Idea Colliders by Michael Gorman

Author:Michael Gorman [Gorman, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science museum; science centre; curating; public science; exposition; idea collider; technological museum; interactive; exhibit; hands-on; art-science; research lab; cultural institution; natural history museum
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2020-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Rethinking Science Gallery

In January 2017, almost exactly one year before the gallery was due to open, I was hired by Trinity College for the role of founding director of Science Gallery. The construction project had already begun, with a tight timeline due to the coordination with the research labs, and there was a big task ahead, with a significant fundraising challenge and a need to define a (new) vision for the gallery, fit out the space, build a team and a program of events and exhibitions, all at breakneck speed.

In my job interview for the Science Gallery role, I had proposed that if the gallery wanted to succeed, it needed to embody three simple words: connect, providing opportunities for new kinds of social connections between different communities; participate, offering opportunities not for “interactivity” in the science center sense, but for genuine involvement of visitors in creating the experiences; and surprise, capturing the imagination of visitors and the media with genuine surprises on an ongoing basis.

I was not in any way a “museum person,” and this probably gave me a different approach to the challenge of realizing Science Gallery than someone better versed in museums might have adopted. Instead, I came from an academic background in history of science and Science, Technology and Society (STS), which I had taught at Stanford University. As well as having grown up with the writings of Shapin, Schaffer, and Latour in relation to understanding science in action, I had developed a strong interest in the interplay of art, science, design, and technology, through working on Buckminster Fuller’s designs and encountering artists like Ruth Asawa and Kenneth Snelson who had been part of the transdisciplinary environment of Black Mountain College, and also through developing “extracurricular” exhibition projects such as Machinations: The Art of the Machine featuring the work of San Francisco machine artist Bernie Lubell.

I had returned to Dublin from California lured by the opportunity to create and lead a new center for art, science, and technology for teenagers, Arkimedia, in cooperation with The Ark, a pioneering children’s cultural center. I had developed the vision and written the business plan for Arkimedia, which was due to be realized in a high-profile building in Dublin’s Temple Bar area when the person who had hired me was suddenly ousted by his Board of Directors, and I found myself afloat in Dublin, having resigned from my position at Stanford.

While the Arkimedia project was abandoned, I did have the opportunity to realize one major, citywide curatorial project with The Ark, originally intended to be the launching program of Arkimedia, called Save the Robots, which explored the relationship between robots and art, from Heron of Alexandria’s automaton theater to the feral robot dogs sniffing out toxic chemicals of Natalie Jeremijenko, to the robot artist and DJ projects of RobotLab, and “Dirk,” a robotic tramp who pushed a shopping trolley around Dublin, stretching out his hand to beg for money from passing pedestrians.

One of the many diverse elements of Save the Robots

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