The Museum
The Museum/Gallery has been on a global high—the number of museums built world-wide has exploded. In the design of the Museum, there has been a certainty about what the museum should be, including its spatial sequences, conditions, viewing conditions, all of which is disconnected from the questioning and uncertainty of art. Can the Museum be reconsidered?—that is the subject of this studio.
Trinity
Trinity College Dublin is a university composed of a classical courtyard surrounded by walls in the centre of Dublin. The University walls kept the city at bay for centuries and that distancing allowed the University to grow with its own structure, unencumbered by the city’s development. Today, Trinity has opened its doors but walking through the gates has the quality of stepping into another world.
The western side of the University retains the spacious green quads of a made-for-TV university while the eastern side that abuts the former working class neighbourhoods of the docklands is home to a densely packed series of teaching buildings. It is in these peripheral areas between the wall of the University that abut the city and the green quads that Trinity finds its expansion space. It is also here that Trinity’s Science Gallery is located.
The science gallery
In the Science Gallery’s own words: “Our mission is to ignite creativity and discovery where science and art collide. Our vision is to catalyse the creation of the world’s leading network for involving, inspiring and transforming curious minds through science. We achieve this by encouraging our audience to discover, express and pursue their passion for science through an ever-changing programme of exhibitions, events and experiences, all vividly brought together at the dynamic intersection where science and art collide.”
The Science Gallery occupies a street-front location of an office building: its advantage is its visibility; its disadvantage is space—it’s too small and inevitably the visitor to the exhibition feels this lack of depth.
The Science Gallery has been very successful in reaching the 16-25 age group and has achieved this partially as a result of its engagement with students who are an active and visible part of the Gallery.
Ireland
Ireland is most accurately described as an Atlantic economy. It is a part of the EU; however, its distance from the continent, and its scale—a small island—means that it operates almost like a city state—a trading centre between the US and Europe. Given the importance of science and research to the global economy, it is a governmental priority to increase the importance of the sciences in education.
The brief
Trinity is developing a new student centre somewhere in the peripheral space along its walls. Co-locate an expanded Science Gallery with this student centre.
Trip proposal
A visit to Dublin to the site and Science Gallery—the last day of the current exhibition is the 11th February. Ideally the students would have the chance to see the gallery in operation. London is a hub of museums and is a short hop from Dublin. 2 day trip to London to see the Museum in its various forms:
-Welcome Centre
-John Soane Museum
-Newport Street Gallery
-Tate
Trip dates and tentative programme
Arrive in Dublin no later than the morning of February 11th, ideally fly night of the 9th to arrive on the morning of the 10th.
Visit Trinity and the Science Gallery on Sunday, the 11th
Monday 12th, Site and city on a weekday
Tuesday 13th and Wed 14th London—Flights from DUB to London airports are very cost effective
Thursday 15th Review in Dublin
Some references and thoughts
https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/ https://www.tcd.ie/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/t-magazine/art/artist-residency-science.html http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/the-1991-tokyo-museum-exhibition-that-was-onlyaccessible- by-telephone-fax-modem.html