Circuits of practice: Narrating modern computing in museum environments

In recent years, computing and digital media have become an increasingly prominent element of museum collections in the UK and globally. In the UK alone, established heritage institutions such as the National Science and Media Museum (2012) and the Science Museum (2014) have opened new permanent exhibitions about the history of ICT, while new museums of computing have been established in locations such as Bletchley Park (2007) and Cambridge (2014). At the same time, digital heritage has become a key subject of interest to museum-based researchers and practitioners, and computing and digital media a key object for media historians: over the past decade, several foundational histories of these new communication technologies were published, and digital history is now a vibrant, fast-growing scholarly field in its own right. These developments suggest that we are living through a key stage in the formation of both scholarly and public narratives about these new technologies - narratives that will, ultimately, also inform key decisions over what counts as historically significant, and thus what should be preserved and exhibited in museum environments. This offers a perfect moment for a reflective investigation of practices that govern the construction, dissemination and impact of narratives about new technologies, and for the generation of new, collaborative forms of knowledge that will be capable of informing both museum practice and scholarly debates addressing computing as part of historical heritage.

To produce this new knowledge, this project will examine the role of museums in constructing narratives about histories of computing through which the past, the present and the future of our societies are imagined and culturally constructed. Rather than adopting a standard scholarly approach that takes museums as objects of study, the project will treat them as equal partners in knowledge generation. Taking up the metaphor of the electronic circuit, where electrical connections between diverse components enable complex operations to be performed, the project will bring together curators from leading museums in the UK (Bletchley Park, the Centre for Computing History, The National Museum of Computing, the National Science and Media Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum), leading international institutions (the Computer History Museum in the USA, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation "Miraikan" in Japan, the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo Da Vinci" in Milan, Italy), a company partner (BT Group), and an interdisciplinary team of university-based researchers including PI Simone Natale, co-I Ross Parry and RA Petrina Foti. Leveraging emergent collaborative approaches based on the notion of community of practice, and using the protocols of design thinking and action research methods, the project will carry out a series of practice-led research interventions that will help address three key research questions: RQ1 (TIME): How can museums narrate the development of computers through time? RQ2 (OBJECTS): How can hardware and software artefacts be mobilized by museums to narrate histories of modern computing? RQ3 (DATA): How can museums narrate the role of information and data in computing histories?

Trough that, the project will enable transformative impact in the cultural sector, enhancing the capacity of heritage institutions to effectively collect, preserve and present relevant information about the development and societal impact of new technologies. Public engagement will be enhanced by dissemination activities conducted in collaboration with research partners, including a public-facing Research Report co-authored with research partners, which will provide a summary of key project findings and practical recommendations for best practices in the presentation and exhibition of computing heritage.

Circuits of Practice will impact on three key beneficiary groups: first, the UK museum partners; second, other UK and international cultural heritage institutions whose mission relates to the preservation and dissemination of histories of computing and digital technologies; third, indirect beneficiaries such as current and potential visitors of the museums. To generate impact on these groups of beneficiaries, a range of impact pathways strategies have been developed and planned.

Impact on the first group of beneficiaries, i.e. the UK museum partners, will be reached through three key means a) The research days organised at each of the partner institutions, which will provide insights and practical contributions for the assessments and improvement of current practices, the revision of existing exhibitions, and the development of new exhibitions. (b) The creation of a community of practice bringing together museum-based and university-based researchers to tackle a shared problem, which will improve existing collaborations and create new opportunity for collaboration. (c) A networking event hosted by the BT Group, to be held in Winter 2021, in coincidence with the 175th anniversary of the company. The event will provide a valuable opportunity for the museum partners to engage with the private sector.

Impact on the second group of beneficiaries, i.e. other UK and international cultural heritage institutions whose mission relates to the preservation and dissemination of histories of computing and digital technologies, will be achieved through two key means (a) The collaborative research report with best practice recommendations, which will be shared online through the project's website as well as the partners' websites, and disseminated through professional networks including the Museums Association, the Computer Conservation Society, and the Museum Computer Network. (b) An International Conference that will provide a space for the representatives of national and international institutions engaged with the history of computing to engage with the research findings and discuss problems of common interest with the members of the community of practice.

Finally, the project will also impact on current and potential visitors of the museums. Impact on this group of beneficiaries will be achieved in two main ways (a) Research outreach activities aimed at a broader public, including article in History Today, and LU Research Blog (b) Online and social media, including the project's website as well as the mobilisation of research partners' websites and social media through which blog articles and online multimedia materials, such as podcasts and slideshows, will be made available and disseminated widely.

The success of impact activities among each group of beneficiaries will be constantly monitored and measured during the project through a specific section of the project's management documentation, which will be administered by the RA. In the first weekly meeting of each month between the PI and the RA, this document will be examined and discussed, collecting evidence of impact achievements and planning corrective actions as needed. All research partners have committed to participate as co-authors of the Circuits of Practice research report, and will be asked to report on how the findings have been incorporated into practice; this will improve the project's capacity to measure and assess impact.