During our work with the secondary\nschool, we spent time at a number of local museums. One being the Lapworth\nMuseum of Geology, located on the main campus at the University of Birmingham.\nRecently renovated, it has a number of displays, including a large dinosaur\nskeleton and cabinets full of hundreds of rock and mineral specimens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sessions at the museum incorporated\na period of free time, whereby the students could look around and interact with\nthe exhibits as they wished, as well as more structured activities (led by\ncolleagues from the Birmingham Energy Institute) which aimed to explore the\nmany different versions of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We focus here on some of the students\u2019\nexperiences of the museum during their free time. We draw attention to what\ndrew their<\/em> attention. In particular,\nwe want to highlight how this museum \u2013 dedicated to the science of geology \u2013\nled students to make connections and generate (sometimes stuttering) stories,\ngames, and \u2018fictions\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first floor of the museum (which\ncontains many of the cabinets displaying rock and mineral specimens) attracted\na considerable amount of attention, with the students spending at least half an\nhour going from cabinet to cabinet pointing out their favourite gemstones and\nminerals. In some ways this was surprising to us given that the rocks are\ndisplayed very simply, a label with the rocks\u2019 name and no other contextual\ninformation. They were particularly engaged in a game of trying to spot the\ndiamonds in the case; they were disappointed to find that they were in fact\nsmaller than they had anticipated. A couple joked about how much force and what\ntools they would need to pull the cabinet apart in order to extract the\ndiamond. This led onto a conversation about the value of diamonds, how diamonds\nwere made and the amount of pressure required. We mentioned that there were\ncompanies who were offering to take the cremated remains of loved ones and\ncould turn them into diamonds. They seemed positively repulsed by this idea! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Parallels were also drawn between the popular\nvideo game Fortnite<\/em> and the minerals\nfound at the Lapworth. Within the online game, weapons could be crafted through\nsourcing specific materials, a number of them being different types of quartz\nminerals. This led to moments of intense excitement whereby a mineral was\nidentified, pictures were taken and its worth in Fortnite currency was identified.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fossils display in the Lapworth\nalso drew some interest as well as confusion from the students. Is it a dead\nanimal? No, it\u2019s the imprint of an animal. Oh… But if it’s underground,\nwouldn’t the shell get crushed? How did it stay in that shape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nstudent, James (all names anonymised) told us how his whole house is made of\ngold with a gold sofa, gold TV and a gold bed; he also explained how he has a\nlot of jewellery upstairs in his house. Sam also explained how his Nan gave him\na diamond necklace to wear just before she passed away. One display in\nparticular showed cut and polished gemstones; the students took it in turns to\npick out the gems that they would steal if they had the chance, with James\nattempting to pick the lock of the display cabinet with a rolled up KitKat\nwrapper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our\nexperiences have prompted two sets of reflections. First, we were taken by the\nfictions and games generated by the boys. We can well imagine that some readers\nmight be dismayed to see them making connections between the rocks and the (at\nthe time) popular game Fortnite<\/em>,\nwhich has become embroiled in controversy in the UK for its possible role in\npromoting violence amongst children, and especially children playing the game\nwho are younger than the age recommendation for the game. How, then, might we\nwork with these games and stories, and with their entanglement with\/in popular\ncultures? To what extent are these generative small stories (Taylor, 2019) or\nspeculative fabulations (Haraway, 2011) that challenge the grand narratives of\nthe Anthropocene and imagine other ways of living life? To what extent could<\/em> or should<\/em> they be? How could we make more of these encounters without\neither exaggerating or colonising their for-the-moment mattering to the\nstudents?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, we want to acknowledge the modes in which the boys interacted with rocks. As Gallagher (2019) writes, in a striking exposition of the geology of media, there is simply more to do when it comes to articulating how children and young people are engaged with media (beyond, specifically, questions of mis\/use, identity and popular cultures). In his case, Gallagher explores children\u2019s role in mining the cobalt and other minerals that go into our digital devices. We wonder whether the interactions of the students with rocks in the Lapworth Museum are different again; whether, as Bryant (2014) has it, the rocks became<\/em> \u2018media\u2019, not in a Heideggerian sense of their \u2018given-ness\u2019 (as tools, for human use), but as, Bryant has it, as components of a media \u2018machine\u2019. In this machinic ontology, the rocks constitute and are constitutive of, mediate and are mediated by, a brief<\/em> assemblage of students, fictions, games and popular media (Fortnite<\/em>). This is neither an example of a long-term, visceral engagement with rocks (since most [but not all] were in display cases, the boys could not touch or be touched by many of the rocks, as in Gallagher\u2019s example of young miners), but nor is it simply an example of their engagements with a computer game. The two were, momentarily, stitched together in short-lived (as far as we know) utterances of speculative fabulation, which may, or may not, challenge us to think in different ways about our co-implication with the geological record. Indeed, what would it mean to draw games like Fortnite<\/em> \u2013 and the multi-million dollar industries that propagate them \u2013 into attempts to tell stories about our engagements with the earth, with young people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n By Peter Kraftl and Arooj Khan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bryant, L.R., 2014. Onto-cartography<\/em>.\nEdinburgh University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gallagher, M., 2019. Childhood and the geology of\nmedia. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education<\/em>,\npp.1-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Haraway, D., 2011. Speculative fabulations for\ntechnoculture\u2019s generations: Taking care of unexpected country. Australian\nHumanities Review<\/em>, 50<\/em>(5), pp.1-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor, A., 2019 (online early). Countering the\nconceits of the Anthropos: scaling down and researching with minor players. Discourse:\nStudies in the Cultural Politics of Education<\/em>, pp.1-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During our work with the secondary school, we spent time at a number of local museums. One being the Lapworth Museum of Geology, located on the main campus at the University of Birmingham. Recently renovated, it has a number of displays, including a large dinosaur skeleton and cabinets full of hundreds of rock and mineral … <\/p>\n