Object biographies and transformations within the museum context : The story of the cassette player, the brooch, and the sugarloaf mold

This thesis investigates how objects are transformed and acquire new meanings within the museum context, focusing on their biography, including aspects such as materiality and agency. Using a biographical approach, the study follows three objects currently displayed in the exhibition “Vägen hit” at the Östergötland Museum in Linköping, Sweden. These include a cassette player, a medical brooch, and a sugarloaf mold. Through interviews with museum professionals, visual and material observations, and analysis of museum records, the study explores how these objects are shaped and reshaped through museum practices, institutional structures, and curatorial decisions. The results show that musealization, rather than being a uniform process, takes various forms depending on an object’s provenance, materiality and contextualization. The cassette player was actively acquired and documented in real time, giving it a prominent narrative and visual role in the exhibition. The brooch, with a personal connection, yet an unclear provenance, has been assigned new symbolic meanings despite lacking detailed documentation. The sugarloaf mold, by contrast, is interpreted primarily through archeological and material expertise and illustrates how institutional processes co-produce knowledge. The study further argues that objects do not only passively reflect history, but act as participants in the museum’s narratives and decisions. The nature of documentation, as well as material features, curatorial strategies, and institutional priorities all affect how objects are perceived and understood.