RESEARCH PROJECTS
Research at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology contributes to historically and contemporary relevant knowledge about technology, science, industry and medicine. It is linked to management and dissemination, and takes place across disciplines. The museum's L AB was established in 2014 to further develop the interaction between research, dissemination and management, and as a place to gather different competencies. The museum is approved as a research organization by the Research Council and participates in projects together with various institutions. In 2021, the museum adopted a new research plan for the period 2021-2026, which provides guidelines for research activities at the museum and, among other things, contains an overview of prioritized research areas. From 2021, research results from the museum's employees will be registered in the national database Cristin (Current Research Information System in Norway). This year, reference can be made to several published books and articles.
The research project Museums' Knowledge Topography (started in 2018) 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 Technical Museum. 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 aim is to contribute to strengthening the museums' social role and position as research and knowledge institutions on the museums' own terms. The results of the project will be published in the form of several articles and a separate anthology. A final seminar for the project is planned for 2022. The project is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council's museum development programme Research in Museums.
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 downsizing of the broad textile and clothing industry in the 1960s and 1970s has been the topic in 2021 in collaboration with a Nordic design history project Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation 1960-80 under the auspices of, among others, the University of Oslo, IFIKK, with planned publication of a collection of articles in 2022 and supported by the Nordic Research Council ( NOS-HS) . The book project continues in 202 2 .
Conservation and preservation of plastic objects is a relatively young and underdeveloped field that still faces 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, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology increased knowledge about their 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 museum collaborates with the Norwegian Folkemuseum, the Preus museum and the National Library on a broad-based research project on recent Norwegian photographic history. 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 Teigen's photo studio's product photographs for the weekly press in the 1960s, with planned publication in the Norwegian Folk Museum's yearbook in 2023, Counter photography, The sun always shines – about schematic photo motifs in the photo agency industry and Photography realizes climate. Two peer-reviewed articles have been published from these sub-projects in 2021.
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.
Together with NVE, the Vestfold Museums, the Oil Museum, the Textile Industry Museum, the Oslo Museum and the Network for Technology and Industry, the museum has received development funds from the Arts Council's Social Role Program for the project Sustainable Energy Narratives ? Industrial Museums Meet the Climate Crisis. , the museums take as their starting point the fact that the technical-industrial museums manage and disseminate knowledge about the form of society that is causing the climate crisis. The narratives created by the museums are important and new narratives should be developed. By examining how energy, industry and climate have been communicated by the museums and testing out new narratives in exhibitions and online exhibitions, the project will make the museums arenas for reflection, debate and new understanding of the climate issue by cultivating the distinctive museum. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology will work on analyses of today's industry and energy exhibitions, mapping climate perspectives in the collections and planning, and developing new narratives in collaboration with children and young people in the upcoming Energy Exhibition.
Photo: Thomas Fjørtoft
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 by collecting, managing, researching, disseminating and renewing Norwegian technological and industrial history. The network also documents how technology and industry are constantly changing in society. The network applied for funding from the Norwegian Arts Council for the project Sustainable energy narratives? Are industrial museums facing the climate crisis and received it. A lot of activity therefore took place in the network around the application writing.
The network has two annual network meetings. The first was held digitally on 2 June with various presentations of various ongoing or completed museum projects made by the network members. The second meeting was held at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology on 29 - 30 November. The first day had a general program with lectures and presentations, while day two emphasized Sustainable Energy Narratives and was more focused on the museums in the network participating in this project. Here, a progress plan for the project and kick-off meetings were made. -
The National Medical Museum is primarily responsible for the National Museum Network for the History of Health and Medicine (NMHM) . An overarching aim is to strengthen knowledge of 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 the public conversation about 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. In 2021, activity in the network has been characterized by shutdowns and restrictions due to the corona pandemic.
The annual seminar was planned to take place at Gammeldoktoren at Anno Glomdalsmuseet in Elverum in autumn 2021, but has been postponed for infection control reasons until June 2022. The network has a steering group with seven members. Five digital meetings have been held in this group in 2021. Info emails are sent out to the network's members every two months. -
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, implemented in the Network for Women's History and is supported by the Arts Council of Norway 2018-2021. 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 in addition to Wikipedia's Red Link Project about the women behind the Maternity Home Exhibition being included in the medical exhibition Life and Death. The project was completed in 2021, and has resulted in a website https://museumsverktoy.no/ with a separate handbook for good gender representation in museum professional practices. The status report With a sense of focus is also included in the project. https://kvinnemuseet.no/rapport_folesse_av_fokus A planned closing conference was postponed due to restrictions surrounding corona. The network has applied for and received funding from the Arts Council of Norway's societal role program to continue the project The Value of Gender in a Museum Hierarchy, in which The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology will participate in the areas of participation and the relevance of the collections.
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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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Minner – 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 collaboration 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 . The project ended with a digital event on December 10, 2021.
International cooperation
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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. This year's professional seminar took place digitally.
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Medisinsk museum is a member of the network The European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH), an international forum for museums related to health and medicine, and initiates joint projects within the subject area and arranges conferences and courses. A conference is planned in Oslo in 2023. One or more events are also planned in collaboration with the Medical Museum.
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Andersen, Ketil Gjølme . Hitler's builders. Fritz Todt and Albert Speer in Norway , Oslo: Fagbokforlaget.
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Bratland, Nina . Photographed conversations. Work for accuracy and economy in the Televerket , pp. 64-75, in Public photography. Journal of media history no . 2 2021 (36) .
http://medietidsskrift.no/content/uploads/2021/11/MHT-2021-36-Bratland-IDO.pdf -
Langleite, Arne Bolstad. With your back to the camera. The image agency's back figure in the Norwegian landscape , pp. 94-109, in Public photography. Media history journal no. 2 2021 (36) .
http://medietidsskrift.no/content/uploads/2021/11/MHT-2021-36-Langleite-IDO.pdf -
Loring , Phil (ed.) . Life and death. A cartoon anthology, Oslo: Magikon forlag and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology . Norwegian and English edition.
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Rasch, Tone . Ambiguous Artificiality. The Presentation and Perception of Viscose Fibers and Fabrics in Norway in the 1930s , pp. 195-214, in Provocative Plastics. Their Value in Design and Material Culture, (ed. Susan Lambert), London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
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Rasch, Tone . Hjørdis Knutsen's democratic textiles , pp. 97-107, in Norway in Sweden. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm, Stockholm: Arvinius+Orfeus .
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Stuedahl, Dagny, Ageliki Lefkaditou, Gro Ellefsen, Torhild Skåtun. Design anthropological approaches in collaborative museum curation, Design Studies 75.
https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/88088