless world revealed by science has no more claim to be the real world than the meaningful world displayed by religion. 46 Providing religious meaning is the creationists way of saving the modern world from the nihilism of scientific rationality. Another place to consider a shared modernist tradition as impetus for the anti-modernist displays of the Creation Museum is in their solution to the age old problem of evil. All of the pain, suffering, injustice, and competition in the world are the result of shared original sin from when Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden.47 However, the kind of reasoning that would claim that without God there is no basis for discrediting incest as a moral taboo would lead to the claim that if competition and suffering are the state of the world, and this is Gods will then it is just. This is the type of rationality that makes it safe for unlimited acquisition and increased disparity between competitors in the market justified. As long as an individual follows the word of God, it is not his fault if indirectly through means of the market he causes the suffering or competition for this is the way God decreed the world be since the fall from Eden. Similarly, the
46. Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 68 47. Photo Appendix #24 The Curse, photo by Eric Rogers

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Museum of Science and Industry as well as the Art Institute both tacitly support such commercialization and competition as none of these institutions are free to the public. In fact, the Museum of Science and Industry goes so far as to imply that constant growth of industry created by the principles of a free market economy have brought us all the wonders of the modern era. The numerous shops and trinkets, t-shirts and cafes, posters and coffee mugs, books and pamphlets of each of these institutions cry out for the rational consumer to purchase with their accumulated capital in order to silence the demands of their eight year old. Poole speaks to the duties of the modern free market tradition saying There are certain overriding obligations- to respect the property of others to keep ones commitments- which are incumbent upon all individuals, which are not the result of choices which they are free to make or not to make.48 This sense of not being free to deny the obligation or duty to the free market economy is one which is continuous through all the institutions mentioned, if they wish to exist in modern capitalist society they must make a profit. Although the Art Institute displays a great deal of modern art which critiques consumer society, many of these works are available in prints and posters, on mugs and t-shirts. All of these institutions support modern capitalist society by tacitly approving of their obligations to the market. Obligations to compete, to exchange, and to profit are the last ties to the modern nature of the commercially successful museum. It has been the goal of this paper to show that Museum, although places of history and tradition, are actually the benchmark of modernity. When a civilization organizes its past into a story of struggle and triumph or when mankind gazes back upon his past in wonder of the complex creature he has become there is a realization of modernism. Only though looking back upon the long and steep ascent of history can one begin to sense how truly modern society has

48. Ross Poole, Morality and Modernity, copyright 1991 Ross Poole, pg 93

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become and begin to make suggestions for where civilization should go. These suggestions are the reactions to process of modernization, the values that are to guide our culture through continued progress. Whether these values are hopeful for the future of social critique and political action in art, encouraging of scientifically rational consumerism, or in favor of turning to the ancient teaching of religious texts is unimportant, what is important is that all of these values are reactions to modernity and the process of modernization. Karl Marx describes the unstoppable force of modernization saying Modern Bourgeoisie society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the forces of the nether world, whom he has called up.49 Yet, these gigantic productive forces have driven capitalist society to new heights of technology, communication, medicine, and civilization in general, when we enter our museums we see the values we place on our climb to the top and through reflecting on the past may take cautious steps towards the future. Americas museums are byproducts of our capitalist culture generated by the uncontrollable forces of modern market society, it is only right that they should engage in dialogue with the public on where it is that modernity is taking us and what values we will need to get there.

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Karl Marx Communist Manifesto 1848

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Works Cited
1. Karl Marx Selected Writings, Edited by David McClellan, copyright Oxford University Press 2000 2. Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, copyright Cambridge University Press 2007 3. Ross Poole, Modernity and Morality, copyright Ross Poole 1991 4. Master Paintings in the Art Institute Of Chicago, copyright Yale University press 2009 5. Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L Gecht Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, copyright Art Institute of Chicago 2003 6. TS Eliot, Four Quartets, copyright TS Eliot 1943 7. The Age of Modernism Art in the 20th Century, edited by Christos Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal, copyright Zeitgeist Gesellschaft 1997 8. The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, copyright 1997 Norman Abrams inc. 9. Herman Kogan, A Continuing Marvel: The Story of the Museum of Science and Industry, copyright Herman Kogan 1973 10. Many fantastic photos by courtesy of History and Philosophy of Science at FSUs unofficial Photographer, Eric Rogers 11. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=3211737&page=1, article entitled Creation Museum Unites Adam, Eve, Dinos, quote taken from abcnews.com 12. Daniel Bell, Modernism Mummified, American Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1, Special Issue: Modernist Culture in America (Spring, 1987), pp. 122-132 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Reflections When sitting in a Prius with two other men over six foot tall and two hundred pounds, something akin to existential nausea begins to set in. By the end of a car ride of several thousand miles there are few quirks, eccentricities, or outright lunacies that go unnoticed. However, this is the magic of travel; within an instant of setting foot out of our rental to hear the docile tones of steel guitars playing country and blues in Memphis, embarking out for lunch amongst the towering bricks of Indianapolis, or even just checking in weary to the Bowling Greene, Kentucky Comfort Inn; the awe of experiencing a new location, new people, and new culture washes away all the grief of the journey. However, the most exciting portion of the trip for me was time spent in Chicago. On a crisp night in the windy city it is possible to catch a free symphony orchestra in the futuristic amphitheater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, to survey the city skyline in a glance at the Bean, to enjoy numerous interesting and poignant public sculptures, to stroll in the many beautifully landscaped parks and gardens, and to get a serious crick in your neck from staring up at the imposing architecture. This city has everything, a slice of the best pizza you can get after midnight, wailing Chicago blues at the Buddy Guy Blues Club, and an L train that can get you to see it all for relatively cheap. Ive been listing off mere highlights and fragments of the totality of my rather extensive exploration of Chicago, but Ive never been more certain that my long list of experiences is as but a drop of rain in the aquamarine waters of Lake Michigan. Chicago is a city that truly requires that you burn the candle at both ends, much as I did during my time there, and Im richer for having done so. Chica-go-go-go.

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