皇家华人

The aim of the MiCLUES project is to explore the potential of smart devices to provide dynamic, rich, reconfigurable contexts and paths through the Royal College of Music鈥檚 Museum (RCM) collection. The project will take a small sample from the collection to develop proof-of concept demonstrators and evaluate these through visitor surveys.The digitisation of RCMs collection creates exciting opportunities to improve the experience of visitors to the museum through bespoke apps running on smart devices (e.g.  tablets / iphones).  These apps could guide a visitor on pathways through the museum according to their interest and link to contextually appropriate resources: for example an instrument may have spoken audio content to describe it.  The app could offer additional options to hear recordings of the instrument, recordings of music from the instrument鈥檚 historical period, and see related documents and images.  The app thus becomes a dynamic, rich, portable context and window into the museum鈥檚 larger collection offering a rounded multimedia experience to visitors.  Pathways may be curated by museum staff, planned by visitors in advance and downloaded to the device, or perhaps crowd-sourced.  Essentially they offer a guided navigation through the mesh of museum resources, artefacts and information, grounded in the physical space of the museum itself, with the physical exhibits as landmarks on the journey.  On moving away from the planned path, a return 鈥渞oute鈥� can be supported through dynamically generated thematic pathways (e.g. historical, geographical, stylistic) to provide a richer, user-driven experience of the collection.Read the project blog to find out more about MiCLUES Project LeadsNicolas Gold, Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, UCLGabriele Rossi Rognoni, Curator, Museum of Music, Royal College of Music 

Social prescribing links people to sources of community support to improve their health and wellbeing.  The Museums on Prescription project connected lonely older people at risk of social isolation to partner museums in Central London and Kent.   The project researched the processes, practices, value and impact of social prescription schemes in the arts and cultural sector with specific reference to museums (including galleries). Research questionsPhase 1 (July 2014 鈥� June 2015):How do existing social prescribing schemes work in UK cultural and arts organisations (and selected countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US and EU)?How were such schemes set up, who are the participants, what partners are involved and what were the critical success factors in implementation?What is the value and impact of such schemes to participants (e.g. patients) and key stakeholders (e.g. hosting organisations, local government, referrers)?Phase 2 (July 2015 鈥� June 2017):In the development of a new social prescription scheme (Museums on Prescription), targeting older adults, what will be the critical success factors in implementation, and what are the cost-benefits?What is the value and impact of a Museums on Prescription scheme for older adult participants in relation to social isolation, loneliness, psychological and subjective wellbeing?What is the value and impact of a Museums on Prescription scheme for stakeholders (museums, health/social care providers, third sector organisations) in two distinct settings: an urban setting (Central London) compared to a regional setting (Kent)?What is the value and impact of a Museums on Prescription scheme for a small museum (e.g. Islington Museum, The Beaney Museum) compared to a larger national museum (e.g. The British Museum)?How can lessons learned from the development of novel Museums on Prescription schemes be used to inform the practice of other museums through the creation of a standardised MoP model?How transferable will a Museums on Prescription model be to other museums?What can different data collection methodologies and techniques, from across the humanities, social sciences and health, tell us about understanding the value and impact of cultural activities on health and wellbeing.The project is supported by work carried out over several years into museums, touch and wellbeing, assessing the benefits of discussing and handling heritage objects in healthcare settings. Research teamProfessor Helen Chatterjee is the Principal Investigator and Head of the project. Helen is a Professor of  Biology in UCL鈥檚 School of Life and Medical Sciences, and Head of Research and Teaching in UCL Culture.Professor Paul Camic is Co-Investigator and Professor of Psychology & Public Health and Research Director, Salomons Centre for Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University.Paul Camic's website Dr Linda Thomson is the project鈥檚 Lead Postdoctoral Research Associate and Cognitive Psychologist at 皇家华人.Dr Bridget Lockyer is the project's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University.Dr Theo Stickley is the project鈥檚 External Advisor and Associate Professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. London and Kent workshopsWorkshops held during Nov 2015 provided opportunities for an exchange of ideas about museum sessions for older adults including access, recruitment and suitability of activities.Workshop presentations & resources:UCL_MoP_Overview.pdfBeaney_Discussion_Points.pdfUCL_Museums_Offer.pdfMaidstone_Museum_Offer.pdfFor a review of Social Prescribing see:Chatterjee, HJ, Camic, PM, Lockyer, B and Thomson, LJ (2017) Non-clinical community interventions. A systematised review of social prescribing schemes. Arts & Health. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2017.1334002Partner organisationsAge UK Camden, Canterbury, Islington, Maidstone and Tunbridge WellsArts Council EnglandThe British MuseumThe British Postal Museum and ArchiveCamden Council (Housing and Adult Social Care)Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (Camden Psychological Services)Canterbury Christ Church UniversityCanterbury Museums and GalleriesCentral Saint Martins Museum and Study CollectionThe Claremont ProjectIslington Museum and ArchivesKent County Council (Children, Families and Education)Kent and Medway NHS Partnership TrustMaidstone Museum & Bentlif Art GalleryNew Economics Foundation (NEF Consulting)Royal Society for Public HealthTunbridge Wells Museums & Art GalleryUCL Museums & Collections

MUSO is an experimental new show presented by improvising opera troupe, Impropera and the Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL Culture, which invites audiences into museums and galleries after dark for an experience like no other. During the show visitors go on a journey through a collection and are invited to seek out hidden artefacts, share their responses, hear from an expert and watch as a completely improvised musical show is created on the spot based on their ideas.MUSO is the first of its kind of performance; an explosive collaboration between opera, academia, art and science that places the audience at the heart of the show.What audiences say:"What a lovely light-hearted way to experience something extra about the exhibits""Nice to have audience participation and an opportunity to interact with the collections""My discovery was sung about so made the experience extra special, loved being part of the show"MUSO Singing Museums to Life Tour  Starting at the British Museum, MUSO embarked on a tour of London museums over 2018. Over the exciting tour the MUSO company explored collections of fine art, zoology, anthropology, musical instruments, history of science and archaeology. The MUSO company collaborated with evolutionary biologists, astrophysicists, anthropologists and philosophers from UCL and Curators from the British Museum, Science Museum, Wallace Collection and UCL Museums and with the help of audiences from all across London will bring museums and their collections to life through song.  MUSO to dateMUSO started life as a research and development project in the Grant Museum of Zoology and as part of the project also hosted the Theatrically Re-imagining Collections conference supported by Arts Council England. The conference  brought over 130 practitioners together to discuss ideas and practice around collaborations between performance companies and museums. A diverse range of museums and heritage organisations such as the V+A, British Museum National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces. 18 performance companies such as Sherman Cymru, Frantic Assembly, Trinity Laban and the Nottingham Playhouse were also in attendance along with representatives from Wellcome.   MUSO in the pressMuseum ID Magazine: Singing Museums to Life: Improvised Opera, Audiences and Collections Miro Magazine: Muso by Impropera 鈥� Singing Hidden Treasures to Life MUSO reviews Five stars from Spy in the Stall  Five stars from London TheatreFour stars from the Review Hub The people behind MUSODavid PearlArtistic Director, ImproperaChiara AmbrosioLecturer in History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Science and Technology StudiesDean VeallLearning and Access Officer, Grant Museum of Zoology[[{"fid":"5863","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Star shaped logo for UCL Grand Challenges","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][format]":"limited_html","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Star shaped logo for UCL Grand Challenges","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][format]":"limited_html","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":"1943","width":"2244","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]  The MUSO: Singing Museums to Life 2018 tour is generously supported by the UCL Grand Challenges, a cross-disciplinary research-related initiatives at 皇家华人, London鈥檚 Global University, intended to benefit the world. 

The Natural History Public Engagement Bootcamp is a four week course tailored specifically to supporting early career researchers and postgraduate students who carry out research on the natural environment and are interested in public engagement. The four sessions that comprises the course will be interactive and provide practical opportunity to explore the variety of ways in which researchers can interact and involve public groups. The Natural History Public Engagement Bootcamp aims to:Increase and develop postgraduate students鈥� skills relevant to public engagementDevelop postgraduate students鈥� knowledge and attitudes to enable them to embed public engagement into their research activityBuild a community of peer support between students attending the courseEnable the creation and enhancement of internal and external networks between students, staff and organisationsCreate and enable opportunities to experiment with, reflect on, evaluate and learn from different types of public engagementThe course is developed in collaboration with the Discovery and Learning team at ZSL. Course outline:Session one will provide a background of what public engagement with research and context for developing participants鈥� skills around public engagement.  Session two will allow participants to meet practitioners and hear first-hand experiences of public engagement and understand the importance of communication and practical tips on public speaking.Session three will revolve around critical reflection of examples of public engagement with research and will provide practical skills looking at activity formats.Session four will provide practical skills where participants can plan and implement their ideas around public engagement with their research and understand the importance of evaluation.   Deadline for applications close on Sunday 21 January 2018. If you would like to join in the training please fill out the application form and return it to Dean Veall 

Our research explores how taking part in museum and gallery activities can have positive health and wellbeing benefits. We are working with four audience groups: people living with dementia in hospital settings, stroke survivors in community and hospital settings, mental health service-users and addiction recovery service-users. The research seeks to understand the impact and value of museum activities for a diverse range of audience groups.Research questionsThe project is guided by a number of research questions:- How do museum activities support health and wellbeing outcomes?- How can they help contribute to recovery for mental health and addiction service-users?- How can they contribute to stroke rehabilitation?- How can they support dementia care?- What are the short-term impacts (over a 6 to 10 week programme) and what are the longer-term impacts (after 3 and 6 months) for participants- What different methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) from multiple disciplinary perspectives can help us to understand the value and impact of cultural activities?- How can lessons learned across the project be used to inform the practice of other museums through the creation of a framework for evaluating museums in health programmes with diverse audiences?The research is supported by wider work of the team into museums and wellbeing, which examines the benefits of handling heritage objects in healthcare settings, and the value of museum programmes for older adults within a social prescribing model.Research Team: Prof. Helen Chatterjee is the Principal Investigator and head of the project, a Professor in Biology UCL Biosciences, and Head of Research and Teaching for UCL Culture. Dr Nuala Morse is the project鈥檚 Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester and Honorary Researcher at 皇家华人 Culture.Dr Linda Thomson is the project鈥檚 Senior Research Associate and Cognitive Psychologist at 皇家华人.Wendy Gallagher is on the project research team and is the Arts and Health Partnership Manager for the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum, University of Manchester.Zo毛 Brown is on the project research team and is the Outreach Officer for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.Project Website: Follow news and updates about the project www.healthandculture.org.uk/not-so-grim-up-north

This speculative exhibition inspired by fictional accounts of the Anthropocene aims to generate a sense of responsibility for caring for our planet now.Objects of the Misanthropocene: Unearthing futures is the latest output of the 鈥極bjects of the Misanthropocene鈥� project, which was initiated in 2019 and continues to evolve through a series of co-produced events hosted by the Illegal Museum of Beyond.The exhibition in the Octagon Gallery was centred on the premise of a future museum that has sent objects back in time. These 鈥榯ime-travelling鈥� objects were made by wide-ranging project participants across UCL and beyond. Many objects were produced specifically for this exhibition. These sat alongside objects from UCL Collections and loans from the Museum of Beyond.Objects of the Misanthropocene: Unearthing futures, curated by Dean Sully and Jo Volley in collaboration with UCL Museums and Cultural Programmes, would like to thank all project participants, contributors, artists, makers and curators of UCL Museums for their creative input.Find out more about the origins, inspiration, and contributors behind the making of this exhibition below.Origins and processProject backgroundRecent global environmental changes suggest we have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch. Having left the Holocene, we have now entered the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene describes the most recent period in Earth鈥檚 history in which human activity has generated irreversible planetary transformations at multiple levels (climate change, biodiversity, composition of the atmosphere, oceans and living organisms).Currently, researchers across UCL are working together to respond to this geological phenomenon. Through the virtual school 鈥楿CL Anthropocene鈥�, projects from across the social sciences, arts, humanities and natural sciences have been assem卢bled to explore what the Anthropocene means for our collective futures.Among these projects is Objects of the Misanthropocene, conceived as a transdisciplinary experiment in speculative practice by Dean Sully during his time as Scientist in Residence at the Slade School of Fine Art between 2019 and 2021. The 鈥楳isanthropocene鈥� is characterised by the rapid and irreversible alterations to the climate and global depletion of resources caused by humans. The concept signals a cautionary tale about the catastrophic implications for all life on Earth of our present inaction.At the core of the project are the inevitable misinterpretations involved in attempts to understand other worlds. The reality of the time travelling exhibits relies on the credibility of the proposed futures, and the believability of the exhibits to a contemporary audience. This maintains a suspension of disbelief about the objects in presenting the histories of futures already long passed but which have not yet existed. Speculative methods of embracing both fact and fiction are critical tools to shape more hopeful futures.This project manifests as an online exhibition that opened in August 2020 and has been developed into a temporary exhibition at the Slade School of Fine Art at 皇家华人 (January 鈥� June 2022), UCL Institute of Archaeology (currently on display), and as an exhibition in the Octagon Gallery, Wilkins Building (September 2022 鈥� February 2023).What鈥檚 next?The Illegal Museum of Beyond continues to host events that challenge the authority of narratives of past and future worlds. Using participatory speculation, the Museum develops heritage projects through online workshops on fabulation and fabrication. New venues for the Objects of the Misanthropocene exhibition will be announced soon.Inspiration"The point of creating futures is to get people to imagine what they want and don鈥檛 want to happen down the road 鈥� and maybe do something about it.鈥� -    Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976)鈥�...I'll use these verses to pry them loose from the rotting past, and maybe push them into saving themselves and building a future that makes sense." -    Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)" We must expect our present beliefs will seem equally ridiculous in the future."-    Tim Mulgan, Ethics for a Broken World, Imagining Philosophy after Catastrophe (2011) Further readingA range of literary fictional worlds have provided inspiration for the Objects of the Misanthropocene project. Here are some key texts:Butler, Octavia, 1993. 'Parable of the Sower'. London: Headline Publishing.Lewis, S.L., and Maslin, M.A. 2015. 鈥淒efining the Anthropocene.鈥� Nature 519: 171鈥�180.Mulgan, Tim. 2011. 'Ethics for a broken world, imagining philosophy after catastrophe'. Durham: Acumen.Macaulay, David. 1979. 'Motel of the Mysteries'. Boston: Houghton Mifflin CompanyOreskes, Naomi, and Conway, Erik, M. 2014. 'The Collapse of Western Civilization. A View from the Future'. New York: Columbia University PressPiercy, Marge. 1976 (2019). 'Woman on the Edge of Time'. London: Delray.Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. 'The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins'. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press.Yusoff, Kathryn. 2018. 'A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None'. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.ContributorsThe process of conceiving, fabricating, translating, and presenting the exhibits was first developed through transdisciplinary online exchanges during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Participants from UCL, the Architectural Association School of Architecture and Goldsmith鈥檚 Department of Design contributed to the fabulation and fabrication of the exhibits. The approach reflects the methodologies of the environmental humanities and ecocriticism, in allowing audiences to experience a physical interpretation of future worlds.This online workshop format was replicated for the fabrication of the new objects on display in the UCL Octagon Gallery exhibition, Objects of the Misanthropocene: Unearthing futures. Below is a list of contributors to the Octagon Gallery exhibition.Artists and makersAlitza Nichole Cardona CollazoAntonia Calcedo Holgu铆nChristine ChuaDean SullyFuna YeHannah UzorJimmy LoizeauJohann AustadJo VolleyKasia Depta-GarapichKexin JiangKimberly SelvaggiKorallia StergidesLi Xiaozhou (Ariel) Lisa RandisiLucy WaittMadeleine TreneerMerry ChowRobert MeadRosie PhillipsYu Hsuan Chang (Jocelyne)Yuhan XiaoThe Museum of BeyondSeveral of the objects in Objects of the Misanthropocene: Unearthing Futures are on loan from The Museum of Beyond.The Museum of Beyond imagines a future beyond oil... it's a life without plastics, and yet plastic fragments of our Oil Age lives continue to wash up on the shores of our oceans. Curated by artist Fran Crowe, the museum sees the present through future eyes, imagining what future generations might make of these plastic objects collected from our shoreline - and what they might think about us. Fran hopes that by thinking about the way we live now; we can begin to imagine how we might create a better future for all life on our planet. You can explore the museum鈥檚 full collection at www.museumofbeyond.org.More of Fran鈥檚 work can be found at www.flyintheface.com.UCL MuseumsObjects of the Misanthropocene: Unearthing Futures also includes contributions from UCL Collections: the Grant Museum of Zoology, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, and UCL Science Collections. With thanks to Lisa Randisi, Anna Garnett, Hannah Cornish and Tannis Davidson.Exhibition curatorsJo Volley and Dean Sully in collaboration with UCL Museums and Cultural Programmes team.Exhibition graphic designRose NordinIllegal Museum of Beyond website designKatherine BeckwithLi Xiaozhou (Ariel)With thanks toAparna DholeCamilo Parra PedrozaClare MelhuishClemency GibbsLi YiwenLingyi KongMarceline Graham Michele FarmerNicole ZhouPun Sam YeeSu YinEventsThe Objects of the Misanthropocene events programme ran until February 2023.