(Nissan. 2018) Museum Modernism’ as a potent social metaphor of cultural cachet over the shared dialogic
spaces, where reflected a situation whereby traditional art and culture are no longer relatively
autonomous, but is itself collapsed into other phenomena, including neoliberalism,
globalisation and mass culture, which clearly offers both a challenge as well as opportunities
for the new generation of institutions built according to a museum-as-cultural centre model.
(Message, 2006) Museum and art galleries nowadays evolved from a place of quiet
contemplation of collection works of art to one that encompasses socialism, liberalism, urban
capitalism, consumerism and industrialism in multi-disciplines. In which, cultural display
gradually moved outside of the walls of elite institutions into the new, highly demarcated
environments of visitable, consumerist spaces which beyond as part of nation’s patrimony.
(Dicks, 2007) In short, cultural display is now adopting sort of hybrid forms in central to the
exhibition’s appeal, with regard to set up in leisure-focused approach to attract higher volumes
of visitors in the venue.
Revolution in the Culinary World
Celebrating globalisation as a desire of commodity culture within the exhibition spaces - The
CUPNOODLES MUSEUM - also known as The Momofuku Ando Memorial Museum located
apart Osaka IKEDA and Yokohama, potentially is one of the best relative example in terms of
commercialisation and consumerism, which is based on museum’s engagement with popular
culture and mass consumption culture in postwar Japan stemming from rapid economic
recovery. (Morris-Suzuki, T. and Seiyama, T. 2015) Momofuku Ando - the inventor of instant noodles
so as the founder of Cup Noodles Museum, his creation of the instant forms of ramen speed
the noodle-preparation process that could be rehydrated and cooked in three minutes, the
originated “Chicken Ramen” has developed into a new form of dietary culture since 1958.
Hereafter, Momofuku invented Cup Noodles in 1975 aimed to transcend cultural boundaries to
popularise instant noodles worldwide. (1991, Paperback) Indeed, his inventions brought a
revolution in the culinary world, as instant noodles successfully help sustained the workers
who were rapidly rebuilding postwar Japan whilst stemmed hunger and the proliferation of
wheat during the early postwar period. (Eccleston, 1995)
“I believe the instant noodle is the most significant invention in the Japanese food industry
during post war period.” published by Hidetoshi Hasuo - Secretary General of the Japan
Convenience Foods Industry Association (JCFIA). (Freepatentsonline, 2018) With 5.47 billion
servings of instant noodles consumed in Japan every year, the incarnation of instant ramen
attributable to a contingent set of social and economic circumstances that underlie the
changing social atmosphere of the consensual society, which represented the era of high-speed
industrialisation of Japanese capitalism and economic development since the surrender in
1945. (Morris-Suzuki, and Seiyama, 2015) By citing noodles to gain insight into Japanese culinary
culture, the transformation of conservatism as well as a relation to collectivism in pre-war
Japan, the Cup Noodles Museum constructed a space that is rhetorically effective and
engaging provided the rationale for the museum’s approach to interpretation of the
emancipation of everyday culture.
(Nissan. 2018)
Popular Culture of Commercial Arts
The massive exhibition of instant noodles including the history cube, timeline storyboard,
installation, interactive spaces, drama theatres, noodles factory and amusement attractions. In
which, with a set of visual icons displayed on the first floor where collected with wide variety
of over 3,000 colourful noodles packages and established Nissan food products in
chronological order, a large number of overlaps eye-catching commercial art can be discerned
by way of illustration. (Timeline. 2018) The integrated collection of dazzling noodles packages
specifically highlighted a relationship between pop art and consumerism popular forms, as the
point of departure of pop-culture and museum primarily as a playful space of consumption in
the modern age. As a whole, the astounding quantity of noodles packages shows the growth of
Nissan commodities within an increasingly global capitalistic dietary culture, as to implied the
contextualisation of instant noodles as a commercially oriented mass media and serial
consumer product of the pre-modern age. (Whiting, 1997)
The Cup Noodles exhibition highlights the dialectic character of Pop Art, traces the migrations
of production and manufacture, and explores the boundaries between consumer culture and
commercial art. By showcasing noodles packages design as commercialisation of popular
culture, this particular exhibition space invited visitors to evaluate pop art through a form of
distanced aesthetic vision, as the visitors could measure their sophistication among the
absorbed shopper, the bargain hunter and the supermarket consumer. (Schulze, Achenbach,
Klingler, n.d.) In consequence, the measurement of contemporary understanding of Pop Art in
commercial design within an exhibition spaces, Pop Culture makes use of clear visual and
thematic principles in order to assert itself in the mass media economy of attention. (Gidal,
2014)
(DP. 2018)
‘‘You think this is a supermarket?’’ - Henri Dauman, Supermarket Exhibition at the Bianchini Gallery
(Whiting, 1997)
As referring to the relationship between consumerism and Pop Art, the whole idea of the Cup
Noodles exhibition is like a dream comes true to Andy Warhol - ‘I loved working when I
worked at commercial art and they told you what to do and how to do it, and all you had to
do was correct it and they’d say yes or no. The hard thing is when you have to dream up the
tasteless things to do on your own.’ With his aims of capitulating visual art to consumerism,
Andy Warhol created paintings of iconic American objects such as Campbell's Soup Cans and
Coca-Cola bottles. (Warhol, 1977) His adoption of commercial aesthetics activates a critique of
the status of the consumer products which has opened an embrace to commercial art of
market culture. (DP. 2018)
Consumer culture was then first formulated by pop art assimilated into exhibition field in the
early 1960s, which marked a breach in the protocols of display observed by shows of Abstract
Expressionism. (Lury, C. 2014) The Bianchini Gallery conceit acknowledged the increasingly
influential role of ‘Supermarket’ after the Second World War. At which the readymade
commercial imagery and consumer goods constituted a wholesale critique of notions of artistic
originality, uniqueness and authenticity. (Whiting, 1997) This particular exhibition showcased a
massive installation of supermarket consumer goods including Andy Warhol’s famous painting
‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ and his silkscreened supermarket logos, that he delivered a symbolic
register and a material presence that concerned with historical reference and cultural
narrative through his art. (Whiting, 1997)
‘What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest
consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see
Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola,
and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can
get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the
same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows
it, and you know it.’ In an other word, commercial art as a foundation to achieve distinction
within hierarchical social relations and devision of social class. Especially with pop art and
Warhol’s every-border public, Andy Warhol - regarded as practically blasphemous by the high
priests of modern and contemporary art. (Featherstone, M. 1991) Until today, commercial art
radiance permeates everyday living environment, therefore museum consumerism is an
exclusive phenomenon of the modern age.
(Ai, and Ambrozy, L. 2011)
Criticism of Commercial Arts
The aim to construct a space that is rhetorically effective and engaging provided the rationale
for the museum’s approach to interpretation, and it was in this spirit that the controversial
opening exhibition, parade, confronted visitors with statements - ‘Is it art? (Message, 2006)
Controversially, the critical outrage targeted the artist of whom had backgrounds in
commercial art specifically the visual rhetoric of pop culture. Pop Art was widely been
considered as an insult to the hopes and values of a group of artists exploit to the modernist
tradition that they were trying to sustain. “We want a response to art. We want a sympathetic
environment for the public.” ‒ with spaces sympathetic to art and human scale. (Ai, Ambrozy,
2011) A group of art critics remonstrated that the “New Museum” exhibit self-reflexive
strategies to rupture the genealogy whilst linking them to former traditional museums,
however the new form of museum or art galleries typically have not attempted to expose
pedagogical power structure or issues. (Featherstone, 1991)
“The truth is, the art galleries are being invaded by the pinheaded and
contemptible style of gum chewers, bobby soxers, and worse, delinquents,” complained by
Max Kozloff, an American art historian and art critic of modern art. (Cambridge. 1826) He
concerned that museums and art galleries are thereby fully embroiled in the disappearing
world syndrome since the increasing preference for replacing singular museum with a series of
discrete cultural centres. More and more art exhibition tend to encapsulate commercialism
and modernity’s tendency to enclose with visual art and culture. “Gallery walls formerly
devoted to dribbles now display mammoth spaghetti. A niche once reserved for crushed tin
and picturesque castoffs now bristles with bright and shining tinned merchandise. The
invaders have cornered galleries known for their cachet of sophistication.” added by Dorothy
Seckler. (Ai, Ambrozy, 2011) In relation to supermarket products become reconfigured as
collectable artworks through markets of display which create scarcity and transform the
consumer goods into an art object of the gaze. (Cambridge. 1826)
In response to these changing concerns, museums worldwide have, over the last
decade or so, begun to engage in processes of active redevelopment and rejuvenation. Their
attempts at redefinition have provided an intriguing shift in the way that both museums and
culture are perceived in general. (Dicks, 2007) Whether the discourses of the new museum ‒ of
access, democracy, the recognition of cultural diversity might break with the museum’s
traditional project of civic reform and succeed in offering an alternative and effective
framework of cultural production and engagement. (Message, 2006) As the attention is now
focused on the particularity of cultures and lifestyles, this phenomenon is dependent on a
widespread recognition of globe-wide differences. Furthermore, the focus on multiculturalism
and cultural diversity that is increasingly presented as a signifier of newness may thus gain
more than rhetorical impact than the now pass trend for postmodernity, and might contribute
to produce further negotiations about the relationship between new museums and culture.
(Hunter, 1980) The modern public museum, therefore, was not simply about housing the
hierarchical ordering and logical progression of knowledge, identity and culture. Indeed, it
was the imperialist mindset of the nineteenth century gave rise to the great museum-building
programmes of the era.
(Nissan. 2018)
The most interactive exhibition
By considering the effects of globalisation within local contexts as depicted in the new
museum-as-cultural centre, museum globalisation take forms of experience and interactions as
well as reconstruction use technologies of interpretation, which deliver cultural meaning from
art into places. Regarding to the Cup noodles Museum, Interactivity is a key feature of
contemporary cultural display at which interactivity invites visitors to simply feel culturally
knowledgeable and thereby in more control to the display objects. (Timeline, 2018) “This
interactive museum is designed to stir the creativity and curiosity for every child whilst
Momofuku aimed to provide a rich educational experience to every single visitors. The
diversified exhibition display and attractions delivers a message to the visitors on the
importance of inventiveness and discovery by introducing the history and manufacture
processes of instant noodles as a new instant food culture around the world. (Whiting, 1997)
The most popular and distinguish part of the museum attraction is definitely the Chicken
Ramen Factory, where the exhibition offer visitors cooking lesson to produce chicken ramen
by hand starting with kneading, spreading and seeming the wheat flour as the same technique
tool that Momofuku Ando invented in his work shed. (Japan-guide, 2018) With the flash frying
frying and into a packaged item of chicken flavours of deliciousness, visitors are able to create
their own personalised cup ramen with the flavours by their choice whilst enjoy its delicious
taste afterwards. (Davies, 2005) The massive interactive spaces including the Creative Thinking
Boxes and The Cupnoodles Park where the huge attractions and facilities offered the virtual
experience to visitors individually symbolising the joy of invention and discovery regarding the
importance of food, the pleasure of pursing dreams and in terms of creative thinking.
Dedicated to the humble cup noodle, it serves up novel ways for visitors to learn about the
combination of dehydrated noodles, condiments and broth power in a Styrofoam cup. Yet, the
exhibition of cup noodles is not only dedicated to instant noodles but more importantly, the
perspective of creativity and curiosity. (Timeline, 2018) Moreover, the creative boxes section
captured in the form of six principles which demonstrates large sculptures and inspiring
quotes along the way, handily glossing over his multiple business failures and focusing on the
instant ramen success and Momofuku’s innovation and inventiveness that how he opened up a
whole new industry that the consensual society for granted today. (Japan-guide, 2018)
(Japan-guide, 2018)
The Set up of the Exhibition
Every museum begin the planning construction for new facilities with a review of its mission.
The conceptual cornerstone of any exhibition and galleries process plans, the mission
statement is a concise articulation of a museum’s goal and objectives. (Featherstone, 1991) The
consummate facilities management of exhibition equipment and installation display
accomplished Momofuku’s aspiration and successfully promote the impact of Japanese
globalisation as a whole. In referencing postmodern ideas by making architectural spaces and
surfaces that can be described as textual or ‘embodied’, The whole exhibition inside Cup
Noodles Museum have prospected to draw on the postmodern idea. (Darragh, Snyder, 1993) At
which the multi-layered and multi-functional sites of significance across the history cube,
visual identity, art and culture, as it is necessary to employ a critical comparative methodology
within an exhibition space. (Message, 2006)
In addressing the interconnections between terms such as ‘text’ and reader’ or ‘museum
visitor’, the cultural studies approach to museum studies may further strengthen the
perception of similarities between the museum and the written text or narrative form. (Gidal,
2014) Which is including film, advertising and other modes of visual, audio and media culture.
One of the most common characteristics of new museums worldwide is their insistence that
visitors should perceive and hopefully come to understand the textual characteristics of the
experience being offered. As the market potential for museums and art galleries that the core
service manifests itself to the individual consumer through exhibitions, answering enquiries,
publications, loans of items to school, running events and activities. This prospective is
symptomatically the focus on attracting tourist and higher volume of visitors as opposed to the
minority gaze of art critics and “art lovers” which is a central feature of cultural display today.
(Tate, 2018)
‘Before a work of art is publicly exhibited in a museum or gallery, the studio
is also the place to which critics and other specialists may be invited in the hope that their
visits will release certain works from this, their purgatory, so that they may accede to a state of
grace on public (museum/gallery) or private (collection) walls. Thus the studio is a place of
multiple activities: production, storage, and finally, if all goes well, distribution. It is a kind of
commercial depot.’ - Refer to Daniel Buren’s theory ‘The Function of the studio’, as general
speaking, the museum and galleries tend to exhibit and display the completed art piece or with
the process of the art works. (Buren, Repensek, 1979) In fact, behind those perfectionism, the
critical and judgemental scene behind the exhibition walls, museum's desire to classify, to
embellish, and to select the best art works from well-known artist. The selected artworks in
contemporary societies by specific social groups or cultural intermediaries leading to forms of
expertise and the creation of subcultures or lifestyles. Apply Buren’s statement to the cup
noodles museum prospectives, in which, visitors could clearly receive the message regarding
the manufacture process of noodles and its product design through the detailed information
technology showcased online and within the exhibition. The only problem behind the
exhibition scene is that Nissan has the full control of exhibiting their production goods, which
means there is no open door for artist who are willing to exhibit their artwork in this particular
museum.
Conclusion
The modern museums, or what we so called “New Museums” as social sites at which the past,
the present, and future can be continuously contested and created in complex cultural
struggles over national and personal identity. In short, New Museum now shape our public
culture in various aspects. (Message, 2006) The exhibition of Instant noodles offers interactive
capabilities in both education and entertainment attraction with the intention of encouraging
visitors or audience to obtain a positive energy, motivation as to impel the importance and
power of being creative and innovative. (Nissan. 2018) The dazzling display of noodles packages
signified popular culture in relation to pop art and commercial art, which also represented
consumer culture and commercialism of every day culture in Japan. The invention of instant
noodles and cup noodles has brought a completely new culinary culture since post-war period,
as this cheap supermarket product became one of the most expressive visual identity of
Japan’s capitalism. (Eccleston, 1995) Under those circumstances, the cup noodles museum
operated as a form of orientalism as a fascination point of departure to other cultures, times
and places. The Cup Noodles Museum reflects global-economies as well as cultural narratives
of commodity culture.
The Cup Noodles exhibition as a playful environment with a supermarket approach of the aim
to construct a space that is rhetorically effective and engaging provided the rationale for the
museum’s approach to interpretation, invited visitors to understand the history and impact of
instant noodles worldwide simply through engaging with the museum’s facilities and
interactive activities. (Lury, 2014) The exhibition as a whole operated in six diverse aspects
overlaid in multi-disciplines, which the Cup Noodles museum’s treatment of space shows it to
be keenly aware of its place within a contemporary social context of spectacle. (Timeline, 2018)
The venue and its visitor complement the exhibited displays, as to become implicated in the
vistas available at each ideally postured view point, at which the whole idea of the set up of
Cup Noodles exhibition is therefore aimed to bring joy and fun to the visitors. (Nissan. 2018) As
intercultural dialogues had already played a decisive role in the emergence of the modern
society, where interactive is one of the main key and common characteristics of new museum
worldwide that the production display and discourse in any exhibition are aimed thus to
engage visitors with question pertaining to the relationship between representation and reality.
In order to bring unforgettable memories and experience to visitors, the function of any type
of exhibition nowadays offer innovative approaches as to invite visitor to become fully
cognitive of the role play as participants in the production of meaning within the exhibition.
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