Models in motion: engineering models as objects of communication in the industrial city, from the workshop to the museum

本文考察了曼彻斯特科学与工业博物馆（隶属于科学博物馆集团）持有和展示的发电技术的工程模型，以及史密森学会（Smithsonian Institution）下属的美国国家历史博物馆（National Museum of American History）的模型比较章节。所讨论的模型的创作时间从1825年到1981年不等，被制作和改编用于各种各样的教育和交流目的。在每种情况下，本文将利用对象传记和对象行程的概念来追溯模型从创建到目前在博物馆中的位置的生活，研究不同的保管人如何看待和对待每个模型，以及每个模型的重要性如何反过来影响这些相互作用。在许多情况下，这些相互作用涉及到模型的改变、更新或完全重建，有时会改变模型的功能和潜在的未来用途，并删除模型历史中过去事件的物理证据。在两种情况下，重建或翻新可以说是将非模型对象变成了模型。本文还将探讨模型在博物馆中的生活，这些博物馆及其前身机构如何制作和修改模型，以及博物馆在过去，现在和未来展示模型时所做的选择。这将包括对博物馆运行工作机器的讨论，看看为什么博物馆选择运行机器，这会引起哪些道德问题，以及这些问题如何与模型具体相关。在此背景下，本文将探讨对模型形式的忠诚与对其目的的忠诚之间的紧张关系，以及工作机器的运行如何既威胁到模型历史的物理证据，又使其保持忠实于其作为交流对象的原始目的。该项目旨在与科学与工业博物馆电力大厅的重建同时进行，最后一章将探讨模型在这次重建中的作用，以及更广泛地探索博物馆模型的未来。

This thesis examines engineering models of power-producing technologies held and displayed by the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, part of the Science Museum Group, along with a comparative chapter on models at the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution. The models discussed range in date of creation from 1825 to 1981, and were made and adapted for a wide variety of educational and communication purposes. In each case, this thesis will draw on the concepts of object biography and object itinerary to trace the lives of the models from creation to their current place in the museum, examining how different custodians have viewed and treated each model, and how the materiality of each model has in turn influenced these interactions. In many cases, these interactions have involved the alteration, renovation, or total reconstruction of a model, sometimes altering the function and potential future uses of the model, and removing physical evidence of past events in the model's history. In two cases, reconstruction or renovation has arguably turned what were non-model objects into models. This thesis will also explore the lives of models within museums, how these museums and their predecessor institutions have made and altered models, and the choices museums make when exhibiting models in past, present, and future displays. This will include a discussion of the running of working machinery by museums, looking at why museums choose to run machinery and which ethical issues this can raise, and how these questions pertain to models specifically. In this context, the thesis will explore the tension between fidelity to a model's form and fidelity to its purpose, and how the running of working machinery both threatens physical evidence of a model's history and allows it to remain faithful to its original purpose as an object of communication. This project was designed to run in tandem with the redevelopment of the Power Hall at the Science and Industry Museum, and the final chapter will look at how models will feature in this redevelopment, as well as exploring the future of models in museums more broadly.