Introduction

Four out of five of the top tourist attractions in the UK are museums receiving more than 100 million visits each year; more than the top sporting events combined (Manifesto for Museums, 2004). Over the past 10 years, there have been major shifts in the assumptions that lie at the base of museum policy and interpretation – with a shift in focus away from the collection and towards serving the visitor. Yet the paradox of this shift has been that the visitor is today less well served, and gets less out of the museum experience. The argument of this chapter is that museums tend to become indistinguishable from other entertainment/welfare institutions, and serve up a thin soup for their ‘customers’ – rather than inspiring them with the wealth of the artefacts of nature and history.

During the screening of the UK TV programme Big Brother, an exhibition was built around the show in the newly opened Wellcome Wing of the Science Museum. The exhibition posed questions such as whether or not the contestants would be harmed by their experiences, then asked visitors: ‘would you like to be a guinea pig in the Big Brother house?’ Three options were given: Yes/No/Don’t know. Votes were clocked up in large electronic numbers. Upstairs on the floor ‘Who am I?’, visitors could explore the principles of genetic fingerprinting on a mock fruit-machine, matching up the DNA bands of father, mother and offspring. On the floor ‘Digitopolis’ they could create digital music or set up their own website. The wing was semi-dark, bathed in spacey sounds and moving lights. Here was a museum: but not as we know it.

An interview with one of the Wellcome Wing project leaders, Heather Mayfield, illustrates the thrust behind the project.