Science Museum Group Journal Issue 19

This is an open issue that includes research focusing on the Science Museum Group’s own collections – you’ll find a re-evaluation of an important electronic synthesizer with a focus on its role in live performance; a discussion of how an Indigenous Australian shield came to be categorised as part of a fire-making collection. There are also two papers looking at research with museum publics: one reporting on a study of how we can support young children’s learning from science objects, the other exploring public perceptions of contemporary collecting. A fascinating piece of oral history research (featuring numerous recorded interviews) looks at the experience of government scientists at the point where privatisation radically changed the profession. And finally, we are delighted to feature a paper by Prasannan Parthasarathi, the first Journal keynote speaker at November’s Research Conference who gave an outstanding presentation on textiles history from an Indian perspective.

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English

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

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Editorial
(2023-06-07)
Steiner, Kate
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Book review: Curious Devices and Mighty Machines: Exploring Science Museums by Samuel J M M Alberti (Reaktion Books, 2022)
(2023)
Hess, Alison
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Supporting young children’s learning from science objects: the importance of play on gallery
(2023)
Haywood, Naomi
;
Davies, Karen
;
Souter, Lauren
Experiences during the early years shape our lives as adults, including our appreciation and understanding of science. Even though early years audiences make up a significant number of visitors in many museums, they are an under-researched age group, particularly in science museums. This paper addresses this gap by considering young children’s learning at the Science Museum in London. Two approaches to support learning from unfamiliar objects were tested with 4–7 year-olds in family groups. The first approach involved families creating a display that featured a small replica of the original object. The second approach involved displaying familiar objects or modern versions with conversation prompts next to the original objects. The testing included observations and semi-structured interviews with a total of 16 family groups. Findings show that families use play to create familiarity and context around objects. Guided play provides opportunities for families to tap into their existing understanding and interests, and in this way allows families to learn from objects. These findings highlight the importance of providing for and encouraging play on gallery to support young children’s learning from objects. Young children can successfully be supported to learn from unfamiliar objects in object-rich galleries in a science museum.
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‘We lost a type of job for a type of person in this country’: changing expectations of working in the UK scientific civil service
(2023)
Ledgerwood, Emmeline
Organisational change in UK government research establishments (GREs) during the late twentieth century profoundly affected the scientific civil servants who worked in them. Civil service reforms in the 1980s and 1990s led to the reconfiguration of career management frameworks, alterations to physical working environments, the introduction of new management practices and an increasingly commercial outlook in GREs, yet we know very little about the how these changes were experienced by the scientists themselves. A new series of oral history interviews with former scientific civil servants offers the personal perspective of everyday working life in a GRE. Through extensive use of interviewees’ own words this article reveals the norms and values associated with working in the scientific civil service and articulates the processes of organisational change that led to a fundamental shift in how government scientists felt about their work. In so doing it offers a record of a type of scientific working life in the UK that has largely disappeared as a consequence of bureaucratic reform and commercialisation.
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When is a shield not a shield? Interpreting Indigenous versatility in an East End match factory
(2023-06-07)
Froggatt, Nicola
A wooden shield, made by a once-known Aboriginal person in Western Australia around the beginning of the twentieth century, sits in the Science Museum’s London stores. This paper focuses on its life in an East London match factory from about 1928 until 1937, when it was transferred to the Science Museum. The shield stands out among its Aboriginal counterparts now held by museums because curators at the Bryant and May Museum of Fire-Making Appliances (and subsequently at the Science Museum) did not prioritise its links with conflict or ceremony, nor the skill with which it was carved. Instead, unprepossessing marks on its back captured their attention. These saw-marks showed that this was not ‘just’ a shield: it had sometimes been used to make fire. Valued now as an example of global fire-equipment, it was subsumed into an English collection of fire making technologies. By tracing the shield’s early museum life, this paper considers how and why European collecting cultures have marshalled indigenous objects to promote narratives of supposed ‘progress’.
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Collecting twenty-first century science: an analysis of public and professional perceptions
(2023-06-07)
Mahoney-Phillips, Esme
This article covers the key findings from a set of qualitative and quantitative research investigating the relationship between public and professional perceptions of contemporary collecting. Areas of congruence and disconnect were studied using a survey, distributed to public and professional respondents, and a series of interviews with curatorial and directorial staff at two case study science museums: the Science Museum in London and the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden. This research demonstrated that while there were certain areas of disconnect and hesitancy, both groups supported the acquisition of twenty-first century material in science, technology and medical museums, acknowledging the importance of such collecting strategies. The data also highlights the importance of contemporary material for audience engagement and development of science capital, enabling visitors to deepen their understanding of the past, present and future through discussions of current science, technology and medicine and its role within society.
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From obsolete technology to performance instrument: new live presentations of the EMS Synthi 100
(2023-06-07)
Morgan, Frances
The presentation of electronic musical instruments in museum and other institutional contexts prompts a number of questions about the restoration of sound technologies, the reconstruction of musical practices and techniques, and past and present cultures of electronic music, among other topics. Drawing from research into the electronic musical instrument company and sound studio EMS London Ltd, which produced synthesizers and other devices during the 1970s, this paper outlines some examples of how an EMS synthesizer, the Synthi 100, has been restored and re-presented by academic, broadcasting and arts institutions in the last decade. Devised for compositional use in electronic music studios, in recent years the Synthi 100 has been used in concerts and broadcast media as an instrument for live performance. Focusing on some of these events, I ask how live performance is used to draw connections between electronic music’s past and present, as well as to attract new participants and audiences to concerts, exhibitions and broadcasts of electronic music.
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The Indian challenge and the rise of Manchester
(2023-06-01)
Parthasarathi, Prasannan
This essay was delivered as a keynote presentation by Professor Prasannan Parthasarathi at a conference, Historical Threads, held at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum in November 2022. Up to that point, many of us in the audience had probably felt reasonably knowledgeable about the role of cotton production in the growth of Manchester and in what we call the Industrial Revolution. This essay was a revelation, presenting an entirely new, global perspective on the long history of international cotton trading, and positioning Manchester’s growth as a competitive response to what had for centuries been an Indian success story; one that was swiftly rewritten by nineteenth century British historians and industrialists. This museum has for over thirty years featured a much-loved Textiles Gallery, highlighting regional innovations, such as Richard Arkwright’s water frame, and the global and social impact of industrialisation and mass production methods developed in and around Manchester. But we have never told the story that is told in this essay, nor properly framed Manchester’s growth within a world context. The museum, as part of the Science Museum Group, is now committed to presenting more inclusive narratives, developing displays to feature previously untold stories and provide global perspectives. There are few more painful or problematic histories than that of the cotton trade, and this conference was a first step towards creating a ‘Cottonopolis’ gallery, which will set Manchester’s textile history in a bigger, harsher yet ultimately richer context. This essay is a first step towards that retelling. Note: Professor Parthasarathi is the first in a series of keynote speakers who will be invited to give presentations on subjects crucial to the Group’s major projects or research themes and whose lectures will be published in the Science Museum Group Journal. Note: Professor Parthasarathi is the first in a series of keynote speakers who will be invited to give presentations on subjects crucial to the Group’s major projects or research themes and whose lectures will be made available online and published in the Science Museum Group Journal.

Science Museum Group Journal Issue 19

Science Museum Group Journal Issue 19

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