Ingenious is a new, free online resource, which is home to over 30,000 objects and images from the Science Museum, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, and the National Railway Museum, writes Charlotte Stone. The project was established to digitise a large portion of the material held by these museums that together make up the National Museum of Science & Industry (NMSI), and to develop a website to place these images in the context of science and culture.
The project was an opportunity to create thematic links between the content of each institution. An overall vision for the website was needed that incorporated images of science and technology and images of aesthetic and reportage value. We set out to build it around the concept of science and culture, to consider scientific and technological development from within people?s daily lives. In order to fulfil this aim the team had to define clearly what was meant by ?culture?. The result was a three-layered approach: high culture, social history and culture in terms of ?multicultural within Britain?. From this definition we began to develop a thematic approach to choosing and structuring content. Our target audiences, like the collections, crossed the boundaries of the sciences and the arts. In broad terms, the target audience was seen as adult lifelong learners, and we identified specific groups, from enthusiasts to picture researchers. The choice of material to be digitised had to match the main thematic aim of the whole site and appeal specifically to our target audiences as well as have aesthetic and historical value.
In order to develop the idea of science and culture further, we put together a series of articles under each subject. The topics range from ?Addiction? to ?Representing War? and authors were chosen from across NMSI, with specialisms varying from the history of medicine to the history of television. All refer to culture under the terms we had defined. They discuss the past, present and future and offer a unique angle on a common concern.
By opening up the collections we have created an opportunity for our material world to be discussed from a variety of perspectives. We have tried not to pigeonhole the content but, instead, to broaden its appeal, making it meaningful to more than a single discipline or history.
Charlotte Stone is NOF Content Manager for the National Museum of Science & Industry. e: charlotte.stone@nmsi.ac.uk; w: http://www.ingenious.org.uk