Torsten Posselt
“Identify some sort of structure: how to approach the client, how to come up with the brief, how to organise yourself. But not just only yourself, but the entire kind of process that you want to work in.”
This week has been pure agony and I am not sure I am even approaching this the right way. Considering the feedback from the ideas wall however, I think it is a good idea to include some of my possible directions from the brief in the strategy?
My initial intention for this project was to find a route that was enjoyable with a heavier focus on the design, as I am often rather dwelling in the theory and research. However… I went to a lecture with Neema Githere and Saidie Red Wing both provided invaluable insights on design and technology from a decolonial perspective. Saidie Red Wing said in regards of being a designer:
“We have the power to show language and identity. We have the power to allow someone to see their language but also to take it away”
And that was when I knew I had to find a more responsible perspective in this project and somehow find a way to fuse that with the Science Museum’s brief.
Western culture does not own science
When researching the Science Museum collection I came across the Chinese incense clock
At the end of this presentation he asks: “So why do you think it is so important that the museum has something like this?” to which she answers: “I think it shows a type of time measurement that we’re not used to seeing and it really shows that western culture doesn’t own time and that people from different cultures and different societies have been telling times in many different ways for a very very long time”
Brief and strategy
Who owns science, the objects, the constructs they encapsulate? Who is telling the stories about the objects and how? What happens when we create stories around objects? How can design help understand those stories, and create those stories? Is it possible to create counter-stories that can complement or contradict the majority narrative? Can storytelling help us see things that we can’t normally see?
Why: inclusion and accessibility
One of The Science Museum’s core values is »Open for All« which includes an action plan for a more inclusive and accessible museum. As well, the Head of collections Tilly Blyth, have expressed the need for rethinking their research in terms of colonial structures. This provides an opportunity to offer a way to discover more of the collection while simultaneously challenge the hegemonic knowledge on western science. The project can serve as a way to underpin that our view on scientific solutions can often be a construct and let voices who normally don’t dictate our reality construct a new world view.
What: Discovery through participatory storytelling
The first step is a participatory space, a collaborative process that has the function of generating the content for the second step.
The second step is to curate the material from the participatory space into a normative vessel for scientific truth.
Who
The target audience are 18-30 years, young adults. The Science Museum want to potentially reach and engage a global audience.
Objectives & strategy
| Challenge hegemonic knowledge of science | Research alternate ways to produce knowledge |
| Create a process for producing knowledge | |
| Provide a way to discover objects from an alternate perspective | Create a process where the target audience can engage with the objects |
| Create a context where the engagement from the process are curated and presented in a new »normative« manner | |
| Reach a global audience | Overcome language barrier, which can be done with a heavy focus on a more visual solution. |
| Language barrier can also be overcome through the use of different languages. | |
| Taking culture into account, which can be approached with a considerate representation, and create a space where the objects are equally and responsibly displayed. |
Obstacles and action points
Environmental
Getting participation and/or engagement in the process-part of the project.
→ Create a safe space.
→ Use a facilitator’s guide to participatory
approaches.
Personal
Stagnating when insecure or not understanding.
→ Ask for help.
→ Divide into smaller tasks—clock them.
Notes
If I were to define a problem I would take a Foucauldian approach to it: parts of The Science Museum collection is a good example of a regime of truth constructed by structures of power. If this is the problem then the target audience is presented with a collection from a eurocentric view.
The target audiences deserve to know that there are and can exist several worlds of knowledge. That the west does not hold the right to patent the truth on science. It is possible to create narratives that contradict or complement the existing ones that are in majority. (Escobar)
Resources
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories
https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/category/collections-and-objects/
https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/about-us/collection/