How to Collect an Oil Rig: The Challenges and Opportunities of Contemporary Science, Technology, and Medicine

“Something could be modern or it could be in a museum,” the writer and collector Gertrude Stein is said to have observed, “but it could not be both.” Museums today struggle against this misconception, and those who manage science, technology, and medicine (STM) collections also face particular challenges: hazards, immateriality, complexity, and especially scale (some of these things are massive). Rather than be mired in these seemingly insurmountable difficulties, however, Sam Alberti, National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh, will discuss the opportunities presented by the material culture of 21st-century STM for historians, curators, and audiences. Exhibitions can use contemporary material to tell stories as well as explain technicalities. We can connect with visitors using everyday objects or put “difficult” material into context while starting from a place of familiarity for visitors who may find STM daunting. In so doing we can challenge their ideas of what a museum does. Alberti is especially interested in the opportunities for research: the research required before an acquisition, the research enabled by new acquisitions, and museological research around the process of acquisition itself. He will use biomedical and technical examples from National Museums Scotland, including an oil-rig acquisition currently under way.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Bring your lunch!