UK Training
Met training in Cambourne
Climbing masts in Taunton
Abseiling in Derbyshire
First aid in Derriford
Fire training

The Voyage South
Crossing to America
Montevideo
The Falklands
Sub- Antarctic Islands
The Brunt Iceshelf

Halley Research Station
Living on an ice shelf
Summer
Winter
Recording the weather
Holidays

8 August 2006
Last Thursday we had a 'Working Coffee' - where a mixture of people from our museum got together to have a presentation and discussion. Last week's theme was art in science exhibitions. Key themes included how artists are different to designers and whether a piece by an artist can be a valid interpretation method for science 'facts'. I put 'facts' in hyphens because I'm a fervent constructivist.

My conclusion is that as interpreters, artists can be just as esoteric or literal as many designers, but we give a freedom to artists that makes art pieces less 'samey'. Maybe if we want to avoid our exhibitions being dull we need to let the personalities of the developers and designers shine in the exhibits rather than committee them to death.

13 July 2006
Today I went to a joint reading group between various museums in South Kensington and the CILS at Kings. We were given a paper to read which was basically saying that visitors to museums can find the process of learning fun. The majority of visitors to museums put 'enjoyment' and 'learning' as the key things they want to get out of their visit. I suppose what this paper was saying was that these things don't necessarily have to be seperate; that you can enjoy learning things.

When I worked at another museum (not a million miles away from here), I worked on a gallery about energy where we tried 'learning by stealth'. In other words, that you were enjoying something so much you didn't realise that you were learning. This is a bit like how small children learn. They learn through play.

I have to say that play strikes me as being a lot more fun than learning. Why can't adults learn through play too?

12 July 2006
I have decided to change this section to a diary about my new adventure which is helping to create a new exhibition about Antarctica for the Natural History Museum in London.

I started working on this project last November at it opens in May next year, 2007. I am the Interpretation Developer which means that I help to decide and write the content for the exhibition.

So keep your eyes peeled...

Disclaimer:
This communication does not necessarily reflect the corporate view of the Natural History Museum London.