Researchers on display: moving the laboratory into the museum

Morgan Meyer (1)

1 CSI i3 - Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation i3

An intriguing development is taking place in several European science museums: the move of university research laboratories into the space accessible to visitors. Seen as a means to encourage the public understanding of research and to render research practice more accessible to visitors, such laboratories-in-the-museum have been set up in museums in Munich, Berlin, Milan and Gothenburg. This paper is concerned with the changes that the laboratory undergoes through this relocation - namely a transformation of its social and material architecture; an extension of its object-world; and a change in, and multiplication of, the roles of researchers. The laboratory-in-the-museum not only represents, displays and explains a particular kind of space - the laboratory - but it is also designed to create space for dialogue and discussion between researchers and visitors.

Mots clés: science museums; laboratory-in-the-museum; Deutsches Museum; open research laboratory; public understanding of research; nanotechnology

Domaines: Sciences de l'information et de la communication; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Héritage culturel et muséologie; Sociologie; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique; Education

Morgan Meyer. Researchers on display: moving the laboratory into the museum. Museum Management and Curatorship, 2011, 26 (3), pp.261-272. ⟨10.1080/09647775.2011.585800⟩. ⟨hal-00603763⟩