A very personal relationship with Robots

You may have noticed that while we try to bring you an insiders guide into the life of museum workers we can be a bit reluctant here to shout about or review exhibitions we have been working on. While we champion the use of social media for museum staff it can be a conflicting relationship to review an exhibition you have put together yourself. So I tend to keeping any reference to that on my own personal accounts.

Nonetheless some of you will probably be aware that I recently moved jobs from Collections Registration Coordinator at the Science Museum to Registrar at the National Army Museum, leaving the Science Museum was an emotional decision especially as I had put over a year of my blood, sweat and tears into one of the best exhibitions ever (yep this is a totally biased review) Robots!

As the Collections Registration Coordinator on the exhibition I was responsible for negotiating the loans of all of the objects in the exhibition on display in London and the subsequent tour, so these objects in all of their humanoid form became my friends that I didn’t get to meet until the opening night – unfortunately I terminated my contract only a couple of months before install started – so my review is going to focus around the many many loans this exhibition offers.

An insight into the history of humanoid robotics the exhibition takes you from the early automata used in churches right up to the lab robots of today. Now, it would be impossible for me to write a short and snappy blog if I was to take a journey through the whole exhibition so a few of my favourites and highlights of the show are:

The Bowes Swan

I mean, a huge silver swan! That’s an automata! This object really is one of a kind, dating from around 1773 the swan is one of the earliest automata’s that is still operating today and its pretty flashy! Back in 1774 the swan was a crowd puller at the Mechanical Museum of James Cox  (a London based dealer) and now the Science Museum is well and truly blessed to get this object down to London for the exhibition so its only there for the first six weeks of the show!

Cygan

Cygan quite definitely is my favourite object in this exhibition, he was my first loan in for the show and holds a very very dear place in my heart.  He has a bad boy past, having spend some time as a showman in strip clubs and has found love in recent years with his owner in the USA, an 8 foot high gentle giant he can walk, talk and dance with the ladies as showcased in this great film. The perfect example of a fifties robot ready to help around the home and be an aluminium beast.

Nexi

The fourth section of the exhibition has some incredible pieces from current roboticists – who are an absolute joy to work with. There’s some robotic legs – saved by curator Ben Russell from underneath a staircase in north London, ROSA a highly intelligent 3D printed skeletal robot and in it and my favourite interactive – the ultimate machine for an exhibition so high tech its so simple. Nexi is a beautiful disproportionate and creepy looking expressive robot developed to work with humans in uncertain environments. Gizmodo call this one an emo robot 

Icub

Icub robots are incredible, you can catch them on youtube dancing to the Arctic monkeys and again this is a personal favourite because it was an interesting one to negotiate and it felt really emotional seeing it on exhibition as the exit piece in the exhibition its placed to make you consider what the future of robotics is  because its so innovative its an open sourced robot and develops in a similar way to a four year old child.

Robots is open at the Science Museum until 3rd September then heading on a UK and international tour - be sure to catch it!

#miniobjects and the First World War

If there's one thing we love at the Ministry, it's hearing from 'behind the scenes' staff of museums. Conservators are particularly fascinating as they get to work hands-on with all the best stuff in the stores. We asked Louise Stewart Beck from the Science Museum to give us an insight into her favourite #miniobject...

Mini things are universally appealing. Proof: when I brought this object out of the stores, every one of the conservators in the lab crowded around to have a look. “It’s so tiny!” (About 8 inches long) “That’s not for babies, is it?” (It’s not.) “Then what’s it for?” Well, miniature versions of objects had a lot of purposes besides being entertaining. Small-scale objects are used to demonstrate proof-of-concept for new products and buildings, to gain an understanding of materials, or to carry around as sales models, since they’re more portable than the actual object. This model prosthetic was made by Alex Munro Armstrong of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, who lost his own leg in 1918 and probably based this model on his own leg. For the Science Museum, this model serves as an important research tool, demonstrating a type of prosthetic made at a certain point in time.

Louise Stewart Beck is currently a conservation intern at the Science Museum working on the First World War medical collections. She completed her master’s degree in Conservation at UCL last year. Follow her on twitter @LouiseSBeck

The Ministry's Pay Day Picks

Have you spent the past month slaving over loan agreements? Do you have aching bones after a long install? Or feeling the strain from the school holiday craziness? In any case its time to treat your self with some museum goodies! 

1. A commemorative cushion from the Imperial War Museum. £30

2. Drinking a bottle alone? Make some friends with these cute ad dons for your discarded wine corks. £3 each at the Science Museum

3. Did you love playing with these cut out dolls as a kid? Now you can dress up your own Frida Khalo cut out in fabulous Mexican gowns and envy those brows! Available at the Fashion and Textile Museum.

 4. What more could you do to satisfy a museum geek? Buy them a pair of Anne Boleyn  pants! You'll be guarenteed an exciting night. Not currently available in a museum but can be found here  for only £15 http://www.askherfriends.com/product/tudor-pants/  

5. When work gets you down you need some relentless optimism! A 'We Make Our Own Future' mug designed by Rose Vickers is a must have for every museum lovers work cuppa. £15 from V and A shop. 

The Rubbish Collection: A peek behind the scenes at the Science Museum

Rubbish has been the subject of numerous art installations over the years. Often commenting on what we throw out and how, the discarding of our leftovers has offered the media a direct source of entertainment whether it’s Landy's art bin or cleaners taking the ‘bins’ out at Tate Britain. We’re obsessed with what others have discarded. The Science Museum’s currently contemporary art/museum documentation/thought provoking environmentalist attempt at an exhibition discussing yet again what we throw out and why offers a fresh perspective on the overused concept of trash.

Inviting visitors, staff and volunteers to the space to collect, photograph and document the wastage artist Joshua Sofaer’s uses the basement gallery to explore what the Science Museum throws away over a 30 day period and gives an explicit and thorough look behind the scenes at the Science Museum.

Upon entry to The Rubbish Collection I anticipated piles of café waste, a lurid smell and an expectation to spend my lunch hour covered in bin juice. Nonetheless I was presently surprised the space was clinically clean, signing a disclaimer and donning a pinny and gloves our group got to work. Neatly sorting through a bag of rubbish from the learning team we carefully arranged several crisp packets and ripped up rotas, and screwed up letter writing attempts.

 Documenting the collection and making discarded bits and bobs look presentable was oddly therapeutic after a long morning in the office. Peeking into the lives of the Science Museum’s staff became gripping and addictive as our team began fill in the gaps, create stories and reason why the things had been discarded.

One man’s trash is another man’s gold and this exhibition provides an insight into the daily life and gossip of the Science Museums staff, the Rubbish Collection team have not only come across the odd crisp packet or love letter but an assortment of strange objects in their quest to document the wastage. Bras, shoes and powerful questions have been retrieved and can be found documented on their Tumblr page.

Thankfully once sorted and photographed the trash goes back into the bins and off to landfill or recycling save for a few interesting pieces. Spend an afternoon acting like a rag and bone man sorting through the rubbish and finding the treasures and stories of life behind the scenes at the Science Museum.

Get your hands dirty until the 14th September 2014. Find out more here: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/rubbishcollection

MuseTube: Satisfying our Museum FOMO

When did YouTube become a vital part of a museums marketing strategy?  A recent outpouring of mini documentaries, behind the scenes peeks and advertisements have entered the stratosphere usually dominated by fancy posters lining the bus stops of London.

Unlike hour long BBC 4  documentaries exploring niche topics and asking probing questions these YouTube mini documentaries provide a quick snapshot of information for the social media generation. But the aims of such film clips fit uneasily across many museums mission statements, they are providing collections access, interacting on social media but do they increase footfall? It's difficult to tell, yet Museum's on Youtube or 'MuseTube's' are dominating our social media timelines. 

We're all aware that the majority of London's museums are accessible on Twitter and Facebook but few are taking advantage of the enthusiastic need to peruse museum videos whilst sitting at home in our pants.  Tate as always appear to be leading the 'Muse-tube' revolution, the field is dominated by their in- house 'Tate Shot's' team. Finding new ways to view the collection their Youtube channel features comedians exploring the galleries,celebrity bakers interpreting paintings and researchers explaining the importance of works.







But the videos are not made only  for the internet. If you decide to put clothes on and head into the galleries you will see that throughout Tate Britain and Tate Modern the films are displayed in those spaces where paintings are not. At Tate Britain  an odd corridor is filled with several screens showing the numerous curators discussing their favourite pieces and how the chronology of the rehang works.






The Science Museum have recently followed suit with  'Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology' where visitors are invited to watch the 2 minute video clip introducing the exhibition upon entering the space. Yet the same video was released on the Museum's Youtube, Twitter and Facebook days before it opened, acting as a  virtual invitation to the show. 





There is no doubt that with so much going on in London's museum these examples are comforting our museum FOMO (fear of missing out) and we're approaching galleries and exhibitions with a pre-conceived idea of what they will be like. Nonetheless this is a great tool that museums can use, gently dispersing our FOMO the Science Museum made sure that we didn't miss out when redeveloping the Shipping Galllery. When the permanent gallery closed in 2012 the museum made a lot of fancy cameras take 275 laser scans and two million point measurements to ensure that the space did not become a figment of imagination and provided an ever present virtual tour.

Thanks to the Horniman's YouTube team we've even been able to go behind the scenes and learn how to transport an overstuffed walrus to the seaside.

It’s also great to see museums and galleries using YouTube to express their politics and join in on a YouTube phenomenon. Led by artist Anish Kapoor and featuring the Serpentine, galleries do Gangnam style.

But perhaps the best selection of MuseTube videos comes from outside of the UK - the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.  The medical museum's YouTube channel features clips like a ‘Mutter Minute’ and ‘Guess what’s on the Curators desk.' And they are definitely encouraging new crowds (We’re always free for a trip to Philly Mutter Museum!) and providing exceptional collections access that can hopefully influence others.

 MuseTube videos are finding exceptional new ways to engage with audiences and although they may or may not be increasing footfall they are helping us to conquer the fear of missing out and I am particularly thankful that I can explore collections in my pants.

What the frack is going on with SMG?

Having recently returned from my holiday (hey even Ministers of Curiosity need time off) there is only one question on my mind: what the frack is going on with the Science Museum Group?

It all appears to have started with an article in the Manchester Evening News claiming that the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester was under threat from the big bosses of the Science Museum Group (SMG). MOSI has only recently joined SMG in 2011 after a round of government funding cuts. Closing one of SMGs northern museums (the Media Museum in Bradford, MOSI in Manchester and the Railway Museum in York) is just one of the options SMG is considering addressing its enormous budget deficit.

The outcry from this announcement has been enormous in the museum community. Some have pointed out that a strong North-South divide has been dredged up in the ensuing finger pointing. Why aren’t London museums closing? Why is it only the North that must suffer?

The Museums Association had a sniff around as well to see if the story that the Evening News was reporting had any legitimacy. The answer is, well yes. The statement from Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford that started all the arguments came as a response to an additional 10% proposed cut in government spending for museums, “I would rather have three world class museums than four mediocre ones.’

I think it’s probably worth pointing out that a) the Science Museum Group could well sell on one of their museums rather than closing it and b) maybe I have missed something, but why are we focusing on MOSI here? Where did anyone say the Manchester site is the one that would be closed down? To be honest, I’d be more nervous if I was the National Media Museum. MOSI has an enormous amount of community support and impressive visitor numbers. The NMeM has…well it has the lowest visitor numbers in the group and shares specialties with the core collections in London. In fact, the Science Museum planning to open not one but two galleries based around media technology: the Information Age Gallery and the ‘Media Space’ specifically meant to show off the NMeM’s collections.

Plans for Media Space at the Science Museum 

I cannot help but wonder if the announcement wasn’t actually a brilliant piece of strategy on the part of Ian Blatchford. Sure, people are now vilifying him and the big bad South Kensington museum, but he had to do something to get SMG noticed. We have now arrived at the point where spending cuts are biting not only regional museums but the nationals as well. That’s not to say the past several years haven’t been terrible for each museum in the sector, but we are starting to see real consequences for even the most established of museums.

But why is the Science Museum suffering more than its South Kensington neighbours? Probably for the same reason the Royal Institution is always under threat. Science is just not sexy to funders. You can’t possibly compare the amount of corporate funding somewhere like the National Gallery or the V&A receive to the Science Museum. And yes you can talk about mis-managing money or whether MOSI should have been brought on in the first place. But at the end of the day, there’s only one culprit here and it’s not Ian Blatchford. Maybe now the government will listen when we say you cannot cut funding to the bone and ask for ever higher performance indicators. UK museums are being brought to their knees and the façade of business as usual is starting to crack.

This is not to say we in anyway agree to the idea of closing any SMG sites- only to say that the blame lies with the relentless cuts for the arts. Something has to change. At the Ministry we love anything that gets people talking about museums but don’t waste your breath on the big bad SMG. Get out there and do something about it- sign the petitions, use the twitter hashtags (#savemosi), talk to your MPs, and visit your local museums as much as you can. I for one am happy to see SMG all over the news. Maybe people will finally start to see that something needs to be done.

Petitions to the HM Treasury can be found here:

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-national-media-museum-bradford

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/indepth/savethenrm/petition/

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/science-museum-group-save-the-museum-of-science-and-industry-mosi

If you want to read more, we would recommend this piece in the Guardian by Alice Bell and Kieron Flanagan http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/jun/06/science-museum-group-manchester-london

And now we brace ourselves for a torrent of jokes at the Science Museum’s expense at the next Museums Showoff….

Sad dinosaurs and happy surgeons in The Time's 50 Best Museums

In case you missed it, last weekend The Times Magazine ran afeature on the world’s 50 best museums. The article begins, ‘Museums are notmusty repositories of outmoded relics. They are vivid compendiums of ourcultural life.’ We here at the Ministry couldn’t agree more. But how did theTimes rank a globe full of fabulous museums into only 50? And more importantly,how did London fare on this illustrious list? Don’t worry if you don’tsubscribe because we have it all right here for you. (Well thefirst 20 at least…)

First question is, of course, who ranked number one? Who claims the crown in total world museum domination? Drumroll please….

SMITHSONIAN INSTIUTION. Wait…what? As in all the Smithsonianstogether? Really? That seems hardly fair to somehow blend together the Sackler,the American History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum amongstothers into one behemoth competitor. Whatever, we guess the Smithsonians arealready. But just you watch out Washington DC coming up right behind you is ourfirst London museum!

It is….

The British Museum! And boring again. Just seems a bitobvious and derivative really. Of course the British Museum is wonderful, whywouldn’t they be? They have all the culture from the rest of the worldsquirreled away. Lets continue down the list and see if can get past CaptainObvious.

After a stop off in Greece the number four best museum inthe world is…

Sir John Soane’s Museum! Woooaaahhh out of no where! Way to get inthere small obscure London house museum of architectural history. This is oneof my favourite museums in London so I am glad but a bit shocked to see it sohigh up on the list! Really well done Soane’s Museum, now get back to openingup more of the house.

Number 5 is the American Natural History Museum in New York(fair enough, everyone loves a good diorama) and then on number 6, the ImperialWar Museum.

To be fair, they have ranked all of the Imperial War Museums acrossthe UK in one category. They even gave a shout out to IWM North in Manchester,in my opinion probably the best one. So hooray for military history getting inearly.

Number 7 is not a London based museum but the Topkapi Museumin Istanbul. Despite my undying love for this city, this has to deserve aspecial mention. The Topkapi museum is one of my favourites ever so really niceto see it going so well! At number 8 is Versailles…? Is Versailles a museum? Isuppose technically it is. Its gorgeous. We’ll accept it.

Our next London museum coming in at a very respectablenumber 9 is the V&A. I am really surprised the V&A is down at number 9,below the IWM. This museum is kicking some serious ass this year with two newpermanent galleries opening and a series of absolute smash hit exhibitions(Hollywood Costume, Bowie). Huh, well, everyone loves the V&A they don’tneed the publicity.

Number 10 is the National Museum of China and at number 11the Pitt Rivers Museum! Ooo interesting. This is a bit of a divisive one formuseum people. As a Victorianist I am completely obsessed with the Pitt Rivers.But as one London colleague recently pointed out to me spiritedly at anopening, what have they done in the last 150 years? To be fair they do a lot ofamazing research, but I can see his point.

At number 12 its… wait a minute, the Science Museum? A hush falls over the crowd. Are you meaningto tell me that the Science Museum has beaten in the ratings its SouthKensington neighbour and fiercest of rivals the Natural History Museum? Sorry,but NHM isn’t even here in the top 20, relegated to 21. Do you need some aloevera for that burn? Complete scandal in the museum world. Me, I really like theScience Museum. I think they have done a lot recently to make their offeringreally fun and dynamic, lates are brilliant, they finally have some kind of atemporary exhibition schedule going. They are also opening two new galleries inthe near future: Media Space and the unfortunately named ‘Information Age’. TheMinistry is not part of the London set which spurns the Science Museum at everyopportunity (cough Museums Showoff) but really, what a shocker!

Our next LondonMuseum comes at number 15 and it is the Hunterian Museum at the Royal Collegeof Surgeons. Damn, Lincoln’s Inn Fields’ small museums are getting some seriouslove in this article! The Hunterian is undeniably my favourite museum in Londonand it so wonderful to see a medical museum finally getting some seriousattention! They seem to know how to celebrate their 200^thanniversary right between this seriously high rating and a new exhibitionopening this week (we tweeted some sneak-peek images just a few days ago!) Withtheir star clearly on the rise, the Hunterian is one to watch.

And none for you Natural History Museum.

I said I wouldn’tbore you any longer than 20 into the list, and that’s it for London’s museumsI’m afraid! Sorry NHM, 21 doesn’t quite make the grade! Oh stop it now, thevisitor figures for Natural History are off the charts, I think they can getby. The rest of the list reads like a dream vacation for me. The Museo Nacionalde Antropologia in Mexico City is number 43, the Luxor Museum in Egypt is 38,the Museum of the Moving Image in New York at 22 and the Vasa Museum inStockholm at 32.