If gods and goods can be confused, then so too can commerce and culture. The distinctions that we often draw between the two — and the morality with which we judge them — might well be false. In this case, the trade show precedes culture. Commercial spectacle is the matrix that spawns the cultural institution. Manufacturing creates the museum. And the objects and collections that the museums contain are simply products given special status by the place that holds them. Meanings and significances are projected onto objects rather than intrinsic to them or baked into their material form. The meaning of objects here becomes circumstantial. The same thing somewhere else performs very differently.

Source: Sam Jacobs, Life Amongst Things, in MacGuffin “the Life of Thing”, 2018