Forsking i fellesskap - Delprosjekt formidling som kunnskapsgenererende virksomhet

"Exhibitions as Knowledge Generating Activity" has examined how exhibitions can be better integrated as part of ongoing research at museums. Often we tend to talk about audience related activities in museums as dissemination or public communication. But could it be that exhibitions might be considered research in their own right? This has been explored in two ways. Firstly, the six university museums of Norway have collaborated around a number of workshops that have entailed both presentations and discussions, as well as practical challenges where groups have experimented with new kinds of displays and new ideas for how to include audiences in exhibition and research activities. Importantly, these workshops have been organized as cross-disciplinary meeting points in order to establish a broad debate on the role of exhibitions in the university museums. Secondly, each of the six museums have carried out audience related projects around the common theme of "Colonization": - University Museum of Bergen opened the exhibition "Inntrykk fra koloniene" in August 2014, and have worked with pop-up-exhibitions in Lagunen shopping mall - Museum of Natural History, University of Oslo, established "The Viking Garden" in the Botanical Gardens in August 2014 - Arkeologisk museum, University of Stavanger has colonized the town of Stavanger through a number of interactions with the public beyond the physical confines of the museum - Tromsø University Museum opened the exhibition "Mannen i myra" in September 2015 - NTNU University Museum opened the exhibition "Continuous Change: from the Ice Age to the future" in November 2015 - Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo will open the exhibition "COLLAPSE: human being in an unpredictable world" in May 2017. All these activities have focused on developing methods to integrate research and exhibitions in new ways. Apart from the activities listed above the project will publish a book entitled «Exhibitions as Research». This volume will be out by the end of 2017 and will discuss methods and institutional challenges related to working with exhibitions as research. Through this project the six Norwegian university museums have challenged their own exhibition practices. We have developed new methodological approaches to cross-disciplinary collaboration and interaction with audiences, and these methods are now being refined at several of the museums involved. The project has made clear that rather radical institutional measures have to be taken to better integrate research and exhibitions. Museums need to prioritize between regular day-to-day operations and the time needed to develop new work modes around exhibition making, the need to consider new ways of bring disciplines together and they need to reconsider their relation to audiences. Therefore, a turn towards working with exhibitions as research needs to be based in firm managerial priorities.

Universitetsmuseenes respons på NFRs/KDs forskningssatsning bygger på institusjonsstrategiske, museumsfaglige tiltak. Formålet har vært å styrke forskningen ved og forskningssamarbeid mellom universitetsmuseene samt samarbeid med andre, relevante forsknin gs- og rekrutteringsmiljøer. Satsningen skal utvikle kunnskapsarenaer der det er sammenheng mellom museenes oppgaver innen forskning, forvaltning, formidling og rekruttering. Disse sammenhengene skal institusjonaliseres slik at de kan gjennomføres og ut vikles også etter at Kunnskapsdepartementets satsning i form av øremerkede midler opphører i 2015. Dette delprosjektet adresserer spesifikt museenes formidlingsvirksomhet som så langt har spilt en underordnet rolle i KDs forskningssatsning mot universit etsmuseene. Den bærende tanken i dette delprosjektet er å se museenes formidlingsaktivitet som kunnskapsgenererende i seg selv. Gjennom utstillinger kan det skapes dialog med mange forskjellige brukere og få fram nye innsikter og resultater som ville være vanskelig tilgjengelig i en tradisjonell vitenskapelig setting. En slik tenkemåte setter nye krav både til samarbeidsformer og formidlingskompetanse. Delprosjektet bygger på alle de tre eksisterende prosjektene innenfor UNI-MUSEER-satsningen. Temaet kol onisering som springer ut av Forsking i fellesskaps (FiF) tematikk er utredet som et godt grunnlag for å formidle resultater fra satsningen til et større publikum. Tematikken tilrettelegger for koblinger mot andre deler av museenes kunnskapsområder og fag felt og kan dermed gi ny innsikt i sentrale problemer som det forskes på innen FiF. Gjennom samarbeid mellom de to forskerskolene ForBio og Dialogues with the Past tas formidlingsproblematikken opp i en rekrutteringssammenheng og gjennom dette arbeidet kan man knytte internasjonal ekspertise til de norske forsknings- og formidlingsnettverkene.