Author: John Holmes

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Symbiosis workshop on Curating and Exhibiting Geology at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle this week. Here we all are on the steps of the galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie which is about to embark on an exciting major renovation project, culminating in the entire reopening to … Continue reading “Symbiosis workshop in Paris”

Symbiosis is co-organising a workshop on ‘Curating and Exhibiting Geology: Past Practices and Future Challenges’ at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris on 21-23 May 2024 in collaboration with the Muséum, the Maison Française d’Oxford and other partners. Click below to download the full programme, including an email for registration:

The first New Zealand Diary by Ferdinand von Hochstetter, founder of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, is now published. The geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829 -1884) is only one of the central figures in the history of Austrian science. His stay in New Zealand as part of the circumnavigation of the world by the … Continue reading “Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s New Zealand Diary published”

For 2024, the annual conferences of the British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) and the European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSAeu), together with the biennial conference of the Commission on Science and Literature (CoSciLit), will be combined into a single meeting. This will be the first time that these three societies … Continue reading “Literature and Science conference”

For centuries, museums have floated the idea of uniting many time levels in one place by collecting a wide variety of things and relics. The anthropologist Marc Augé (1994) refers to such “spaces of all times” as “non-places”. Places are usually characterized by identity and temporality. A non-place, on the other hand, does not have … Continue reading “New photography exhibition at Naturhistorisches Museum Wien”

The latest Symbiosis conference was held on 5-7 September at Oxford University Museum of Natural History on the theme of The Art of Natural History Museum Display. Delegates interrogated the role of dioramas and other displays in past and present practice. They presented case studies from museums in Zimbabwe, Austria and Singapore, together with poetry … Continue reading “Symbiosis conference 2023”

Members of the Symbiosis network from the University of Birmingham and Oxford University Museum of Natural History have been collaborating on a pair of public engagement events looking at connections between the fantasy fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien and modern palaeontology, including recreating Tolkien’s 1938 lecture on dragons for the first time. To read more, click … Continue reading “Tolkien and science at Oxford University Museum”

Here is a brief video on the latest Symbiosis conference, held at the Hall of Biodiversity in Porto in September 2022: Symbiosis 2022 Conference – Galeria da Biodiversidade – Centro Ciência Viva

The Symbiosis network met for our latest conference at the Hall of Biodiversity in Porto in September to discuss trans-continental and trans-cultural collaborations. Representatives of the museums and universities already involved in Symbiosis were joined by the directors of the national museums and natural history museums of Brazil, Zimbabwe and Angola and the head of … Continue reading “Symbiosis conference”