Thursday 26 July 2018

Messy Realities: The Secret Life of Technology

Messy Realities: The Secret Life of Technology is a Public Engagement with Research project at the Pitt Rivers Museum, funded by the Wellcome Trust. Led by project researcher, Gemma Hughes, from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, the project was delivered in collaboration with me and Jozie Kettle, the Pitt Rivers Museum Public Engagement with Research Officer.

The team includes researchers, Museum staff, designers from Rycotewood, people living with long-term health needs, their family and friends. As a group we shared stories about the role technology has in our everyday lives. These conversations were stimulated  by handling UK medical technologies and worldwide objects from the Museum collections that show how cultures from across the world have developed objects to support their health needs. By placing diverse types of objects together we were able to see how museum objects could be reinterpreted as assisted living technologies. 

A collection of objects, a medicine box made from a nut from India, an Inro from Japan and Tupperware bought in the UK
Medicine Box made from a Nut, India, [1893.5.5]
Inro for Medicine, Japan [1920.16.2.1], Sistema Tupperware, UK,
 © Pitt Rivers Museum/Nuffield Dept of Primary Care Health Sciences
We started by talking about the central role Tupperware has in many of our lives, from keeping left over food edible and safe from bacteria, to making taking our pills a simpler task.  We looked at how wearable technologies such as a leopard claw amulet from
Ghana protects against drowning, in the same way a pendant alarm from the UK protects against falls, and the crucial role human belief and interaction has in these technologies working. 

Walking frames from the UK and two knobkerries used as walking sticks from South Africa
Walking frames and sticks, UK, with carved Knobkerries,
South Africa
©  Pitt Rivers Museum/Nuffield Dept of Primary Care Health Sciences

We thought about how technologies from across the world hold meaning, are personalised and adapted, and how technology can support individuals as their long-term health needs progress. This can be exemplified by the metal walking frames, traditionally given out in the UK,  which are generic and can be seen as lowering the status of their user, next to Knobkerries from South Africa which are crafted as hunting weapons and transformed in later life in to walking sticks that demonstrate the user's community status as an elder.

Nico shows the group an Inro from Japan, used as a medicine box [1920.16.2.1]
Nico shows the group an Inro from Japan, used as a medicine box [1920.16.2.1]
© Pitt Rivers Museum/Nuffield Dept of Primary Care Health Sciences
The group visited behind-the-scenes of the Museum, including meeting Nico from Collections in the research space to view collection objects; and visiting Jem and Andrew in the conservation lab to see how progression in objects is diagnosed and treated.

Andrew shows the group an object he is conserving in the Conservation lab
Andrew shows the Messy Realities Group an object he is conserving
in the Conservation Lab
© Pitt Rivers Museum/Nuffield Dept of Primary Care Health Sciences



Jean and Paro, the Robotic Seal, meet each other
Jean and Paro, the Robotic Seal, meet each other
© Pitt Rivers Museum/Nuffield Dept of Primary Care Health Sciences
We also had a visit from Paro, a robotic seal, and handler, Professor George Leeson, Director of the Oxford Institute for Population Ageing,  who talked about how Paro, which can respond to human interactions has supported people living with Dementia.

Our four weeks of conversations led us to believe that technologies can exist in isolation of people but work better when they are person-centred and their use is supported by community and human interaction.  This led designers, Michael and Phil to work on person-centred design with Sheila, Phil and Isla to imagine new technologies that would better support their lives. 

The group visited behind-the-scenes of the Museum, including meeting Nico from Collections in the research space to view collection objects; and visiting Jem and Andrew in the conservation lab to see how progression in objects is diagnosed and treated.

Messy Realities exhibition with visitor comments
Messy Realities Exhibition with Visitor Comments
© Pitt Rivers Museum

On 23rd July 2018, we launched our co-produced display, Messy RealitiesThe Secret Life of Technology which brings together our four weeks of conversations and comments. We are hoping to collect visitor ideas of what Technology means to them to continue the conversation with Museum visitors. The display is up from now until the 28th September, so please come and add your comments. 

Messy Realities Launch Event, July 2018
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Messy Realities has transformed my practice and has made me rethink the way I engage with communities across the programmes I support. By bringing together people from a  range of backgrounds and experiences we were able to have new conversations, outside of our bubbles of influence which have contributed to new ideas for research, to everyone’s confidence in the importance of our opinions, and to developing new ways of working in the Museum. 

If anything reminds me to continue this new model of practice, this email from Jean, one of our group members, will be it:

‘I asked Sheila for your email address so that l could say a really big THANKYOU for the Pitt Rivers sessions. 

As you can see l am taking advantage of the little bit of IT technology l have managed to acquire.

I have enjoyed them very much indeed. It felt like being a student again. I wasn’t a teacher, wife, mother, helper, carer etc, responsible for others, but just ME.

I don’t know what came over me on Monday. I have never spoken out like that in my life. I was the one who sat at the back and let others hold forth. I hope l was not too inarticulate.

I have never taken recreational drugs but l was on such a ‘high’ after Monday’s session l imagine that’s what it is like.’



Beth McDougall
Families and Communities Officer

Monday 16 July 2018

West Oxford School find out about Nigeria in Take One... Country

The country selected by West Oxford Community Primary School for the focus of their annual Take One project was Nigeria and what better place to come to than the Pitt Rivers Museum? Over two weeks every class from Reception to Year 6 visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to handle and look at Nigerian artefacts.  These visits inspired art and craft work which culminated in the summer art exhibition open to parents and the local community.  I was lucky enough to visit this fabulous exhibition at the start of July and was overwhelmed by the creative, colourful and diverse responses to the Nigerian collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Photo of a large school hall displaying masks, pictures and sculptures
Take One.. Country Exhibition at West Oxford Primary School © Pitt Rivers Museum

During their 90 minute visit to the Pitt Rivers pupils looked closely at Nigerian masks, exploring the concept of masquerade where there is an attempt to make contact with village ancestors through costumed dance and song. They also had a chance to handle and test out talking drums, dance anklets and masks. To find out more about masquerades read our West Africa Masks and Carving Factsheet or visit our fabulous displays!  Pupils also looked at ways status can be conveyed through looking closely at the Benin Court Art display as the Kingdom of Benin is in southern Nigeria.  They discovered that a leopard is a sign of royal power and that in the seventeenth century the Oba (King) walked tame leopards round the city on a lead!


Photo of a leopard brass mask - the spots of the leopard are raised from the surface
Leopard Brass Mask 1965.9.1 B © Pitt Rivers Museum
A photo of a clay mask made by a Year 6 pupil painted in a bronze colour
Year 6 Clay Leopard Mask © Pitt Rivers Museum




A self-guided trail around the Pitt Rivers also enabled pupils to discover the wide range of arts and crafts generated within Nigeria.  Pupils loved tracking down the objects, highlighted with a Nigerian flag sticker, and saw fabulous objects such as leather riding boots made by the Hausa people from Northern Nigeria or beaded fans made by Yoruba artists in Western Nigeria.  Pupils also looked at a Yoruba wooden sculpture of Queen Victoria, touching on the colonial history of Nigeria.


A pair of high leather boots coloured red, light and dark brown rising well above the knee
Hausa Riding Boots 1904.54.24.1
© Pitt Rivers Museum
Photo of round fan covered in brightly coloured beads in a pattern featuring two human faces
Yoruba Beaded Fan 1965.12.45 © Pitt Rivers Museum


Pupils used what they had seen as a creative springboard to produce a wide range of art and craft work ranging from beaded fans, masquerade masks, tie-dye T-shirts, fabric designs, embroidered animals to leopard sculptures!  This encapsulates the approach of the National Gallery's Take One... brand which encourages schools to take one picture or object, and use it to foster pupils' critical and creative thinking. West Oxford Community Primary School have enterprisingly extended this concept to include Take One Country, focussing on India at The Ashmolean last year and now Nigeria at the Pitt Rivers Museum.  I'm looking forward to finding out where we might be travelling to next year!

Two fans made from black cardboard with beads stuck on the top
Beaded Fan made by Reception pupil © Pitt Rivers Museum


Indigo coloured T-shirts pegged up on a line in a school hall
Tie dye T-shirt inspired by indigo dyed Adire Cloth © Pitt Rivers Museum

On a table there are several leopard box sculptures with a photo of the original leopard box from the Pitt Rivers
Leopard Sculptures inspired by a Yoruba Leopard Box 1919.10.1 © Pitt Rivers Museum

If you would like to find out more about the project, develop you own Take One experience or book existing Take One sessions then please contact rebecca.mcvean@prm.ox.ac.uk
Staff INSET can be delivered as part of project work.

If you are studying Benin or are interested in finding out more about the masquerade masks then consider booking our Guided trail - Africa, highlighting Benin.

As you can see the stimulus of the collections here produce some amazing creative results!  As a teacher from West Oxford Primary School stated:
"This was a class act - well presented, great resources and good communication beforehand.  Great balance - pupils were able to touch and hold objects, discuss, listen, look at cabinets.'

Becca McVean
Primary School Education Officer
Pitt Rivers Museum