Interactivity
One can only imagine what ten-year-old Crown Prince Olav was thinking when he pressed the buttons to start the machines on a May day in 1914. The signal column was later included in the collection, and was The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 's first interactive object. In the exhibition Things: Technology and Democracy, interactivity has taken on a new meaning. It is not just machines that are pressed, it is the ways in which we participate that determine how we experience the exhibition.
- Vi inviterer til dialog om viktige aktuelle temaer knyttet til teknologi og demokrati. Selv om utstillingen gir en fin opplevelse også som tilskuer, er det i dialog med andre du vil få den skjellsettende opplevelsen denne nyskapende, inkluderende og spektakulære utstillingen kan gi. Det er du som gjør forskjellen, understreket Weinberger.
Collection and lack of space
The signal column was among the 69 objects that are just arriving at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology from the Machine Hall in the anniversary exhibition at Frogner. On December 11, 1914 The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology received an offer from Norsk Elektriks & Brown Boveri (better known as NEBB) to take over “the Signal Column, with which the Crown Prince at the Anniversary Exhibition started the Machines in the Machine Hall…”
The museum did not yet have suitable premises to store objects, so the museum asked all donors to store the objects for themselves.
To Bygdø
Plassmangelen fikk en midlertidig løsning da Kong Haakon i 1932 åpnet museets første lokale i kjelleren på Vikingskipsmuseet på Bygdø.
Selve overrekkelsen av signalsøylen fant derfor ikke sted før 14. august 1940, det første året Norge var okkupert av nazi-Tyskland. Den ble da sendt fra Thunes Mekaniske Værksted. ”Refererende til gjentatte konferanser med Deres herr ingeniör Philip Pedersen angående den signalsöile som jubileumsutstillingen i 1914 blev åpnet med, meddeles at söilen blev opbevart ved vårt verksted og fremdeles befinner sig her. Vi sender den i dag over til museet og tör be Dem erkjenne mottagelsen. Ærbödigst pr.pr. A/S THUNES MEKANISKE VÆRKSTED.”
The Dream of Sannergata
The dream of a separate building for The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology was not realized with the Bygdø solution, however, and museum director Philip Pedersen had visions of a large-scale museum building. In 1938, the museum received a plot of land in Sannergata, but the prolonged war effectively put an end to the vision, so the signal column remained on Bygdø.
New premises
The signal column did not find a new home until 1958, when King Olav presided over the opening of the new premises in Fyrstikkalleen in Etterstad. Space was tight, so it was a great stroke of luck when enough money was raised for a brand new museum building. In 1986, the column and the rest of the museum moved to Kjelsås, a building that still houses The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology .
Another king
When King Harald pressed the same button as Olav V on April 2, 2014 to launch the groundbreaking exhibition on technology and democracy, it had been a century since his father had started the machines. Much has changed, and our king did not start machines, but an exhibition that gave you and me the opportunity to explore the connections between technology and democracy - and what role each of us plays in the larger context.
