Should we Save it?

To Save or Not to Save?

That was the question being asked at a workshop organised at The National Archives this week. The workshop, which was part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science which is ending this weekend, was aimed at GCSE/A’level students studying subjects such as history and humanities to think about the decisions that occur on a daily basis in heritage institutions on what is worth keeping, and why.

The workshop was concerned about 4 main objects: The Domesday Book, Picasso’s Still Life with Guitar, an Ipod, and a Tiffany Necklace. Which one would you save if you had to choose one (or none at all?). The students got the opportunity to vote for their preferred item (using quite useful voting devices). After their initial reactions were taken more information started being given to the students slowly.

Picasso: Still Life with Guitar

The first sets of information was given by what were called ‘guest experts’ about a variety of subjects which may influence what you decide to keep or not. These ten minute presentations were on the issues of value, material science, economics and the environmental impact of collections. It was an interesting way of getting the students to think beyond the emotional attachment to an object or ‘what they think they should save’ to other factors which they probably would not have factored in. After every step the students also got to vote for their choice, so that variation in voting depending on what has been said could be observed. e.g. The Domesday Book always had the highest number of votes, but as the economic and environmental cost of maintaining it compared to the necklace were shown, the votes of the book started decreasing and of the necklace increasing.

The Domesday Book

What happened in the afternoon sessions was then that twists started being introduced into the story as well: What if the Ipod had Michael Jackson’s last playlist? Or if the Picasso was a fake? Or what if the necklace was of a very rare type of diamond? Which one would you choose now? At every step that new twists were introduced the students got to vote again and again. In this part of the event it was quite impressive how the values changed e.g. when it was said that the Ipod had Michael Jackson’s last playlist, the votes for saving that obviously increased.

Which one would you save? And why?

I must say that I was also quite impressed by how coherent and eloquent most of the students were when discussing the reason for their choices, and especially when they were divided into groups to make the case for what they wanted. They were also very much engaged and well-behaved. Hearing all the discussions about how unruly English kids are in the newspapers it seemed to me that there is still the ones who make up for all the rest.

Ahh – and one final thing..if this was an event for school students why was I there? Well, having done some work on environmental monitoring and working with TNA they asked me if I would be willing to give the presentation on the environmental impact of collections. I said sure! So there I was…a guest expert on the environment :). Here is a basic copy of the presentation. Unfortunately you don’t get my reel (or is that fortunately?)…

Filed under: Events and Activities, Domesday Book, Economic and Social Research COuncil, economics, environment, ESRC, Festival of Social Science, Ipod, material science, Pablo Picasso, Picasso, Public engagement, Still Life with Guitar, The National Archives, Tiffany necklace, TNA, value, workshop