Interpreting the Information Age conference

(When registering above, please select a ticket for each day for would like to attend.)

Interpreting the Information Age: New Avenues for Research and Display

Free three-day conference at the Science Museum, London
3–5 November 2014

In October 2014, the Science Museum will open a new permanent gallery, Information Age: Six Networks That Changed Our World. The gallery will expose, examine and celebrate how information and communication technologies have transformed our lives over the last 200 years. To mark this launch, the Museum is hosting a free, three day conference which will discuss how the history and material culture of information can be made relevant for today’s audiences.

From the development of global telegraph and computer networks, the creation of constellations of satellites that silently orbit our earth, and the growth of radio, telephony and cellular networks; each technology can be understood through a network of people, practices, devices and infrastructure. Approaches which focus on overly technical histories, individual innovation or inevitable progress fail to acknowledge the role of users in the history of technologies and marginalise a majority of readers or visitors who are engaged by human stories and social history.

By contrast, Information Age has taken a user-centric approach, not only in the stories and objects selected for display, but in the way the gallery has been designed and developed. Participation with a diverse range of audiences has been at the heart of the process, providing new avenues for research, fresh perspectives on our collections and original ways to interpret the information networks of which we are all part.

This conference will combine reflections on collecting practice and academic related to information, showcase innovative approaches to interpreting and displaying this content, and examine the opportunities and challenges of working in partnership with audiences to bring the collections to life.