Challenging Collections: Approaches to the Heritage of Recent Science and Technology (original) (raw)

Artefacts: Studies in the History of Science and Technology

In this volume we aim to reflect on not only the nature of scientific and technological artifacts post World War II but also the nature of today's "museum ecosystem" as it has emerged over this period. Museums are no longer primarily repositories that preserve and classify material culture. They must balance a number of functions, not always mutually compatible: exhibition, preservation, research, and education. Collections can be regarded as important material resources for historians of science and technology who in recent decades have moved on from telling narratives of progress to exploring science and technology in a wider cultural, social, and political context. Meanwhile, over this period the nature of museums' relationships with their public has shifted from one of unquestioned authority to a partner in dialogue: visitors' needs are now considered foremost in exhibition interpretation, and the public may even have a say in shaping collections. Conceptualizing Contemporary Collecting In building collections that help us make sense of the world, the framework of the historian must be combined with the material knowledge, experience, and sometimes sheer instinct of the curator. In the volume's first section, we have asked leading curator-historians to reflect on what historiographically informed collecting practices might look like when concerned with contemporary material culture. John Durant argues that museums are uniquely positioned to tell rich and meaningful stories about the place of science and technology in late twentieth-and early twenty-first-century society as a contribution to a "thick description" approach: several of the artifacts he describes Alternative Approaches Our next two contributors, from within museums and without, offer some alternative perspectives on recent collecting practices. Olov Amelin questions whether explicitly stated rationales, including those present in contributions to this volume, are desirable at all, offering Universities play a very special role in contemporary heritage efforts as they are particularly close to the spaces of the production of knowledge and artifacts. Roland Wittje reflects on his engagement with collection in university environments over more than a decade. Finally, Thomas Söderqvist offers a personal view as historian of contemporary science and technology turned curator advocating relinquishing the narrative-oriented approach common in many museums in favor of strategies driven by the artifacts themselves. These interviews, and the contributions throughout the volume, demonstrate the variety and divergence of opinions and approaches in making sense of recent science and technology through material artifacts. We envisage Challenging Collections as part of an ever-evolving dialogue among communities of collectors and scholars seeking to keep pace with the changing landscapes of science and technology and of museology and historiography. We believe it is important to continually reflect on our active roles in creating values through the preservation and research of material culture and to share our experiences of developing intellectual frameworks for collecting. In the words of Howard N. Fox, "Among museums, or within encyclopaedic museums, contemporary collections might position themselves in the spirit of Wunderkammer, more as laboratories and sites of discovery than places of sacred trust intended to preserve the received culture. A healthy curiosity is in order. Contemporary curators, like scientists and contemporary artists, should not resist experimentation; it's part of the job." 10