HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

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HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

• Lecture Seven
• Science and Museums
• Monday 17th November

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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

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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

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Science museum
VA museum
Natural history museum
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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

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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)
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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?

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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

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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

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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
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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?