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拥有英国现存的、研究不足的最重要的博物馆和大学内部规划之一，如果不是在全球范围内的话。它雄心勃勃的装饰包括主院中的28座肖像雕像和半身像，它们共同代表着自然科学先辈的万神殿；装饰性雕塑和描绘自然世界的铁器；代表英国地质的柱子；定制的家具和家具；以及地质学教室里的壁画。尽管人们对博物馆的学术兴趣越来越大，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的第一个综合性跨学科研究，这个项目将显著提高我们对其学科和机构历史的了解，以及艺术和设计在赋予这些想法物质表达方面的作用。该项目将首先记录内部方案的起源和演变。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作用的复杂问题，包括雕塑在构建科学规范中的作用；自然世界和人类创造力之间的关系；学科之间的相互联系和界限；以及通过视觉艺术交流智力努力。因此，这项研究本质上是跨学科的，将涉及一系列相关的学术和策展论述，包括地质学、植物学、动物学、雕塑学、收藏史、博物馆学和制度史。该项目的合作性质将使成功的学生能够在艺术史及其与科学史和博物馆学的交叉领域进行博士研究，同时在博物馆环境中获得第一手经验。学生将有机会接触到OUMNH的大量藏品和档案，以及Ashmolean和Bodleian图书馆的相关材料。他或她将与主管密切合作，以确定研究的重点，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交叉点的理解外，这个项目还将通过创造新的方式，让一系列观众参与艺术史和科学史，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 institutionalhistory. 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.