Brown Bag 16th May 2012 "Exchanging Values: Steampunks and Museums"
Brown
Bag
16th
May
2012
“Exchanging
Values:
Steampunks
and
Museums”
Dr.
Jeanette
Atkinson
Associate
Tutor,
School
of
Museum
Studies,
University
of
Leicester
Well,
it’s
that
time
of
year
again
– summer
is
coming,
the
bluebells
are
out,
Research
Week
is
almost
upon
us
and
this
is
the
last
Brown
Bag
write
up
of
the
year.
Luckily,
it
went
out
with
class;
and
with
one
of
our
own.
Dr.
Jeanette
Atkinson
has
worn
many
hats
in
this
department,
having
been
involved
in
some
capacity
since
2004.
In
2008
she
completed
her
PhD
here. Entitled
‘Learning
to
Respect:
the
Perspectives
of
Heritage
Professionals
in
Aotearoa
New
Zealand’,
it focussed
upon
cultural
values
and
practices
for
educational
professionals
working
with
and
within
indigenous
communities.
Of
late
her
interest,
and
her
mode
of
research
employed
in
her
thesis,
has
been
turned
towards
costumed
communities,
including
re-enactors,
cosplayers
and,
in
particular,
steampunks.
In
wider
culture,
steampunk is often
seen
as
simply an
aesthetic;
certainly,
it
takes
much
inspiration
from
the
artistic
tone
of
the
Victorian
period.
But
it
has
an
interesting
history
which
suggests
there
is
something
more
to
it;
some
say
it
originated
as far back as the
1960s,
in
fact.
However,
the
culture
as
a
defined
phenomenon
really
began
to
take
off
in
the
1980s.
The
term
‘steampunk’
was
coined
by
the
author
K.
W.
Jeter
in
a 1987 letter to Locus Magazine, regarding his book, Morlock
Night,
which
was
highly
influenced
by
the
work
of
H.
G.
Wells.
He
used
it
to
describe
the
works
of
himself
and
others
which
exhibited
sensibilities
combining
steam
era
technology
and
ideals
with
fantasy
or
science-fiction
settings.
It
is
a
movement
grown
from
literature; but it, in turn,
influences current artistic production, and its
influence
has
reached
as
far
as
Hollywood
– the
most
recent
filmic
iteration
of
Sherlock
Holmes
has
something
of
its
tone.
But
its
sense
of
community
and
specificity
remains;
on
forums
such
as
Brass
Goggles,
Silver
Goggles
and
Beyond
Victoriana,
the
dedication
of
its
followers
– and
the
broadness
of
their
demographic
– becomes
immediately
apparent.
Museums
have
certainly
made
significant
recent
attempts
to
engage
with
cultures
defined
by
geographies
or
long
histories;
but
how
should
they
interact
with
those
communities
whose
membership
is
one
of
personal
choice?
All
culture
falls
under
the
remit
of
museums
in
general
(though
individual
institutions
obviously
interact
with
different
groups
in
different
ways)
so
openness
and
willingness
to
engage
with
those
with
whom
mutually
beneficial
relationships
can
be
constituted
should
be
maintained
-
no
matter
the
nature
or
origin
of
that
cultural
grouping.
How
do
such
relationships
develop
and
play
out
in
the
case
of
steampunk,
a
movement
in
which
Jeanette
has
developed,
and
continues
to
develop,
an
increasing
fascination.
Should
curators
take
an
interest
in
steampunk,
then?
If
so,
how
and
why
should
they
go
about
it?
Jeanette has found that responses
to
such
questions
are
mixed;
Philip
Warren,
Principal
Curator
at
Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Art Service (LCCH&AS),
which holds the
Symington
Collection
of
Corsetry,
Foundation
and
Swimwear,
seemed
unsure
when interviewed. In terms
of
actively
seeking
to
collect
and
display
steampunk
objects,
he
thinks it
prudent
that
curators
wait
and
see
if
the
culture
became
important
and
influential
enough
to
warrant
attempts
at
acquisition or display.
On
the
other
hand,
Professor
Jim
Bennett
of
the
Museum
of
the
History
of
Science
in
Oxford
sees
steampunk
as
a
movement
with
currency
and
popularity
– and
therefore
hugely
important
to
engage
with.
In
many
ways,
these
distinct
attitudes
themselves
highlight
different
cultures
of
curation;
one
predicated
upon
the
past
and
future,
the
other
with
a
foot
firmly
in
the
present.
This
difference
in
attitude
is
also,
I
suspect,
a
result
of
experience.
Having
been
approached
by
the
New
York
artist
Art
Donovan,
the
Museum
of
the
History
of
Science
played
host
to
the
world’s
first
exhibition
of
steampunk
art
between
October
2009
and
February
2010.
This
hugely
successful
exhibition,
though
it
was
displayed
in
a
narrow
corridor
space,
channelled
over
70
000
visitors
into
this
small
museum,
the
original
site
of
the
Ashmolean.
Since
then
other
museums,
particularly
those
of
a
scientific,
industrial,
or
technological
bent,
have
also
taken
part
in
such
events.
At
Snibston
Discovery
Museums’s
New
Age
of
Discovery,
staff
dressed
as
steampunks
took
visitors
on
a
performative
tour
of
the
collection,
and
later the
same
artists
involved
in
this
piece
of
museological
theatre
also
took
their
work
to
Bradford
Industrial
Museum.
Steampunks,
it
seems,
are
becoming
increasingly
visible
and
popular
partners
for
museums
of
a
particular
discipline.
Generally
projects have resulted in temporary
exhibitions
and
special
events,
but
Jeanette
points
out
that
museums
and
steampunks
are
also
building
relationships
through
their
shared
interests
in
material
culture.
For
all
that
the
curator
of
the
Symington
Collection
is reserved
about
the
collection
and
exhibition
of
steampunk
material,
he
has
little
issue
with
opening
his
holdings
to
members
of
that
community
for
the
purposes
of
research.
The relationship, it appears, is a truly
reciprocal one, and it
is
interesting
to
speculate,
as
Jeanette
does,
whether
and
how
far
museum
collections
are
influencing
the
‘authenticity’
of
steampunk
creations.
Two
questions
spring
immediately
to
mind.
One
is
to
do
with
curatorial
practice
and
desire,
the
other
with
the
ontology
of
authenticity
itself.
Firstly,
does the
increased
‘authenticity’
(perhaps
we
should
say
‘accuracy’)
of
a
steampunk
creation
enhances
or
inhibits
the
desire
of
a
museum
to
collect
it,
now
or
in
the
future?
Secondly, I
wonder
how the authenticity
is constituted and determined for
an
artefact
which
is
at
once
an
echoic
reference
and
a
thing
entirely
its
own?
Having
examined two methods of engagement – the production of
collaborative events and the sharing of information - the
wider
practices
and
negotiations
surrounding
their
initiation
need
to
be
investigated.
In
the
case
of
the
Museum
of
the
History
of
Science,
it
was
the
artist
who
approached
the
museum
and
connected
them
with
the
steampunk community.
Though
it
involved
some
collaboration,
particularly
in
terms
of
object
loans
and
advertising,
the
arrangement
and
interpretation
of
the
objects
remained
in
institutional
hands.
At
Kew
Bridge
Steam
Museum,
however,
it
was
the
museum
that
made
the
first
move.
Similar
events
were,
nonetheless,
held
at
both
institutions,
including fashion
shows
and
musical soirées;
much
of
the
joy
of
steampunk,
it
seems,
arises
in
social
interaction.
The
events
discussed
here
have
largely
been
of
a
temporary
nature
– less
emphasis
placed
on
the
kind
of
acquisitive
engagement
which
creates
and
displays
collections
and
objects
for
posterity.
The
V&A
collected
clothing and artefacts from subcultures both historic and
contemporary for
their
StreetStyle
displays;
but
such
practices
are
rare.
When
a
culture
is
living,
is
as mutable and changeable as
steampunk
is,
the
issues
surrounding
this
particular
musealising
practice
are
massive,
and
should
not
be
overlooked.
The
first
issue,
of
course,
is
a
practical
one.
When
considering
relationships
of
a
more
permanent,
acquisitive
nature,
museums
have
to
determine
various
things.
Is
the
relationship
a
mutually
beneficial
one?
Are
the
objects
and
activities
of
this
group
of
relevance
to
their
collection?
Do
they
have
the
ability,
or
even
the
right,
to
create collections
based
upon
the
current
cultural
visibility
of
a
phenomenon
and
a
prediction
of
its
future
relevance?
In
answering
these
questions,
whether
negatively
or
positively,
museums
must
make
bets
and
take
risks.
I
cannot
judge
which
risk
they
should
take
at
any
given
moment
and
in
every
case.
Prudence
is
well
and
good,
and
perhaps
for
the
moment
the
situation
in
the
case
of
steampunks
should
remain
spontaneous
and
event
based;
but
this
should
not
preclude
more
permanent
material
collections
being
developed
in
the
future.
I
would
certainly
suggest
that
it
is
short-sighted
of
an
institution
to
actively
shy
away
from
the
possibilities
which
such
cultural
engagements
offer.
That
question
of
spontaneity
leads
us
onto
a
second
issue;
cultural
propriety,
representation
and
musealisation.
Ethnographic
museums
have
been
embroiled
throughout
their
history
in
debates
about
cultural
representation,
Othering
and
the
ethnographic
present;
and
similar
issues
arise
when
considering
the collection, interpretation and display of contemporary
subcultures.
At
what
point
does
an
institution
begin
to
musealise
a
group
of
people,
and
what
are
the
implications
for
that
group
and
the
institution
when
and
if
they
do?
Will that act stultify
and
freeze
that group and its further development?
Certainly,
any
representation
made
will
be
a
mediated
snapshot.
In
that
case,
the
current
level
of
dialogic engagement
between
museums
and
steampunks
is
promising – it
suggests
that,
if
and
when
more
permanent
collecting
practices
begin
to
emerge,
it
will
be
on
the
community’s
terms
– a
very
different,
bottom
up
kind
of
anthropological
collection
building than
museum
history
has
often
seen.
The
modern
museum
needs
partners,
needs
interested
parties
with
whom
to
develop;
steampunks
of
all
kinds
are
often
willing
to
be
such
partners.
Every culture,
including
that
of
an
individual
museum,
constantly
undergoes
change,
and
all are
constantly
being reinterpreted
by
each
other.
They
are
mutually
constitutive
– they
may
not
depend
on
specific
groups
of
each
other
for
their
survival,
but
they
certainly
enrich
the
existences
of
those
cultures
with
whom
they
interact.
So
it
is,
perhaps,
opportunities
which
museums
and
those
who
engage
with
them
should
see,
and
take
up
when
they
are
able,
without
prejudice
or
expectation.
And
there,
my
friends,
I
leave
you;
for
this
is
my
last
Brown
Bag
of
the
year,
and
probably
my
last
Brown
Bag
ever.
I’ll
be
finishing
my
PhD,
hopefully,
by
the
time
the
next
wave
of
lunchtime
seminars
rolls
around,
and
so
I’ll
not
be
writing
to
you
in
this
capacity
again.
But don't worry – as you may have noticed, I'm leaving you in
several good pairs of hands. It’s
been
a
good
three
years,
and
I’ll
miss
it;
I’ve
certainly
learned
a
lot,
not
just
about
museum
studies
and
related
disciplines,
but
also
about
myself
and
others,
how
people
respond
in
debate
and
think
about
their
own
work
in
relation
to
those
of
their
peers
and
predecessors.
Writing
here
has
forced
me
to
question
presuppositions
and
expectations
of
my
own,
and
has
forced
me
to
think
about
my
own
writing,
and
how
to
express
and
interpret
the
ideas
and
work
of
a
multifarious
variety
of
people.
It's been quite a ride, chaps, and not always a smooth one;
nonetheless, it's been fun, and I
hope
you’ve
enjoyed
it
as
much
as
I
have.
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