Illustrative image. Object from the museum's collections.
Today's computer and telecommunications exhibitions contain about 300 objects. In total, the museum has more than 90,000 objects in its collection. Many of these are related to ICT. The objects form the starting point for the exhibition, and many new objects will be highlighted.
Things and technologies are both actors that help shape the world and something that is shaped, adapted, integrated or rejected in encounters with people and structures. In a museum exhibition, things can open relationships and create understanding of the society they are a part of. The exhibition will pursue things into cultural and social life, economics and politics, research and science. The things, and what they do, bring up different themes. Such an approach to things characterizes the ways in which the museum works with exhibitions.
The objects in the exhibition will be of a very different nature in terms of type of technology, size, material, age, recognizability and how easy it will be to make them interesting and understandable.
There are certain objects that one would expect to encounter in an ICT exhibition, such as telephones and computers.
Can we also include things that visitors don't expect, and in that way create understanding for the broad application of ICT? Or can we thematize things in ways that visitors don't expect, and thus create reflection on the importance of ICT?
We envision the exhibition being structured into 5-7 main thematic areas, each containing stories told through key objects and a number of supplementary objects.
To begin developing ideas and techniques for such a programmable exhibition, we will establish a small experimental zone in the museum's LAB in spring 2020. It will be possible for museum visitors to see inside, and to come in and participate when we open the doors. Here we will place a small selection of historical artifacts, and begin the process of developing a computer system that will control the upcoming exhibition.
Norway's National Museum of Technology, Industry, Science and Medicine. Here you will find exciting exhibitions and activities a short distance from central Oslo.
