RT Journal Article
T1 Threading through history
A1 Ceri Pitches
YR 2016
VO 6
IS Autumn 2016
K1 Embodied knowledge
K1  vertical transmission
K1  intertheatricality
K1  lecture-demonstration
K1  Explainer
K1  Science Museum
K1  Royal Institution
AB This essay explores the extent to which residues of the practices inherent in nineteenth-century science lecture-demonstrations from the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) are evident in contemporary forms of Science Museum Group (SMG) Explainer presentations. The discipline of Performance Studies offers a number of models to discuss such a consideration and this essay draws particularly on the connected, transgenerational theories of vertical transmission, embodied knowledge and intertheatricality. Specifically, the focus is on three notable scientists, selected here for their particular influence on the lecture-demonstration practices at the RI during the nineteenth century: Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday and John Tyndall. It suggests that aspects of their embodied performances in the lecture theatre have been transmitted through subsequent generations of RI practitioners. Extending this transmission, via specific events in 1954 that led to Science Museum Guide Lecturers observing RI practices, it suggests that these practices were then inherited and passed down through generations of lecturing and explaining staff at the museum.
NO Most often associated with the research of Richard Schechner at New York University, Performance Studies is an interdisciplinary critical approach expanding the boundaries of theatre and performance to include ritual, sport, play and social interactions (Schechner, 2006).
NO Watson also uses ‘indirect training’ (2002, p 1) to describe approaches more commonly used in Western practices where performers learn a range of skills that can be broadly applied to each new production as required. ‘Direct training’ is much more closely associated with sustaining traditions and traditional practices.  
NO Examples of notable female performer trainers include: Stella Adler (1901–92), Joan Littlewood (1914–2002), Anna Halprin (1920– ), Anne Bogart (1951– ). 
NO For example, of the fifty-three figures highlighted on its website for having made a significant contribution to the work of the RI, just three are women. This list includes Davy, Faraday and Tyndall. The first Christmas Lecture in its one hundred and ninety-year history to be delivered by a woman, Susan Greenfield, did not occur until 1994 and, to date, just six women have undertaken this flagship RI event. The first woman ever to give a Discourse at the RI was Art Historian Joan Evans on 8 June 1923 (Royal Institution). 
NO Roach acknowledges his debt to Christopher Balme for this idea (Roach, 1996, p 11). 
NO These descriptions also echo Carlson’s notion of ‘recycling’ and Schechner’s ‘restored behaviour’. 
NO For example, scientists are referred to as ‘actors on a stage’ (De Young, 2011, p 202; Meadows, 2004, p 4; Taylor, 1988, p 55); the crafting and preparation of the lectures is compared with the ‘same care in production as a play in the theatre’ (Eve and Creasey, 1945, p 44); the RI’s fully operational basement laboratory is described as the ‘backstage’ (Morus, 1998, p 14) of the small lecture theatre to which it was adjacent; and the demonstration apparatus likened to ‘the props and scenery of a repertory company’ (Caroe, 1985, p 131). For more recent work see, for examples, Willis, M, 2016, Staging Science: Scientific Performance on Street, Stage and Screen (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) and the Focus section on Performance in Isis, Vol 101, No 4, December 2010, edited by Morus, I R. 
NO Forgan refers to David Knight’s essay ‘Davy and Faraday: Fathers and Sons’ in Gooding, D, and James, F A J L (eds), 1985, Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 1791–1867 (London).
NO This model could also be applied to subsequent generations of professors at the RI, including the actual father-son relationship of W H and Lawrence Bragg, which in addition to their blood ties, can also be viewed in terms of master and apprentice. 
NO Faraday’s close affiliation with Davy and high regard for him make Davy a particularly strong figure of influence for Faraday. See James, F A J L, 1991, for publication of Faraday’s letters to Abbott. It was to be ten years before Faraday could actually begin to put his ideas into practice in his own lectures, but when he finally did, he was remarkably influenced by these early observations.
NO The PhD thesis (Pitches 2016) was submitted to the University of Leeds in September 2016. 
NO The Bulletin was a termly newsletter for schools highlighting forthcoming events at the Science Museum and sharing stories of successful activities. It was established in 1955 and produced by the Guide Lecturers, and seems to have been in existence until at least Autumn term 1960 (Science Museum Z Archive 235).
NO Bulletin No.2. Michaelmas Term, 1955 (Science Museum Z Archive 235)
NO David Follett identifies how as early as 1925 the Museum was trying out the lecture-demonstration form (1978, p 104). He observes that on public holidays the Museum often became so crowded with visitors that it was impossible to conduct the usual gallery-based lectures and instead on those days ‘lecture-demonstrations’ were given in the classroom spaces that held up to fifty people. It is unclear what form and content these had and precisely what was done in the name of ‘demonstration’, or indeed for how long these were available, but in 1928 Guide Lecturer Mr G T Richards began experimenting using lantern slides to illustrate his lectures and this seems to have occurred at least into the following year. 
NO Proceedings at Conference of Schoolteachers at the Science Museum on 11th September 1954, presented at a Committee Meeting 9 February 1955 (Science Museum Z Archive 194)
NO Memo to Dr. Follett from F Sherwood Taylor 27.9.54 (Science Museum Z Archive 194)
NO Lecture Demonstrations (ScM Z9808C)
NO Action Arising from Conference of Schoolteachers September 1954 (Science Museum Z Archive 194)
NO My archival research at the RI established that a third Guide Lecturer, Victor Wall, also attended a lecture at the RI in March 1957. Letter from V Wall to Miss D Hutchinson, Secretary to Lawrence Bragg, RI MS WLB/90 K-R Box 90 2 of 3 (551) 
NO It may be speculated that subsequent Guide Lecturers also participated as spectators at RI lectures since their work was similar and they would likely have held an interest in the subject matter that extended beyond their employment. 
NO It is known that Anthony Wilson remained at the Science Museum after 1986, but his active lecturing seems to have ceased sometime around then following his move into managerial positions, beginning with the Educational Project Manager role for Launch Pad in 1984. That he was so intrinsically involved with the development of Launch Pad strengthens the connection between the outgoing Lecture Service and the more contemporary practices of Explainers, via the Launch Pad Assistant role. 
NO Richards served in the role for 25 years; Groom for 28 years; and Wall for 20 years. 
NO Following global trends and the development of interactive science and technology centres (e.g. the San Francisco Exploratorium, 1969), practices at the Science Museum during the 1980s began to be more participatory and informal. 
NO Launch Pad closed on 1 November 2015. Its replacement, a new interactive gallery Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery, opened at the Science Museum on 12 October 2016 with purpose-built performance spaces and four new science demonstration shows. 
NO Examples include Light, Cameras, Action! (National Media Museum, Bradford) and Revolution Manchester (Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester), both of which incorporate demonstrations and involve audience participation in pacey, entertaining presentations. 
NO Interview conducted 9 April 2015
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/160604
UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-06/threading-through-history/
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WT Science Museum Group Journal
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