Program
XXI, London, 2016: Understanding Use: Science and Technology Objects and Users
SUNDAY, 2 October, Science Museum, Dana Research Centre and Library, 165 Queens Gate
13:15 Meet at Dana Research Centre
13:30 Tour of exhibition "Wounded: Conflict, Casualties and Care," Susan Mossman (Science Museum)
14:00 Tour of exhibition "Information Age," Tilly Blyth (Science Museum)
15:15 Conference Introduction: Tim Boon (Science Museum) and Oli Betts (National Railway Museum)
15:30 Session 1: Focusing on Users
Alison Boyle (Science Museum): “On the Shelf: Unused Collections” abstract
Elizabeth Haines (RHUL / Science Museum): “Colonial Bureaucracy in Action: Using Material Culture to Identify Conditions of Possibility” abstract
Tim Boon, "The Synthaesthetic Museum" abstract
17:00 Coffee
17:30 Keynote 1
Martin Collins (Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum): "The Problem of the 'Self': Museums, Materiality, Imaginaries….and other stuff (Users! Artefacts!)" abstract
Media Space Studio, Science Museum
18:30 Film Screening of ‘Museums of the New Age’ with New Score by J-P Calvin
Introduction by Jaume Sastre-Juan (Universidade de Lisboa): “Filming the ‘Museums of the New Age': The Appropriation of European Industrial Museums in New York City (1927)”
abstract
"Making the Modern World" gallery, Science Museum
20:00 Buffet Dinner
MONDAY, 3 October
Dana Studio, Science Museum Dana Research Centre and Library
9:00 Ian Blatchford (Director, Science Museum): Welcome to the Science Museum
9:15 Session 2 – Technical Objects
Julia Bloemer (Deutsches Museum): “Heritage of Usage, Users of Heritage –Instruments of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in the Deutsches Museum” abstract
Jane Desbrough (Science Museum): “Revealing Uses of Early Modern Clocks and Watch Dials” abstract
Carola Dahlke (Deutsches Museum): “Biography of Use of a German SG-41Z Cipher Device” abstract
10:45 Coffee
11:15 Panel 1: Questioning Everyday Objects (15 minute papers and discussion)
Claire Jones (University of Kent): “Selling Smiles and the User Experience of the Toothbrush in Britain, c. 1870-1948” abstract
Artemis Yagou (Macromedia University for Media and Communiction, Deutsches Museum): “How did they play? Children and Construction Sets (c.1830-1940)” abstract
Sophie Waring (Museum of the History of Science): “Back from the Dead: A Social History of Penicillin Consumption and a Long-History of Antibiotic Resistance” abstract
Jennifer Levasseur (Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum): “When Seconds Count: Astronaut Personal Timekeeping Devices” abstract
12:45 Lunch
13:45 News Update from all Museums
15:30 Coffee
16:00 Panel 2: Recreating Scientific Contexts (15 minute papers and discussion)
Simona Casonato (Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo Da Vinci): “Laboratory Life in Milan: An intangible heritage documentaetion project about a musseum object's life” abstract
Pedro Raposo (Adler Planetarium): “Hands on the Heavens: Celestial Cartography and its Users” abstract
Eugenio Bertozzi (Europa-Universität Flensburg): “Science and Technology Objects and Users: The Case of the Fully-Automatized Cloud Chamber by the Officine Galileo in Florence” abstract
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon (University College London, Science Museum): “Do Not Touch, Please. Exhibiting for the Blind at the Science Museum, 1948-1950” abstract
17:30 Break
18.00 Paper and demonstration
Aleks Kolkowski (Science Museum, British Library) and Amy Blier-Carruthers (Royal College of Music): “The Art and Science of Acoustic Recording: Re-enacting Arthur Nikisch and the Berliner Philharmoniker’s 1913 Recording of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony” abstract
Dinner (make your own arrangements; please see list of local restaurants, below)
TUESDAY, 4 October
Dana Studio
9:00 Session 3: Modes of Display
Margaret Vining and Barton C.Hacker(Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History): “Women Using Uniforms: Symbolizing Citizenship in the Great War” abstract
Kimon Keramidas (New York University): “The Interface Experience: Staging Computers as Objects of Use and Using Computers as Tools of Display” abstract
Karin Tybjerg (Medical Museion, Copenhagen): “Exhibiting Epistemic Artefacts” abstract
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Session 4: Visitors as Users
Stewart Emmens and Katie Gonzalez-Bell (Science Museum), "Working with the Wounded: The Co-curation of Military Mental Health" abstract
Jessica Bradford (Science Museum): “Audience Participation and User-Centric Interpretation at the Science Museum” abstract
F. Robert van der Linden and Margaret A. Weitekamp (Smithsonian, NASM): “Teaching Visitors to Think like Historians: The 'Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall' at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum” abstract
12:30 Keynote 2
Sam Alberti (National Museums Scotland): “Using Scientific Museum Objects in the Later Twentieth Century” abstract
13:30 Lunch (Library tour avilable)
14:30 (approx.) End of conference