Museion concept

Hvis du tilfældgvis er i Lund om eftermiddagen torsdag den 13. marts, er du meget velkommen til mit seminar på Institutionen för Kulturvetenskaper vid Lunds Universitet. Jeg skal tala om de biopolitiske implikationer af at fokusere på ‘tingen i sig’. Her er abstractet: Vetenskapsmuseer och den materiella vändningen i humaniora – biopolitisk abdikation eller medborgarengagemang? […]

Her følger den tale som prodekan Birthe Høgh, Det Sundhedsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Københavns Universitet, holdt i forbindelse med åbningen af udstillingen MEDICOTEKNIK onsdag den 27. november 2013: Først mange tak til formand Kim Dremstrup for invitationen – og et stort tillykke til Dansk Medicoteknisk Selskab med 40-årsjubilæet – som fejres med åbningen af Medicinsk Museions udstilling […]

Hvordan kan og bør et universitetsmuseum udvikle sig i dag? Igennem flere år har vi internt ført diskussioner om Medicinsk Museions fremtidige udvikling. Jeg tror tiden er moden nu til at føre diskussionen ud i det offentlige rum – med fuld bevidsthed om den risiko, der ligger i, at internet-trolls og ondsindede journalister forplumrer den. […]

For et stykke tid siden fik vi en mail fra Hanne Schrøder, der er uddannelseskoordinator ved Sundhedsservicesekretæruddannelsen på Niels Brock handelsskole og en ofte tilbagevendende gæst på Medicinsk Museion. Hanne Schrøder indleder med at fortælle, hvor glad hun har været for at komme på museet sammen med sine elever, venner og familje: Jeg er kommet på […]

Har du læst vores vision? Den er lidt gemt væk her på siden, så jeg gentager den her: Som en del af Københavns Universitet virker Medicinsk Museion på den globale arena, men har også et ansvar som nationalt museum. Medicinsk Museions grundlæggende formål er at kvalificere den offentlige forståelse af sundhedsvidenskaberne og de medicinske teknologier – i fortiden, […]

A quick quote from Isabelle Stengers interesting book Cosmopolitics I (published in the series Posthumanities), which I feel sums up some of what we try to do at the Museion when we integrate aesthetics, politics, science communication and material culture: “The sciences, as they are taught, that is, as they are presented once their results […]

Who would have thought that the torrential rain during the dramatic storms seen in Copenhagen this weekend would have had such devastating consequences? The collection stores here at Medical Museion bore the brunt of it. In some places the water rose to 90 cm.  Dedicated members of the team arrived on Saturday and worked in […]

It’s nice, of course, to read ‘Three Unknown Places in Copenhagen Worth Exploring’ in today’s issue of denmark.net: Tired of the Little Mermaid and Tivoli Gardens? Here are three of Copenhagen’s less known tourist attractions … [the Sondermarken park, Cisternerne: Museum of Modern Glass Art  and] … Medicinsk-Historisk Museum. I assume denmark.net means Medical Museion, which has been our […]

Monday morning when the conservator arrived at the Medical Museion, and went down to the basement to continue her work on some damaged bones from the collection, she found herself standing in water up to her ankles. Like in many other parts of Zealand the heavy rains on Saturday had unexpected and unpleasant consequences for […]

Oslo-based medical photographer Øystein Horgmo (The Sterile Eye) made an incognito visit to Medical Museion two weekends ago — and has now written a very nice travel report + slide show, which includes some of the best photos of our artefacts on display that we’ve ever seen in the public domain. I’ve never had a chance to meet Øystein in […]

I’ve just had my abstract for the Universeum meeting in Uppsala in mid-June accepted. I’m posting a somewhat expanded version of the abstract here as a contribution to our ongoing discussion about Medical Museion’s identity: Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen is currently in a process of changing its identity. Founded in 1906, the Medical-Historical Museum […]

Museums are in a constant identity crisis, and so is ours. Ten years ago we were a typical medical-history museum, now we are thinking more about ourselves as a place for medical science communication. But we haven’t yet found a clear identity. Maybe we will never do, but the process of trying is nevertheless instructive. […]