The Culture of Enthusiasm
Technology, Collecting and Museums
Hilary Geoghegan
PhD
Royal Holloway
University of London
Thesis Abstract
This PhD thesis considers the culture of technology enthusiasm, principally through an ethnographic study of three UK enthusiast groups: the Telecommunications Heritage Group, the Computer Conservation Society and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. The thesis explores the various knowledges, performances and spaces associated with technology enthusiasm, focussing specifically on the relationships between enthusiasts, objects and museums, with particular reference to the collections of the Science Museum in London. This research is situated in the context of wider debates over museums, collections, conservation and access.
Chapter 1 introduces technology enthusiasm as the subject of this thesis and highlights the relevant policy contexts. Chapter 2 provides an account of academic scholarship exploring the sociological literature on enthusiasm, fandom and serious leisure, recent work on technical and material cultures, as well as public history and museology. Chapter 3 explores the methodological strategy adopted in this thesis and reflects particularly on the researcher’s encounters with enthusiasts and access to museums. Chapter 4 explores how technology enthusiasm is organised in groups, how societies communicate with their members through journals and online discussion forums and how an enthusiasm for technology is performed at group events. Chapter 5 examines the enthusiast’s attachment to technology, the practices of collecting and hoarding, the place of technology enthusiasm in the field and at home and the afterlife of the enthusiast’s personal collections. Chapter 6 considers the professional and the enthusiast in the museum context and explores their various relationships to technology’s material record through ideas of expert knowledge and ‘object love’. Finally, chapter 7 identifies the culture of enthusiasm and suggests future directions for research in this area.
Table of Contents
Declaration of Originality
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Acronyms
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Enthusiasm, Technology and Museums
2.1 Enthusiasm
Subcultures
Fan Studies
Serious Leisure: Neither Dabblers nor Professionals
2.2 Technology
Technical Culture
Material Culture: The Afterlife of Things
2.3 Museums
Enthusiasm and Public History
Museums and ‘Woolly Hats’
Chapter 3: Researching Technology Enthusiasm
3.1 Encountering Technology Enthusiasm
The Enthusiast Groups
Making Contact and Observation
Secondary Material
Ethnographic Interviewing
3.2 Accessing the Science Museum
Chapter 4: Technology Enthusiast Groups
4.1 Organising Enthusiasm
Committees
The Membership
Women and Technology Enthusiasm
Future Membership
4.2 Communicating Enthusiasm
Traditional Media
Online Media
4.3 Performing Enthusiasm
AGM and Conference
Lectures and Seminars
Study Days and Workshops
Monitoring and Recording
Swapmeets
4.4 Enthusiasm and Friendship
Chapter 5: Objects of Enthusiasm
5.1 Getting Hooked: Encounters with Technology
Technological Nostalgia
Dedicated Instrument Sniffers: Sensing Enthusiasm
5.2 Collecting and Hoarding
The Enthusiast-Collector
Collecting
Hoarding
5.3 Enthusiasm in Place
At Home
In the Field
5.4 The Afterlife of Enthusiast Collections
Chapter 6: Enthusiasm in the Museum Context
6.1 Enthusiasts and Museum Professionals
The Curator
Museum Artefacts: Conservation
Material People
6.2 At the Science Museum: Volunteering
Volunteer Enthusiasm
The CCS at the Science Museum
Working Parties
6.3 Towards an Improved Engagement
Enthusiast Groups and Museums
The Challenges
The Great Undisplayed: Blythe House
Chapter 7: Conclusion
