XVII Universeum Annual Meeting

XVII UnIVerseUm AnnUAl meetIng

Connecting Collections

Book of abstracts

UnIVersIty of AmsterdAm & Utrecht UnIVersIty

9–11 JUne 2016

Cover photo: Still Life with microscopes, books, one of the open: Optics, by Isaac Newton. 1907–1930. Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Photos: p. 15: Monique Kooijmans; p. 23: Ivar Pel; p. 31: Monique Kooijmans; p. 39: Jan Bitter; p. 47: Monique Kooijmans; p. 53: Monique Kooijmans

Table of contents

4 Program Committee

5 Foreword

6 Program

Abstracts15 Connecting Collections — General Session I23 Connecting Collections with Research and Education31 Connecting library, archive, documentary and museum collections: 5 minute session39 Connecting collections with the public: 5 minute session47 Connecting Collections — General Session II

53 Posters

Program Committee

Sofia Talas, University of Padua (Italy, President of the Universeum Board)Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon (Portugal, Universeum Board)Sébastien Soubiran, University of Strasbourg (France, Universeum Board) Bruno Vila, University of Aix-Marseille (France, Universeum Board)Roland Wittje, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (India, Universeum Board) Steph Scholten, University of Amsterdam (chair of the LOC)Marike van Roon, University of Amsterdam (LOC)Esther Boeles, University of Amsterdam (LOC)Paul Voogt, Utrecht University (LOC)Paul Lambers, Utrecht University (LOC)Reina de Raat, Utrecht University (LOC)

AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY FUND

XVII UnIVerseUm AnnUAl meetIng — Connecting Collections 5

Foreword

It is with great pleasure that the Universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht have accepted the challenge to co-organize the 17th Universeum Annual Meeting in 2016. In a long standing tradition of cooperation between Dutch universities in the field of academic heritage, it was only logical that such cooperation would also be the starting point for organizing Universeum 2016. For practical reasons we had to limit the number of organizing universities to two, instead of involving all eleven universities (out of a total of fifteen) that take part in the Dutch Foundation for Academic Heritage, that coordinates cooperation at a national level in The Netherlands.As we have experienced the relevance of national cooperation, it seems only natural for us to support and facilitate cooperation at an international level, as Universeum has done successfully over the past years. Universeum is an important and inclusive network and its annual network meetings provide an important platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences between colleagues from all corners of Europe. The program for this years Universeum Meeting reflects the diversity of collections and contexts that can be found across the network. All have two things in common: the collections we take care of and the necessity to connect those collections to specialized academic and general audiences. We hope that this meeting in The Netherlands will inspire all participants and strengthen the Universeum network for the years to come.Many colleagues in Utrecht and Amsterdam have helped to organize this Annual Meeting, as did the board of Universeum. They deserve our gratitude. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Amsterdam University Fund and the Foundation for Academic Heritage in making the 17th Universeum Annual Meeting possible.

Steph ScholtenChair of the Local Organizing Commitee (LOC)Director Heritage Collections Department of the University of Amsterdam


ProgramTHURSDAY 9 JUNE — UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

Venue: Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229–231, Amsterdam

8:30–9:30 Registration/Coffee

9:30–10:00 Opening session 9:30–9:40 Welcome by Professor Geert ten Dam, President of the

Executive Board of the University of Amsterdam 9:40–9:50 Sofia Talas, President of the Universeum Board 9:50–10:00 Steph Scholten, director Heritage Collections Department,

University of Amsterdam

10:00–12:00 Thematic session: Connecting collections 15 minute presentations, followed by 5 minutes for questions & debate. The way we use university collections is constantly changing. It can be a challenge to

stimulate and increase their use for research, education, university p.r. and public display. It’s another challenge to use collections across different disciplines (e.g., natural history collections used in humanities and social sciences, scientific instruments and illustrations used in history of design or social history, etc.). Why is it this difficult and which new angles should be considered?

Chair: Sébastien Soubiran10:05–10:25 Karin Tybjerg, Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen: The exhibition of scientific

objects as a knowledge producing object10:25–10:45 Neil Curtis, University Museums, University of Aberdeen: Re-conceptualising the role

of the university curator10:45–11:05 Mungo Campbell, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Bones and books; new

approaches to transdisciplinary research in the collections of William Hunter11:05–11:25 Paulina van der Zee, Ethnographic Collections, Ghent University: Connecting the

Ethnographic Collections of Ghent University to different source communities11:25–11:45 Mark Macleod, University of Worcester: Creating connections by seeing beyond an

artefact’s designated purpose11:45–12:05 Evangelos Papoulias, Myrsini Pichou, Fay Tsitou, University of Athens:

Connecting collections with digital storytelling: a pilot project for the Athens university history

12:10–13:00 Lunch (courtesy of the University of Amsterdam), Agnietenkapel

13:00–15:00 Thematic session: Connecting collections with Research and Education 15 minute presentations, followed by 5 minutes for questions & debate. Over the last few years we have seen the university boards demanding increased use of

collections in research and education. Many university collections that originated and


subsequently dissociated from teaching and research, are now reconnected to education and scientific investigation. How did they find their way back into the labs and the curriculum? How can new ways of object based learning and research give new meaning to collections?

Chair: Roland Wittje13:05–13:25 Cornelia Weber, Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany,

Humboldt-Universität Berlin: Using collections and objects in university teaching. A report on the situation in Germany

13:25–13:45 Sarah Dellmann, Utrecht University: Lantern slides: documents of the scientist’s self-image (1900–1940)

13:45–14:05 Hans Mulder, Special Collections, University of Amsterdam: Read those books! Successful attempts to use the collections of Artis Library in education and research

14:05–14:25 Maria Dolores Sanchez-Jauregui, Harvard University: Harvard art museums 1766–2014: building in the grounds of the philosophy chamber

14:25–14: 45 Charlotte van Wijk, Technical University Delft: The continued significance of collections for design education

14:50–15:30 Coffee break

15:30–17:00 5 Minute session & debate: Connecting library, archive, documentary and museum collections

5-min papers, followed by debate Divisions within university collections are often constructed: objects with objects, books

with books, documents with documents. What are the benefits of (re)connecting them? What about collections that contain books and objects as well as archival documents? And what about the so called ‘documentary collection’ such as photography, lanternslides, film and catalogues? These are somewhat overlooked within the academic heritage sector, while these collections contain a wealth of information. In this session we want to discuss how by (re)connecting these types of collections, they can be of better use for teaching, research and for presentation to a wider audience.

15:30–15:40 Introduction to the theme by Steph Scholten (Chair of the session)

15:40–16:00 ■ Mara Fausone, Marco Galloni, Scientific & Technologic Archives, University of Torino: Archives, museums and libraries work together

■ Helen C. Rawson, Museum Collections Unit, University of St Andrews: Connecting collections — Creating links between museum and library collections at the University of St Andrews

■ Moreno Clementi, Antonella Miola, University of Padova: Two hundred and five years of chaos: botanists’ imperative need of access to historical collections

16:00–16:20 Debate

16:20–16:35 ■ Maria Lanng, Annette Buhl Sørensen, Laila Zwisler, History of Technology Division, Technical University of Denmark: Do connections require wired people?


■ Isabel Rotthier, Charis Verbelen, University archives of Ghent University: Ghent University virtually

■ Marek Bukowski, Museum of Medical University of Gdańsk: Several collections and only one history

16:35–16: 55 Debate

17:00–17:30 Short walking tour through the campus, leading to the Special Collections, Oude Turfmarkt 129

17:30–19:30 Poster session & drinks at the Museumcafé at the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam

Venue: The Special Collections, University of Amsterdam, Oude Turfmarkt 129 Chair: Sébastien Soubiran

■ Ana Mafalda Cardeira, University of Lisbon: The new Virtual Museum of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon: collections and virtual tour

■ Hélène Chaudoreille, Annael Le Poullenne, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University: Psl-explore: a new portal for a new community

■ Edo Dooijes and Taco Walstra, Computermuseum University of Amsterdam: How do we make the history of computing relevant to today's students?

■ Lourdes Cirlot, Jorge Wagensberg, Santiago Vallmitjana, Isabel Garcia Malet, Pilar Mateo Bretos, University of Barcelona: The new museum of the University of Barcelona

■ Andreas Fotopoulos, Esther Solomon, University of Ioannina: In a… hidden museum ■ Ana M. Galán-Pérez, Alejandra Herrera-Picazo Espinar, University of Seville: Virtual

platform project — Network of museums and collections from the university of Seville ■ Coca Garrido, Isabel María García, Universidad Complutense, Madrid: The etching

collection of fine arts faculty (Madrid): a didactic museographical proposal ■ Antonella Gasperini, Valeria Zanini and others, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica

Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Osservatorio Astronomico, Padova: Connecting a collection of astronomical collections

■ René Lommez Gomes, Federal University of Minas Gerais — Brazil: ‘Connecting Collections’: a project for the dissemination UFMG’s scientific collections through films designed for digital façades and fulldome environments

■ Vincenza Montenegro, A.M. Pastore, Augusto Garuccio, University of Bari: The series of geometric models by Luigi Campedelli, Department of Mathematics, University of Bari Aldo Moro

■ Ivana Mítrovic, Museum of Sport, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education Belgrade, The re-entering of the Museum of sport into teaching activities

■ Nathalie Nyst, ULB Museums Network, Free University of Brussels: How does the ULB museums network organize yearly activities on connecting collections?

■ Robert Päßler, Daniel Lordick, Technische Universität Dresden: Digitization as the precondition for the connection of and interaction with mathematical models — chances and challenges


■ Nicolas Robin, University of Teacher Education St. Gallen: Educational Material Culture: Scientific teaching collections as educational research artefact

■ María Dolores Ruiz de Lacanal, Universidad de Sevilla: Museums and Collections from the University of Seville

■ Anke Tietz, TU Bergakademie Freiberg: Broad interdisciplinary linking of collections — only a dream?

■ Costas Tsiamis, Georgia Vrioni, Athanassios Tsakr, Athens University History Museum: Re-discovering the disease: from a biological phenomenon to cultural knowledge for the Athens University History Museum visitors


FRIDAY 10 JUNE — UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

Venue: Academiegebouw (Central Building Utrecht University), Domplein 29, Utrecht

8:00 Departure bus from Amsterdam (Allard Pierson Museum, Oude Turfmarkt 127) to Utrecht (Academiegebouw). The bus will return from Utrecht to Amsterdam around 22:00 after the conference dinner.

9:00–9:30 Coffee

9:30–10:00 Opening session 9:30–9:45 Welcome by Professor Bert van der Zwaan, Rector Utrecht University 9:45–10:00 Introduction by Paul Voogt, head University Museum Utrecht

10:00–11:30 5 Minute session & debate: Connecting collections with the public 5-min papers, followed by debate How do you connect collections with the general public? Around 2010 museum director

Nina Simone coined the phrase ‘the participatory museum’ — as a way of reconnecting with audiences. Scientific collections have always been generated by experts outside of the public domain. Our challenge is to use these collections in different contexts, in different eras, for different purposes and different audiences. What role do we give ‘the general public’ in our activities? Are they merely consumers of our products or do they have a stake in developing new meaning and uses?

10:00–10:10 Introduction to the theme by Paul Voogt (chair of this session)

10:10–10:25 ■ Jelle De Schrijver, Ghent University: Workshops in the autopsy room: educating about the nature and the ethics of science

■ Paul Lambers, University Museum Utrecht: The collection of the University Museum Utrecht in teaching and on internet: new contexts for historic objects

■ Geert Vanpaemel, KU Leuven: Can university collections generate trust in science?

10:25–10:45 Debate

10:45–10:55 ■ Marlen Mouliou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens: University museum collections as cultural teasers, university students as museum ambassadors and mediators

■ Ramunas Kondratas, Vaiva Klajumaitė, Vilnius University Museum: Interesting Tales From Vilnius University

10:55–11:30 Debate

11:45 Departure bus to Sciencepark Utrecht

12:15–13:00 Lunch (courtesy of the University Library of the Utrecht University)


13:00–14:15 Tours to Museum Bleulandinum (anatomy), the Special Collections department of the University Library or the storage room of the University Museum

14:15 Bus back into the city center, Academiegebouw

15:00–17:30 Working groups

Working group for the Preservation of Recent Heritage of Science Universeum’s Working Group for the Preservation of Recent Heritage of Science is

concerned with the study, conservation and interpretation of the heritage of science, technology and medicine produced after WWII. At our fifth workshop in Utrecht we will again split up in groups to discuss two central themes in recent heritage of science:

— Collections in the life sciences after 1945. Biology and medicine have undergone substantial transformations in the last decades, manifested in the emergence and growth of fields such as genetics, bioinformatics and ecology. So far the Working Group has mainly looked at instrumentation and apparatus. Which are the important issues about collections? Do new types of collection (biobanks, sound archives, etc), require different approaches, non-conventional organisation, new conservation media?

— Big science, large installations and buildings. How can we preserve and document large objects, large installations and buildings that will be demolished, modernised or re-used for different purposes? We will discuss documentation, preserving key objects, and in situ preservation. For this we will, among other things, look at practices of industrial archaeology.

Working group Digital Initiatives Universeum’s working group on databases and portals for university collections had

its first meeting at the Universeum Meeting 2015, in Athens. This inaugural workshop allowed to create the basis of a network for sharing knowledge and experience on these topics. It also revealed the significance of digital issues at any level when it comes to academic heritage.

That is why the name of the group has been changed and its scope enlarged. Called from now on ‘Digital Initiatives’, it aims at providing digital services to Universeum and the broader community of university museums, collections and heritage in Europe.

The meeting in Amsterdam will be a participatory workshop, in which the WG mainly aims to gather input from participants, in order to develop a program for the upcoming years. The workshop will focus on these topics:

— Introduce and discuss the working group’s overall objective — Discuss and evaluate the needs in terms of training and consulting and try to

identify the actions that could be launched by the WG in that matter. During the session we would like to determine how to compile and provide access to existing digital resources – tools, standards, workflows, best practices and literature – of interest to academic heritage.


— Reflect upon simple digital tools to increase online visibility, sustainable management, access and use of university collections. In this session we will share experiences and examine concrete examples of academic heritage online. Furthermore the aim is to identify the needs for these tools and steps that are necessary to get university collections, museums and academic heritage online and see how we as a working group can help to facilitate this.

17:30–17:45 Walk to the University Museum Utrecht, Lange Nieuwstraat 106, Utrecht

17:45–18:15 Wrap up session working groups

18.15–19.00 Drinks at the Old Botanical Garden Utrecht (next door to the University Museum)

19.00–22.00 Optional dinner at the Old Botanical Garden Utrecht – including visit to Hortus Botanicus and University Museum

22:00 Departure bus back to Amsterdam (If you want to hang out a bit longer in Utrecht: trains are going back to Amsterdam

Central Station regularly until 00:58. N.B. After that trains are going every hour from 2:07 on).


SATURDAY 11 JUNE — UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

Venue: Allard Pierson Museum, Oude Turfmarkt 127, Amsterdam

9:30–10:00 Coffee

10:00–11:30 Thematic session: Connecting collections II 15 minute presentations, followed by 5 minutes for questions & debate Chair: David Gaimster, Director of the Hunterian, University of Glasgow

10:05–10:25 Augusto Garuccio, Ruggero Francescangeli, Alessandro Monno, University of Bari: The study and exploitation project of the collection of ancient marbles ‘Francesco Belli’

10:25–10:45 Maria Economou, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Connecting the Hunterian collections using a digital trail and engaging students. Lessons for research and education

10:45–11:05 Jean Davoigneau, Françoise Le Guet Tully, French Ministry of Culture and the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur at Nice: Databases for connecting collections to the public: a case study

11:05–11:25 Beatriz Escribano Belmar, University of Castilla-La Mancha: Disseminating and teaching university collections. One of the contemporary art collections and archives in Cuenca, Spain

11:30–12:30 General assembly Universeum

12:30–13:30 Lunch (courtesy of the University of Amsterdam) at the Museumcafé, Oude Turfmarkt 129

12:30–13:30 Tour Allard Pierson Museum (Archeology) or Special Collections

13:30–17:00 Tours by bus to the Museum Vrolik (anatomy), Artis Library and Science Park (computer museum).

thUrsdAy 9 JUne

Connecting Collections —

General Session I


Exhibiting epistemic objects

KARIN TYBJERG

Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, Fredericiagade 18, 1310 Copenhagen K, [email protected]

Keywords: epistemic objects, exhibition design, anatomical collections

ABSTRACT

The objects in university collections are collected, constructed or produced with a perspective to generate and document knowledge. Many have, however, come out of use and are no longer actively employed in research. This does not, however, mean that the objects no longer have significance in the production of knowledge. The exhibition is itself a knowledge-producing object — an epistemic object — that can unfold new aspects of the collections.

Following ideas of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Karin Knorr-Cetina and their concepts of epistemic things and epistemological objects, I will consider ways of curating scientific objects that allow the epistemological functions of the exhibition and the exhibited objects to reinforce each other. I will draw on the example of the exhibition The Body Collected at Medical Museion in Copenhagen, which showed how doctors and medical researchers have collected human bodily material to generate medical knowledge.

The paper furthermore suggests that the approach of epistemic history — of viewing knowledge-making as historically and culturally embedded — may serve to heal the rift between exhibitions that deal with the cultural history of science and displays that present scientific knowledge in a timeless and apparently culture-independent fashion.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Karin Tybjerg is Associate Professor at Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen. She curated the exhibition The Body Collected and has written about links between biobanks and anatomical collections. Previously she held a research fellowship at University of Cambridge and worked as head of Modern History and Ethnographic Collections at the Danish National Museum.


Re-conceptualising the role of the university curator

NEIL G.W. CURTIS

University of Aberdeen Museums, Old Aberdeen Town House, High Street, Aberdeen, AB24 3EN, [email protected]

Keywords: curators, academics, disciplines

ABSTRACT

Like most university museums, those of the University of Aberdeen originate in disciplinary collections, from Anatomy to Zoology, that were initially actively used for teaching and research but which by the later 20th century had become less and less relevant to their host departments. The ‘material turn in the humanities’ and the development of new scientific analytical techniques, however, offered various intellectual opportunities for engagement with disciplines originally associated with collections, new inter-disciplinary studies, and a growth in disciplines that focus on professional practice. At the same time, academic curators became perceived as inactive and as ‘gate-keepers’ restricting rather than enabling research and teaching. In Aberdeen we have therefore seen a growth in the number of professional museum staff (and an even greater growth in expectations of them!), and are moving from having seven disciplinary Accredited collections to considering them as a single, but diverse, collection. But, how do we avoid a gap forming between professional curation and academia? Three innovations will be highlighted: the establishment of the Honorary Curatorial Fellow scheme for academic staff, the involvement of museum staff in teaching, and the establishment of a Museum Studies programme. However, both structural and personal factors mean that the gap remains. How can we re-conceptualise the role of the university curator?

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Neil Curtis is Head of Museums and Programme Director for the Museum Studies MLitt in the University of Aberdeen. His background is in Scottish archaeology, but most of his recent work has focused on museum history and practice.


Bones and Books

New approaches to Transdisciplinary research in the collections of William Hunter

MUNGO CAMPBELL

Deputy Director, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, [email protected]

Keywords: collections, pedagogy, transdisciplinary, research

ABSTRACT

William Hunter (1718–1783) formed his collection to generate useful knowledge within the pedagogic and research practices of an Enlightenment university. However, by 1807, when The Hunterian finally opened in Glasgow, new approaches to research and teaching left his museum, like so many university collections, intellectually and physically fragmented and disengaged from its host institution.

Hunter was first and foremost a teacher. He expected the primary pedagogic experience of his collections to be based on observation. Visual understanding of a specimen was equally the province of artist, taxonomist and scientific researcher, with objects and library mutually contributing to a complex matrix of collection-based knowledge. In our own twenty-first-century research and teaching cultures, while such transdisciplinary approaches are commonplace idealised academic objectives, they prove significantly more challenging to deliver in research outputs.

Collections offer unique opportunities to broker transdisciplinary research. Projects recently developed at Glasgow will harness advanced methodologies in both digital humanities and next-generation DNA sequencing to derive new knowledge from Hunter’s collections — from pathology specimens to library books — investigated together as potential sources of cultural, historical, and epidemiological data. Even the development processes behind such projects are re-animating Hunter’s vision for his collection as a transformational resource for research.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Mungo Campbell is Deputy Director of The Hunterian at The University of Glasgow. He is currently leading an international transdisciplinary research project to mark the tercentenary of William Hunter’s birth in 2018 culminating with an exhibition in Glasgow and at the Yale Center for British Art.


Connecting the ethnographic collections of Ghent University to different source communities

PAULINE VAN DER ZEE

Ghent University — Ethnographic Collections of Ghent University, Het Pand, Onderbergen 1, Ghent B9000, [email protected]

Keywords: storytelling, university collections, ethnography, Ghent University

ABSTRACT

Non-western ethnographic objects in museums are often testimonies of former colonial powers — part of the heritage of their makers that tell stories of colonial times. Many curators see their missions as involving source communities in diaspora in their collections and to start dialogue with them. This is not atonement for the course of events in early days, but a ‘condition of engagement’.For Heritage Day this year we invited seven ‘ambassadors’ to represent their cultures of origin with objects used in rituals. Some are creating exhibition cases that evoke the spiritual dimensions of their cultures. Others use what may be seen as touristic clichés. It is not always easy to reconnect culturally to these objects, which in the eyes of source communities were appropriated by the West and used for purposes never intended. This tangles the testimonies. However, the artefacts themselves can act as intermediaries and give voice to both sides. They may become the keys to understanding a complicated past. As dealing with the colonial past becomes more and more problematic, ethnographic museums find themselves at a turning point. What role is reserved for the scattered offspring of the makers of these objects?

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Pauline van der Zee holds a PhD in art history with specialization in non-western arts. She wrote books and chapters in books about visual arts, mythology and rituals of the Asmat and Kamoro of New-Guinea, and published in scientific and professional journals articles about historic non-western art objects and collections.


Creating connections by seeing beyond an artefact’s designated purpose

MARK MACLEOD

The Infirmary, University of Worcester, Worcester, WR1 3AS, [email protected]

Keywords: university, museum, medical, history

ABSTRACT

The medical instruments on display at The Infirmary come from George Marshall Medical Museum. A collection amassed by Dr Marshall during his time working at Worcester Royal Infirmary 1930–70s covers over 200 years of history. While some of the objects are innovative in design, medical instruments are designed for one function and the challenge is to engage students and lecturers from University of Worcester on how the exhibition can help in their coursework.

Since opening in 2012 the exhibition has engaged with students from all five institutes of sport, health, education, humanities and business one way or another. The museum’s handling collection is used extensively to stimulate creativity, investigative questioning, design, and reminisce.

The Infirmary staff delivers full session seminars, tours, semester long modules and also acts as a client to provide real world feedback to the students’ products.

Outputs from the students last year included; five prototypes for computer games, exhibition of first year fine art students’ work, c. 100 hours of research through student placements, and a drama performance written and performed for the public. More than 300 trainee teachers learned about the power of objects and museums for teaching schoolchildren

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Mark Macleod has been Head of The Infirmary since August 2013 before which he worked at University of St Andrews Museums Collections Unit as Operations and Projects Curator (maternity). Personal research areas include visitor experience and how interpretation of objects can be personalised using non-invasive technology


Connecting collections with digital storytelling

A pilot project for the Athens University History Museum

EVANGELOS PAPOULIAS, MYRSINI PICHOU, FAY TSITOU

Athens University History Museum, National and Kapodistrian University of AthensTholou 5, Plaka, Athens 10556, [email protected]

Keywords: digital storytelling, collections, museum communication

ABSTRACT

The Department of Informatics of Athens University has recently participated in the European project CHESS (Cultural Heritage Experiences through Socio-personal Interactions and Storytelling). CHESS was co-funded by the European Commission and aimed to integrate interdisciplinary research into personalization and adaptivity, digital storytelling, interaction methodologies, narrative-oriented mobile and mixed reality technologies, with a sound theoretical basis in museological, cognitive, and learning sciences.Today, the History Museum and the Department of Informatics of Athens University collaborate for the development, implementation and evaluation of a project following CHESS methodology and using information technology tools. The partners plan to create original digital interactive storytelling for the general public to connect the museum exhibits across different areas and bring the historical buildings which houses them back to life. Combining data and theories from scientific fields such as history, informatics, museum studies and museum theatre studies, the main challenge we faced was to compose an ‘easy to follow’, stimulating though, meaningful but not didactic, well documented but not overloaded storytelling. We investigated ways to facilitate the collaboration between the museum and other university departments to weave a storytelling based on diverse forms of museum communication such as autonomous interactive tours, audio-guides, comic books, and animations.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Evangelos Papoulias, PhD is archaeologist — expert on Heritage Management and administrator of the Department of Museums and Historical Archive of the University of Athens. ■■ Myrsini Pichou, Cultural Manager (MSc Hellenic Open University & MA Courtauld History of Art).

Research interests: university heritage interpretation, museum communication, interactive activities for adults.■■ Fay Tsitou, PhD, Curator, Head of learning. Research interests: art and science learning activities

and exhibits, museum theatre.

thUrsdAy 9 JUne

Connecting Collections with

Research and Education


Using collections and objects in university teaching

A report on the situation in Germany

CORNELIA WEBER

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany,Unter den Linden 6, Berlin, 10099, [email protected]

Keywords: teaching program, object-based teaching, object interaction, object context

ABSTRACT

Collections and their objects enable unique access to knowledge, experience and praxis. Despite the often invoked ‘material turn’, working with academic collections and physical objects has not yet become common practice in the day-to-day university teaching, even at in institutions with a rich diversity of academic collections.

In 2012, the German Mercator Foundation announced ‘SammLehr — using objects in teaching and learning’, a competition aimed at increasing the role of collections and objects in university teaching and establishing this form of knowledge transfer for the long term. In 2015, the Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany organized a workshop in cooperation with the Mercator Foundation to evaluate the results of the nine funded projects, with the goal to discuss and develop common concepts for the topic areas ‘object interactions’, ‘object contexts’ and ‘degree programs and curricula’ for object-based teaching. Furthermore, the Coordination Centre organized an additional meeting with key actors from diverse university collections in order to clarify and discuss the general framework which is necessary to (re-) connect collections to higher education.

In my paper, I will report on the results of the two meetings and discuss some ideas on object-based teaching activities.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Cornelia Weber is head of the Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany. Main research interests: history of culture and knowledge; object-based research and teaching.Projects: University Collections in Germany: Research on their Holdings and History; Material Models in Teaching and Research: Indexing, Documentation and Analysis of Models in University Collections.


Lantern slides: Documents of the scientist’s self-image (1900–1940)

SARAH DELLMANNa, PAUL LAMBERSb

a Utrecht University, Dep. Media and Culture Studies, Muntstraat 2a, 3512 EV Utrecht, The Netherlandsb University Museum Utrecht, Lange Nieuwstraat 106, 3512 PN Utrecht, The [email protected]

Keywords: magic lantern slides, scientific expeditions, visual culture, digitization

ABSTRACT

Lantern slides have been an import means in popular and higher education far into the twentieth century. As part of the international project ‘A Million Pictures: Magic Lantern Slide Heritage as Artefacts in the Common European History of Learning’, we have researched slides of scientific expeditions between 1900 and 1940 in the collections of the University Museum Utrecht. During field trips, Utrecht scientists from various disciplines (astronomy, biology, geology, archeology and more) documented not only their research findings but also themselves. This ‘personal touch’ to lantern slides is intriguing: while it would surprise less to find anecdotal material in private photo albums, the medium of lantern slides implies that these images were intended to be shown to a larger public.

Using the methods of source critique and visual analysis, we will argue that these artifacts, produced by the scientists themselves, provide insights into their understanding of their work, their role as scientists and their attitudes towards the audiences, the local people they encoutered on the field work and other members of the expedition team. Taking this as a case study, we propose a debate on the status of lantern slides in academic heritage collections and the docuementation of this valuable but under-researched material.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Sarah Dellmann is media historian with special interest in visual media of the long nineteenth century. She is PostDoc in the research project ‘A Million Pictures: Magic Lantern Slide Heritage as Artefacts in the Common European History of Learning’ (http://a-million-pictures.wp.hum.uu.nl/)■■ Paul Lambers has a doctorate degree in Paleontology and is curator of natural history at the

University Museum Utrecht and associate partner in the ‘A Million Pictures’ project.


Read those books!

Successful attempts to use the collections of Artis Library, University of Amsterdam

HANS MULDER

Special Collections, University of Amsterdam, Plantage Middenlaan 45, 1018 DC Amsterdam, The [email protected]

Keywords: natural history, rare books, watercolours, Amsterdam

ABSTRACT

At many universities History of Science is not being taught in science classes anymore. Some lucky students read about their predecessors. But they almost never read the actual texts, or use or even see the instruments that made their scientific discipline what it is today. How do we, keepers of the academic heritage, get these students and faculty staff back?Since ‘Linnaeus lost the battle with DNA’ in Amsterdam, biologists lost their way to their ‘old’ Library. In 2005 Artis Library became part of Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam. The collection is impressive and the nineteenth century reading room is a beautiful sight, which helps to attract all sorts of people. But the primary goal of the library staff is that the collections are being used for education and research, with the most important user groups being students and faculty staff of the University of Amsterdam. This presentation will discuss some of the initiatives that promote visibility and use of the Artis Library. Books, archives and images are being studied again, and not only by students from the Faculty of Arts, but also from the Faculty of Sciences.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Hans Mulder is curator of Artis Library of the University of Amsterdam. He studied history at Utrecht University, where he worked as curator of printed books until 2011. Mulder published and taught on the history of the book. His current field of interest is the history of natural history.


Harvard Art Museums 1766–2014

Building in the grounds of the Philosophy Chamber

MARIA DOLORES SANCHEZ-JAUREGUI

Maher Curatorial Fellow, Harvard Art Museums 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, [email protected]

Keywords: natural philosophy, Harvard, 18th-century curriculum, transatlantic knowledge

ABSTRACT

Between 1766 and 1820, Harvard College assembled an extraordinary collection of portraits and prints; scientific instruments; mineral, plant, and animal specimens; and ‘curios’. This collection was displayed in the Philosophy Chamber, a large room adjacent to the college library, named for the discipline of Natural Philosophy, a cornerstone of Harvard’s 18th-century curriculum. Lectures in this subject were conducted there and works from the collection were discussed, interpreted, handled or activated during these sessions. The growth, reception, and use of the collection both reflected and helped orient broader debates about audience, public support, the relationship between America and Europe, and the role of the arts in a democratic state. In 1820, the Philosophy Chamber was dismantled and the collection was dispersed among various university departments. More than two centuries after and following a six-year renovation and expansion, the Harvard Art Museums re-opened in 2014 to meet the aspiration to become a ‘teaching tool’ and re-connect with this interdisciplinary spirit of the Enlightenment; to foreground this discourse and to explore the ways in which the different museums and campus collections should be re-connected through research for a new ‘objects based learning’.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Maria Dolores Sanchez-Jauregui has a PhD in Art History (Universidad Complutense) / She is a senior research fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and a postdoctoral research associate at the Yale Center for British Art. Sanchez was also co-curator of exhibition: The English Prize — The Capture of the ‘Westmorland’.


The continued significance of collections for design education

CHARLOTTE VAN WIJK

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft, PO box 5043, 2600 GA Delft, The [email protected]

Keywords: collections, education, research, exhibition

ABSTRACT

The Chair Collection of TU Delft was founded in the 1960’s as a teaching collection, but its use in education waned over the decades. However, when most TU Delft heritage was relegated to the central heritage department, the Chair Collection was kept in the faculty building, because of its importance to the faculty’s identity and educational potential. The chairs are currently on permanent display, and information on the items is given through touch screens. In 2015 activities were initiated to get more out of the collection. This resulted in pop-up exhibitions and in participation in three educational projects. The results of the courses, in which students design tables, lamps and sets in dialogue with the collection items, were found to be improved. Students were more focused on course objectives, and the design process was more informed, with richer results. In this paper, I will present these initiatives and discuss its preliminary results.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Charlotte van Wijk is curator of the Chair Collection and other faculty collections (models, images). Research interests are origins, nature and future value of the collections, their historical use in education, current object based design education, the connection of education, exhibition and research and the exhibition of architecture and planning.

thUrsdAy 9 JUne

Connecting library, archive,

documentary and museum

collections

5 minute session


Archives, museums and libraries work together

MARA FAUSONE, MARCO GALLONI

ASTUT, Archivio Scientifico e Tecnologico dell’Università di Torino, C.so Massimo d’Azeglio, 52 Torino 10126 Italia [email protected]

Keywords: archives, libraries, WW1, exhibition

ABSTRACT

In 2015, the University of Turin initiated a project to celebrate the centenary of the First World War. Many documents, books, photographs and objects are present in different locations of the University and can be used to document and tell a story about the relationship between the University and war. All the documents about enlisted students who died during the war were stored in the historical archives. Manuscripts addressing various war-related topics, written by professors, were found in the libraries while photographs and objects, such as a prototype of a gas-mask and instruments from a laboratory for pilot selection were preserved in our storage rooms. The first step of the project was to create a website where general audiences and researchers could find all the documents and photographs. Presently we are working on a temporary exhibition in the historical seat of our University where we will display papers, books, photographs and objects in order to explain how people worked, studied and lived in University, in town and at the front.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Mara Fausone is curator of ASTUT, Scientific & Technologic Archives, University of Torino. The vocation of this institution is to collect, store and study instruments used in the past in the different branches of the University of Torino.■■ Marco Galloni is founder and director of Scientific & Technologic Archives, University of

Torino, since more than twenty years carries on researches about the history of instruments for bio-medicine, scientific iconography, photography and cinematography. The results were exhibitions, articles and videos.


Connecting collections: re-creating links between museum and library collections at the University of St Andrews

HELEN C. RAWSON

University of St Andrews, Museum Collections Unit, 87 North Street, St Andrews, KY16 9AE, [email protected]

Keywords: St Andrews, museum, library, connecting collections

ABSTRACT

The collections of the University of St Andrews have accumulated over 600 years, since the University’s foundation 1410–14. From the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, artefact holdings were generally kept alongside books and documents in the University Library. The ethnographic, archaeological and natural history specimens (‘the curiosities’) and the scientific instruments used for teaching and research were, like the books, seen as tools for investigation, discovery and understanding. With the foundation of the University Museum in 1838, the artefacts and specimens were separated, physically and administratively, from the Library holdings. This remains the case today.

This arbitrary separation has some practical benefits (material can be held in appropriate storage conditions, managed by specialist staff) but also presents challenges. Historic artefact material may become divorced from the muniments, which give it provenance and context. Librarians and curators may, whilst having detailed knowledge of their own collections, be less aware of the connections between artefacts and records, hindering cross-disciplinary research. Most dangerously, a lack of understanding of the intrinsic connections between material and documentary culture may threaten to reduce museum collections to static objects in glass cases, rather than tools for investigation. Some of these challenges can be overcome through projects such as collaborative research and publications, joint exhibitions, cross-referencing on museum and library records, and, crucially, building strong relationships between museum and library staff and researchers. This paper will highlight both the difficulties, and opportunities for re-connecting museum and library material based on experiences at St Andrews.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Helen C. Rawson (PhD) is Co-Director of the Museum Collections Unit, University of St Andrews. Her research interests include the history and development of museum collections.


Two hundred and five years of chaos

Botanists’ imperative need of access to historical collections

MORENO CLEMENTI, ANTONELLA MIOLA

Department of Biology, Via Ugo Bassi 58B, Padova, 35131, [email protected]

Keywords: botany, herbarium, libraries, types

ABSTRACT

Between 1753 and 1958 it was possible for botanists to validly describe new species without mention of reference material deposited in natural history collections (nomenclatural types). The present International Code of Nomenclature for plants, fungi, and algae rules that the precise application of species names described during that period should be fixed by designating a preserved specimen as the type ‘from the original material’ and ‘with an understanding of the author’s method of working’, for which purpose, collections of ancient biological specimens, books, documents, and manuscripts are used. The process (typification) is crucial to modern research, not only to insure nomenclatural stability, but also to mitigate the so-called taxonomical impediment, and to promote a sound development of molecular identification techniques. To study collections pertaining to this subject and period is therefore not just interesting, but imperative. The issue is not always recognised in these terms by herbarium staff or by botanists themselves, and often not understood by librarians and archivists. In light of our experience, we argue that addressing this unique need can encourage the involvement of different kinds of collections in modern research, and strengthen their intercon-nections.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Moreno Clementi is mostly interested in botanical history and botanical nomenclature and currently works on a PhD focused on Dalmatian botanist Roberto de Visiani.■■ Antonella Miola is mostly interested in palaeoenvironment reconstruction and herbarium

collections. He is a researcher in plant systematics.


Do connections require wired people?

LAILA ZWISLER, MARIA LANNG, ANNETTE BUHL SØRENSEN

Technical University of Denmark, Fysikvej 309, Kgs. Lyngby, 2800, [email protected]

Keywords: interdisciplinary, connections, terminology, boundaries

ABSTRACT

Connecting diverse collections presents great opportunities for teaching, interpretation and research. Different types of material can provide different information and experiences. But how can the connections form? Even if the different collections co-exist in one institution, it can be nearly impossible to find and access them. Is the solution to establish professional collections management groups to care for university collections? Knowing the collections well, this group of people can use the mixed material themselves as well as advice others how to do this. As some disciplinary practices favour specific resources, it is our experience that a collections group can show users the value of exploring a variety of material.

Another way forward is to establish digital tools, which can show the connections between diverse collections. But a very conscious effort is required to achieve this. Again we need people with knowledge of the collections to create the relations between resources. The people making the connections will probably have to be an interdisciplinary group to acknowledge the special characteristics of specific collections and enrich the understanding of other collections. And this group of experts must develop a common terminology and practice across disciplinary boundaries.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Annette Buhl Sørensen is a researcher at the History of Technology Division of The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) with special responsibilities for archival and book collections. Her main research interests are university history, history of DTU and engineering education history.■■ Laila Zwisler is the head of the History of Technology Division at DTU. Her main research

interests are technical academic heritage, university history, history of DTU, history of technology, engineering education history and interpretation. She teaches history of technology and theory of engineering science at DTU.■■ Maria Lanng is the senior curator of the historical collection under the History of Technology

Division at DTU. Her main research interests are museum studies, cultural heritage and material culture studies as well as collection and curatorial practice.


Virtual connections: academic heritage at Ghent University

ISABEL ROTTHIER, CHARIS VERBELEN

Ghent University — University Archives, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25, Ghent, 9000, [email protected]

Keywords: academic heritage portal, collaboration of museums and archives, virtual network of heritage information

ABSTRACT

A 2012 investigation into academic heritage in Flanders (Balans en Perspectief), discovered 28 academic collections at Ghent University, spread across several faculties and campuses. Ghent University will soon launch a digital portal to its academic heritage, where these collections can be virtually united.This portal crosses boundaries between scientific collections, museums and archives, but also between tangible and intangible heritage. Here you will find items, archives and collection descriptions next to UGent entities, locations and narratives.All this information can be structured according to the most suitable international standards, including museological, scientific, archival and architectural. Furthermore, all descriptions can be linked to each other, and to external portals. Thus unfolds a web of information, where description techniques used by museums (detailed object descriptions) and archives (context descriptions and relationships) reinforce each other.Do others feel this need to embed their collections in an extensive network of information? What measures have they already taken? Do they know other examples? These questions will be open for discussion after this lecture.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Isabel Rotthier is head archivist at Ghent University and member of The Interuniversity Platform Academic Heritage Flanders. Isabel was researcher at the Belgian State Archives, the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, Letterenhuis and University of Antwerp. Isabel is functional analyst of the Collection Management System of Ghent University.■■ Charis Verbelen works at the Archives of Ghent University. She studied history and archival

science. She made several retention schedules for the Flemish Opera and Ghent University. She prepares the launch of a Collection Management System for Ghent University’s academic heritage.


Several collections and only one history

MAREK BUKOWSKI

Museum of Medical University of Gdańsk, Al. Zwycięstwa 41/42, Gdańsk, 80–210, [email protected]

Keywords: various collection, new perspective, understanding pathways.

ABSTRACT

The Gdańsk Medical University is rather young, with only seventy-one years of history. During this period the University changed its name twice, and had to function in changing political settings, from Stalinism to democracy. Additionally, the rapid progress of medicine and science in the last seventy years, produced a number of artifacts of historical importance. A reconstruction of the most complete and coherent image of this past, can best be achieved by using a wide diversity of objects [e.g. letters and other documents, as well as medical devices, memoirs, photographs, etcetera]. These kinds of objects are usually dispersed over several collections, or they exist separately. The University Museum has an unique opportunity to point out relations and connections between objects or collections. In some cases a new relationships connecting various groups of objects or collections can be established, and new perspectives for research and exhibitions can be revealed. We need to present the history and heritage from multiple points of view: official documents and personal memories, etc.. This way the University Museum can present the past as a result of science progress, university policy of development. As a result of reconnecting collections and establishing new pathways, the history of the university and the history of science can get a ‘new and more humanistic’ face — and thus become more useful for the audience.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Marek Bukowski, MD, PhD, pediatric surgeon, supervisor of the Museum of MUG, Poland. Also vice-chairman of the University Museums Association. Main fields of interests: history of pediatric surgery, history of science.

frIdAy 10 JUne

Connecting collections

with the public

5 minute session


Workshops in the autopsy room

Educating about the nature and the ethics of science

JELLE DE SCHRIJVER, WILLEM F.D. DEDOBBELEER, MARJAN DOOM

Ghent University Museum, building S30, De Sterre, Krijgslaan 281, Ghent, 9000, [email protected]

Keywords: education, ethics, art, human remains, exhibition

ABSTRACT

Although understanding the nature of science and ethical aspects of scientific research is a key element in the secondary curriculum, these issues are rarely addressed in Flemish science museums. Due to its unique position as a (living) archive of research and investigation, university collections provide opportunities to help students to explore the historical development of science, the characteristics of the scientific process and the subtle interactions of science and society. At the Ghent University Museum we explored the nature and ethics of science in the context of a recent exhibition called ‘Post Mortem’. The exhibition focused on Vesalius, dead bodies, mummies, autopsies and forensic pathology by confronting works of art with collection items of Ghent University. In interactive guided tours through the exhibition, students were asked to talk about and evaluate statements with regard to the ethics of dead bodies or the nature of science. In this presentation, we will discuss the impact of our approach on students’ thinking and explore the role university museums can play with regard to the education of ethics and the nature of science. Our broader question will be how can university collections successfully involve the public in discussions regarding ethical aspects of scientific practices.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Jelle De Schrijver is a biologist with a PhD in philosophy, working as a science teacher trainer and researcher at the Odisee University College and as an educator at Ghent University Museum. His main areas of research are reflective science education and dialogic teaching.■■ Marjan Doom graduated as a veterinarian (Ghent University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine)

in 2006 and was then selected for the Rotating Small Animal Internship program and recently she completed her PhD. Subsequently, she worked in a private practice as a veterinary surgeon. In 2008 she started as a curator at the Museum of Morphology in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and she was co-curator of the Post Mortem exhibition. As a member of the organizing committee of the Ghent University Museum, she is engaged in the concept development of this new museum. ■■ Willem F.D. Dedobbeleer has a master degree in History and Management of Public

Organisations. As scientific researcher, he worked in the Liberal Archives on an exhibition about civil recreation during the ‘belle époque’ (2010). He was also project coordinator on international mobility at the University of Antwerp. Currently, he is working at Ghent University on a project for the foundation of a new University Museum, integrating the different university collections. He focuses mainly on professionalizing the newly established organization.


The collection of the University Museum Utrecht in teaching and on the internet: new contexts for historical objects

PAUL LAMBERS

University Museum Utrecht, Lange Nieuwstraat 106, 3512 PN Utrecht, The [email protected]

Keywords: lantern slides, Wikipedia, photographs

ABSTRACT

The collection of the University Museum of Utrecht University has grown from 500 to 200.000 historical scientific instruments (a.o., instruments, teaching material, photographs), documenting the history of the university, research and teaching. Now detached from their original contexts (e.g., lab or lecture room), new contexts are created that enable to use the sub collections in new ways, in exhibits, in teaching (university, schools), and in activities in the museum and on internet.

For example, in a course on writing for the general public a selection of the instruments is described by non-specialist students: these descriptions are made public on the University Museum website. The large collection of magic lantern slides is in demand for both teaching as well as research. Slides of geological expeditions to Ceram, Dutch East Indies (1917), were described by history students, in a joint project Expedition Wikipedia with the University Library, partners in the Dutch Foundation for Academic Heritage, the Tropenmuseum and Wikipedia on photographs and documents from scientific journeys. The pictures were donated to Wikimedia Commons, where they are open for further annotation. This year a project will start on early 20th century female scientists at Utrecht University. This paper will describe and examine this type of initiatives, which add new dimensions to the already diverse historical relevance of Utrecht University Museum’s collections

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Paul Lambers has a doctorate degree in Paleontology and is curator of natural history and science collections at the University Museum Utrecht.


Can university collections generate trust in science?

GEERT VANPAEMEL

KU Leuven, Blijde Inkomststraat 21/3307, 3000 Leuven, [email protected]

Keywords: university museums, scientific outreach

ABSTRACT

Although university collections have always been used to represent science in the public sphere, the current status of these collections as historical heritage has fundamentally changed the suitability of the collections for these functions. From being state of the art research tools, the collections have evolved into witnesses of institutional change and academic practices. Museum staff now concentrates on the conservation of the collections, by inter alia providing historical context, but they may not be competent to ‘authorize’ scientific views. Even if an educational department is attached to the museum, it is not evident how to adapt the collections to modern standards of scientific outreach.

Recent trends in science communication studies point to the growing importance of credibility and trust in addressing the public. University scientists still rank high among the public as sources of reliable scientific information–significantly higher than scientists employed by government or industry. This suggests that university museums might concentrate on the role of universities in society, e.g. by illustrating their longstanding record of academic learning.

In this paper, we will present some reflections on how university museums might contribute to the generation of trust in scientific institutions based on findings in the scholarly literature on science communication.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Geert Vanpaemel is professor in the history of science and in science communication at KU Leuven. His research focuses on the role of public science in relation to professional or academic science. He is chairman of the Commission for Academic Heritage of his university and member of the Flemish Interuniversity Platform for Academic Heritage.


University museum collections as cultural teasers, university students as museum ambassadors and mediators

MARLEN MOULIOU

Faculty of History and Archaeology and Masters Programme in Museum Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Philosophy, University Campus, Athens, 157 84, Greece [email protected]

Keywords: participatory museum cultures, critical pedagogy, critical museology, systems thinking, social engagement

ABSTRACT

Among the multiple values museums hold, the educational and collection values are those that usually come to mind when referring to university museums. Research, care for the collections and scientific interpretations of academic collections of any kind are sine qua non functions for university museums. However, museum organizations in general and university museums alike, are as much about knowledge and education as about creating valuable experiences to their diverse audiences and making their collections more relevant to society at large. Do university museums give emphasis on constructing strong connecting bridges between academia and citizens’ everyday life? How difficult is it for university museums as knowledge creators and providers to endorse more participatory cultures of operation and accept different roles for themselves as mediators and for members of the general public as co-creators? Can university collections be used as cultural teasers and bring forward key social issues that are relevant for European citizens today? And how can university students act as university museum ambassadors and channel the work produced in them to their diverse social networks?

To explore the aforementioned questions, the presentation will draw from systems theory thinking, current museological theory and practice and empirical examples from my own work with students of archaeology and museology at the University of Athens.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Marlen Mouliou is lecturer in Museum Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of History and Archaeology. Member of a cross faculty Committee for the management of the post-graduate programme in Museum Studies at the same university. Chair of the International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities of the International Council of Museums. She has a PhD in Museum Studies.


Interesting tales from Vilnius University

RAMUNAS KONDRATAS, VAIVA KLAJUMAITĖ

Vilnius University Museum, Universiteto str. 3, Vilnius, LT-01513, Lithuania [email protected] [email protected]

Keywords: participatory museum, university history, pupils

ABSTRACT

There is a proverb: ‘If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain’. The Vilnius University Museum has adapted this proverb to the sphere of education and outreach by creating the travelling exhibition ‘Interesting Tales from Vilnius University’, which is now touring high schools throughout Lithuania. The idea is to interest students in visiting and applying to Vilnius University by giving them a slightly different insight into the university — its 437-year history, famous and interesting people, traditions, tales and legends. The exhibition was created with the help of pupils and has its own Facebook page where additional information is provided and visitors can share their comments and observations, as well as photos. The catalyst for this project was the notion of a ‘Participatory Museum’. In this presentation, the speakers will share their experiences and observations about this project during its first year of travel.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Ramunas Kondratas, PhD, director of the Vilnius University Museum; main research interest is the history of medicine and the biomedical sciences■■ Vaiva Klajumaitė is an exhibition curator at the Vilnius University Museum since 2012 and PhD

student in the field of philosophy since 2013.

sAtUrdAy 11 JUne

Connecting Collections —

General Session II


The study and exploitation project of the collection of ancient marbles ‘Francesco Belli’

RUGGERO FRANCESCANGELIa, AUGUSTO GARUCCIOb, ALESSANDRO MONNOc

a CISMUS-Università di Bari, Via Celso Ulpiani, 27, Bari, 70126, Italyb Dipartimento di Fisica , Via Amendola 173, Bari, 70126, Italyc Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Via Orabona 4, Bari, 70126, [email protected]

Keywords: marble, collection, multidisciplinary, exploration

ABSTRACT

In 2011, the CISMUS — Interdepartmental Centre Services Scientific Museology of Bari University launched a study and exploration project of the collection of ancient marbles ‘Francesco Belli’, preserved in the Museum of Earth Sciences at Bari University.

Supported by the Foundation ‘Banco di Napoli’, the project consisted of two phases: i) first, multidis-ciplinary investigation in order to explore the historical, economics, geological aspects of the use of marble in the ancient Rome and its reuse in Apulia region during Middle Age, Renaissance and Baroque period, and ii) second, a dissemination phase implemented through an exhibition of the collection, together with contemporary? artistic artefacts produced with the same type of marble. At the moment, the first phase was completed with a fruitful collaboration between historians of the Roman period, art historians, geographers, and geologists. Research outputs are being used to prepare the public exhibition that will be held in the beautiful historical location of Swabian Castle in Bari, with the collaboration of the Direction of State Museums of Apulia region. In our communication, we will illustrate the issues and topics of this study through outreach activities.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Augusto Garuccio is a full Professor of Didactics and History of Physics at University of Bari, Director of Interuniversity Center for History of Science, President of scientific committee of the Center for Scientific Museology of University of Bari. Primary research interests: quantum entanglement, history of modern physics, management of university museums■■ Ruggero Francescangeli is Director of the Centre for Services to Scientific Museology of the

University of Bari and Technical coordinator of the Earth Science Museum. For several years dealing with Cataloguing Standards, research on the collections and educational path for scientific museology, dedicated to school pupils and blind people.■■ Alessandro Monno. Starting from 2004 he is researcher and scientific manager of Earth Science

Museum at Bari University. His research activity is focussed on the themes of diagnostics and preservation of cultural heritage. From 2006 he is full aggregate professor of Museology at the Department of Earth Science at Bari University.


Connecting the Hunterian collections using a digital trail and engaging students: Lessons for research and education

MARIA ECONOMOU

The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, UK [email protected]

Keywords: students, digital tools, exhibit

ABSTRACT

The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow holds large and diverse collections of over 1.5 million objects ranging from medical and scientific instruments, to natural and life science holdings, ethnography, archaeology, and art. These are currently stored and displayed in multiple sites within and near the campus, posing challenges for their management and interpretation. One of the major ones is connecting intellectually what is physically dispersed and encouraging visitors to follow and re-interpret these links. Another challenge is making connections across the different disciplines that collections of this diversity span. The exhibition ‘The Kangaroo and The Moose’ at the Hunterian Art Gallery (October 2015 — February 2016) brought these issues to the fore as it investigated the themes of exploration, art and science, combining art, ethnographic and zoological material and necessitating important connections with parts of the collection displayed at the main Hunterian and the Zoology Museum in other locations. To address these, a digital trail was designed to encourage visitors to connect the exhibition themes with other parts of the permanent displays. Additionally, student volunteer guides were actively involved in engaging visitors in a discussion of the exhibition themes and evaluating the use of the digital trail. The paper will discuss the challenges that this case study raises for both the use of digital tools, as well as student mediators for connecting and re-interpreting the collections, as well as how it was used to support research and education.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Maria Economou (PhD) is Joint Curator /Lecturer in Museums Studies at the University of Glasgow, a post shared between the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the School of Humanities and The Hunterian, helping to make better use of the collections and support teaching, research, and public engagement. She is a specialist in digital cultural heritage and evaluation studies.


Databases for connecting collections to the public: a case study

JEAN DAVOIGNEAUa, FRANÇOISE LE GUET TULLYb

a Ministère de la Culture, 182 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, 75001, Franceb Astronome honoraire, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 22 avenue Germaine, 06300, [email protected]

Keywords: collections, cultural heritage, databases, inventory

ABSTRACT

When we began studying the astronomical heritage of French observatories in the mid-1990s, we chose to incorporate our data into the Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel, a service of the Ministry of Culture charged with the identification and study of French cultural heritage, as well as sharing knowledge about it to wider audiences. We used its methodology—which had demonstrated its ability to describe objects and architecture—as well as its indexation and dissemination tools. We believe that the databases resulting from the Inventaire are an efficient way of connecting to the public the items that we have studied, described and illustrated, whether simple objects, scientific instruments, buildings, astronomical sites, or meaningful sets. In this paper, we will discuss this assertion through a few examples. We will also address the question of the use of indexation tools that are not specific to astronomical heritage but which accommodate items as disparate as the telescope, the rolling mill, the chalice and the pie server.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Jean Davoigneau works at the Mission de l’Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel, Direction générale des patrimoines at the French Ministry of Culture. He participated with Françoise Le Guet Tully to the inventory of the astronomical heritage in French observatories.■■ Françoise Le Guet Tully is Astronome honoraire of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur at Nice.

She participated with Jean Davoigneau to the inventory of the astronomical heritage in French observatories.


Disseminating and teaching university collections

One of the contemporary art collections and archives in Cuenca, Spain

BEATRIZ ESCRIBANO BELMAR

‘Cultural Interfaces; Art and New Media’ Research Group, Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Santa Teresa Jornet Street, s/n, 16071, Cuenca, Spain [email protected]

Keywords: research, education, historical media art, collections

ABSTRACT

Fine Arts is synonym of education, creation and experimentation in a specific research scene. The Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca (1986) renewed its educational perspective with the creation of lab-museums where teacher-researchers, students and artists produced artworks. One of these lab-museums, the International Museum of Electrographic Artworks (MIDE) is a milestone in the historical Media Art with tangible and intangible artworks created with photocopy machine, fax and computer and provides a unique insight into the proposals of experimental avant-garde from the 1960s. Since the Faculty has other similar centers, in 2012 it created CAAC (Collections and Archives of Contemporary Art) composed by eight different collections and archives as MIDE, Parkett or Juana Mordó Collection, among others. Disseminate and teach that heritage is one of its main objectives and an obligation for those who study its value and significance. The goal of connecting CAAC with graduate and postgraduate programs is that students and researchers can offer new perspectives to revalue these funds, but which could be the best way? Research papers, curated exhibitions, Master or PhD thesis, among others. For that, CAAC has two Excellent R+D projects (Ref.: HAR2013–48604-C2–1-P and Ref.: POII-2014–002-P) to put everything available to study the history of the experimental avant-garde. In this paper, I will present this broader teaching approach and discuss some preliminary results.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Beatriz Escribano is a PhD student and researcher at ‘Cultural Interfaces; Art and New Media’ group, specialized in new media is a pre-doctoral fellow researching automatic processes of [re]production and printing of images as historical Media Art through media archaeology and collaborates in two Excellent R+D projects about the CAAC in Cuenca.

Posters


New Virtual Museum of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon

Collections and virtual tour

ANA MAFALDA CARDEIRAab

a Centro de Investigação e Estudos em Belas Artes, Largo da Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes, 1249–058, Lisboa, Portugalb Laboratório Hercules e Centro de Química de Évora, Universidade de Évora, Largo Marquês de Marialva 8, 7000 Évora, [email protected]

Keywords: virtual museum, virtual tour, user experience, interdisciplinary, university collection

ABSTRACT

The FBAUL Virtual Museum project aims to provide access to the general public to the collections of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, presented in Portuguese and English versions. This project was developed only by students from different Faculties of the same University and displays the Drawing and Engraving Collections, which in the future could lead and benefit in or into new research in several areas of scientific knowledge, not only nationally, but also internationally. The Virtual Tour allows a real experience visit towards the inside of this Old Monastery (today the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon). Hereby, we encourage interdisciplinary collaborations between institutions in order to promote the work among teachers, students and researchers to extend the documentary and scientific fields related to the domain of a virtual universe.Website: http://museuvirtual.belasartes.ulisboa.pt

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Ana Mafalda Cardeira is currently a PhD Student in Fine Arts, Sciences of Art and her thesis is focus on the academic nude paintings of the FBAUL Collection. Has published in the field of analytical research of modern and contemporary artworks, and conducted a team of colleagues in the development of the new FBAUL Virtual Museum as Project Manager.


PSL-Explore: A new portal for a new community

HÉLÈNE CHAUDOREILLE, ANNAEL LE POULLENNEC

PSL Research University, 62 bis rue Gay-Lussac, 75013 Paris, [email protected]

Keywords: hidden collections, multi-institutions corpuses, corpus selection, GLAM portal

ABSTRACT

Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University (PSL) is an institution in the making, aiming to become a world-class university by potentializing the strength of its members, which themselves rank among the best research institutions in France. Along the research and training programmes, and tighthly related to them, a GLAM programme is thriving and developing new contents for PSL’s community. Acquisition of e-resources, digitization of hidden archive and heritage collections and organization and dissemination of audio-visual contents are its core areas of focus. This endeavour reached a significant stage when a new portal named PSL-Explore was launched in September 2015 in order to give access to these contents. The corpuses are developed by issuing regular and well-funded calls for projects towards the institutions and/or research teams, so that PSL-Explore is not seen as ‘yet another portal’ and becomes an essential contributor to the strengthening of PSL’s community and ultimately an inseparable part of the research, training and learning processes. The poster will present the main stages of the development of PSL-Explore, the identification and selection process of the corpuses and the underlying technical architecture of the portal.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Hélène Chaudoreille is a senior librarian with a particular interest in library systems, library outreach and Digital Humanities. She is a keen advocate of the recognition of Academic Libraries as an essential hub in the research and training processes. Annael Le Poullennec is editorial manager for the PSL-Explore website. Trained in the Humanities, she received a PhD in South African film studies and her experience as a student, researcher and lecturer feed into her editorial work on PSL-Explore


How do we make the history of computing relevant to today's students?

EDO DOOIJES, TACO WALSTRA

University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The [email protected]

Keywords: computer, education, history of computing

ABSTRACT

The Computer Museum of the University of Amsterdam is an academic collection of historical computing equipment, illustrating the progress of computer technology and its use up to the present day. The collection serves several purposes: as a background for teaching and historical research, as a public museum (to be visited on appointment), and as a facility for reading and transcribing obsolete digital information carriers.

We think that an insight into the history of computing is relevant to today's computer science students. One reason is that the 70-year-old basic principles of the trade are still valid, but tend to be overlooked or even forgotten due to the discipline's drastic development in the past few decades. A hands-on confrontation with the problems, limitations, dead ends and clever solutions of the past — when resources like computer memory were scarce — can be inspiring in a time when such resources are copiously available.

For a broader audience, even our modest collection provides an interesting view of the progress of the digital revolution.Finally, a museum collection urges the need and issues of selection, conservation and exhibition of hardware, software, and documentation. Museum ethics related to these topics are still in its infancy. This all is interesting in itself from an academic point of view.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Edo H. Dooijes has a doctorate degree in experimental physics, and has been Associate Professor at the UvA Computer Science department from 1984 until his retirement in 2001. He established the Computer Museum in 1992, and is its curator up till now. ■■ Taco R. Walstra has a master in philosophical logic. He is Technical Software Developer since

1991 and Lecturer in computer science since 2010, both at the UvA Faculty of Science. He is Assistant Curator of the Computer Museum.


The museum of the University of Barcelona

LOURDES CIRLOTa, JORGE WAGENSBERGc, SANTIAGO VALLMITJANAb, ISABEL GARCIA MALETa,

PILAR MATEO BRETOSa

a Vicerectorat de Relacions Institucionals i Cultura, Universitat de Barcelona,Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, Barcelona, 08007, [email protected] ; [email protected]; [email protected] Departament de Física Aplicada i Òptica, Universitat de BarcelonaMartí i Franquès 1, Barcelona, 08028, [email protected] Departament de Física Fondamental, Universitat de BarcelonaMartí i Franquès 1, Barcelona, 08028, [email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: knowledge, university museum, museum, academic heritage, university collections

ABSTRACT

The University of Barcelona has always played an important role in the process of imparting knowledge to society through scientific research, education and the dissemination of information. One of the most important ways of transferring values is heritage, understood in its entirety, i.e., as a tangible, intangible and above all, human heritage. Aiming at promoting communication of this heritage, which is in continuous construction, the project of the future Museum of the University of Barcelona (MUB) is being carried out.

The MUB has two primary goals: to become a meeting place between academia and citizens, that enables the exchange of ideas and opinions; and to become one of the motors of the prestige of the institution. That is why the content of the MUB is based on a conceptual framework that tells the story of the contribution of the University of Barcelona to human knowledge through four museum areas: observing the world, understanding the world, changing the world and living in the world. Each of these areas focuses on certain characteristic of great transcendence, intellectual and scientific closely linked with the University of Barcelona.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Lourdes Cirlot is Professor in History of Art and Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Culture at the University of Barcelona. She is the main Researcher of the investigation group of Art, Architecture and Digital Society (www.ub.edu/artyarq).■■ Jorge Wagensberg is Professor in Physics at the University of Barcelona and Museology expert.

He was the first director of CosmoCaixa (Science Museum), in Barcelona. He has taken the responsi-bility for several museology projects and he has written many books about scientific spreading.■■ Santiago Vallmitjana Rico is Professor at the Applied Physics and Optics Department of the

Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona. He is the author/co-author of more than one hundred scientific papers related to optics and photonics and member of several scientific societies.


He is responsible for the collection of instruments of the Physics Faculty since 2004.■■ Isabel Garcia Malet is a graduate of Philosophy and Arts from the University of Barcelona and has

worked at this university in the field of culture for more than 20 years. She is now coordinator of the University of Barcelona Museum Project.■■ Pilar Mateo Bretos is a graduate of Geography and History from the University of Barcelona. She

has a Master’s in Museology and Cultural and Ethnological Heritage from the University of Barcelona and also a Certificate in Didactic Museography in the University of Barcelona. She is working for the Vice-Rector Department for Institutional Relations and Culture at the University of Barcelona as coordinator of exhibitions.


In a… hidden museum

ANDREAS FOTOPOULOS, ESTHER SOLOMON

University of Ioannina, University Campus, Ioannina, 45110, [email protected]

Keywords: Ioannina, folklore museum and cultural identity, educational programming and local society

ABSTRACT

Until 2015, most citizens in Ioannina, Northwest Greece, knew very little about the unique collection of a folklore museum located within the labyrinthine structure of the Philosophy School of the University of Ioannina. In Fall 2015, two university teachers, a social anthropologist and a museologist, together with their students, decided to fuel local children's imagination and made the existence of the museum widely known.Their project, entitled ‘In a hidden museum’, really made a change as it made the concepts of collecting, donating and documenting cultural objects of pre-industrial urban and rural areas of Greece a key theme that cut across a variety of educational activities and formed a strong cultural bond between the museum, the university and the local society.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Andreas D. Fotopoulos is Vice Rector of Academic Affairs and Personnel and Professor of Nuclear Medicine (Medical School, University of Ioannina). He also chairs the Museums and Collections Committee coordinating the preservation of the university heritage and enhancing the cultural role of the Institution.■■ Esther Solomon is Assistant Professor in Museology at the University of Ioannina. She studied

archaeology, museology and social anthropology in Ioannina, Florence, Sheffield and London and worked as curator in several museums in Greece and Italy. Her research interests focus on museum representations, the social and political uses of the past, material culture and social identity, and cultural tourism.


Virtual platform project

Network of museums and collections from the University of Seville

ANA M. GALÁN-PÉREZa, ALEJANDRA HERRERA-PICAZO ESPINARb

a Researcher, Group HUM 673 SOS Heritage, University of Seville, Seville, [email protected] Researcher, Group HUM 673 SOS Heritage, University of Seville, Seville, [email protected]

Keywords: educational collections, virtual platform, museums networking, conservation stakeholders

ABSTRACT

On the basis of past experience gained from the study of educational collections from the University of Seville by the Group SOS Heritage, the main objective of this abstract is to present the ‘Virtual Platform Project: Network of Museums and Collections from the University of Seville’ a digital platform using the newest technological resources offered by the twenty-first century on internet, that will proceed through 2016.

The project aims to be a useful support for the museums and collections communication and visibility, and also to develop activities that could match collections to the discipline of the preservation and restoration of Cultural Heritage. Finally it could put all stakeholders into context, connecting collections including society and the university environment, keeping all of them engaged and working through virtual networking resources such as catalogues, virtual museums, forums, etc. To this end, the project will cooperate with experts directly involved in museum and collection management, to compare such information in order to integrate new proposals and challenges. The implementation of the Virtual Platform should take place in four phases: ■■ Phase I Study of the appropriate structure on internet according to the needs. ■■ Phase II: Development of the first proposal and sharing with management stakeholders. ■■ Phase III. Develop and build the platform and creating a website ■■ Phase IV. Establishment of the revitalization and updating processes of the platform, as well as

administrators of it.

The results of the project would improve the museums and collections engagement and transfer, the University cooperation and sustainability, and the society accessibility to museums and other cultural heritage.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Ana M. Galán Pérez: PhD in Fine Arts at the University of Seville, Bachelor in History of Art at the University of Zaragoza and Grade in Conservation and Restoration at the ESCRBCC of Barcelona, she is Conservative-Restorer Researcher in the Group I+D HUM-673 SOS Heritage of the University


of Seville, in History of the Preservation and Restoration of Heritage. Since 2012, studying the educational collections and publishing the results in conferences and specialized journals. ■■ Alejandra Herrera-Picazo Espinar: PhD in Art Research at the University of Seville, Bachelor in

Fine Arts, specialized in the Conservation and Restoration of artworks, is Conservator and Restorer of Cultural Artefacts and member researcher of the group HUM 673 SOS Heritage of the University of Seville. The line of study is the History of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage.


The etching collection of Fine Arts Faculty (Madrid)

A didactic museographical proposal

COCA GARRIDO, ISABEL MARÍA GARCÍA

Fine Arts Faculy, Universidad Complutense, Pintor el Greco 2, Madrid, 28040, [email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: prints collection, didactic use, etching techniques, university collection

ABSTRACT

The etching collection (Gabinete de Grabados) of the Fine Arts Faculty of the Complutense University of Madrid was conceived as a didactic tool. As such, its organization reflects and highlights references, as well as the presence of different etching techniques. The objective is that teachers responsible for etching courses and interested students may consult several examples of the application of printing techniques, such as aqua fort, dry point, aquatint, lithograph, etc. Two other complementary elements of the training process of fine arts students reflected in the collections are: 1) the historical perspective, depicted in a long range of stamps from the Renaissance, in masters such as Rembrandt and Goya, in the printing tradition of the nineteenth century, and contemporary stamps resulting from students’ artworks from the last fifty years;2) open and comprehensive perspectives of art tradition, not only local production, so the collection includes Japanese stamps (ukiyo-e), works of Middle Eastern artists and Latin American stamps. This didactic perspective is also useful for the research in PhD theses.

In this paper, we analyse the didactic dimensions of this collection and discuss its contemporary use for teaching and research at the Complutense University of Madrid.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Coca Garrido: Director of Etching Cabinet. Chalcographic engraving professor since 1991 in B.A and official Master’s Programmes. Publications: Grabados de Rembrandt, Planeta 2008, Catálogo del Gabinete de Grabados, I, II, III, Complutense 2000–2006 Manual de técnicas de grabado, Akal, 2014. Research: Gravure techniques, the printing work of Rembrandt and Goya. Etching collections.■■ Isabel María García: Vice Dean of Reseach and PhD Programs. Museology and Museography

professor since 1996, director of Master Conservation de Bienes Culturales: Conservation, Restauración y Exposición. Publications: La conservación preventiva y la exposición de objetos y obras de arte, KR, 1999 y coautora Diseño de Exposiciones, Alianza Forma, 2010. Research: Museology and Museography, Conservation and dissemination of university collections and museums; Expography and preventive conservation.


Connecting a collection of astronomical collections

MAURO GARGANOa, ANTONELLA GASPERINIb, EMILIA OLOSTRO CIRELLAa, DONATELLA

RANDAZZOc, VALERIA ZANINId

a INAF — Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, salita Moiariello 16, I-80131 Naples, Italyb INAF — Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Florence, Italyc INAF — Palermo Astronomical Observatory, piazza del Parlamento 1, Palermo, Italyd INAF — Padua Astronomical Observatory, vicolo Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padua, [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]

Keywords: history of astronomy, astronomical collections, networked exhibition, theatre performance

ABSTRACT

The cultural heritage of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), made of books, instruments and documents, marks the milestones in the history of astronomy in Italy. INAF has been promoting unitary knowledge of its heritage since Astrum 2009 exhibition, held in the Vatican Museums. In order to share all these collections permanently with the largest number of people possible, INAF has created the web portal Polvere di stelle (Stardust) that allows everybody to make simultaneous queries among the various collections. It hosts also a digital showcase that permits remote readers to leaf through ancient volumes in a very good resolution.In 2016 INAF has set up Starlight, a ‘networked’ exhibition — both within the Italian territory and on the web. The exhibition is also associated with a theatre performance that brings the collections and the biographies of some astronomers of the past and pioneers in astrophysics back to life.We believe that these experiences are important to connect collections with the general public and to offer scientific education in an intriguing and entertaining way, improving critical thinking useful for scientific research. We hope to repeat similar experiences in the future, possibly extending them to other European partners.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Mauro Gargano, graduated in astronomy at the Padua University, has held contracts at the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples since 1999. Among his scientific interests he is also involved in historical studies and valorization activities of the MuSA-Museum of Astronomical Instruments of which he is in charge.■■ Antonella Gasperini is the head librarian at the INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in

Florence since 1993. Since 2005 she has been the Head of the ‘Libraries and Archives’ Unit of INAF Scientific Direction with the task of coordinating activities related to the management of libraries and historical archives.


■■ Emilia Olostro Cirella is the librarian in chief at the INAF-Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory (Naples). Since 2004 she has been working on a program of recovery of the rare book collection of Capodimonte Observatory library and she has supervising the whole project, from raising funds to the final valorization of the bibliographic heritage via web.■■ Donatella Randazzo is the librarian in charge of the historical collection and archives at the

INAF-Palermo Astronomical Observatory. She has dealt with popularization of astronomy and today also collaborates in research in History of astronomy, especially linked with the observatory heritage.■■ Valeria Zanini holds a scientific staff position at INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padua and

since 2002 is curator of the 'Specola' Museum. Her current research interests mainly focuses on the history of astronomy in the XVIII and XIX centuries and on the scientific instruments of the same period.


‘Connecting collections’

A project for the dissemination of UFMG’s scientific collections through films designed for digital façades and fulldome environments.

RENÉ LOMMEZ GOMES

Federal University of Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte, 31270 901, BrazilUFMG Network of University Museums and Science Centers, Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte, 31270 901, [email protected]

Keywords: university museum, collections, Federal University of Minas Gerais

ABSTRACT

The ‘Connecting Collections’ project was created by the museum Espaço do Conhecimento as a strategy to promote the visibility of the Federal University of Minas Gerais’ scientific heritage. The heritage in question is kept in 16 museological units located inside university campuses. The low number of visits to these places has caused difficulties to justify investments in the conservation of its collections. The project aims to promote university collections to non-academic audiences, encouraging the public to visit them. It consists in the production of movies about the collections to be displayed outside the university. Situated in a cluster of cultural institutions in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), the Espaço do Conhecimento has a great visibility. The museum building is covered by a digital panel that faces the most visited square in the city and its Planetarium gets about 80,000 visitors a year. The films were produced in two versions designed to be shown on these media. The first — adapted to digital facades — focuses on items of the collections, providing information about their history. The second — designed for planetariums — highlights the museums, seeking to increase public awareness of their importance for the memory and history of sciences.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

René Lommez Gomes is Professor of Museum Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil); deputy coordinator of the UFMG Network of University Museums and Science Centres; and former director of the museum Espaço do Conhecimento UFMG. He is a UNESCO consultant for the creation of the Congonhas Museum. Among his fields of research is Academic Heritage History and Management.


The re-entering of the Museum of sport into teaching activities

IVANA MITROVIĆ

Museum of Sport, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Blagoja Parovica 156, Belgrade, 11030, [email protected]

Keywords: museum section, history of a curriculum, interactive exhibition;

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the re-entering of the Museum of Sport into a more relevant teaching role in higher education. The Museum of Sport was founded 70 years ago with a dual mission:a) to serve the needs of academic staff and students; and b) to collect, preserve and promote materials of the national history of sport.In the past decade, the first mission was highly neglected. In order to restore balance, we have designed the ‘Museum Section’, a program that is actually a fieldwork experience for students attending the Faculty of Sport and Physical education. The program will be attached to the obligatory academic course ‘History of Sports’. The main objective of the Museum Section is to provide students and academic staff with the opportunity to actively engage with the Museum’s collections, archives and library. The secondary goal is to create content suitable for curriculum within other courses such as sports medicine, biomechanics, physical education, elementary games, among others. The content should be related to the history of particular science or a sport hence available for teaching in various forms.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Ivana Mitrović is a curator and a manager of Museum of Sport of Faculty of Sport and Physical Education. Main areas of interest are security of cultural heritage, academic heritage, collection management and history of sport sciences. Ivana Mitrović created two significant exhibitions ‘The organized sport at the University of Belgrade’ and ‘The history of sports medicine’.


The series of geometric models by Luigi Campedelli, Department of Mathematics, University of Bari Aldo Moro

VINCENZA MONTENEGROa, ANNA MARIA PASTOREb, AUGUSTO GARUCCIOc

ac Interdepartmental Centre for Scientific Museology of University of Bari, Via C. Ulpiani n. 27, Bari, 70126 (Italy)b Department of Mathematics of the University of Bari, Via E. Orabona n. 4, Bari, 70126 (Italy)[email protected]

Keywords: collection, university, geometric models, Campedelli

ABSTRACT

The Department of Mathematics, University of Bari has a complete series of geometric surface models designed, between 1952 and 1956, by the mathematician Luigi Campedelli, and commissioned by the Italian Mathematical Union (UMI). There are 50 models in total, all made by craftsmen of Florence. Forty-three are made of superfine hard plaster painted in order to prevent the formation of mold and stains, and the remaining seven are made of nylon threads of different colors with the castle brass. Until that time, Italy had remained on the sidelines of mathematical model production, since it was common practice to purchase them directly from German catalogues. This initiative of producing models in Italy represented a confirmation of the trend to experiment new approaches to the teaching of mathematics.

The Institute of Mathematics of Bari was among the first to purchase these models from UMI, and today they are still used in the courses of Geometry for undergraduate students. This proves that the physicality of the models continues to be a valuable teaching tool for illustrating geometrical properties deducted with a logical-deductive reasoning.This poster will present the collection and discuss its past and present uses.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Vincenza Montenegro is part of the staff of the Centre for Scientific Museology of University of Bari, is a technical and scientific support to museums and often carries out didactic and educational activities for students. She is currently enrolled in the PhD program research on History of museums and historic scientific collections of the University of Bari.■■ Augusto Garuccio is full Professor of Didactics and History of Physics at University of Bari,

Director of the Interuniversitary Center for History of Science, President of scientific committee of the Center for Scientific Museology of University of Bari. Primary research interests: quantum entanglement, history of modern physics, management of university museums.■■ Anna Maria Pastore is full Professor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Bari.

Her research interests are in the context of semi-Riemannian geometry, contact geometry and its generalizations.


How does the ULB Museums Network organize annual activities connecting collections?

NATHALIE NYST

ULB Museums Network, Free University of Brussels, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50 — CP 175, Brussels, 1050, [email protected]

Keywords: thematic activities, specific topics, university collections, annual

ABSTRACT

The ULB Museums Network will be organizing free activities for general audiences, mainly for families, for the following annual May events: ‘International Museum Day’ (ICOM) and ‘European Night of Museums’ (French Ministry of Culture).

Each year, these events offer the opportunity to choose a new specific topic: in 2016, the chosen theme is the UN annual topic devoted to pulses (Leguminosae). For the occasion, all museums and collections of the Network will meet in the Jean Massart Botanical Garden, located in one of the main entrances of Brussels. They will develop different demos, workshops, guided tours, and experiments, among others.

This poster will exemplify how, for the 2016 edition, the different collections have worked together to conceive and organize these activities connecting collections together. From a first meeting on September to the D-Day in May, how does it work? What are the different steps? What are the results?

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Nathalie Nyst teaches the Master of Cultural Management programme at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Free University of Brussels, and has coordinated the network of ULB's museums since 2004. She is also director for the Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation of Belgium (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles). Research topics: museums, collections, university heritage, cultural heritage.


Digitization as the precondition for the connection of and interaction with mathematical models — chances and challenges

ROBERT PÄSSLER, DANIEL LORDICK

Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Geometry, Zellescher Weg 12–14, 01062 Dresden, Germany [email protected]

Keywords: material mathematical models, 3D digitization, virtual reality, interactive represen-tation

ABSTRACT

The DFG1-project DAMM2 provides an infrastructure for multidisciplinary research and offers 3D representations of physical models with the purpose to enhance the user experience during online research. DAMM connects collections of material mathematical models from different locations. Users from various areas may be interested in this archive: e.g. mathematicians, physicists, engineers, teachers, historians, designers, and artists. The facetted search tools are designed to meet the demands of mathematical experts as well as the curiosity of the general public. The archive can also be seen as a source for open online courses.

Every dataset combines pictures, digitized models, and metadata with digitized and edited grey literature as well as mathematical and historical background information. For the 3D representations we constructed a framework called Mediabox. It can be used as a container for new interactive content. It allows virtual sections, different illuminations, direct visual comparison with calculated data, and broadens the way we have so far looked at mathematical models. On the other hand the digitization adds something to the collection, which again produces metadata. We need to be aware of this to deal with the implications of this new content and eventually scale the database. Finally the digitization process fosters a shift of focus away from the mere substance of the collections and towards other disciplines.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

■■ Robert Päßler studied mathematics at the University in Leipzig. He is a scientific assistant at the TU Dresden and is working in the DAMM project.■■ Daniel Lordick studied architecture at the TU Berlin and Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

He got his PhD on a geometric topic from the University of Karlsruhe. He is professor for geometric modelling and visualization at the TU Dresden, Institute of Geometry. He can be reached by e-mail: [email protected].

1 German Research Foundation, http://www.dfg.de2 Digital Archive of Mathematical Models, https://mathematical-models.org


Material culture of education

Scientific teaching collections as educational research artefacts

NICOLAS ROBIN

University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, Notkerstrasse 27, CH-9000 St. Gallen, [email protected]

Keywords: material culture, scientific teaching collections

ABSTRACT

What educational and cultural roles do scientific artefacts play in educational settings? What is the relevance and utility they offer to educators in the era of multimedia teaching? Should artefacts, such as in wax flower collections be used historically to teach botany, be stored away on a shelf, be shared as markers of school culture in historical collections, or used by educators alongside tools such as smart boards, which afford learners virtual experiences with science? Can we still teach biodiversity with stuffed animals? The project entitled ‘Educational Material Culture’ aims to study such questions and more generally the current uses of scientific objects for teaching of natural sciences at elementary schools and high schools. The first part of the work presented is based on an inventory and theoretical analysis of a material culture at schools across Europe on the basis of numerous archives and textbooks from the 19th and 20th centuries. The results of this preliminary analysis point out the prominent role of objects in the construction of school culture since the 19th century and call for the need for an inventory of the current situation in schools. The presentation will offer a framework for an upcoming qualitative study based on the materials analysis. The study will take place with secondary science teachers in eastern Switzerland. This scientific project is part of a more general ongoing reflection on scientific collections, especially in Switzerland, where a new network ‘Scientific Collections Switzerland’ has just been launched (see: www.wss-css.ch).

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Nicolas Robin is currently working as professor of science education and director of the research institute of science teacher education at the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen (Switzerland). His current interests in research and development are, among others, STEM education, environmental education, history and culture of natural sciences.


Museums and Collections from the University of Seville

The Conservation History Museum

MARÍA DOLORES RUIZ DE LACANAL

Director Group HUM 673 SOS Heritage, University of Seville, Seville, [email protected]

Keywords: teaching collections, museums, history of conservation and restoration, cultural heritage

ABSTRACT

After the development of some research projects focused on the University Museums and Collections system of the University of Seville, Spain, the ‘SOS Heritage’ Group (HUM 673) has concluded that a Conservation History Museum should be created.The ‘SOS Heritage’ Group has been focusing their efforts on the study of university museology and museography. On the one hand, the Group studies the cultural heritage of Seville University (Museology), on the other hand, it provides support to heritage conservation and restoration, taking into account different stakeholders engaged with the maintenance and care of collections (Museography). In other words, the Group connects Museums and Collections from the University of Seville and provides support and services related to Conservation and Restoration to the University cultural heritage.

At the Universeum meeting in Athens, the Group presented its first work stage: a meeting with the professors involved in the Museums and Collections network management. We then realized all collections were connected and all derive from one original source. At the Universeum meeting in the Netherlands, our aim is to analyse the Museology system of the University of Seville from a critical point of view, including strengths and weaknesses. The Group is developing the new Conservation History Museum, a large cultural database providing tools and resources, complemented with an Observatory enabling dissemination of cultural and natural heritage values and significance, particularly endangered, to broader audiences.

In this poster, the Conservation History Museum database is presented as a bridge that can connect University collections among themselves and with society.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ María Dolores Ruiz de Lacanal, teacher History of the Preservation and Restoration of Heritage. Since 2012, studying the educational collections and publishing the results in conferences and specialized journals.


Broad interdisciplinary linking of collections — only a dream?

ANKE TIETZ

TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institut of Mineralogy, Section geoscientific collections, Brennhausgasse 14, Freiberg, 09596, [email protected]

Keywords: geological collection, interdisciplinary, stocktaking and linking, research

ABSTRACT

The division of different types of collections is relatively recent. Different types of objects are often stored in separate places or institutions. They are managed by different collection keepers and the connection between the collections got lost. If we open up collections for research, we do this separately at the respective facilities. A great potential of research resources remain invisible.For better use it is beneficial to connect collections already in stocktaking. An interesting example of an interdisciplinary research project is about an expedition in 1786, based on a historical geoscientific collection in Görlitz/Saxony.

This project involved both library and a museum collections. For example, a collection of 75 petrographic objects from the Alps could be linked with a landscape model of Mont Blanc from 1790, with the help of correspondence and travel diary. This linking shows the earliest steps of three- dimensional representation in geosciences and visualization of knowledge.This interdisciplinary linking of various collections has brought many surprising results. But a geoscientist and a historian have by now only processed one-fifteenth of the unevaluated research resource in two years. This way, processing of the entire geoscientific collection would take about thirty years.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Anke Tietz is a PhD-student at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Her main research interest is the history of earth sciences in 18th and 19th century, dealing with questions about academic networks and personalities of researchers, geoscientific collections, methodology and structure of science and the influence of auxiliary sciences.


Re-discovering the disease

From a biological phenomenon to cultural knowledge for the Athens University History Museum visitors

COSTAS TSIAMISa, GEORGIA VRIONIa, ATHANASSIOS TSAKRISa, EVANGELOS PAPOULIASb, IRINI

SAVVANIb, FAY TSITOUb

a Department of Microbiology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, GreeceMikras Asias 75, Athens 115–27, Greeceb Athens University History Museum, National and Kapodistrian University of AthensTholou 5 Plaka, Athens 10556, [email protected]

Keywords: lanternslides, documentary collections, disease, microbiology

ABSTRACT

The Department of Microbiology, Medical School of National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, owns, among others, a rich collection of lanternslides. The collection was used as a teaching aid during the lectures of Konstantinos Savvas (1861–1929), Professor of Microbiology and Hygiene in Athens Medical School. It consists of 252 items, covering different chapters of Microbiology and Hygiene, such as the bacterial and viral infections, mycology, tropical diseases and environmental medicine.

The Athens University History Museum has recently re-exhibited its scientific instruments collection, including a Carbon Arc Magic Lantern intended for optics experiments and/or lanternslides projection. On this occasion, the Department of Microbiology collaborates with the Museum to complement the exhibition and uses for the first time microbiologic archival sources for museum communication purposes. Both partners plan to design a temporary exhibit, and organize presentations and activities to raise awareness about infectious diseases, which are still prevalent today — such as malaria and tuberculosis — and other issues of public health, beyond the confines of the scientific community. They intend to use their collections as alternative tools for knowledge also for non-medical audiences concerning the study of the disease not only as a biological phenomenon but as a cultural issue.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

■■ Prof. Athanassios Tsakris MD, PhD, FRCPath, Professor of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. ■■ Ass. Prof. Georgia Vrioni MD, PhD, Associate Professor Microbiology, Department of

Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.■■ Costas Tsiamis MD, PhD, Research fellow of the Department of Microbiology, Medical School,

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.


■■ Evangelos Papoulias, PhD is Archaeologist — Expert on Heritage Management and Administrator of the Department of Museums and Historical Archive of the University of Athens. ■■ Irini Savvani, Art historian, curator (MA Art History, BA Art History, Université Paris I, Pantheon-

Sorbonne), Athens University History Museum. Research interests: museum as a medium, museum communication, university museums and contemporary art.

XVII Universeum Annual Meeting

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