• Episodes
  • Listen
  • Transcripts
  • Tranquillusionist
  • Events
  • Lexicon
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Merch
Menu

The Allusionist

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

Your Custom Text Here

The Allusionist

  • Episodes
  • Listen
  • Transcripts
  • Tranquillusionist
  • Events
  • Lexicon
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Merch

Allusionist 6: The Writing on the Wall

March 11, 2015 The Allusionist

iTUNES • RSS • MP3

Those words on museum walls that you can't be bothered to read? They're more important than you think... Exhibition-maker Rachel Souhami explains why. Visit theallusionist.org/museums to find out more about this episode. Tweet @allusionistshow,

Those words on museum walls that you can't be bothered to read? They're more important than you think...

Exhibition-maker Rachel Souhami tells us why.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

  • Read more about artist Fred Wilson and his 'Mining the Museum' exhibition and other works at the Maryland Historical Society.

  • Here's more about that very old museum in Ur.

  • Read a lengthy precis of the history of museums, if that's your bag.

  • Here's the etymology of the word 'museum'.

  • A few years ago, I went on a museums crawl in Vienna and saw such marvels as priapic armour, pickled conjoined foetuses, and meat animations. What's the weirdest museum you've been to?

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD OF THE DAY:
caprine

Say hi at facebook.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow, and come back in a fortnight for the next episode.

- HZ

CREDITS

  • Presented and produced by Helen Zaltzman, ie me.

  • Rachel Souhami designs and curates exhibitions, produces Museums Showoff, and tweets @rachelsouhami.

MUSIC:

  • 'Allusionist Theme' - Martin Austwick

  • 'Wonderful World' - Sam Cooke

  • 'The Writing's On The Wall' - OK Go

  • 'Live As If Someone Is Always Watching You' - Smog

In episodes Tags museums, exhibitions, text, exhibits, curators, curation, education, conservation, Rachel Souhami, walls, caprine, history, historical, Ur, archaeology, Leonard Woolley, artefacts, thesaurus, Roget, text hierarchy, Squarespace, science, scientific literacy, Mesopotamia, institutional critique
4 Comments
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
queer playlist
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
live tour of the UK!
live tour of the UK!
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.