#She has really great insight about the topics of ethics in museum collections and I thought her ideas about items kinda related

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This might be unpopular but hear me out..

Often we think of our goal surrounding culturally significant items to be preservation (keep them in a museum in the perfect environment for preservation, touch them as little as possible, sometimes going even as far as to not expose them to light..) with the idea that it is for “future generations”. It is well known, however, that the Titanic is slowly disintegrating, its shelf life is limited regardless of if we leave it alone, study it or tour it (I want to put it out there that I don’t support touring the wreck but that's beside the point).

I say this because I’ve seen some people mention how upsetting it is that the wreckage was possibly disturbed/damaged by this Oceangate incident but I don’t think you should be. In many ways, any inflicted damage adds to the story and life of the ship (regardless of the cause or people’s opinions on whether it is justified). I understand the moral arguments about it being a gravesite and I agree that it should be left alone, but seeing as this incident has already happened, I think it brings up an interesting conversation about how we treat cultural items as needing to be preserved indefinitely when any damage (especially with a story that is so sensational) ultimately adds to the history of the thing in question.

#I learned that this was even a topic of discussion from Ayesha Fuentes who is a conservator #She has really great insight about the topics of ethics in museum collections and I thought her ideas about items kinda related #in some ways #Im talking about the Titanic in specific #I can't speak for the items in museums that were stolen from their countries by colonists or any similar history #although that is another interesting conversation that seems to be happening in museums #Idk this is literally just my word vomit on a barely related subject teehee #I feel bad for the people on board the Titan but it brings up really interesting conversations on tourism/income inequality/... #anywayyyyyy #Oceangate #The titanic #text post #current events #:)