Download or read book Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum written by Sharon Macdonald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What goes on behind closed doors at museums? How are decisions about exhibitions made and who, or what, really makes them? Why are certain objects and styles of display chosen whilst others are rejected, and what factors influence how museum exhibitions are produced and experienced? This book answers these searching questions by giving a privileged look behind the scenes at the Science Museum in London. By tracking the history of a particular exhibition, Macdonald takes the reader into the world of the museum curator and shows in vivid detail how exhibitions are created and how public culture is produced. She reveals why exhibitions do not always reflect their makers original intentions and why visitors take home particular interpretations. Beyond this local context, however, the book also provides broad and far-reaching insights into how national and global political shifts influence the creation of public knowledge through exhibitions.
Download or read book Behind the Scenes at the Museum written by Kate Atkinson and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply moving family story of happiness and heartbreak, Behind the Scenes at the Museum is bestselling author Kate Atkinson's award-winning literary debut. National Bestseller Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets. Kate Atkinson's first novel is "a multigenerational tale of a spectacularly dysfunctional Yorkshire family and one of the funniest works of fiction to come out of Britain in years" (The New York Times Book Review).
Download or read book Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum written by Sharon Macdonald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What goes on behind closed doors at museums? How are decisions about exhibitions made and who, or what, really makes them? Why are certain objects and styles of display chosen whilst others are rejected, and what factors influence how museum exhibitions are produced and experienced? This book answers these searching questions by giving a privileged look behind the scenes at the Science Museum in London. By tracking the history of a particular exhibition, Macdonald takes the reader into the world of the museum curator and shows in vivid detail how exhibitions are created and how public culture is produced. She reveals why exhibitions do not always reflect their makers original intentions and why visitors take home particular interpretations. Beyond this local context, however, the book also provides broad and far-reaching insights into how national and global political shifts influence the creation of public knowledge through exhibitions.
Download or read book Curators written by Lance Grande and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natural history museums have evolved from being little more than musty repositories of stuffed animals and pinned bugs, to being crucial generators of new scientific knowledge. They have also become vibrant educational centers, full of engaging exhibits that share those discoveries with students and an enthusiastic general public. Grande offers a portrait of curators and their research, conveying the intellectual excitement and the educational and social value of curation. He uses the personal story of his own career-- most of it spent at Chicago's Field Museum-- to explore the value of research and collections, the importance of public engagement, changing ecological and ethical considerations, and the impact of rapidly improving technology.
Download or read book A Companion to Museum Studies written by Sharon Macdonald and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Museum Studies captures the multidisciplinary approach to the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society. Collects first-rate original essays by leading figures from a range of disciplines and theoretical stances, including anthropology, art history, history, literature, sociology, cultural studies, and museum studies Examines the complexity of the museum from cultural, political, curatorial, historical and representational perspectives Covers traditional subjects, such as space, display, buildings, objects and collecting, and more contemporary challenges such as visiting, commerce, community and experimental exhibition forms
Download or read book Crossroads of Culture written by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hectic front of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science hides an unseen back of the museum that is also bustling. Less than 1 percent of the museum's collections are on display at any given time, and the Department of Anthropology alone cares for more than 50,000 objects from every corner of the globe not normally available to the public. This lavishly illustrated book presents and celebrates the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's exceptional anthropology collections for the first time. The book presents 123 full-color images to highlight the museum's cultural treasures. Selected for their individual beauty, historic value, and cultural meaning, these objects connect different places, times, and people. From the mammoth hunters of the Plains to the first American pioneer settlers to the flourishing Hispanic and Asian diasporas in downtown Denver, the Rocky Mountain region has been home to a breathtaking array of cultures. Many objects tell this story of the Rocky Mountains' fascinating and complex past, whereas others serve to bring enigmatic corners of the globe to modern-day Denver. Crossroads of Culture serves as a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum's anthropology collections. All the royalties from this publication will benefit the collections of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's Department of Anthropology.
Download or read book Academic Anthropology and the Museum written by Mary Bouquet and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The museum boom, with its accompanying objectification and politicization of culture, finds its counterpart in the growing interest by social scientists in material culture, much of which is to be found in museums. Not surprisingly, anthropologists in particular are turning their attention again to museums, after decades of neglect, during which fieldwork became the hallmark of modern anthropology - so much so that the "social" and the "material" parted company so radically as to produce a kind of knowledge gap between historical collections and the intellectuals who might have benefitted from working on these material representations of culture. Moreover it was forgotten that museums do not only present the "pastness" of things. A great deal of what goes on in contemporary museums is literally about planning the shape of the future: making culture materialize involves mixing things from the past, taking into account current visions, and knowing that the scenes constructed will shape the perspectives of future generations. However, the (re-)invention of museum anthropology presents a series of challenges for academic teaching and research, as well as for the work of cultural production in contemporary museums - issues that are explored in this volume.
Download or read book Human Croquet written by Kate Atkinson and published by Picador. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year Part fairy tale, part mystery, part coming-of-age novel, this novel tells the story of Isobel Fairfax, a girl growing up in Lythe, a typical 1960s British suburb. But Lythe was once the heart of an Elizabethan feudal estate and home to a young English tutor named William Shakespeare, and as Isobel investigates the strange history of her family, her neighbors, and her village, she occasionally gets caught in Shakespearean time warps. Meanwhile, she gets closer to the shocking truths about her missing mother, her war-hero father, and the hidden lives of her close friends and classmates. A stunning feat of imagination and storytelling from Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet is rich with the disappointments and possibilities every family shares.
Download or read book Hands On Exhibitions written by Tim Caulton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-14 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of interactive displays has transformed the traditional museum world in the last decade. Visitors are no longer satisfied by simply gazing at worthy displays in glass cases - they expect to have hands-on experience of the objects and be actively involved with the exhibits, learning informally and being entertained simultaneously. Hands-on museums and science centres provide the most remarkable example of how museums are redefining their roles in society - improving access to real objects and real phenomena, so that they can be enjoyed by more people. In recent years museums have been thrust into intense competition for the public's time and money with all branches of the leisure industry, from commercial theme parks to retail shopping and home entertainment. This has upset the traditional stability of the museum and their visitors. A hands-on approach encourages a broader visitor base, which in turn helps to bring in additional revenue at a time of declining public subsidy. Tim Caulton investigates how to create and operate effective exhibitions which achieve their educational objectives through hands-on access. He concludes that the continuing success of hands-on museums and science centres hinges on attaining the very best practice in exhibition design and evaluation, and in all aspects of operations, including marketing and financial and human resource management. Hands-On Exhibitions provides a practical guide to best practice which will be indispensable to all museum professionals and students of museum studies.
Download or read book Behind the Scenes at the Museum written by Steve Martin and published by DK Children. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take an exclusive backstage tour of the world's most exciting museums and discover their hidden treasures. This behind-the-scenes guide showcases a huge range of incredible artefacts from history and reveals the hard work, care, and effort that goes into collecting, preserving, and storing them. Ever wondered what happens to an astronaut's space suit after it's been worn on the Moon? Or how the world's most valuable diamond is looked after? Find out all about how museums work and the people that make it happen - from how historians preserve and care for Anne Frank's diary to what it takes for an archaeologist and curator to excavate and exhibit an enormous wooly mammoth skeleton. You'll even find out about the bugs and pests that museum workers have to guard against to protect the future of history's most precious artefacts. Behind the Scenes at the Museum gives the reader exclusive access to hidden objects that aren't normally on public display. It lets you into a world of animal specimens pickled and preserved in jars, priceless gems and jewellery too valuable to be on display, and fragile documents and fabrics that must be kept in carefully controlled conditions. Along the way, you'll learn about the techniques and processes that keep these objects in good condition, preserved and safe for future generations. Filled with incredible images, step-by-step explanations of exciting techniques, and job profiles of the people that make it happen, Behind the Scenes at the Museum offers unique, behind-the-curtain access to the secret delights of the world's most interesting museums.
Download or read book Creating the Creation Museum written by Kathleen C. Oberlin and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigates how the Christian fundamentalist movement brings Creationism into the mainstream through a Kentucky museum In Creating the Creation Museum, Kathleen C. Oberlin shows us how the largest Creationist organization, Answers in Genesis (AiG), built a museum—which has had over three million visitors—to make its movement mainstream. She takes us behind the scenes, vividly bringing the museum to life by detailing its infamous exhibits on human fossils, dinosaur remains, and more. Drawing on over three years of research at the Creation Museum, where she was granted rare access to AiG’s leadership, Oberlin examines how the museum convincingly reframes scientific facts, such as modeling itself on traditional natural history museums. Through a unique historical dataset of over 1,000 internal documents from creationist organizations and an analysis of media coverage, Creating the Creation Museum shows how the museum works as a site of social movement activity and a place to contest the secular mainstream. Oberlin ultimately argues that the Creation Museum has real-world consequences in today’s polarized era.
Download or read book Inside the Lost Museum written by Steven Lubar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Museum lovers know that energy and mystery run through every exhibition. Steven Lubar explains work behind the scenes—collecting, preserving, displaying, and using art and artifacts in teaching, research, and community-building—through historical and contemporary examples, especially the lost but reimagined Jenks Museum at Brown University.
Download or read book Surrealism Beyond Borders written by Stephanie D'Alessandro and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surrealism Beyond Borders challenges conventional narratives of a revolutionary artistic, literary, and philosophical movement. Tracing Surrealism's influence and legacy from the 1920s to the late 1970s in places as geographically diverse as Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey, this publication includes more than 300 works of art in a variety of media by well-known figures—including Dalí, Ernst, Kahlo, Magritte, and Miró—as well as numerous artists who are less widely known. Contributions from more than forty distinguished international scholars explore the network of Surrealist exchange and collaboration, artists' responses to the challenges of social and political unrest, and the experience of displacement and exile in the twentieth century. The multiple narratives addressed in this expansive book move beyond the borders of history, geography, and nationality to provocatively redraw the map of Surrealism.
Download or read book Inside the Science Museum written by Giskin Day and published by Nmsi Trading Science Museum. This book was released on 2001 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lavishly illustrated book provides a unique insight into the inventions, images, discoveries, products and ephemera that make up the vast collections of the Science Museum. It vividly demonstrates the variety and often sheer beauty of the objects; it also tells some of the stories behind them. Together, the text and images chart a remarkable historical phenomenon -- the emergence of the first industrial society. The book is divided into four sections: 'Industry and Technology' which features the tools, machines and engines that have dramatically changed Western lives. 'Science' which showcases the work of some of the world's greatest scientists, and features the ever-changing worlds of genetic and computing. 'Society' which shows how technology has had a huge impact on medicine, agriculture, conditions in the workplace and home, and on our scope for leisure. Finally, 'Museum' goes behind the scenes at the Science Museum, briefly outlines its history and discusses the vision behind the Wellcome Wing.
Download or read book Reconfiguring the Museum written by Ana-Maria Herman and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2023-02-10 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital media technologies have provided an occasion not only for novel ways to display and exhibit collections, but also for new politics to arise as museums and urban settings change. While some believe these changes are driven by humans, others see digital media technologies at the heart of these changes. Reconfiguring the Museum offers a third explanation that considers both the social and technical together and thereby captures the experimental nature of introducing novel digital media technologies to museums, and the uncertainty, messiness, contingency, and complexity involved. In this sociotechnical case study of a novel augmented reality app – first designed to exhibit collections from the Museum of London across the sprawling capital city, and later remade for the McCord Museum to display collections throughout Montreal – Ana-Maria Herman reveals how the app introduced unexpected new relations between the museums, their collections, advertising agencies, sponsors, technology companies, corporations, urban spaces, and end users. She shows how museum practices related to curating, designing, building, visiting, and modifying exhibitions were transformed, and how, in such unsettled arrangements, what we think of as old cultural politics can unexpectedly re-emerge, while new digital politics – related to big data, surveillance, and automated processes – may not necessarily materialize. A detailed account of emerging actors and practices involved in making digital exhibitions, Reconfiguring the Museum offers practical considerations for museum, culture, and heritage practitioners charged with creating digital displays and accounting for their success or failure.
Download or read book The Human Planet written by Simon L. Lewis and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the Anthropocene and “a relentless reckoning of how we, as a species, got ourselves into the mess we’re in today” (The Wall Street Journal). Meteorites, mega-volcanoes, and plate tectonics—the old forces of nature—have transformed Earth for millions of years. They are now joined by a new geological force—humans. Our actions have driven Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. For the first time in our home planet's 4.5-billion-year history a single species is increasingly dictating Earth’s future. To some the Anthropocene symbolizes a future of superlative control of our environment. To others it is the height of hubris, the illusion of our mastery over nature. Whatever your view, just below the surface of this odd-sounding scientific word—the Anthropocene—is a heady mix of science, philosophy, history, and politics linked to our deepest fears and utopian visions. Tracing our environmental impacts through time, scientists Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin reveal a new view of human history and a new outlook for the future of humanity in the unstable world we have created.
Download or read book Dead Center written by Shiya Ribowsky and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A city with eight million people has eight million ways to die For fifteen years, Shiya Ribowsky worked as a medicolegal investigator in New York City’s medical examiner’s office—the largest, most sophisticated organization of its kind in the world. Utilizing his background in medicine, he led the investigations of more than eight thousand individual deaths, becoming a key figure in some of New York’s most bizarre death cases and eventually taking charge of the largest forensic investigation ever attempted: identifying the dead in the aftermath of the September 11 tragedies. Now, in this mesmerizing book, Ribowsky pulls back the curtain on the New York City’s medical examiner’s office, giving an enthralling, never-before-seen glimpse into death and the city. Born and raised in New York City’s orthodox Jewish community, Ribowsky seems an unlikely candidate for this macabre profession. Nevertheless he has forsaken a promising career of medical work with the living, descending instead into the realm of the dead, enticed by the challenge of confronting death on a daily basis. Taking you through the vermin-infested Bowery flophouses and posh Upper East Side apartments of the city’s dead, Ribowsky explores in gruesome detail the skeletons that hang in the Big Apple’s closets. Combing through the autopsy room, he also exposes the grim secrets that only a scalpel and a dead body can tell and explains how forensic investigation does not merely solve crimes—it saves lives. But it is in the aftermath of September 11 that the ME’s office is handed its biggest challenge: to identify as many of the fallen as possible. With poignant descriptions, Ribowsky provides a dramatic account of the office’s diligent and unflappable work with the families of the victims, helping them emerge from the ashes of this tragedy while displaying the strength, grit, intelligence, and compassion that Americans expect from true New Yorkers. At once compelling and heartbreaking, Dead Center is a story of New York unlike any other, blending the haunting with the sublime, while painting a striking portrait of death (and life) in the city that never sleeps.
