Circuits of practice: Narrating modern computing in museum environments

近年来，计算机和数字媒体已成为英国和全球博物馆收藏品中日益突出的元素。仅在英国，国家科学和媒体博物馆(2012年)和科学博物馆(2014年)等老牌遗产机构开设了关于信息和通信技术历史的新的永久性展览，而在布莱奇利公园(2007年)和剑桥(2014年)等地建立了新的计算博物馆。与此同时，数字遗产已经成为博物馆研究人员和从业人员感兴趣的关键主题，计算和数字媒体也成为媒体史学家的关键对象：在过去十年中，出版了这些新传播技术的几部基本历史，数字历史现在本身就是一个充满活力、快速增长的学术领域。这些发展表明，我们正在经历关于这些新技术的学术和公共叙事的形成的关键阶段-这些叙事最终也将为关键决策提供信息，决定什么是具有历史意义的东西，因此什么应该被保存并在博物馆环境中展出。这为对管理关于新技术的叙述的构建、传播和影响的做法进行反思性调查提供了一个完美的时机，并为产生新的、合作的知识形式提供了信息，这些知识将能够为博物馆实践和将计算作为历史遗产一部分进行的学术辩论提供信息。为了产生这种新的知识，这个项目将审查博物馆在构建关于计算历史的叙事中的作用，通过这些历史，我们社会的过去、现在和未来被想象和文化地构建。该项目不会采取将博物馆作为研究对象的标准学术方法，而是将它们视为知识创造的平等合作伙伴。以电子电路为比喻，不同部件之间的电气连接使复杂的操作得以执行，该项目将汇集来自英国主要博物馆(布莱奇利公园、计算历史中心、国家计算博物馆、国家科学和媒体博物馆、科学博物馆、维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆)、领先国际机构(美国计算机历史博物馆、日本国家新兴科学与创新博物馆(Miraikan)、意大利米兰国家科学技术博物馆(Leonardo Da Vinci))、公司合作伙伴(BT集团)、以及一个由大学研究人员组成的跨学科团队，其中包括Pi Simone Natale、共同研究人员Ross Parry和RA Petrina Foti。利用基于实践社区概念的新兴协作方法，并使用设计思维和行动研究方法的协议，该项目将开展一系列以实践为导向的研究干预，将有助于解决三个关键研究问题：RQ1(时间)：博物馆如何通过时间叙述计算机的发展？RQ2(物件)：博物馆如何调动硬件和软件文物来讲述现代计算机的历史？RQ3(数据)：博物馆如何叙述信息和数据在计算历史中的作用？通过这一点，该项目将对文化部门产生变革性的影响，提高遗产机构有效收集、保存和展示有关新技术的发展和社会影响的相关信息的能力。将通过与研究伙伴合作开展的传播活动加强公众参与，包括与研究伙伴共同编写的面向公众的研究报告，该报告将总结重要的项目结果和在展示和展示计算机遗产方面的最佳做法的实际建议。

In recent years, computing and digital media have become an increasingly prominent element of museum collections in the UK and globally. In the UK alone, established heritage institutions such as the National Science and Media Museum (2012) and the Science Museum (2014) have opened new permanent exhibitions about the history of ICT, while new museums of computing have been established in locations such as Bletchley Park (2007) and Cambridge (2014). At the same time, digital heritage has become a key subject of interest to museum-based researchers and practitioners, and computing and digital media a key object for media historians: over the past decade, several foundational histories of these new communication technologies were published, and digital history is now a vibrant, fast-growing scholarly field in its own right. These developments suggest that we are living through a key stage in the formation of both scholarly and public narratives about these new technologies - narratives that will, ultimately, also inform key decisions over what counts as historically significant, and thus what should be preserved and exhibited in museum environments. This offers a perfect moment for a reflective investigation of practices that govern the construction, dissemination and impact of narratives about new technologies, and for the generation of new, collaborative forms of knowledge that will be capable of informing both museum practice and scholarly debates addressing computing as part of historical heritage. To produce this new knowledge, this project will examine the role of museums in constructing narratives about histories of computing through which the past, the present and the future of our societies are imagined and culturally constructed. Rather than adopting a standard scholarly approach that takes museums as objects of study, the project will treat them as equal partners in knowledge generation. Taking up the metaphor of the electronic circuit, where electrical connections between diverse components enable complex operations to be performed, the project will bring together curators from leading museums in the UK (Bletchley Park, the Centre for Computing History, The National Museum of Computing, the National Science and Media Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum), leading international institutions (the Computer History Museum in the USA, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation "Miraikan" in Japan, the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo Da Vinci" in Milan, Italy), a company partner (BT Group), and an interdisciplinary team of university-based researchers including PI Simone Natale, co-I Ross Parry and RA Petrina Foti. Leveraging emergent collaborative approaches based on the notion of community of practice, and using the protocols of design thinking and action research methods, the project will carry out a series of practice-led research interventions that will help address three key research questions: RQ1 (TIME): How can museums narrate the development of computers through time? RQ2 (OBJECTS): How can hardware and software artefacts be mobilized by museums to narrate histories of modern computing? RQ3 (DATA): How can museums narrate the role of information and data in computing histories?Trough that, the project will enable transformative impact in the cultural sector, enhancing the capacity of heritage institutions to effectively collect, preserve and present relevant information about the development and societal impact of new technologies. Public engagement will be enhanced by dissemination activities conducted in collaboration with research partners, including a public-facing Research Report co-authored with research partners, which will provide a summary of key project findings and practical recommendations for best practices in the presentation and exhibition of computing heritage.