Cathedrals of Technoscience
Museum Artefacts and the Construction of Technoscientific Narratives
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Beschreibung
This book explores science and technology museums as sites of knowledge production, where scientific and technological collections—the tangible and intangible traces of the history and present of science and technology—are transformed into “technoscientific narratives” through the care, interpretation, and display of museum artefacts. In Cathedrals of Technoscience, Roberta Spada examines the science and technology museum as a place in which technoscience, its histories, and the imaginaries surrounding them are constructed through engagement with material culture.
Through the metaphor of the cathedral, the author takes readers beyond the museum gallery, much as scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS) have entered laboratories and factories: by following objects and heritage professionals into the practices that shape museal technoscience. Like cathedrals, museums are presented as symbolic spaces that balance authority—embodied in the grandeur of their architecture and collections—with a commitment to diverse communities, of which visitors are only one part.
At the heart of the book is the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy, and three artefacts connected to the history of radio technology under Italian fascism: a microphone, a transmitter, and a cigar box—a so-called “relic” associated with Guglielmo Marconi. Through this museum-cathedral, Spada shows how the practices of collecting, curating, and exhibiting enable museum artefacts and professionals to construct the narratives that shape our cultural relationship with technoscience and its history.
Roberta Spada is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes at the University of Padua and an adjunct professor in History of Information Technology at the Politecnico di Milano. She is a researcher in Science and Technology Studies interested in the heritage of science, technology, and industry. Her work intersects STS with curatorial and historical approaches to science and technology, especially media and ICT. She was awarded her PhD at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci and the Politecnico di Milano. In 2026, she obtained a Byrne-Bussey Marconi Fellowship in the History of Science, Technology and Communication at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
This book explores science and technology museums as sites of knowledge production, where scientific and technological collections—the tangible and intangible traces of the history and present of science and technology—are transformed into “technoscientific narratives” through the care, interpretation, and display of museum artefacts. In Cathedrals of Technoscience, Roberta Spada examines the science and technology museum as a place in which technoscience, its histories, and the imaginaries surrounding them are constructed through engagement with material culture.
Through the metaphor of the cathedral, the author takes readers beyond the museum gallery, much as scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS) have entered laboratories and factories: by following objects and heritage professionals into the practices that shape museal technoscience. Like cathedrals, museums are presented as symbolic spaces that balance authority—embodied in the grandeur of their architecture and collections—with a commitment to diverse communities, of which visitors are only one part.
At the heart of the book is the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy, and three artefacts connected to the history of radio technology under Italian fascism: a microphone, a transmitter, and a cigar box—a so-called “relic” associated with Guglielmo Marconi. Through this museum-cathedral, Spada shows how the practices of collecting, curating, and exhibiting enable museum artefacts and professionals to construct the narratives that shape our cultural relationship with technoscience and its history.
Provides a fresh disciplinary perspective on science and technology museums and their role in producing STS narratives Employs a dual approach that draws from both curatorial work and qualitative social research on museum practices Includes case studies that situate science and technology studies parallel to key points in modern European history
Autor*in
Roberta Spada
Themen in »Cathedrals of Technoscience«
Science and technology museums Science and technology heritage Museum artefacts Radio history Science and technology curatorship Museum narratives technoscientific heritage