Origins and ambitions of the Congruence Engine project

Boon, Tim

Origins and ambitions of the Congruence Engine project

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2024-06-11_OriginsAndAmbitionsOfTheCongruenceEngineProject_FINAL.pdf

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Journal article

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Boon, Tim

Date published

January 25, 2023

Abstract

The Congruence Engine project arises from museum practice, especially that of the Science Museum; its origins are in the character of curatorial work and also in the frustrations that often arise when seeking to democratise access to the extraordinary cultural capital that sits unrealised in collections, especially reserve collections. It is built on an appreciation of the differing kinds of relevant research practice, now united in the conduct of the project: curatorial, academic, social and digital. The origins are, of course, also in the character of the collections that we draw on, in which context their history is deeply significant: the total national collection is made up of idiosyncratic components. The Towards a National Collection funding scheme aims to actualise potentials that arise from the heritage sector’s digital practice over the last decades. Here too the history is relevant, because our potential practice is constrained by old decisions about what and how collections should be digitised and informed by the first decades of practice in database use and online content. The diversity of working cultures that combine in heritage digital practice is also a factor. Many of the project’s ambitions have been brewing in the Science Museum Group’s Research Department practice since its origins in 2010: public and intermedial history, participatory practice and, overall, an assertion of the importance of research to museum futures. After discussing the project, the article finishes with ideas for two potential investigations.