Research and development
RESEARCH PROJECTS
The museum's research is mainly in the main fields of technology, industrial history, natural science and medicine, in addition to museology, conservation, pedagogy and photo history. It is researched in several ways; based on the collections, aimed at the development of new exhibitions, or in collaboration with other social actors and institutions. The staff participate in research projects and have represented the museum at national and international research conferences.
The research project "Museums' Knowledge Topography" (2018 – 2020) is led by The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology and carried out in collaboration with the Østfold Museums. The project also involves three Swedish museums: Malmö Museums, Gothenburg City Museum and the Technical Museum. The project builds on the Things Method (2015-2018), the museum's method development in LAB and research on audience involvement. The goal is to contribute to museum development by establishing a research-based language and practices for knowledge-generating processes in museums in connection with the establishment or renewal of basic exhibitions. The results of the project will be able to contribute to strengthening the museums' social role and position as research and knowledge institutions, on the museums' own terms. The project is supported by the Arts Council of Norway's museum development programme Research in Museums.
Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 140,000 people from all over the German-occupied area were forcibly sent to Norway to work. Relative to its population, Norway was probably the European country that received the largest contingent of forcibly recruited labor. Based on the exhibition Grossraum, which was shown at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology from 2017-2019, the research project focuses on the Nazi construction organization Organisation Todt (OT), which was behind many of the largest construction projects in the Third Reich. The project will particularly address the construction of Hitler's so-called Polar Railway between Mo i Rana and Kirkenes, where approximately 26,000 Soviet prisoners of war were put to work.
The research project "Norwegian fabrics - design and industrial history" deals with the large and nationwide textile industry, which spans more than a hundred years from the start around 1850 to the closures at the end of the 20th century. What was produced in the factories? Who were the designers, and how were the drugs marketed and distributed? The book project is based on collections in museums and archives that have been little discussed. The project also leads to publications such as the article on Norwegian ski pants, an innovation for 1930s sportswomen and the seminar paper "French Connections within Oslo Fashion Production in the 1930s" at the conference "Labor in the Creative Industries" at Oslo Met in June 2019. The project continues in 2020.
Preservation and conservation of plastic objects is a relatively young and underdeveloped field that still has many fundamental challenges, especially related to active conservation. The main goal of the project “Reduced aging and active conservation of plastic objects in museums and collections” (Rapmus) is to develop new conservation methods and strategies for plastic objects through collaboration between the plastics industry, object conservators and collection managers. In the process The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology will gain increased knowledge about its own collection and how it can best be managed for the future. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is one of several museums participating in the project, which is led by the Vestfold Museums and supported by the Oslofjord Foundation. The project will end in 2021.
The museum's Lohner-Porsche (NTM 01310) is one of the first electric cars to come to Norway. It was constructed by Ferdinand Porsche at Jacob Lohner & Co's carriage factory in Vienna around 1905. In 2019, the museum has carried out a preliminary project on the car, with financial support from Autozentrum Sport AS, Porsche Norway. The preliminary project has included technical investigations and condition assessments, while attempts have been made to find out more about the car's history. The aim has been to lay the foundations for a larger main project with a plan for further conservation and restoration. The preliminary project has been an important step on the way to being able to preserve the car for posterity and convey its fascinating history through exhibitions and publications.
Network and collaboration
The museum emphasizes networking and national collaboration and is responsible for the coordination and development of the Network for Technology and Industrial History and the National Museum Network for the History of Health and Medicine. In addition, the museum participates in these national networks: Network for knowledge centres, Network for worker culture and history of working life, Network for photography, Network for music and musical instruments, The Contemporary Network and Network for Women's History.
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The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is the main responsible for the Network for Industrial and Technological History, which has worked on a survey report on industrial documentation over the past year, as well as preparing a simple guide to industrial documentation, with tips and advice on how to carry out the work. This project has been led by SIKA in collaboration with the Museum Network for Technology and Industrial History, the Norwegian Knitwear Museum, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , the Nord-Jarlsberg Museums and the Norwegian Canning Museum. The goal was to prepare a national overview of which institutions have worked with industrial documentation, what they have documented and how they have done it.
The network's spring seminar was held in 2019 on 6 and 7 May in Gjøvik, organized by the Mjøs Museums. The main theme of the seminar was the Gjøvik region's industry, with a focus on challenges related to industrial documentation in a changing industry. The autumn seminar was at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology . It was a larger seminar than usual, as it was a collaborative seminar with several institutions (SIKA, the Norwegian Archives Association and the museum networks of working culture and history of work and technology and industrial history).
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The National Medical Museum is the main responsible museum for the National Museum Network for the History of Health and Medicine (NMHM) . An overall aim of the network is to spread and develop knowledge about older, more recent and contemporary health and medical history and how the population has met their health needs. NMHM works to contribute to the exchange of professional expertise, to contribute to the public conversation on issues related to health and medicine and to strengthen the participants' role in society, as well as active engagement with society and the visitors/users. The annual seminar for NMHM was held in Bergen and at Voss, 17–18. June 2019. There were 44 participants present from around 20 institutions. The network has developed framework notes and guidelines and selected a steering group that works to support the museum's role as the main responsible for the network.
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Norwegian Photo History 9 April 1940 to 22 July 2011: The Norwegian Folkemuseum, Preus Museum, the National Library and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology are collaborating on a broad research project on recent Norwegian photo history that will result in research-based articles, a book publication and an exhibition at Preus. The project is anchored in the Network for Photography . The collaboration will ensure a broad geographical reach and activation of knowledge about photo collections and archives throughout the country.
The aim of the research project is to provide an understanding of photography in the period between 1940 and 2011. Media archaeological insights are the starting point for concrete aesthetic analyzes of how photography and photographic technologies have influenced perception, sensation and cognition in the period. An important sub-goal is to facilitate better practice in the institutions' work with material from the period.
Four of the museum's employees are involved in the project based on the museum's collections. The sub-projects they are working on are "Sohlberg Photo - Norwegian fashion for the people!", "Teller photography", "The sun always shines - about subject correction in the photo agency industry" and "Photography realizes climate". The project is supported by the Cultural Council's research program and by the Norwegian Photographers' Association.
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The method project "Now let's start with that again!" is about women's history perspectives in collections and exhibitions. It is led by the Women's Museum/Anno Museum, implemented in the Network for Women's History and is supported by the Arts Council of Norway 2018-2020. The museum participates with the subproject "Women and industrialization - a contribution to the renewal of The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 's industrial exhibitions". The focus of the museum's industrial exhibitions today is largely on the machine and the factory. We also want to highlight the role of women in industrialization. A conscious relationship to gender has so far been missing from the museum's industrial exhibitions. Women's history issues will contribute to a more balanced presentation of how industrialization helped transform society into what we have today. A method will be developed that helps make the exhibitions relevant to today's audience. This applies to both schoolchildren and the general public, and a more balanced gender perspective is included in this method.
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Memories – a meeting place for contemporary documentation is a collaborative project between museums in the Network for Contemporary Documentation, Samtidsnett, supported by the Arts Council of Norway 2018-2020. During the period, nineteen small and large collections will be carried out while the website minner.no is further developed as a common platform. KulturIT is carrying out the technical development and the Norwegian Ethnological Research at the Norwegian Folkemuseum is the foundation of minner.no. The goal is to strengthen Norwegian museums' ability to collect, preserve, explore and disseminate interviews of various kinds and to develop tools and methods in interaction between museums, researchers and the public. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is participating with a project where the memory collection has photography as its starting point: “Who are you as a nature photographer?”
International cooperation
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The project The Technical Museum of the Future is a development collaboration between the Technical Museum of Denmark, the Technical Museum of Denmark and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , supported by the Nordic Culture Fund in the period 2019-2020. The starting point for the project is the challenges the world is facing in our time, and what the technical museums can contribute. The three museums are all running major development projects around themes such as innovation and technical development, and there is a need to share experiences, thoughts and visions in order to break new ground and find good working methods. By meeting during three seminars – one at each museum, the goal is to get to know each other better and develop a common platform for future collaboration in the Nordic region. The results of the work will be published in a joint report and possibly in the form of published articles.
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International Society for the History Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB) 2019. This biennial international conference was held in Oslo, 7–12 July 2019. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology led the organization of the conference in collaboration with the University of Oslo. More than 550 participants from 41 countries attended. ISHPSSB 2019 received support from the Research Council of Norway, UiO and UiO:Life Sciences.
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The museum participates in the international museum network Artefacts , whose aim is to promote the use of artefacts and material culture in technology and science history studies. Annual specialist seminars are organized and a separate book series is published.
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The Medical Museum is a member of the European Association of Museums of the History of the Medical Sciences (EAMHMS). The network is an international forum for museums related to health and medicine, and initiates joint projects within the subject area and arranges conferences and courses.
Peer-reviewed publications
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Ageliki Lefkaditou (2019) "Yet another Greek tragedy? Physical anthropology and the construction of national identity in the late nineteenth century" in National races: Transnational power struggles in science and politics, 1840–1945, Richard McMahon, Lincoln: Nebraska University Press) , pp.141–174.
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Dagny Stuedahl, Torhild Skåtun, Ageliki Lefkaditou and Tobias Messanbrink (2019) "Participation and dialogue: Curatorial reflexivity in participatory practices", in European heritage, dialogue and digital practices, ed. Areti Galani, Rhiannon Mason and Gabi Arrigoni, Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 62–83.
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Henrik Treimo (2020) "Sketches for a methodology on exhibition research" in Exhibitions as Research , ed. Peter Bjerregaard, Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 17–39.
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Tone Rasch “Fashion on the Ski Trail: Trousers for Women in the Norwegian Style”, Fashion Theory: Dress, Body & Culture, Russian Edition, Moscow, 51 (2019), 179-203.
Non-peer-reviewed publications
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Arve Nordsveen (2019) "Pakkhusbrygga 'Gjøvik Station'" in Yearbook for Gjøvik - Tverrdalene 2019 , ISBN 978-82-90323-53-5, pp. 146-153.
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Arve Nordsveen (2019), "Breiskallen - once a significant industrial site", Oppland Arbeiderblad 20 October 2019.
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Arve Nordsveen (2019), "The history of the husmannsplassen/small farm Nordsveen" and "The Jesus Revival in 1972/73 seen a little from the inside but mostly from the outside". Småskrift, Raufossgruppa, Toten history team.
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BLIND SPOT – an exhibition about seeing and looking for, Exhibition catalogue, 2019, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , ISBN 978-82-90115-54-3 (ed. Ageliki Lefkaditou, Henrik Treimo and Karen Kipphoff).
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PEOPLE – from racial types to DNA sequences, 2019, Exhibition catalogue. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , ISBN 978-82-90115-55-0 (ed. Ageliki Lefkaditou and Jon Røyne Kyllingstad)