Cars, Culture and Event Mechanics

I would like to draw your attention to a great blog by Dr. Glen Fuller. His thesis considered the culture of modified-car enthusiasm. I am pleased to learn I am not alone in enthusiast culture research!

See link: http://eventmechanics.net.au/

Living in Victorian London: material histories of everyday domestic life in the nineteenth-century metropolis

The research team behind the AHRC funded project Living in Victorian London have recently launched a website introducing and documenting the project’s early findings. Working collaboratively with archaeologists at the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MOLAS), this project represents another example of successful collaboration between geographers and museums.

Follow this link: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/victorianlondon/index.html

Blogs as research dissemination tool

When I launched this blog a couple of months ago, it raised the question amongst geographers and other social scientists as to whether blogs are a good way of disseminating our research findings and communicating with new audiences beyond academia. The responses were mixed. For some blogs have a short lifespan and are only available to those audiences willing to regularly check the latest posts. For others – blogs and other online media offer a direct and accessible approach to research dissemination.

I have advertised this blog on an academic geography forum, via email to Science Museum staff and the online forums of my research participants. The response has been fantastic.

For those of you interested, my response to posts on the crit-geog forum – (itself a useful took for communication between geographers) is pasted below:

My reasons for creating a blog were diverse.  Ultimately it came down to the practicality of setting-up, organising and maintaining/updating the information I wanted online. WordPress.com and other online companies offera virtual space readily accessible to those of us creating a site online (see also http://nigelthrift.org/ and those cited in the previous post). However, as someone that uses the Internet regularly to access journals and other online resources, as well as to visit other blogs/sites (see for example http://techstyle.typepad.com/ and http://fretmarks.blogspot.com/), the benefits are clearly there. I am sure I am not alone in including on a research proposal to a funding council that “I will also create an associated project website”; this is MY associated website that is available to all to publicise my research not only to geographers but also more importantly to my research participants. Okay, perhaps BLOG is the wrong word to use in this instance, it is more like a regularly updated web resource – a virtual space that I hope will encourage fellow geographers to check in now and again to see what is new.

David Crouch’s earlier comment – ‘why on earth a blog’– raises further useful questions in relation to the public geographies often discussed here on the crit-geog-forum (also a regularly updated web resource). Many ‘Critters’ are keen to make their work relevant to audiences beyond academic geography – through collaboration with private and public organisations, as well as through feeding their research back into policy and the communities they research. The Internet offers perhaps the most readily accessible tool for just such a purpose. I freely acknowledge that the shelf-life of such ventures is varied and can be short-lived, but surely such sites are a step in the right direction.

I therefore encourage Critters to visit my site (http://hilarygeoghegan.wordpress.com), and others like it, in order to foster an online culture of communicating, disseminating and feeding back – helping geography to become MORE public and not just a good intention on a research proposal.

ERNIE 1 on display at Science Museum

For fans of early British computing, ERNIE 1 is a welcome addition to the Science Museum’s computing gallery. The display was unveiled in June. ERNIE stands for Electric Random Number Indicator Equipment and was the first machine responsible for generating the Premium Bond numbers. The Science Museum staff have described ERNIE as the ’son of’ Colossus – a machine famed for breaking the coded German messages in World War 2 and recently rebuilt from scratch at Bletchley Park by Computer Conservation Society members. Collusus and its rebuild featured in my PhD research.

Here are some links:

Science Museum’s computing gallery http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/computing.aspx

Computing Weekly (some nice early photos of ERNIE)http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/06/13/231048/photo-story-ernie-goes-on-display-at-the-science-museum.htm

Colossus Rebuild at Bletchley Park                                                            http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/

Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain

 

This is an exhibition currently running at the Science Museum until mid-October 2008. Curated by several colleagues of mine at the Science Museum, the exhibition considers “the role played by technology in creating post-war Britain” and will be of interest to geographers researching in areas ranging from geopolitics and national identities to the value of technology and expert knowledge. For fans of the Eagle comic - a must see!

For more information: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/dan_dare_and_the_birth_of_high-tech_britain.aspx

Shed of the Year!

In order to develop my research interests in the home and leisure practices, I have become particularly interested in the space of the shed. Unfortunately I do not have one of my own. In my quest to find out more about sheds…I came across this fantastic site and competition – Shed of the Year!

http://www.readersheds.co.uk/index.cfm

Check back for more on ’shed culture’!

Welcome to my blog: the culture of enthusiasm

My name is Hilary Geoghegan and I am a postdoctoral fellow in the geography department at Royal Holloway, University of London. This is a blog dedicated to my research on enthusiasm and the work of others researching related areas. Over the course of my fellowship I will publish posts, links and pages that will hopefully be of interest to those working on material culture, museums, popular geography and passionate engagements with the material world. Please browse the site and I look forward to hearing from those of you - enthusiasts – interested in similar themes. Email me at h.geoghegan AT rhul.ac.uk.