Papers of 'The Museum Of ...' temporary museum project. The collection holds material from four of the five "museums" that together formed The Museum Of. These are: The Museum of Collectors, The Museum of Me, The Museum of Emotions and The Museum of the River Thames. The collection holds no records for The Museum of the Unknown.
The Museum of Collectors (Nov 1998 - Mar 1999): The Museum of Collectors looked at who collects, what people collect and why? It housed a display of forty-two local people's collections, everything from rejection letters and snow domes to snails and monsters. The collections were displayed in consultation with the collectors by an interdisciplinary team. The records held in the collection include: Glassine pockets containing items collected by visitors to the museum, photos and text relating to collectors exhibiting at the museum and advertising material.
The Museum of Me (May 1999 - Oct 1999): The Museum of Me combined art works that looked at the self with a chance for visitors to experience, record and display aspects of themselves as they travelled around the space. Responding to input from artists, poets, performers, psychologists, designers and anthropologists, each visitor was given the opportunity to contribute to the making of The Museum Of Me by creating their own personal museum exhibits during their visit. The records held in the collection include: Tin Cans containing items belonging to visitors, miniature glass bottles each containing a written "secret", large glass bottles containing multiple "secrets", a range of labels on which visitors wrote down various aspects of themselves and their experiences, black and white portrait photographs and a selection of emphemera including a promotional t-shirt and several diaries containing handwritten comments by visitors filled in about days that were important to them.
The Museum of Emotions (Feb 2000 - Jun 2000): The Museum of Emotions asked the question where and how do we express our emotions? Ten artists were commissioned to evoke different emotions through creating a series of interactive environments. An ephemeral experience created by light, sound and installation explored how much feeling is lost, found and expressed in the context of the museum. Records for this collection include: plastic bottles each labelled with a visitor's response to the question "What makes you cry?", a large hardback book containing visitors comments on the theme of love and a number of advertising leaflets.
The Museum of The River Thames (March 2001 - July 2001): The Museum of The River Thames focused on the River Thames as the largest public space in London. Creating a journey from the Bargehouse to the river and back again The Museum of the River Thames reflected on the experiences of those people and places, that told a story of their environment and personal relationship with the river. The Museum included collaboration with: The London Rivers Authority, The Thames Explorer Trust, The Millennium Bridge Trust, Platform and The Museum of London. The collections includes: Origami Boats made by visitors to the Museum, drawings and comments on possible uses for the space if the River Thames did not exist and a variety of objects found in the river.
The final series is entitled "Marketing and Administration" and this includes advertising material relating to all five of the "museums" and a press pack that sets out the aims and intentions of the project, detailing the nature of each "museum" and setting out how the projects developed and progressed.
