Coda on Curation: Thoughts on Science Fiction and Museums

ABSTRACT:An encounter in a museum—viewing objects in a display case or a wall filled with art—is always an encounter with curation. Science fiction gives insights into the power inherent in the curator’s role. Although curators are scarce in science fiction, one major science fiction character who is deliberately positioned by writers as a curator stands out: the Doctor of the popular British television series Doctor Who. As a way of wrapping up this collection of essays on science fiction and museums, I draw on the Doctor’s role as curator to position the collection’s essays as contributions to our understanding of the power of museum curation and where it might go astray. I discuss three themes appearing across the issue: knowledge curation, resisting curation, and dangerous curation. All narratives in the museum are curated to create worlds, and those worlds deserve to be scrutinized and contemplated rather than simply accepted as true. Science fiction narratives tell us that curated worlds can be otherwise.