85025 - Museum and Scientific Expositions (1)

Learning outcomes

The students are expected to understand the important cultural and social role played by museums and other forms of exhibits in the creation and codification of notions of invention and discovery, moulding scientific traditions and forging of disciplinary identities.The course will explore the different cultural, economic and social contexts in which museums and other forms of display were rooted, the factors affecting their evolution in the period considered and the legacy of such historical background.

Course contents

The objects representing natural world and phenomena, as well as the achievements of science and technology and the artefacts created for practical purposes, have always been a source of wonder and interest, in the past as in recent times. The gathering, preserving, ordering and displaying of such objects and artefacts has a long and well documented history, from the heterogeneous “cabinets of curiosities” of wealthy private collectors of the 15^th century, to contemporary museums and science centres.

The course will examine the transition from the early period to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and to the Post-Second World War developments, characterized by the opening of the museums to an ever growing and diversified public. Particular attention will be paid to the European context, but in the second part of the course the view will be extended to the other side of the Atlantic.

The aim is to highlight the changes which took place in the very idea of a science museum, its function, its public, and the relevant practices. The lectures will provide a survey of the variety of forms in which scientific and technological themes and objects were displayed: public and private permanent museums and galleries as well as semi-permanent set ups, and temporary events such as fairs, local national and international exhibitions. Special attention will be devoted to the different functions that coalesced in the organization of these displays: collecting and preserving, divulgation and education, scientific research, entertainment and economic interests; the architecture of the spaces in which the collections were (and are) set up; and the design of the exhibits.

The course will explore the different cultural, economic and social contexts in which museums and other forms of display were rooted, the factors affecting their evolution in the period considered and the legacy of such historical background. But museums and displays did not just embody existing cultural traditions and styles. Students will be invited to consider the important cultural and social role played by museums and other forms of exhibits in the creation and codification of notions of invention and discovery, the moulding scientific traditions and forging cultural (and often national) identities.

Readings/Bibliography

These are some of the themes which will be addressed, and the relevant bibliography

1. The Wunderkammer as a microcosm of nature and arts

The “cabinets of curiosities” Early Modern Europe. Theory and practices of private collections of natural items and artefacts. Motivations, practices and objectives in creation and displays of private collections by members of European royal families, the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie.

Elisabeth Scheicher, The collection of Archduke Ferdinand II at Schloss Ambras in Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (eds.) The origins of museums: the cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth- and seventeenth century Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), pp. 29-38

Hans-Olof Boström, “Philipp Hainhofer and Gustavus Adolphus’s Kunstschrank in Uppsala”, ibid, pp. 90-101

Arthur MacGregor, “The Cabinets of curiosities in 17th-century Britain”, ibid, pp. 147-158

2. From cabinets to collections: Nature and artefacts from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

The transition from wonder and rarity as the main criteria for the collection of specimens, to new “scientific” criteria in the organization of collections and their display. Collections as tools and museums as physical spaces for the study of nature. The gradual opening of museums to the public.

Giuseppe Olmi

“From the marvellous to the commonplace: Notes on natural history museums (16^th-18^th centuries)”, in R. Mazzolini (ed.), Non verbal communication in science prior to 1900 (Firenze; Olschki, 1993), pp. 235-278

Paula Findlen

Possessing Nature Museums, collecting and scientific culture in early modern Italy (Berkeley; University of California Press, 1994)

Chapter 3, “Sites of knowledge”, pp. 97-150

Chapter 7, “Inventing the collector”, pp. 293-345

3. Museums in the nineteenth century.

The origins and early development of the modern science and technology museums, and the growing importance of their educational objectives. Evolution of the internal organization of these institutions, changes in their architectural structure and forms of display, and changes in the profile of their public.

 Tony Bennett, The birth of the museum. History, theory, politics (London New York Routledge 1995), Chapter 1, “The formation of the museum”, pp. 17-58

Samuel J. M. M. Alberti, “Placing nature: natural history collections and their owners in nineteenth-century provincial England”, British Journal of the History of Science, 35 (2002), pp. 211-240

4. The show of science.

Iwan Rhys Morus, “More than the aspect of magic than anything natural. The philosophy of demonstration”, in Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman, Science in the marketplace. Nineteenth century sites and experiences (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 336-370

John Betts, “P. T. Barnum, and the popularization of natural history”, Journal of the history of ideas, 20 (1959), pp. 353-368

Bruce Sinclair, “Technology on its toes: Late Victorian ballets, pageants, and industrial exhibitions”, in Cutcliffe, Stephen H., and Post, Robert C. (eds.), In context: History and the history of technology. Essays in honor of Melvin Kranzberg (Bethlehem, Pa., Lehigh Univ. Press, 1989), pp. 71-87

5. Other forms of presenting scientific and technological progress

The nineteenth century saw the extraordinary development of large-scale temporary exhibitions as a forum for displaying to a large public (millions of visitors in the case of the international exhibitions) the progress of science, technology and the arts. Cultural, socio-economic and political aspects of these events, and the change of their format over time.

 Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral vistas: The “Expositions universelles, Great Exhibitions and world’s fairs 1851-1939 (Manchester University Press, 1988), Chapter 1, “Origins and conceptual development”, pp. 3-26, and Chapter 3, “Imperial display”, pp. 52-81

Robert H. Kargon, Karen Fiss, Morris Low and Arthur P. Molella, World’s fairs on the eve of war (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), Chapter 2, “Modernity à la Française”, pp. 7-29.

6. The beginning of science and technology museums

Based on instruments and machinery used for educational purposes, and often on items displayed during national and international exhibitions, science (and technology) museums began to be organized in the late nineteenth century, and further expanded in the twentieth century.

Stella Butler, Science and Technology Museums (Leicester: Leicester UP, 1992), Chapter 1 “Science and technology in display”, pp. 1-14; Chapter 2, “Monuments to manufacture”, pp. 15-42

Eugene Ferguson, “Technical Museums and international exhibitions”, Technology & Culture 6 (1963), pp. 30-46

Wolfhard Weber, “The political history of museums of technology in Germany since the nineteenth

Century”, History and Technology, 10 (1993), pp.13-25

Ferriot, Dominique, “Arts et métiers, la création d'une collection nationale”, La revue du Musée des arts et métiers, 34 (2001), pp. 53-57

Jacqueline Eidelman, “The cathedral of French science. The early years of the ‘Palais de la Découverte’”, in Terry Shinn and Richard Whitley (eds.) Expository science: Forms and functions of popularisation (D. Reidel; Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster, 1985), pp. 195-207

7. Museums after 1970

The object of this class is the re-formulation of the scope and organization of museums that took place from the 1970s onwards. Particular attention will be devoted to the rise of the science centres characterized by interactive and multimedia displays, and the participatory approach which is the distinctive feature of contemporary museums.

Frank Oppenheimer, “Rationale for a science museum”, Curator: The Museum Journal, 1 (1968), pp. 206-209

Alan J. Friedman, “The extraordinary growth of the science-technology museum”, Curator, 50 (2007), pp. 63-75

Sue Allen, “Designs for learning: Studying science museums exhibits that do more than entertain”, Science Education 88 (2004), pp. 17-33

8. Debates surrounding public understanding/participation in science and their effects in the museum space

The participatory turn is a distinctive feature of the communicative approach of contemporary museums. Interactive games, co-creating laboratories, social media heavy websites are some of the tools. Furthermore, the new science and technology museum, like other museums, has to take into account the changing composition of the society and in turn the visitors. What do they do to address this issue of inclusiveness?

Sharon Macdonald, “Exhibitions and the public understanding of science paradox”, Workshop on “Exhibitions as tools for transmitting knowledge”, Humboldt Universität, 2002

Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum (Santa Cruz: Museum, 2010), Chapter 1, “Principles of participation”; Chapter 3, “From me to we”, http://www.participatorymuseum.org/read/

James M. Bradbourne

“Dinosaurs and white elephants: the science center in the twenty-first century” Public understanding of science , 7 (1998), pp. 237-253

Martin W. Bauer, “What can we learn from 25 years of PUS survey research? Liberating and expanding the agenda”, Public Understanding of Science 16 (2007) pp. 79-95

9. Controversies under the roof of the museum - and beyond

Exhibits are constructed on the basis of narratives, and they convey messages and the interpretations. Such messages and interpretations can be, and in fact often are, controversial. In the recent past some very important discussion have been generated by exhibitions dealing with historical events, important discoveries or inventions and their subsequent developments. The ensuing debate involved a variety of aspects and levels of the organization and management of such exhibits. We shall discuss some of the most interesting controversies, most notably the “Enola Gay” controversy, and their implications with regard to the organization and management of exhibitions, and the reaction of the public and the sponsors. We shall also examine the very nature of some controversial museums such as the Creation Museum (Petersburg, Kentucky, United States), and the debate on their status.

Richard H. Kohn, “History and the culture wars: The case of the Smithsonian Institution's Enola Gay Exhibition”, Journal of American History, 82 (1995), pp. 1036-63

Sharon Macdonald, “Supermarket science? Consumers and 'the public understanding of science'”, in Sharon Macdonald (ed.), The Politics of Display: Museums, Science, Culture (London Routledge 2008), pp. 118-138

Martin Weiss, “Beyond the evolution battle: Addressing public misunderstanding”, Dimensions, on-line journal of ASTC, March/April 2006

http://www.astc.org/pubs/dimensions/2006/mar-apr/index.htm

ECSITE, “Position statement on science and evolution”

http://www.ecsite.eu/sites/default/files/ecsite_position_statement_on_science.pdf

Teaching methods

Classroom teaching will be complemented by powerpoint presentations.

The programme includes also the visit of local museums, most notably the establishments of the Sistema Museale di Ateneo of the University of Bologna and the Museo del Patrimonio Industriale.

Assessment methods

The final assessment will be based on two parts:

Part 1. Oral examination of a selection of 4 of the proposed themes and the relevant bibliography to be determined by each student with the teacher.

Part 2. A report (c. 2.000 words) in which each student will examine a museum of her/his choice, within the typological range of museums/exhibitions examined in the course, using in her/his analysis the interpretive/methodological tools offered by the essays chosen for Part 1 of her/his examination.

The subject must be chosen in consultation with the teacher. The report must include the title, the name of the author(s), footnotes, and a bibliography indicating essays, books and other sources consulted.  

Contributions to the discussion during classes will be considered as an important component of the final assessment.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Guagnini