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HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

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The history of the museum. Museum - dedicated to the muses (ancient Greek) ... Eiffel Tower was built for the Paris Expo in 1889 ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication


1
HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication
  • Lecture Seven
  • Science and Museums
  • Monday 17th November

2
The history of the museum
  • Museum - dedicated to the muses (ancient Greek)
  • Ancient idea of collection, ownership, power and
    access to knowledge
  • Ideas about what is valuable
  • Collection represents past successes, and
    insurance for the future

3
15th and 16th centuries
  • Cabinets of Curiosity owned by Princes, Nobility
  • Display of power, access to the natural
    world/knowledge
  • Francis Bacon (1594)
  • Every man of science needs
  • Library
  • Garden with animals
  • Cabinet of man-made things
  • Tools
  • So collections were tied up with notions of
    observation

4
Science museum
VA museum
Natural history museum
5
17th century
  • Rise of merchant trade meant huge circulation of
    objects
  • New people with access to cabinets of curiosity
  • E.g. John Tradescant (1656)
  • Museum tradescantium
  • Became Ashmolean museum in Oxford in 1683
  • First science museum?
  • Science lectures and education

6
Botanic gardens
  • Also in 17th C, rise of the botanic garden
  • Often attached to a royal palace or park
  • Medicinal herb gardens
  • Used as collection, lab, medical resource
  • In 18th C, enlightenment ideals
  • previously private (royal) collections were
    opened to the public
  • Kew Gardens (1759) commercial exploitation of
    certain crops
  • Used as pleasure gardens

Jardin des Plantes, Paris (1650)
7
A sociology of museums
  • Big National Museums act as a form of publicity
  • Communication of specific messages
  • Educational, labels started to appear for public
    to be educated
  • But also display riches and power of whoever owns
    the collections
  • National Musuems there to inspire visitors to see
    greatness of science
  • Also to see the power of the nation (Napoleon)
  • To impress foreigners
  • As visitor you are going into a Royal or State
    building
  • Have to act accordingly (quiet, awed)
  • E.g. British Museum (1753), displays the power of
    the Empire

8
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9
The Great Exhibition (1851)
  • So museums and exhibitions have a civilising
    function
  • Put people in their place, show them the world
    order
  • Great Exhibition 1851, brainchild of Prince
    Albert
  • 21 Acres in South Kensington
  • Crystal Palace built
  • 14, 000 exhibitors and 6M visitors
  • Showed the primacy of the British Empire over its
    dominions and colonies
  • Ahead in technology, industrial revolution
  • Sets out to display Britain to outsiders and to
    itself

10
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11
European Expositions
  • The great exhibition was emulated around the
    world
  • In Europe called Expositions, continued right up
    to end of 20th C
  • Eiffel Tower was built for the Paris Expo in 1889
  • Each country was showing off its power, technical
    ingenuity

12
US Worlds Fairs
  • In US, new country Worlds Fairs played huge part
    in showing off new nation to world and to its
    own citizens
  • Part trade show, part amusement park, part
    educational
  • Showing people how to live, introducing new
    products
  • 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair
  • vision of the future
  • Largest Ferris Wheel in world, electricity
    displayed
  • Left behind state museums in places where held

13
The Festival of Britain (1951)
  • Britain staged large post-WWII festival to mark
    centenary of Great Exhibition
  • Show off how Britain was after war
  • Technologically advanced, progressive nation
  • Lots of new products displayed (plastics,
    materials, architecture)
  • South Bank redeveloped
  • Royal Festival Hall

14
Exhibiting the Future (now)
  • Lots of science communication going on at these
    exhibitions
  • Visions of society, future of society, science
    and technology
  • Seattle (1962)
  • Space needle and monorail
  • New York (1964)
  • Whole area of NYS redeveloped in futuristic
    style
  • Advantage of temporary exhibition - can reflect
    times and interests

15
Science communication in museums
  • Museums not just about science or technology
  • Come with implicit political messages
  • About reinforcing the regime, economic or
    cultural prowess
  • About who is in power, who has access to
    knowledge, how people should behave as citizens
  • Same can be said of science on display
  • What goes into an exhibit counts as scientific
    knowledge
  • E.g. decision has been made about truth status,
    what public need to know, what counts as good
    knowledge
  • 18th C, classification was controversial
  • How things were displayed determined idea of
    inter-relations in natural world, evolutional
    concepts

16
Material cultures of science
  • 19th C shift in methods of display from
    classification to context
  • Diorama displays
  • But science still communicated by positioning of
    objects (material culture)
  • Is this really science communication?
  • Can you show ideas? Controversy?
  • Or science museum a temple or cathedral of
    science where you go and bow down before accepted
    wisdom on display?

17
No science in a science museum?
  • John Durant stated that there is no science in
    science museums
  • Just show old objects, therefore are they history
    of science museums?
  • Difficult to exhibit an idea e.g. big bang theory
  • Change of pace of technology, what do you
    display?
  • What about biotechnological objects (oncomouse)
    or nanotechnology?

18
Interactivity in museums
  • 1930s Science Museum installed a childrens
    gallery
  • About playing with objects, levers, push buttions
  • Today called the LaunchPad
  • Very successful, but any learning going on? Or
    just entertainment?
  • 1960s Frank Oppenheimer set up the Exploratorium
    in San Fran
  • Described as informal learning
  • Apparatus, equipment, toys
  • Learning through the senses
  • Exploratory in Bristol also started by
    psychologist Richard Gregory
  • Today called a Science Centre
  • Lots around the UK

19
Interactivity in museums II
  • What sort of science communication is happening
    in Science Centres?
  • Show basic principles (magnetism, reflection,
    mechanics), concepts which display of objects
    finds more difficult to communicate
  • V popular with kids
  • Critics say science is decontextualised
  • No history, no sense of progress

20
Display of science
  • Today musuems tend of have mixture of
    interactivity and objects
  • Clear that the display of science is not a
    neutral process
  • Lots of different things being communicated
  • Problems of how to show scientific controversy,
    social context e.g. climate change
  • What effect does commercialisation of exhibits
    play?

Antennea exhibit in the Wellcome Wing, Science
Museum
21
Task - Week 8
  • Go to the Science Museum at South Kensington
  • Visit a traditional exhibit (e.g. transport,
    industry etc)
  • Compare with the Wellcome Wing (ground floor and
    another level)
  • Think about
  • How is science displayed/explained?
  • Object based? Theory based?
  • Your position as the visitor
  • There to be awed by science on display?
  • To learn?
  • Room to question science?
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