Education, ethics, museums: going to Denmark!

I finally did it! In 2008 I got my M.A. in Applied Ethics at Utrecht University with a thesis on Moral considerations in cross cultural museum education. For ethicists that is a rather eccentric topic, but it was and is a topic that is precisely at the cross roads of a number of fields of knowledge that happen to have my profound attention: education, ethics, working with knowledge professionals. And now I finally, finally gathered the courage to actually DO something with the knowledge gathered in this thesis: I wrote a proposal for a paper or roundtable session (that is yet to be decided) for the Inclusive Museum conference 22-24 April in Copenhagen, Denmark. Low and behold, it got accepted. So here we go: meet you in Denmark in April and I cannot wait!

The proposal:

Museums are defining themselves increasingly as educational institutions. As an ethicist I think that education is intrinsically value laden. Museums nowadays use their body of knowledge and collections to construct educational experiences whereby entertainment and education go hand in hand. Thus the moral considerations of the museum professionals deserve explicit attention and reflection. Museums are essentially mediated “things”. That might touch the visitor deeply, might enhance profound understanding of a subject. Whatever it moves in the visitor, is whatever the museum has designed. How does the museum choose what the visitor should experience? Where does what the museum offers stop and where does your own thinking and researching start? Is there such a thing as a proper balance between entertainment and education? To what extent are museums actually autonomous in the shaping of their education? In other words: to what extent is the educational message of museums a reflection of the political landscape and financial incentives? Focusing specifically on the theme of entertainment and education I will discuss the findings and considerations coming from my practice based research and why I think that, if you are serious about inclusive museums, the ethical code of museums should be broadened to include education. 

Conference formats: connecting comfort and innovation

Innovation.
Interaction.
Participation.

Words that are more often than not at the core of a briefing for a conference, workshop, event or get together of some form. In the operationalisation more of than not the mismatch between the briefing and the actual get-together is clear: a speaker is put on stage in a plenary programme talking about something innovative with a flashy ppt or prezi or even a movie behind him (apologies, but usually it's a him:-)). Then for the interaction bit mics are on the floor and questions can be asked to the speaker and there are workshops where guests meet around a table.

It's a common format. With the occasional unconference thrown in. But does it work? Is this the best we can do? Do we dare to totally rethink and recreate conferences. Without being so innovative and off the charts that the guests feel uncomfortable. Can we create something innovation in get-togethers? I notice I am looking more and more to create a get together that really allows people to meet, to be immersed in innovation, to experience innovation....a form and content that actually totally breathes the subject through all its aspects. Where form and content totally strengthen each other. Talking about it with a.o. Maarten van der Sanden we concluded that the analogy for the format I'm after is that of the fish swimming against the current to get oxygen in. The water is the comfort, the "rubbing" of the current against the gills resulting in oxygen in the body. The total package resulting in vigorous swimming. And - more philosophically - the fish being totally fish.

The challenge is to develop a total concept that simultaneously allows guests to learn, to meet, to exchange ideas whilst being immersed. While being challenged. Challenged to question. Question their own ideas and those of others. Challenged to go where they fear to go, to think through and beyond existing conditions, boundaries and barriers. Not in the sense of day dreaming, but in the sense of exploring and through exploring creating new horizons. Something that offers the intimacy needed for those more shy to participate. So in short: a format that creates tension whilst at the same time offering the comfort that is so much needed if you want people to connect and learn. And learning, that is what I am interested in. Formal, informal, non-formal or under another denominator. True, productive meetings of minds, hearts and souls.

Do you recognise any of this? Do you have any ideas? Please do share them! Because as I start discussing this with colleagues and clients it turns out that this search is not mine alone. Many are thinking about this, struggling with it and trying to come up with something. So please share!

Moving the army museum

The Army museum in Delft is closed. Officially now. They will be moving to Soesterberg to form - together with other army related museums - a national army museum. In a completely new buidling. The goodbye ceremony was impressive I found and well orchestrated. Literally! Because a full orchestra played pieces, there was singing, speeches and a full, really totally full Old Church in Delft. The walk from the church to the - by now - old location of the Army Museum  I found impressive.

One of the speeches in the ceremony highlighted the future vision of the museum with appealing images. The collection will no doubt be beautifully displayed. The museum I hope will become and remain a meeting place for all those interested and involved with the history of the Dutch army. I would also fervently hope that the museum will further it's efforts in the field of dialogue on issues related to army and warfare. Dialogue e.g. on the responsibility of a society for the behaviour of its army in war. Dialogue like the one we organised between young adults from the German school and a Dutch gymnasium regarding the Dutch-German relations in the framework of the exhibition Fremde im Visier. Dailogue on the concept of just war. Dialogue on what it really feels like to be at war, something that in the "old" museum was so pointedly displayed in the dilemma room. And so on and so forth. The assembly of army related museums that will form the new national army museum would I think be THE place to initiate, host and fuel the public debate on these issues and I wholeheartedly hope that they will take up this role! But for now: congratulations to the staff on the fab organisation of the event and good luck on the process of building and moving to the new museum!

Inspiration for cultural entrepreneurs

Thanks to my other half I watched this documentary on the quintesentially Dutch warehouse HEMA. It tells the story of HEMA's international entrepreneurial activities, the downfalls, the changes for the personnel and the collection. In addition to the always inspiring journey on the road of entrepreneurship what struck a cord in me is the constant iterative process between management annex strategy and operations annex the day-to-day running of the store. The way they at least make a conscious effort to stay in touch with those day to day operations. Watch how management - who at that point in time is also involved in complex strategical expansion options in fields further away - runs the best running HEMA store in The Netherlands for a day. The dynamics between those primarily concerned with strategy and expansion in their daily work and those primarily concerned with sales in their daily work I think is inspiring for both knowledge driven and cultural institutions now finding themselves on the road to furthering their own entrepreneurship.

Live where you fear to live in 2013!

We thought this picture taken in the ever beautiful cathedral of Vezelay, Bourgogne is a suitable background for our best wishes for the New Year. 2012 saw me exploring new roads with great clients such as Legermuseum, Europeana, KNAW, NCWT, the Science Learning Center of NCWT and others. Looking back on 2012 I tought: what a trailblazer of a year! Let's keep that up for 2013. Together. As a team. To create something new, something wonderful, to live the excitement of exploration in projects where don't quite know how to achieve our vision....but will manage to do so! I can't wait to meet you soon and to get started. But first things first so for now: happy holidays!

Catching up on science education developments

Ouch...this blog was lagging behind quite a bit. Time to catch up!  Where to start?

A publication. The translation of the title would be A journey through the landscape of informal learning. As the proud chair of the Science Learning Center's annual vision and strategy days I was send a draft earlier this year. That was already so good and so informative that I was very tempted to forward it to other professionals and organisations with the message "hey look here for some great eduational insights from experienced colleagues". And to very honest also driven by the wish to show that the sector is definitly on a road of professionalisation. Finding its bearings, formalising its fundaments and developing its vision driven by passion and a strong content focus. And from there building strategical partnerships and developing businesscases. But of course it was still internal then, a draft. Which I already thought excellent. But the eventual version incredibly indeed has improved once again from the draft. And the presentation was just lovely. A symposium with a highly interesting presentation from Josh Gutwill from the Exploratorium in San Francisco who enlightened the participants on juicy questions, the insight that the actual exhibitions hardly have a tangible effect on the level of knowledge and that longitudinal research in the USA shows that how well you do at a certain subject is less decisive in the choice of study than what interests a kid. His statement: our goal is to empower people to make sense of the world themselves. How is that for a oneliner that gives food for thought!

prinses Laurentien spices up the science dinner

A dinner. A science dinner to be precise. To kick off October science month and the first ever science weekend. An entire range of activities highlighted science and technology in action for families, schools, and everybody interested. A remarkable dinner with insect meatballs (delicious by the way), and high level speakers. And two very happy winners of the science communication prize in The Netherlands: Freek Vonk & Rob van Hattum. The dinner offered a very nice opportunity to catch up with quite some people I hadn't seen for a while. So thanks for the organisation!

trying to get some lessons learned readable from the iphone

A lecture. By Kimberly Kowal Arcand from the Chandra x-ray center from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachuttes in the USA. A public symposium organised by Leiden University widely publices via linkedin. A lecture about the new insights user research delivered to the institute's communication. Through structured end user research they found that inspite of their efforts and goals they reached only a very specific group: mostly man, white, non-hispanic and 60+. Whereas their goals was to reach a broad audience and many teachers and students. They also found out that different groups appreciate different forms of communications: laymen are appreciative of a rather more narrative approach whereas experts want short and to the point information. Kimberly also highlighted questions that arise in science communications. The one that stuck with me (probably also because it was part of my M.A. thesis for Applied Ethics) was wehterh in your communications as an institution you have to be culturally correct (e.g. the color red indicates "hot" on a picture) or stay with the scientific lingo (e.g. "hot" in the world of astronomers is indicated with a blue color). Her story on reaching out to the public with exhibitions in public spaces was also enlightning. Want to know more? Look out for their stories in which they explain their experiences in the Journal of Science Communication and the CAP Journal.


So quite a few what I would call milestone developments in the professionalisation: effects are measured, impact is charted, and fundaments driving the work in science education and communication are on the road of being formalised in a way befitting the sector. And the sector is slowly but surely taking a peek below the surface, addressing ethical questions (jay! says this ethicist!!) such as what we build into exhibitions, into machines? What are our values driving the designs? How can we chart those and work with those? Productively. The area that Peter Paul Verbeek is developing and bascially making accessible for all sorts of professionals. And that is slowly but surely making it's way into science communication and education. It's always been there, but it's increasingly explicity addressed.

Throughout it all I caught myself wondering: how do we get this (new) knowledge out to others? How do we get past preaching to the choir? And is that indeed possible. And also: how do we paint a realistic picture of the scientific world. Because it is knuckling down. Grafting. Demanding. And to reach the scientific starts takes more than a passion for knowledge. Very few make it onto the grand projects that we hear about and that we like to point to. The stone we tend to romance, to quote after that old movie. Those are questions that will surface from time to time, that are part of the professional development of science communication and education.

Testing the waters....

 "Do you still have that 2cv?" is a question I frequently get when with (new) clients. "I saw it on your site." Yes, I still have the 2cv. And as far as I'm concerned I always will. It's a character thing, an impractical passion, a steel love. But our grey "ugly duck" as we call the voiture in Dutch is in dire need for some serious maintenance. Among other minor and somewhat major things it leaks through the front window. So the "duckman" needs to know precisely where. And that is were you get "made to measure" rain. So should you anytime soon encounter me without my dear 2cv: know that it's under revision, well taken care off and that it will be back with a vengance! And me with dry feet:-)