- Are you interested in Postgraduate study but you are not quite sure which is the right MA for you?
- Do you enjoy visiting museums, galleries or heritage sites and/or are considering a career as a curator, museum or gallery professional?
- You’ve heard about ‘museum studies’ and you are not sure what this is, but you are interested in finding out?
- Have you already applied to the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies (AGMS) at the University of Manchester and would like to find out more about the courses and the resources of the MA?
If the answer to any or all the above is ‘Yes’, then why not join the AGMS Open/Visit Day at the University of Manchester on Tuesday 12th June 2012? You will have the chance to:
- Find out about the range of courses and work placements of the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies
- Meet members of staff and current students
- See examples of creative group projects by current MA students
- Hear from AGMS graduates about their career development
You are invited to attend any of the following ‘drop in’ sessions (the day finishes at 4.30pm), but please try and attend the Introduction at 11am.
11.00: Introduction to AGMS
12.00: Group Project Presentations by current students
13.00: Lunch and meet current students
13.45: AGMS Graduates’ Career Experiences
15.15: Workshop: Career Challenges Scenarios
To book a place please e-mail agmsopenday@manchester.ac.uk. Any queries please contact the PG Admissions office on 0161 3061259.
Hacking the Museum
Chris Speed,
Wednesday 2nd May, 3-4pm (followed by tea, coffee and discussion from 4-4.30pm)
Kanaris Lecture Theatre, Manchester Museum
Abstract
This talk will reflect upon the temporal characteristics of the emerging phenomenon known as the Internet of Things. As objects become individually tagged with unique identities through the addition of small electronic chips or bar codes, their history is recorded and made available to others across a network. The advent of this ever-growing catalogue of histories and connections means that every object will require a firewall around it to stop people placing stories and information upon it. This means that objects in museums are likely to be ‘hacked’ by the public, and curators will lose control of what a particular artefact means in a collection. Chris Speed will reflect on the work that he and his team have developed in their relationship with the National Museum of Scotland, who kindly let them tag items in the Scotland: A Changing Nation exhibition, and allowed the public to write personal stories on to them.
Bio
Chris is Reader in Digital Spaces across the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, where he teaches undergraduate, masters and supervises PhD students. Chris has sustained a critical enquiry into how digital technology can engage with the field of architecture and human geography through a variety of established international digital art contexts including: International Symposium on Electronic Art, Biennial of Electronic Arts Perth, Ars Electronica, Consciousness Reframed, Sonic Acts, LoveBytes, We Love Technology, Sonic Arts Festival, MELT, Less Remote, and the Arts Catalyst / Leonardo symposium held alongside The International Astronautical Congress. Chris is the principal investigator of the innovative ‘Tales of Things and Electronic Memory’ project, funded from the EPSRC with a research grant of £1.39 million to explore social memory in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things. Chris has lead and been co-academic on five KTP/TCS schemes supporting digital media knowledge transfer for companies in the UK, he is a board member of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on ‘The Body in the Social Sciences’ specialising in the bodies relationship with space and technology, and member of the advisory board for the Institute of Digital Art & Technology (iDAT) which is a HEFCE & Arts Council England funded ‘Centre of Expertise’ facilitating regional, national and international collaborations and cultural projects. He is also a reviewer for Leonardo Reviews, the online arm of the MIT Press publication for Arts, Sciences, and Technology.
Research and Networking event
hosted by the Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester.
29th May 2012, 2-5pm
(followed by networking drinks)
Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester
An opportunity for staff from cultural organisations in the North West, current and potential PhD students and academics to share experience, issues and outcomes of collaborative and practice-based PhD research.
Who is this event for?
- Cultural practitioners and organisations interested in, or already involved in, collaborative and practice-based doctoral research
- Academic staff interested in sharing ideas and experience about existing and potential collaborative and practice-based PhD projects
- Current PhD students whose work engages with cultural practice and cultural institutions
- Future PhD students interested in collaborative opportunities and practice-based research
- Practitioners interested or already involved in Professional Development
To register your interest in attending this event and to find out more, please contact Sophie Everest at sophie.everest@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
The Manchester Histories Festival kicked off on Friday and so have the ICP’s events!
The Festival map is here! Click on the venues to see what’s on!
Everybody’s Histonauting! Keep following the clues and keep up with the leader board here. (p.s. keep your eyes peeled for other Histonauts at events over the 10 days and score mega points!)
Don’t forget the Manchester 100 Years Ago Tour! It’s happening Saturday 6th March 11am – 1pm, sign up here!
And come see us at our stand in City Hall at Manchester Histories Festival Celebration Day also on Saturday 6th March, 10am – 5.30pm!! We’ll have plenty of information on the work we do and there’ll be some live mapping with PHD student and UniverCity Culture developer Julian Hartley!
Get the low down on all the other fantastic events here!
Remember that fun run-around-campus-with-your-smart-phone game during Fresher’s week called Histonauts? Well, get ready for Histonauts Two!!! It’s part of our programme of events for Manchester History Festival 2012!
The festival runs between 24th February and 4th March. It aims to celebrate Manchester’s unique history and heritage through a huge programme of events and activities. The ICP is proud to be involved and, as part of the MMXII Mapping Manchester 2012 project, funded by CRESC Urban Experiments, has a number of opportunities to learn more about local history and how new technology can help us engage with our city’s past:
We’ll be mapping the festival programme and linking events and activities to Manchester histories research from the University and beyond using the UniverCityCulture geotagging project.
The Histonauts Two game will run throughout the festival. Get registered and play investigative ‘Histonaut’ to find Manchester’s secret histories and treasures through on-line clues. Have your results posted and see if you come out victorious! Click here for details and registration.
We are also working with Archives + and History Pin to put on a digital tour of the city 100 years ago, revealing what Manchester looked like in times gone by. It takes place on Saturday, 3 March 11 – 1pm. Find out more and register here.
Finally, the ICP will be part of the Festival’s Celebration Saturday, 3 March in the Town Hall, all day. Come and join us at our exhibition stand, find out more about ICP’s work, and take part in the games and activities which are part of the Festival’s big finale.
There are loads of other really interesting and fun events to get involved in over the two weeks so check out the Manchester Histories Festival events calendar to find out more.
Having just got to my computer after the launch event of ‘Culture Shot’, an initiative between the University of Manchester’s teaching hospitals, art gallery and museum, a quick bit of blogging seems appropriate.
‘Culture Shot’ is a week of events running from the 6th-10th of February based in the University hospitals. It involves museums from all over Manchester, not just those associated with the University; I, for instance, went because of the work I am doing with the Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive. The basic idea is that culture can be used to aid with recovery by enriching the lives of those who are ill. However, it is not limited to patients; the focus of much of next week’s work is on the staff in hospitals and giving them a chance to take a short time out of their busy working day to appreciate Manchester’s cultural heritage.
Further to this the idea of bringing culture to the hospitals, most of the collections being used are very tactile: from the Mary Greg collection to archaeological collections of Manchester Museum. This is to spark interest and to make people feel comfortable with the collections. This in turn should make people feel more comfortable within the hospital environment, which can be daunting for patients, staff and visitors.
All these aims seem very noble and important in demonstrating the beneficial impact arts and culture can have on people’s lives. It also shows that universities can do great work when departments work together.
What do you think? Is the initiative useful? Will it really help people next week and in the future?
Now for some good news, apparently spending time looking at art may have been proven to make you live longer.
Hi I’m Jane and I graduated from the AGMS MA programme last
Jane at work on exhibition opening night (3rd from right)
September. For my work placement I went to Gallery Oldham and carried out a review of the social history collection. This was a great placement – it allowed me to learn crucial collections management skills that are essential for anyone looking to start a museum career.
When my placement ended in June I carried on going every week. I really enjoyed my time there and wanted to see the review reach some sort of conclusion. This meant that when the opportunity for paid work came up I was the obvious choice – I knew the museum well and had proved I was committed. Initially, I was employed to work on an exhibition about local democracy in Oldham. As well as being loads of fun, this freelance curatorial work looks great on my C.V. More recently I have been employed to work with the Social History Curator to critically review the collection.
As a result of all the excellent experience I have been able to gain at Oldham (both paid and unpaid) I have just been offered a part time Collections Assistant role at Staffordshire County Council. This is a perfect fit for me at the moment as it allows me to keep up with my freelance work at Oldham (which means I can keep adding to my C.V!).
I am so grateful to all the staff at Gallery Oldham for all the support and advice that they have given me and to the Institute for Cultural Practises for arranging such a brilliant placement. With cultural jobs being so scarce at the moment it is important to take full advantage of every opportunity, which is just what I intend to do!
Today in the first session of the ‘Museum and Gallery Curating’ course (MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies), we have been discussing definitions of curating in museums and galleries. Students were asked to write down their own definitions of curating and discuss them with the class. Through a pyramid game of discussion and selection, we’ve narrowed it down to 3 preferred definitions, that we’d like to put out there and ask people to vote for the one that they like/agree most.
So, could we please ask everyone to read the following three statements and leave a comment indicating which statement you like/agree most with and why? Any further comments are very welcome.
Definition 1
“Curating is the process by which a physical or virtual space is designed and formulated to include a collated, selected, interpreted and intended concept, which can be articulated through a variety of media”
Definition 2
“The organisation, discussion and presenation of information including objects, facts and opinions, in order to create value and meaning to be understood by the public”
Definition 3
“Curating is examining, researching and documenting a collection with the aim of making it accessible to the public. This is done through careful interpretation of the objects, space and text to curate an informative exhibition”
11:00 – 12:15: Louise Tythacott: Loot from China’s Summer Palace in auctions, exhibitions and museums
12:15 – 12:45: Lunch
12:45 – 2:15 Derek Trillo: Re-imaging the museum: Digital photography, the visiting experience and audience engagement Julia Snape: Sensing the Medieval: some contemporary approaches to the display and interpretation of Medieval art
2:15 – 2:30: BREAK: coffee, tea and introduction from visiting PhD student Victoria Lopez
2:30 – 4:00: Chiara Zuanni: Understanding pseudo archaeology and its impact Deborah Leftwich: From Missionary to Museum; the relocation of Tibetan Ga’u Dr Helen Rees Leahy, Fixing attention in the museum
Last week I attended the opening of Grave Secrets: Tales of the Ancient Nubians, Manchester Museum’s latest temporary exhibition. This exhibition is up on the 3rd floor next to the resources centre. It is basically a small display of bones and other artefacts excavated by the Archaeological Survey of Nubia between 1907 and 1911. The main focus is on how these bones have been used to tell us more about life, death and particularly disease in Ancient Nubia. Having passed it several times as it was being set up I was not sure how much information such as small space could contain.
Entering the space I was surprised by what I found. The whole display is enclosed and all the walls are black. This creates a slightly mysterious, secretive atmosphere but not in a gimmicky way. Along one wall are a series of text panels explaining the exhibition and how the bones have been used for research. Down the centre of the room and on the other wall is a long case containing examples of the bones and other artefacts. Each object is accompanied by a short text panel explaining what it is and what has been found out about it. There is a relatively small number of objects but they are chosen and used carefully to tell a powerful story. From each bone you get a sense of the life the person may have lived, whether it’s the severe pain of a person with arthritis or a broken bone that has not healed straight or the sense of love that comes from seeing that someone with a severe physical deformity lived a long life and so must have been cared for by their family. The simple presentation of the objects allows them to speak for themselves and tell their own, human, story. A screen on the end wall displayed revolving images of the bones to allow visitors to see them from all angles.
The only thing that did not seem to fit was the comptuer. This seemed to be there for people to find out more about the Centre for Biological Egyptology at the University. However, it did not seem to say much and I felt the techonology could have been better used to allow visitors to find out more about the specimins and the processes used to analyse them.
Appart from this the exhibition is a small but beautifully desgined display that manages to blend science and Egyptology into an engaging human story.
RT @bandonthewall: WE FACE FORWARD West African music programme kicks off Sunday with the incredible AFROCUBISM live at Bridgewater... h ... 14 hours ago
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