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!

Collections and connections to boost your brain

 Museums are fountains of knowledge – yep we know all about that! We’re pretty familiar by now with the dispersal of such knowledge through the display of material culture, publications and even collections online but did you know that many museums also run courses where you can use their collections and connections to boost your brains?

Whether you want to learn a little bit more about curating behind the scenes or get a diploma in Asian Art the museum is the place to go. Unfortunately, many are not free and you will have to attend weekly classes but you might get a sneak peek behind the scenes or meet some fascinating people with a similar specific interest to you.

But where to start? Well check out your favourite museums learning pages for more info on up to date courses but here are some of the ones that popped up onto our radar:

For the AV Tech - Projection Mapping @V&A

Promises to  A practical workshop where participants will ‘ Learn about the latest projection mapping techniques with Yiyun Kang, the V&A Samsung Korean Digital Art Resident. Discover how to map digital projections on physical surfaces and move beyond the traditional confines of the screen to create your own interactive installations.’
Cost: £240, £192 concessions

For the Fancy Pants Curator -  MA in 18th-Century Studies At King's College London with the British Museum

Promises to: ‘The course is taught in part by experts from the British Museum and will enable students to engage with the unique, diverse and rich collections of cultural institutions in central London, including the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Society and the Hunterian Museum.’

Entry requirements and likely an arm and a leg in cost.

For the Collections Registrar - Webinar: Sustainable Collections Management @Collections Trust

Promises to ‘look at collections management in the context of environmental, financial and cultural challenges, and explore the opportunities in change. ‘

Cost: Free online

For the forward thinker - Towards Tomorrow’s Museum 2016 @ Tate

Promises to discuss ‘What will be the priorities and policies of museums in the future? Who will be the audiences and how will they engage with institutions? Towards Tomorrow’s Museum examines current questions and new models for the art museum. Over ten sessions, the course considers the major issues involved in rethinking the role of the museum, its programme and collection, and how its activities sit within a shifting cultural landscape.’

Cost: £320, concessions available

For the Peeping Tom - Museum Curating Now: Behind the Scenes at Tate

Promises to ‘ examines the role of the curator and the way in which they negotiate the wide range of artistic, social, political, and economic factors that shape the context within which they work. How are their decisions informed, what strategies do they employ, and what approaches shape the work of museum curators today? Across eleven weeks, the course considers the ways in which curators at Tate develop, manage, and engage with the Collection, temporary exhibitions, events, and arts projects within the current global climate, while responding to diverse institutional and non-institutional contexts, histories as well as geo-political and social conditions’

Cost: £320, concessions available

For the newbie - Behind the Scenes at the 21st Century Museum

Promises to discuss ‘ How can we understand museums today? Who are museums for and why are they working to engage new audiences? How do we respond emotionally to museum objects and spaces? And how can museums play a role in the pursuit of social justice, human rights, or health and wellbeing?’

Cost: Free! 

Get learning kids and let us know how you get on! 

#MuseumResolution 2016

Here at the Ministry we know all to well about setting ourselves unrealistic expectations when it comes to museum loving, we want to spend every weekend in a new gallery and go to every free lecture whilst tweeting and instagramming the hell out of it! But we also know that work and life get in the way. Especially when you work in a museum a weekend visit to yours or one nearby can be a sometimes overwhelming experience, you have to  stop yourself from shuddering as you see children climbing over exhibits and spend your downtime ensuring that what should be a metre barrier is actually a metre. Yep, it can be exhausting.

Nonetheless we love the places and cant get enough of the obscure and wonderful collections that London museums have to offer. So this year we're setting ourselves some realistic goals and vowing to just one #museumresolution to focus our museum loving for 2016. We urge you to join in too, it can be big or small: maybe you want to complete the marathon of seeing every London collection or you just want to tweet a little bit more of your opinions. Here at the Ministry we want to support you in your #museumresolution quest so here are some examples and tips:

1. To visit more museums 
This is no doubt going to be a popular one, there is so much on offer in London that it can feel like a constant struggle to see all of the exhibitions and new galleries!
Tips
- Prioritise! Write a list of the top four  each month and make a Saturday morning trip a regular ocurrance 
- Check the maps! Most nationals are surrounded by smaller museums, couple visiting the blockbuster exhibition with one of our #hipstermuseums

2. Lunchtime visits
One of the most common complaint we hear from Museum workers in South Ken is that they never visit the exhibition outside of their own museum. This year its time to change that habit, instead of staring at your screen for an extra hour use your lunchbreak!
Tips
- Out of Office! Regularly book out your lunchbreak like a meeting in your calendar and duck out the office for the hour. 
- Get your colleagues involved! Nothing like several pairs of eyes to make sure the whole exhibition has been assessed and an extra bit of team bonding.
- Have a big brekkie! Then you can eat your lunch when you get back to the office or only have something small if you're heading to the floor. 

3. Use Social Media More
If its instagramming tweeting or just updating your facebook status be sure to get more involved with the online museum community this year. 
Tips
- Charge! Make sure you're phone is charged and connected to the wifi for snaps and notes
- Notes! Use your smartphones note function to save info and tweet/facebook later
- Be aware and respectful of museums photography policies, they are there for a reason whether its security or copyright.

Lets get to it and the Ministry can be on hand to motivate! Tell us your #museumresolution using the hashtag and we will be sure to check in on your progress over the year!

Museum loving: After Hours

Want to know what's going on in London's museums and galleries after hours? Then you have come to the right place!

After a brief hiatus our much loved event calendar is up and running again and full of suggestions for evening entertainment for museum loving adults in the city.

Every morning we will be tweeting these events from our account @curiositytweet so you can plan your evening on your commute.

Please note we have a strict criteria for events to ensure they appeal to our followers, events are adult focused, out of usual working hours and at a reasonable cost. Additionally we work to ensure all events in the current month are covered, next months events will be added in due course. Please feel free to contact us with suggestions or if you would like your events listed drop us an email (curiositycollect@gmail.com) with all relevant details.

Why do museums need to think about Copyright?

Mentioning copyright law to anyone working in the creative industries and they shudder and immediately dismiss it with 'I don't get it' and 'it's too complex' and to some degree yes it is but it's there to protect the intangible in the tangible being of artistic works.

Is this how you feel about copyright? 

Edvard Munch - The Scream 1910.

 Fortunately this came out of copyright this year. 

The Museum’s very being lies in its duty to protect and care for collection of physical objects. We're used to displaying, packing, storing and conserving tangible things but when it comes to the intangible idea of copyright Many museum professionals will quickly claim ignorance, yet copyright law in its basic state is simple – a material object can be owned by a museum or gallery but its intellectual property right, its intangible, immaterial  rights can belong to another. In the UK Copyright is assigned to the author of the work at the moment it is created, it can be literary, dramatic, musical or artistic provided that the work is original.

It is difficult to get your head round at first, especially at the introduction of infringements and fair dealings, but the very notion that guides museum professionals experiences with objects are based in the non-physical information an object can give us - it's scholarly value, it's provenance, it's associated costs and the information it tells us about a time or a culture. So should we really find it such a daunting law?

 

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) 

Well, there is no denying that copyright law can be complex; it has many layers that mean that you can be liable for infringement by taking a picture of a painting in an exhibition or downloading an image from a website for use on social media such as in the case of National Portrait Gallery vs Wikimedia. But what does this mean for museums? As the owners of the physical artistic works they do not always own the copyright too, this makes creating exhibition catalogues, images for collections online and press and marketing a bit more difficult than you may have first though. Along with strict checks on due diligence and provenance registration staff  often have to ask copyright holders permission to ensure that we can take images of the artwork when it is on display,  unfortunately this can sometimes even having to spend hours seeking out the correct copyright holder or licensee to ensure that they are not infringing on its copyright.

Up until last year it was infringement for a museum to even take preservation copies of works i.e. taking photographs for records management or condition reports. Thankfully the changes in June 2014 last year have helped museums considerable and a fair dealing law that makes it possible to preserve any type of copyrighted work held in the permanent collection. Additionally a new clause that institutions can allow access to all types of works by electronic means at a ‘dedicated terminal for research and private study’ however I’m yet to see an institution do this?

Description of the points system for judging English rabbits, from The American Pet Stock Standard of Perfection and Official Guide to the American Fur Fanciers’ Association (1915)

Have patience though, copyright does not last forever. Duration generally last the lifetime of the author plus seventy years - so I doubt we will still be around when Hirst or Emin's work ocomes out of copyright. But once out of this time frame the works enter the public domain and each year the fantastic online journal the public domain review (http://publicdomainreview.org/)  pick their fave authors whose work will enter the public domain that year the class of 2015 includes Mondrian, Ian Flemming and Munch.

We as museum professionals love to look after collections property rights so don’t shy away from looking after their intellectual property rights too they can be just as important.

 Please note that this article is not a full breakdown of copyright. Check out the Act for details.