The installation, Innovation through Comparison, was co-created by Alan Mckee, Harvey Ford-Simms, Emmy Anstee, Vicky Addison, and Amy Griffin, and facilitated by the fantastic museum team.
Transcript: Captured in Shadow
The panel titled ‘Captured in Shadow’ explores the processes involved in early photography, and the role of both darkness and light. Early photographers disappeared beneath a hood to capture the world in light and shadow.
The descriptions in this audio were co-created with the pan-disabled group involved in the curation of this exhibit.
19th century cameras often had a square wooden frame, with metal screws on either side. The wooden frame extends out; it has a metal axis on either side to take the front section forward. It’s got an eye piece. The are also metal pieces, like screws, that point out. We imagine they might attach to something, like a stand. These cameras required patience, skill and time, as photographers waited for the right moment, and then exposed their plate to the light.
The camera opens out. There’s a bit like a concertina. It feels kind of cardboardy, but also fabricy. Something like a cross between a hard fabric and velvet. There is also a very nice leathery handle. It is very smooth, almost like it has been varnished. It smells of museums, that musty smell. It’s a nice smell, like a leathery smell. The camera would have had a fabric tent over it, to protect the plate from the light.
In the middle of this panel, there is a photographers’ fabric tent. If you put the hood over your head, you can experience what it was like underneath. We imagine it was probably quite frustrating under the hood. You have to rely on touch, and not sight, to feel around to find everything. Underneath the hood, you can have a go at loading the glass plate, which is where the image would have appeared, into the slot in your extended concertina camera.
Searching for the lens, we imagine it could be quite noisy, fumbling to find the right pieces. If it’s made of glass, it might feel cold to the touch. Under the cloth, it could feel musty and closed in. Not everyone would enjoy being under there—it might feel a bit claustrophobic or like you’re trapped, especially if you have to stay in that position for a while. Even though it’s a new and interesting experience, it might still be annoying or uncomfortable at times.
We imagine that you put the cloth over your head, then look through the lens, once you have your glass plate in position. You would press a button or pull a lever, and you get a sense of what it would feel like to take a picture in that moment, in that setting.
We imagine someone who is partially blind, or even sighted, in a local field, taking a photo, perhaps of a Hereford Cow. Maybe they experience the scene through other senses, the feeling of the grass, the smell of the cow, maybe that musty scent mixed with hay. They might notice a breeze moving though the leaves. The cow may make a noise.
If you’re taking a photograph, you’re also going to hope that the cow stays still! And then the photograph captures a carefully crafted moment in history.
Transcript: Balance and Blade
The panel ‘Balance and Blade’ tells us that a sword is more than a weapon, it’s a perfect balance of strength, skill and design. We can lift these swords to explore their weight, and we can touch them to explore the size and shape, and the balance that made them unique.
The descriptions in this audio were co-created with the pan-disabled group involved in the curation of this exhibit.
There are two swords in this panel that you can lift. We will explore the sword on the right first. It has quite a thin blade, but you couldn’t butter your toast with it. Try holding the handle. We noticed the metal base. It’s like a circle with a point coming out of the side. The handle is covered in leather. There is a pommel at the end, which is the bit that helped to balance it. The blade is interesting; it is so cool to be able to touch it! It’s not sharp, it’s very blunt, It’s a very cold metal. It’s kind of heavy, but not massively. We can feel a tension in our wrist when we hold it straight out in front of us. It is a bit like the weights you would use in the gym, the small little handheld ones. The handle is heavier than the blade. It is about a metre long, or just over. The blade is interesting, because it’s a cool kind of shape: imagine a five-pointed star.
It is a RAPIER, which is known for its slender, straight blade. We think it is definitely practical. It seems very well polished and preserved… probably not been in any major battles… no rust; although for all we know it could have taken a few people’s eyes or toes. We find out that it is more used for duelling and quick movements, so more one to one. It’s designed to be more jabby, you must have a lot more precision, you have to know what you are doing. You kind of just poke people… a thrusting weapon.
Moving on to the sword on the left. You can hold it, if you like. This one has an intricate handle, it’s quite thin, it feels a lot more ornate, not just a straight handle, unlike the other one. It feels a lot more decorative, with shape and curve, and a definite pattern to it. It’s quite thin, but a lot heavier than the last one, and the blade is wider, with one side that feels thicker. There’s a dip all the way to the tip, and you can feel a couple of nicks on both sides, probably from use. It smells metallic, maybe with a bit of leather, or old wood, like timbers. The colour is a dark grey, gunmetal grey, or like storm clouds, or a cannonball.
The blade itself is sharper, more solid, and heavier overall, giving a different kind of weight in your arm as you hold it out in front of you
It’s got quite a long pommel at the end of the handle, like a doorknob, it looks like a face, it may not be a face, but it looks like a face. Swinging this sword you would need a lot of upper body strength; with this you have to be strong. It’s more of a cutting blade, it reminds us of a blade from a fantasy book. It is actually a blade from the English Civil War, between 1642 and 1651. It could have been used to do some damage!
Transcript: Transparent Treasures
The panel ‘Transparent Treasures’ is about glass. It tells us that
‘Glass is born from fire and skill, crafted into objects both practical and beautiful.
The descriptions in this audio were co-created with the pan-disabled group involved in the curation of this exhibit.
We can explore how glass production has changed. We are going to talk about the glass on the right first. What does it feel like? We think it is quite thick glass. It’s almost a white colour, with pink and purple, it’s iridescent and very glossy. It’s very smooth and feels thicker than glass today. It feels more like ceramic, it’s very thick: imagine a ceramic pot.
The textures on the inside and outside are not the same, the outside feels smoother. We find out that this is Roman Glass, and so it is nearly 2000 years old. It was excavated during an archaeological dig. It feels like it’s been smoothed by water, perhaps from when it’s been in the ground. It’s definitely been smoothed by something: weather, or nature. The texture on the inside feels more like sandstone. It’s rougher. Some pieces have a ridge or edge, suggesting they were once part of a larger structure, perhaps a dish or bowl, maybe even a mosaic or decorative panel.
One fragment has a circular base and cross-like markings, perhaps a design or pattern. The smell and feel are old and earthy, different from modern glass, but they share a tactile link.
We are moving to the other piece of glass on the left. Put your hands on it. This piece of glass feels completely different, finer, more decorative, and much more showy, It is Victorian glass, from the 19th Century. Wealthy Victorians loved to show off. It’s grand, fancy, and ornate, with ridges, cut glass patterns, and details that resemble the edges of a doily. It reminds us of the glass our grandparents might have had. One of the describers remembers her gran, who had a yellow vase, passed down from the 1890s. Her gran said it was “butt ugly”, but the describer thought it was beautiful. Its colour was a dull yellow, almost orange, and though it looked grand, it was surprisingly lightweight and made of thinner glass.
The glass flutes down to a solid base and has a rigid, structured design, giving it a sense of both elegance and age. We imagine that sense of Victorian pride and style, ornamentation for its own sake, to say something about status and taste.
‘Exploring through our senses, we can experience the object’s shape and patterns with our hands, tracing the craftsmanship and design that make each piece unique’.
Transcript: Risky Remedies
This panel is titled ‘Risky Remedies’. On the right is a wooden box that has headphones raised on a stand.
The descriptions in this audio were co-created with the pan-disabled group involved in the curation of this exhibit.
The writing on the panel tells us that throughout history, medicine has evolved. Connected to the panel are some smell pods, which relate to contrasting worlds of healing. What do you smell in each? What do they remind you of? One of the pods is the scents of clinical hospitals. The other is the smell of herbal remedies.
There are also headphones next to this panel, the headphone audio contains some reflections about people who medical doctors sought to treat, in the past, using an electric shock machine. This was an early treatment sometimes used for mental health conditions. It makes us think about how early medicine often brought unintended harm alongside healing, and of how that shapes our understanding of health today.
In the next section of this audio our community co-creators are going to describe an electric shock machine from the 19th Century, that a Victorian family might have had at home.
It’s a wooden box; the best way we can describe it is like a shoe box kind of size. It’s quite heavy to lift, kind of like a six pack of water evenly distributed. Inside the box you have different cogs, one large one small. It smells very metallic and wooden. There are two round parts covered in felt or like a foam, that allow it to roll back and forth. Imagine two small paint rollers stuck together, or like binoculars. At the bottom of the box, underneath the cogs, are two little metal handles lying loose. We know that they will go on two radiator-like valves on the sides. We know this because one of the co-creators owns one of these old Victorian electric shock machines. It has been passed down from her stepdad. His mum had it in her house. They cannot figure out for the life of them, why his Mum had one of these in the house! They know that there was an old asylum not far from where she lived. Maybe she got it from there. We think that this type of electric shock machine was one you didn’t have to be a medical professional to use. So maybe Victorians went to the supermarket to buy a pack of carrots and an electric shock machine!
The co-creator explains that they have managed to get their one to work. So she knows that you wind it up and you connect the wires to the head. That’s what the cogs are for, they speed the current of the electricity. It’s silent when it’s working, but when it makes like a cranking noise, it’s really scary.
One of the group considers that a more modern version might have been used on them until about 40 years ago. Doctors would try and cure all sorts of things with them. We now know that electric shock therapy can cause significant side effects, including memory loss and brain damage. We understand that it is hard to control where and how the electric shock is impacting on the brain. This kind of treatment is still used today but more often as a last resort treatment. For example, it is believed to have positive effects on life-threatening levels of depression.
The Electroshock machine
Electro convulsive therapy, or ECT, is still used today but in a very different way to how this 19th Century electroshock machine would have been used. The use of ECT is now very tightly controlled by strict guidelines. Medical professionals will only administer it in very limited cases, for example in very severe cases of depression, where it can be lifesaving. It is completely voluntary and given under general anaesthetic, which means that the patient is not awake during the procedure.
In the past Electric Shock Treatment was used while the person was awake and would often be used without their consent. Electric shock treatment was often misused to “treat” conditions which we no longer recognise today, such as hysteria; or as an attempt to “cure” normally occurring human differences, including neurodiversities, which we now understand differently. As one of our co-creators explains “I would be very insulted if they tried that for my autism as that’s a big part of me and not something that needs fixing, just understanding, not zapping the issue away.”
Intervention Design and Project Management: Barker Langham
Build: Reeves and Bond
Scent Development/Consultation: AVM Curiosities