Where Art and Science Meet: Art and Design at Oxford University Museum of Natural History

牛津大学自然历史博物馆（Oxford University Museum of Natural History）是英国（如果不是全球的话）现存最重要、研究最充分的博物馆和大学室内设计之一。其宏伟的装饰包括主院的28个肖像雕像和半身像，它们共同代表了自然科学先驱的万神殿；描绘自然世界的装饰性雕塑和铁器；代表英国地质的圆柱；定制家具和陈设；还有地质学教室里的壁画。尽管学术界对博物馆的兴趣日益浓厚，但很少有研究关注大学博物馆。因此，这个博士项目提供了一个重要的机会来考虑博物馆及其美术和装饰方案在科学学科和大学教育发展中的作用。作为OUMNH的第一个全面的跨学科研究，该项目将大大提高我们对其学科和制度历史的认识，以及艺术和设计在给予这些思想物质表达方面的作用。该项目将首先记录室内方案的起源和演变。这些作品，无论是单独的还是集体的，都提出了关于艺术和设计在科学和教育中的位置和功能的复杂问题，包括雕塑在科学经典建设中的作用；自然世界与人类创造力的关系；学科之间的联系和界限；以及通过视觉艺术进行的智力交流。因此，这项研究本质上是跨学科的，并将涉及一系列相关的学术和策展话语，包括地质学、植物学、动物学、雕塑研究、收藏史、博物馆学和机构史。该项目的合作性质将使成功的学生能够在博物馆环境中获得第一手经验的同时，在艺术史及其与科学史和博物馆学的交叉点上进行博士研究。学生将有机会获得OUMNH的广泛收藏和档案，以及阿什莫尔图书馆和博德利图书馆的相关资料。他或她将与主管密切合作，确定研究的重点，建立精确的研究问题和方法，并确定相关的原始材料。除了加深我们对艺术、设计和科学、博物馆学和学术界的理解之外，这个项目还将通过创造新的方式，让更多的观众参与到艺术和科学的历史中来，为博物馆的重建计划做出贡献。

Oxford University Museum of Natural History has one of the most important surviving, and under-researched, museum and university interior schemes in Britain, if not globally. Its ambitious decoration includes 28 portrait statues and busts in the Main Court, which collectively represent a pantheon to the forefathers of natural science; decorative sculpture and ironwork illustrating the natural world; columns representative of the geology of the UK; bespoke furniture and furnishings; and murals in the geology lecture room. Despite increasing academic interest in museums, few studies have focused on university museums. This doctoral project therefore presents a significant opportunity to consider the role of a museum and its fine art and decorative scheme in the development of scientific disciplines and university education. As the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of OUMNH, this project will significantly enhance our knowledge of its disciplinary and institutional history, and the role of art and design in giving those ideas material expression. The project will firstly document the origins and evolution of the interior scheme. The works, both individually and collectively, raise complex questions regarding the location and function of art and design in science and education, including the role of sculpture in the construction of the scientific canon; relations between the natural world and human creativity; disciplinary interconnections and boundaries; and the communication of intellectual endeavour through the visual arts. The research is therefore inherently intra-disciplinary, and will engage with a range of related academic and curatorial discourses, including geology, botany, zoology, sculpture studies, the history of collections, museology and institutional history. The collaborative nature of the project will enable the successful student to pursue doctoral research in Art History and its intersections with the History of Science and Museology, while gaining first-hand experience within a museum setting. The student will have access to the extensive collections and archives at OUMNH, and related material at the Ashmolean and the Bodleian Libraries. He or she will work closely with the supervisors to determine the focus of the research, establish precise research questions and methodologies, and identify relevant source material. As well as furthering our understanding of the intersections of art, design and science, museology and academia, this project will contribute to the museum's redevelopment plans by creating new ways for engaging a range of audiences in the histories of the arts and of science.