University of Leicester Open Journals
Not a member yet
2521 research outputs found
Sort by
Engaging through Co-design in the science museum
No full textA co-design process that holds the potential to facilitate museum engagement will be the topic of this article. I report from a series of workshops called ‘Science, Identity and Belonging’, during which a group of museum professionals worked together with young people to co-design a museum activity. The focal point will be the way engagement materializes in the meeting between museum and youths in a creative development process of a digital installation parallel to the making of a temporary exhibition. The co-design process in this case led to a product; a digital sound installation that complements and connects to the exhibition FOLK – From race types to DNA sequences. I will explore engagement throughout the co-design process, looking more closely at challenges and possibilities while considering that both the museum professionals and the young people brought with them their own engagement into the process. A core theme to address will be the way the meetings between youths and museum staff hold a potential to engage, and how during a long-term partnership other relations emerge. This will foster an awareness about ways of programming museum collaborations with the purpose of engaging youths in design of museum activities and programs
History, Healing, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia: Going into the City with the Black Docents Collective
No full textDuring the COVID-19 lockdown of summer 2020, docents at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) decided that if the museum could not open, they would move their educational practices into the city and online, organizing tours and talks, and producing digital resources, working collaboratively under the name of the ‘Black Docents Collective’ (BDC). Based on qualitative interviews with docents, this article makes sense of the BDC’s work, specifically in relation to their mission statement to heal the Philadelphia African American community. In particular we aim to understand the urban imaginaries of healing evoked by docents: what kind of city and communities do the BDC hope to create? What kind of public sphere is necessary for healing to take place? We suggest that docents’ urban imaginaries of healing go beyond cultural recognition and envisage healing as necessitating a redistribution of resources historically denied to Black Philadelphians. In addition, BDC claim the right for healing to take place within a Black “counterpublic”, of which AAMP already performs a constitutive role. The article contributes to academic debates concerned with the African American museum as well as literature on the topic of wounded cities
How Good Is Your First Wordle Guess?
No full textWordle is a 5-letter word guessing game used by millions daily. Debates have been sparked as to which word is the most effective first guess. This paper poses a simpler new score-based model that can mathematically judge how good your guess is. Have you been fooled by an incorrect suggestion online
How Eternal is the Bog of Eternal Stench?
No full textThe Bog of Eternal Stench exists within the Goblin King’s labyrinth in the movie Labyrinth. The Bog is famous within the Labyrinth due to its horrific stench and legend that if you touch the bog, you will smell bad for eternity. This paper suggests the chemistry and microbiology occurring within the Bog of Eternal Stench and how the Bog may seal the fate of eternal stench for anyone who dares to enter
Is a base level of radiation essential for human health?
No full textOver billions of years, life has evolved under the constant influence of low-level background radiation, raising an interesting question of whether a base level of radiation is essential for maintaining biological health. This paper examines the radiation hormesis hypothesis, which posits that low-dose ionising radiation (LDIR) is essential to maintaining health. The paper will examine experimental studies to assess the implications of LDIR for both terrestrial health and relate this to future long-term space exploration
Campus As A Museum: The Interlacing Roots Of KalaBhavana, Sanitiniketan
No full textAs a counter argument to colonial art education system in India emphasised through the agencies of institution ‘building’, Tagore experimented with a hypothesis of space vis-à-vis place, through a system of community creation and radical pedagogic processes. The paper will navigate the overlapping zones of the spatial art historical markers across the campus of Kala Bhavana, the fine-art institute of Visva-Bharati which was ground zero for radical modernism in Indian art during the first half of the twentieth century; and the pockets of tribal and migrant communities emerging from it and around it, vis-à-vis the public perception of viewing this campus as a heritage site appropriating through the lens of capitalist semi-urban aspirations. The binary of the campus space is noticeable in its seclusion and exclusivity which artists’ studios or institutional premises require, and also as a site of public display and discourse, at the focal point of Santiniketan’s tourism map. As a result of prolonged auto-ethnographic observation through lived experiences, the paper takes under considerations aspects of the institution’s formative history which expands on Tagore’s vision and argues on the scope of viewing methods, spectacle-spectator conventions and interventions.
Key Words: campus, art pedagogy, museum, lived-space, auto-ethnography, Indian modernism, popular culture, tourism, heritage site, UNESCO, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketa
‘If Not Now, When?’: The Arab American National Museum During the Post-9/11 Era and Afterward
No full textThe Arab American National Museum (AANM) opened in 2005 to represent and serve the Arab American community following the surge in anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia after the September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11). With its opening, the AANM challenged predominant narratives concerning the Arab American community during the post-9/11 era, offering a multicultural vision for American society amid a landscape where Arab and Muslim inclusion to Western civilization was up for debate. The AANM remains an example for how hybrid museums can platform ethnic minorities and enable them to assert their perspectives. However, since the post-9/11 era, the AANM’s core galleries have fallen out of sync with the community and its own programming. They should be updated to reflect the community’s changed needs and interests
To bludgeon or to heal? The influence and role of volunteers in supporting decolonisation within the Horniman Museum’s Cha, Chai, Tea exhibition
No full textPost-2020, museums are increasingly coming to terms with their colonial pasts and are dedicating themselves to becoming spaces where visitors can encounter critical histories of Empire. However, there has been a lack of academic focus related to how public facing or ‘live interpreter’ volunteers are strategically utilised to support the delivery of museum decolonisation, as well as the implications this has for volunteering. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this paper examines the experiences of Engage volunteers at the Horniman Museum in supporting the delivery of the decolonising Chá, Chai, Tea exhibition, and explores the extent to which these experiences align with topdown institutional aspirations. Findings suggest that whilst Engage volunteers are supportive of the decolonising emphasis of Chá, Chai, Tea, they are equally frustrated by institutional frameworks that hampers their live interpretation and subsequent contribution to the Horniman’s decolonisation process
P1 4 The Thermodynamics of Undead Motion: Energy Required to Animate a Severed Hand
No full textIn this paper, the energy requirements to animate a severed hand (such as Thing in Netflix’sWednesday) are estimated by considering the mechanical work per step, 0.343J, the chemicalenergy supplied by ATP hydrolysis, 1.37J, and the inefficiencies inherent in biological motion,with 75% of chemical energy dissipated as heat per step. This study also investigates electricalenergy sources, of magnitude ∼ 107J, that could power a severed hand. A conclusion is madethat, while the energy demands per step are modest compared to biological norms, sustaining thismotion would require a continuous and reliable energy reservoir
P4 1 Moonfall: A Rudimentary Critisism on Orbital Mechanics
No full textIn this paper we investigate the orbital mechanics at play as depicted in the 2021 film `"Moonfall". We model the case of a orbital transfer of the Moon from its standard orbit, to one where it just contacts Earth. The required change in the Moon's orbital velocity is found to be between 767.530ms-1 and 856.959ms-1, with the energy required to move the Moon in this way to be of the order of 1028J. Finally we determine the impact time to be a few days, seemingly in contradiction with the films suggested time span of `"a few weeks"