Transforming the Natural History Museum in London: Isotype and the New Exhibition Scheme
Perks, Sue (2015) Transforming the Natural History Museum in London: Isotype and the New Exhibition Scheme. In: Museum Media. The International Handbooks of Museum Studies, 3 . Wiley Blackwell, pp. 389-418. ISBN 9781405198509
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The original role of the transformer stems from Isotype (the International System of Typographic Education) originated by Dr Otto Neurath in 1925 for use at the Social and Economic Museum (Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum) in Vienna, as a form of mediation between academics and designers to create accessible charts and exhibits. Neurath’s charts were designed to educate and inform the citizens of ‘Red Vienna’ about important social and political matters, under the auspices of the Social Democratic regime (1919–1934), which used pedagogy as a political tool to elicit power. Half a century on, Dr. Roger Miles and his team redefined the role of the transformer in the Natural History Museum (London) to devise the ‘New Exhibition Scheme’ (NES) in response to their need to fulfil their 1753 mandate that stated that exhibitions existed for the ‘general use and benefit of the public’, which they were failing to do in the 1960s.
This essay evidences the adoption and implementation of the role of the Isotype transformer in NES during the 1970s and 1980s. Miles adopted the role to attempt to restore audience-friendly educational exhibits to an institution at risk of losing touch with its audience. The concept of transformation is discussed in its historical iterations; how the model was applied in the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (1925-1934) and its adaptation for use in the Natural History Museum fifty years later. The two museums were vastly different both in location, scale and political climate, but both shared a common need to design educational exhibits for a lay audience. The essay will culminate by discussing the effects that this revitalized way of working had on museum professionals and its far-reaching legacy in the museum sector as a whole. It will seek to expose the legacy of transformation, ultimately qualifying whether the role maintains its usefulness and endurance in a contemporary context.
Based on a chapter of my PhD 'The Legacy of the Principles of Isotype', 2012.
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