1. Forsking i fellesskap- Workshop 3
February 25th 2015
All images © Grant Museum, UCL unless otherwise stated
Ziv Ayal Allochtoon
Museums as provocateurs for debate and dialogue Mark Carnall Curator of the Grant Museum of Zoology UCL

2. Research jointly ( FIF ) - a national project involving the six university museums in Norway with the aim to look at new ways of thinking about research, dissemination and institution building . This is the third workshop in mediation and succeeds about interdisciplinarity and the audience forfeiture . In this workshop we will focus on the exhibition space, on the sensual and how a conscious awareness of this can reinforce the interaction between the exhibition content and audience and how we can create space where the public can meet, think ahead and innovate.

3. Summary The Grant Museum University Museums
Research at/Research by the institution?
Research at the museum/research of the museum (object research diagram)
Focus groups
Mediation- Issues expectation (our own fault)
Object focus (triangle expertise, visitors, objects)
Qrator/Micrarium (sensory)
Research Impact- Exhibitions/Impact/Programmed events/Student engagers

4. The Grant Museum
1828 University Museum- For the university a teaching collection.
Lost the original ‘niche’ at UCL.
It was feared it was disposable like so many other university zoology collections in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Unremarkable collections compared to other natural history museums.
Adapt or die! 1996 became a public museum.

5. University Museums Strengths Weaknesses Use of collections
Neglected collections
Access to the University
Little protection (in the past…)
Links to academia
Teaching collections (casts, models)
Better support (pay etc.)
Academic responsibilities
Diverse roles and purview
Broad responsibilities
Public engagement agenda
Multiple reporting structures
Risk taking
Low profile

6. Research at/by the institution?
Are your curators researchers or research facilitators?
UCL- Facilitate and support researchers but don’t undertake out own research unless ‘bought out’
NHM London- Split into curatorial and research staff
Oxford/Cambridge- Academics who undertake fieldwork and teach

7. Research at the museum/research of the museum
Politics
Aesthetics
Biography
Preparation
Production
Historicity
History of science
Design
Material culture studies
Museum studies
Curatorship
History of teaching
Cultural geography
Material science
Law
Touch
Health and wellbeing
Learning theory
Interpretation
Communication studies
Digitisation
Anatomy
Alpha taxonomy
LDUCZ-No number Gorilla gorilla skeleton

8. Object focus
AUDIENCE
EXPERTISE
COLLECTIONS

9. Object focus
AUDIENCE
EXPERTISE
COLLECTIONS

10. Object focus
AUDIENCE
EXPERTISE
COLLECTIONS

11. Object focus
AUDIENCE
EXPERTISE
COLLECTIONS

12. Models of communication
Authoritative- traditional and still prevalent for most museum visitors.
Mediated- focus group work resource heavy, small audience vs expectation
Crowd sourcing and dialogue enabled by technology- the exhibition beyond the physical space
© UCL, Grant Museum and Matt Clayton

14. QRator
Developed with researchers from digital humanities and Bartlett school of architecture at UCL.
Solving research problems and improving interpretation in the museum.
Keeping objects core to the story

15. QRator
Forefronting issues of the museum collections not issues represented by the collections.
© UCL, Grant Museum and Matt Clayton
Can we lie about what a specimen is or where it came from?
Is it irresponsible for museums to allow object handling?
How do we balance the needs of our specimens and the desires of our visitors?
Is it ever acceptable for museums to use replicas?

16. QRator Engaging with difficult topics typically avoided
© UCL, Grant Museum and Matt Clayton
Do you think people today should perform dissection as part of their learning?
Should we only be conserving things that have a potential human benefit?
Is ecotourism an answer to local environmental and biodiversity conservation?
Should British red squirrels be protected when they are common in Europe?

17. Breaking with Tradition
Most exhibitions are very formulaic- beginning, middle, end. Objects and labels. Very academic. A ‘text book or catalogue on the wall’.
Now perceived to be prohibitively expensive in larger museums.
Only using a fraction of the collection- <1% in natural history museums.
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Museo di Storia Naturale Venice

18. The Micrarium at the Grant Museum

19. The Micrarium at the Grant Museum
Source

20. Research On Display

21. I didn’t know museums did this kind of thing?
Events Programmes
We need to get much better at creating a legacy for our events and exhibitions
Think of exhibitions of all scales as a form of publication (UCL research profile).
Using digital to make more of our ‘happenings’.
I didn’t know museums did this kind of thing?