UCL Qatar

4 day course

This is an intensive investigation into the tools, techniques, and implications of digital media in a museum environment. The course will focus on the development of practical skills through an examination of current trends in digital interpretation and engagement. Topics explored during the course will include social media, mobile interpretation, working with Variable Media artworks, website design, working with structured data, and developing comprehensive institutional strategies around technology capabilities. Through a combination of hands-on demonstrations, in-class discussions, and site visits, students will become conversant with the most common technology tools and practices currently in use in the cultural heritage sector.

Lecturer: Koven Smith, Director of Technology, Denver Art Museum, USA

Date and Time: 13 - 16 January 2013, 9.00am - 2.30pm

Location: Seminar Room, Education Wing, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Number of Participants: 12

2½ day course

The course is an overview of museums from multiple perspectives: their image, history, types, exhibition styles and techniques, education, and visitor analysis. Supplemented with hundreds of images, the course combines theory and practice. Discussion and exercises are directed toward institutions and practices in the Gulf. 

Lecturer: Dr Marjorie Kelly, American University of Kuwait

Date and Time: 27 - 29 January 2013, 9.00 am – 2.00 pm Sunday and Monday, 9.00am - 11.00am Tuesday

Location: Seminar Room, Education Wing, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Number of Participants: 15

2 day course

The collection of oral history is central to the preservation and understanding of Qatari history and culture. This is a country which has changed – and continues to change – at an astonishing rate, and there is a real danger that the day-to-day fabric of fast vanishing ways of life could be lost forever. The recording of people talking about their lives and experiences is therefore vital.

This course begins with an examination of oral history as evidence. How reliable is oral history? What are its strengths, perhaps as an emotional history rather than a history that attempts objectivity? How does memory work and how reliable is it? What are false memories, and how might these effect the collection of oral history? And what is the nature of collective memory?

The course will examine all the aspects of an interview, from seemingly superficial matters such as dress, body language, hospitality and seating to the more fundamental issues of how to structure an interview, how to ask questions most effectively, how to bring out the various forms of narrative and how to respond to upsetting or traumatic memory. The course leader will give demonstration interviews and then all the participants on the course will have the opportunity to interview each other, followed by analysis of those short interviews, through which techniques will be learned.

The course will also briefly touch upon sound editing, transcribing, summarising and archiving as well as looking at legal and ethical issues. By the end of the course participants should be in a position to embark with confidence upon work in the field of oral history.

Lecturer: Rib Davis, playwright, oral historian, author, director and community arts worker

Date and Time: 3 - 4 and 5 - 6 February 2013, 9.00am - 3.30pm

Location: Seminar Room, Education Wing, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Number of Participants: 12 

1 day course

In many ways an interview is only the start of the oral history process. Recorded interviews are of little use if they are not properly archived. This course starts by looking at the spreadsheets which keep track of the various processes: have permissions been obtained for use of photos? Are there any conditions placed upon public access? Have copies been made and where are they stored? Participants will consider the best formats and conditions for archiving and storage, and the systems for retrieval.

Even when the recordings have been made and archived, it can still be possible to be unclear about what is actually on those recordings; summaries and possibly transcripts need to be produced. There is also the editing of the material. Participants will examine some of the practical and ethical issues lying behind selection and use of oral history material in websites, publications and exhibitions.

This course considers all activities of oral history that take place once the interview has been completed, and it acts as an introduction to the expertise which the archivist of oral history needs to acquire.

Lecturer: Rib Davis, playwright, oral historian, author, director and community arts worker

Date and Time: 7 February 2013, 9.00am - 3.30pm

Location: Seminar Room, Education Wing, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Number of Participants: 12 

5 day course

The tutors on this course are the co-directors of the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan project and have previously run two workshops in Jordan (2006 and 2008). Drawing on their experience in Britain, Europe and Jordan, as well as expertise in Roman and prehistoric archaeology, the workshop will cover the history, techniques and basic principles of aerial archaeology as well as its relevance to modern-day cultural resource management in the region.

Aerial archaeology combines aerial photography, the interpretation of aerial photographs, creating maps and records, and is based on over 100 years of aerial reconnaissance. There is only one country in the region where there is a current aerial reconnaissance programme for archaeology and that is Jordan. 

Lecturers: Dr Robert Bewley, Prof David Kennedy and Wlodek Raczkowski.

Date and Time: 10 - 14 February 2013, 9.00am - 2.30pm

Location: TBC

Number of Participants: 12

5 day course

This course will look at resins and colours used in the conservation of historical glass. The course will start by giving a brief introduction to the conservation of historical glass. This will take the form of lectures on types of glass, conservation methods and material. There will also be practical exercises in the technique of gap filling and the use of resins and pigments.

Participants should have a good understanding of conservation techniques. 

Lecturer: Katja Broschat, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz, Germany

Date and Time: 17 - 21 March 2013, 9.00am - 2.30pm

Location: TBC

Number of Participants: 6

5 Day Course

This five-day training programme is designed to introduce participants to the principles and practice of developing audiences for museums and galleries in a participative and engaging way.  As well as presentations on audience development approaches, the course will include inspiring case-studies from around the world, guest speakers and practice in a museum-setting.  Throughout the course participants will be encouraged to apply their learning to case-studies selected from their own organisations.

Lecturer: Jo Hargreaves - Director, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre

Date and Time: 19 – 23 May 2013

Location: Room 1A08, First Floor, UCL Qatar, Georgetown Building, Education City, Doha