Could this be the best museum show ever?
The world’s first exhibition of Steampunk art!
You may have noticed that this blog has had a fair few posts about MuseoPunk but today I want to bring up a different punk category.. this time: Steampunk the internet’s very own art form!
Why?… well because this steampunk exhibit at Oxford University’s Museum of the History of Science, looks awesome!
In addition to the links above also check out:
* The Museum’s Steampunk Programme
* The Museum’s publication Broad Sheet: Steampunk Special Edition, which includes a specially commissioned Steampunk comic strip created by Sydney Padua.
Anyone who goes and wants to review it on this blog… please let me know. I may need a bribe… maybe those steampunk glasses?
No
Short review in answer to your question:
No
Pete,
Ruining peoples fantasies is not big and its not clever… doing it twice is just plain mean!
Sorry, but after all the clever marking, pretty posters and whacking-great-big sign on the front of the museum, the “exhibition” is about 20 feet of corridor around the back. The objects are great, but the way it has been done, you get just as much enjoyment from looking at pictures on the internet. Seriously, very very small cramped space that is essentially a queue. You can’t stop to look as it holds everyone up, so you can do it all in about 15 minutes.
And there’s your review!
That’s kind of sad, I thought from the cool looking sign and the excellent online advertising it would have a bigger space… actually I’ve never been to that museum but I presume it has bigger spaces too?
Shame, but the objects are cool, right… coz they look great online. OK… Ill just live in my fantasy bubble that it was an amazing an expansive exhibition that lived up to its fancy marketing. (damn, marketing… gets me every time).
Cheers < Dan
Hello, All,
Yes, the space is rather small. I’d rather refer to it a intimate.
It’s too bad that we have been so inured to the huge, ego-maniacal proportions of today’s museum and gallery spaces, that we gauge the quality of a show by the square footage.
The Museum of the History of Science is the oldest, purpose-built museum building in the world. In it’s aura, architectural details, history and brilliant directorship, the MoHS was the perfect venue for Steampunk.
As an aside, we didn’t do any fancy on-line advertising. The net picked up on it because it is the very first museum exhibition of the genre- Hence the interest.
Thank you, though, Dan, for the beautiful posting. It is truly appreciated.
My Best Regards and see you all at that tiny, jewel of a traditional museum in February.
Art Donovan, Curator.
Hi Art Donovan,
Thanks for your comments, that’s interesting that the exhibit wasn’t specifically advertised but was picked up on. Although, I am sure the quality of the production of posters, and the special issue of Broadsheet, and running a blog helped peak the interest… not to mention those wonderful photo’s of the ‘Steampunk’ sign being placed on the outside of the museum.
Interesting comments about the “we have been so inured to the huge, ego-maniacal proportions of today’s museum and gallery spaces, that we gauge the quality of a show by the square footage”, I think its not so much the quality of the show that is being referred to, but, the ability of the audience to view the show. That is to say the show is TOO POPULAR there are too many people there… which is the feeling I get from other reviews. The ones I have read saw be aware it will be crowded, but go to it as the show is good. I’d have thought a show being too popular is a pretty good review in itself.
If I wasn’t around ten thousand miles away I’d certainly be visiting this show.
Cheers.
Dan
Thank you, Dan.
Yes, “Too popular” is certainly something that we can live with-
Actually to be thrilled about!
Hopefully a show like this will be featured closer to home in the future.
My Best Regards and, again, thanks so much for the great post.
Art Donovan
It is a small and intimate exhibition but the location of it in the science museum is actually a fundamental part of the overall experience. By having genuine science and incredible ornate objects and inventions from the past cheek by jowl with the creative eccentrcities of the steampunk artists creates an overall experience which could not be replicated in a larger more spacious gallery. Even the fact that the exhibition is in the city of dreaming spires adds just another level of interest and immersion for the whole show.
Shame you didn’t like it Pete Curator, I suspect you missed part of the point but then that is art after all.
Thanks for the warning about the exhibition being small, I would have been disappointed to find out once I got there. That said, we’re still going to have a look at it, and probably the rest of the museum, plus some Christmas shopping in a town we’ve nto been to before, so it shouldn’t be a complete waste of a trip!
Thanks for the comments, and I’d be interested to hear what you make of it – the exhibit and the town, not so concerned with the shopping. lol.
Cheers, Dan
Okay, went to the exhibigtion today. It is a bit small, but not as small as I’d expected from Pete’s description. Seeing the real items is better than seeing photos on the net, although the urge to touch some of them was strong! They do allow photos, which I hadn’t expected, just no flash, so I wish I’d taken a camera. But. What Pete didn’t seem to count was, the rest of the museum! So many wonderful machines, microscopes, telescopes, astrolabes, drawing intsruments, all in brass, wood, ray skin (I think), cogs, wheels, rivets, beautiful little decorative touches that would never be seen on scientific instruments these days, and in their way, just as steampunk as the exhibition, certainly good for inspiration for making steampunk items. If you like steampunk, go and see it if you get the chance. Also, I don’t know if its cos its a Saturday close to Christmas, but it was almost empty, so we could take as long as we wanted to look. Just my two penneth
I went to see it this Sunday – and sadly spent more time in the queue than in the actual exhibition. It was a tad bijou in scale, but I didn’t mind, as the exhibits themselves were wonderous. And something that I have to mention…many of them were not behind glass, but right there, up close, in your face. OK you couldn’t touch, but you *could* get really close, and take in the fantastic detail on so many of the pieces. And I appreciated the panels with in-depth information on the artists.
The room just before the exit, housing genuine Victorian scientific apparatus was great too – lots of brass, polished mahogany, etc…”How very Steampunk” you think to yourself, followed by “errrr….”
And of course the rest of the museum is packed with interesting scientific items from many ages, as a previous reviewer said.
I’d like to point out one other thing…in terms of value for money, this has to be one of the best exhibitions anywhere…because entrance is free. OK, there is a box by the Museum entrance where a donation is suggested, and I put a few quid in, but you don’t HAVE to. That takes me right back to my days as a schoolkid in the early seventies, taking a series of buses to get to South Kensington so that I could visit the Science Museum, spend a whole day there (which was never enough) and not have to pay a penny to get in. Wonderful!.
I am going to try and get back into Oxford before the exhibition closes, probably during the week, when it might be a bit quieter, so that I can spend a little more time with the objects on display.
Thanks Art, and all of the contributing artists. Fabulous!