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 Østfold Museums. The project also involves three Swedish museums: Malmö Museums, Gothenburg City Museum and Tekniska Museet. The project builds on the Things Method (2015-2018), the museum's method development in LAB since 2014, as well as 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 published in the form of several articles and a book. The ambition is to contribute to strengthening the societal role and position of museums as research and knowledge institutions, on the museums' own terms. The project is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council's museum development programme Research in Museums, and will continue in 2021.
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 specifically addresses 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 project was completed during the year. A monograph is being published and will be published by Fagbokforlaget in spring 2021.
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 continues in 2021.
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 project Reduced aging and active conservation of plastic objects in museums and collections (Rapmus) has as its main goal to develop new conservation methods and strategies for plastic objects through collaboration between the plastics industry, object conservators and collection managers. In the process, NTM gains 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 is one of the first electric cars to come to Norway. It was constructed by Ferdinand Porsche at the Jacob Lohner & Co. carriage factory in Vienna around 1905-1906. In 2019, the museum carried out a preliminary project on the car, with financial support from Autozentrum Sport AS, Porsche Norge, which included technical investigations and condition assessments. In 2020, there has been particular effort 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 work of recent years has been important steps on the way to being able to preserve the car for posterity and convey its fascinating history through exhibitions and publications.
DOCTORAL STUDIES
PhD project at NTNU - The Hofgaard machine - an early Norwegian computer?
The project is based on an object in the museum's collection that can shed new light on early computer history. Rolf Hofgaard took out a number of patents in the field of electronic calculators and office machines from 1924 until well into the 1950s. Hofgaard's prototype machine from 1955 attracted some interest in its time, but never became the industrial product that Hofgaard and his investor had envisioned. An exploration of Hofgaard and his project will open up new insights into innovation, technology development between the mechanical and the electronic, early Norwegian computer history and machine development in many countries before and after the Second World War.
The research project is affiliated with the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU in Trondheim. It started in autumn 2019 and is part of the museum's ICT exhibition project.
PhD project at NTNU - The establishment of Norwegian beer export and what made it possible to carry it out in the period 1860-1900
The project deals with brewery history and is based on the museum's historical archive of Ringnes Brewery. From the 1860s until 1900, a number of technological and scientific innovations were adopted which influenced the quality of beer to become more durable and standardized. The period has been chosen to shed light on the start-up and how new knowledge about how enabling technologies, such as yeast and ice, give breweries the opportunity to establish and operate beer exports.
The research project is affiliated to the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU in Trondheim. It started in autumn 2019.
Science, Identity and belonging - Co-designing with young people at a Science museum, a qualitative study of process
The project takes a closer look at the museum as a space for dialogic interactions, knowledge processes and how the museum perceives itself as an active participant in people's world of learning and experience. Together with a group of young people from Grorud Youth Council and an interdisciplinary team, we have designed the digital installation Lyden av FOLK, linked to the exhibition FOLK (2018-19). One year after opening FOLK, we collaborated again with two of the young people and organized a workshop with children where we designed a museum activity.
The research project is associated with the PhD program at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester and is carried out in close collaboration with an interdisciplinary group from the museum and the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo Met. It started in autumn 2016 and is to be delivered in 2021.
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, The Contemporary Network and Network for women's history.
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The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is primarily responsible for the Network for Industrial and Technological History . The network aims to strengthen cooperation and professional exchange between Norwegian museums and other institutions working with technological and industrial history. The purpose is to collect, manage, research, disseminate and renew Norwegian technological and industrial history, as well as document how technology and industry are constantly changing in society. Due to the corona, a seminar was not arranged in spring 2020. In autumn 2020, a physical seminar was planned for 9 - 10 November 2020 here at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology . Due to other events, it was also not possible to hold the planned seminar on 9 and 10 November in Oslo. The program was scaled down and held on Teams. At the digital seminar, there were 34 participants from 18 different museums and institutions.
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The National Medical Museum is primarily responsible 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 network has developed a framework note and guidelines and selected a steering group that works to support the museum's role as the main responsible for the network. It has established its own website, http://helseogmedisinhistorie.no . The network's annual seminar 2020 was planned to take place at Glomdalsmuseet, Anno Museum, in June, but had to be postponed until 2021 due to the corona situation. In October, several of the network's members attended a preview of the upcoming exhibition Life and Death.
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Norwegian photographic history 9 April 1940 to 22 July 2011 : The Norwegian Folk Museum, Preus museum, the National Library and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology are collaborating on a broad-based research project on recent Norwegian photographic history. In 2020, several internal research seminars have been held to develop the sub-projects and strengthen the participants' research expertise. 18 to 19 November, the museum organized the Public Photography webinar in collaboration with the National Library. Photographic diversity in publishing and knowledge processes, where three of the museum's employees gave presentations about their research projects. The webinar was followed by around 100 people on Zoom and YouTube and is published on nb.no. https://www.nb.no/artikler/offentlig-fotografi/ . A peer-reviewed article by the museum's staff from the project has also been published in 2020.
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!, Counter photography, The sun shines always – about schematic photo motifs in the photo agency industry and Photography realizes climate.
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.
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 historical perspectives in collections and exhibitions. It is led by the Women's Museum/Anno Museum, carried out in the Network for Women's History and is supported by the Norwegian Culture Council 2018-2021. The museum participates with the sub-project "Women and industrialization - a contribution to renewing The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 's industrial exhibitions". The focus of the museum's industrial exhibitions today is largely the machine and the factory. We also want to highlight the role of women in industrialisation. Women's history issues will contribute to a more balanced representation of how industrialization helped to transform society into what we have today and help to make the exhibitions relevant to today's audience. The museum has also created a Rødlenke list on Wikipedia to highlight female pioneers within industry, technology and the working environment. The women's network Katti Anker Møller was part of and which resulted in the Maternity Home Exhibition in 1916 has also been included in this list and will become part of the Life and Death exhibition.
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Memories – a gathering place for contemporary documentation is a collaborative project between museums in the Network for Contemporary Documentation, Samtidsnett, supported by the Arts Council of Norway 2018-2021. 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 Institute 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 is based on photography: “Pictures in Nature?”
International cooperation
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The project Framtidens tekniska museum is a development collaboration between the Museum of Technology, Danmarks Tekniske Museum and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , supported by the Nordic Culture Fund in the period 2019-2021. 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 all run 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 aim is to get to know each other better and develop a common platform for future collaborations in the Nordics. The results of the work will be published in a joint report and possibly in the form of published articles.
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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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Rasch, T. (2020). National versus International. Norwegian Fashion Photography, Clothing Industry and Women's Magazines in the Mid-Twentieth Century, in Fashioned in the North: Nordic histories, agents and images of fashion photography, Anna Dahlgren (ed.), Stockholm: Nordic Academic Press.
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Skåtun, T. (2020). Science, Identity and Belonging: Future Workshop: a structuring tool for co-designing with young people in Young Critics, a guide for children and young people participation in museums. The Norwegian Museums Association, 45–51.
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Sørlie, T. (2020). It's about people - Photographic climate changes in Arbeiderbladet between 1948 and 1997, Mediehistorisk Tidsskrift, 2020, (34), 70-100. http://medietidsskrift.no/content/uploads/pub/2020/12/NMF-tidsskrift-02_2020-web.pdf
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Treimo, T. & Lefkaditou, A. (2020). Curating Blindspot. Kipphoff, K. and Allsopp, R., eds. Blind Spot: Staring down the void. Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 169–182.
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Treimo, H. (2020). Sketches for a methodology on exhibition research. Peter Bjerregaard, editor. Exhibitions as Research. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 19–39.
Non-peer-reviewed publications
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Lange, E. (2020). Diary notes. About the Corona Diaries project. Museum news , 2020 (3)
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Langleite, A. (2020). The government quarter. Oslo: Norsk the norwegian museum of science and technology .
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Nordsveen, A. (2020). From utedo to maschindass, Yearbook for Gjøvik Historielag Tverrdalene, Gjøvik Historielag, 36-39.
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Nordsveen, A. (2020). Breiskallen - an industrial community at the beginning of the 19th century, Yearbook for Gjøvik Historielag Tverrdalene, Gjøvik Historielag, 131 - 137.
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Nordsveen, A. (2020). The story of the boat Prøven/Bundefjord, Mjøsmuseet's Yearbook, Mjøsmuseet AS in collaboration with the Toten ökomuseum foundation, 6-23.
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Rasch, T. (2020). Knitting traditions in the signs of folk art, book review, Museumsnytt, 2020. https://museumsnytt.no/strikketraditioner-i-folkekunstens-tegn/