Scalpels and dentist chairs are also works of art

The Medical Museion, a small, low-key, niche museum belonging to the University of Copenhagen, is reinventing itself and becoming something different.

This is according to Professor Thomas Söderqvist, director of the Medical Museion who is hiring two new associate professors with experience in the fields of arts and communications.

See our recent photo tour of the present museum exhibitions here.

The museum will, to a much higher degree, make scientific information more digestible to the layman, by highlighting the aesthetic dimension inherent in medical science.

»Employing aesthetics in the museum serves to make the public more interested, but it also refers to the strong sense of aesthetics within the medical practice itself,« says Professor Thomas Söderqvist, who is director of the Medical Museion.

Will better fulfil museum’s purpose

The museum is to use music, photography and art etc. to provide new perspectives on science and medical technology. This will make daunting medical science information more accessible to a non-medical public.

Professor Söderqvist believes that mobilizing the different senses such as vision, hearing, smell and touch will enable people to better appreciate science and technology.

»Displaying the information and artefacts in a more aesthetic fashion will engage the public and better fulfil the museum’s didactical and pedagogical aims,« explains Professor Söderqvist.

Surgeons prefer clean cuts

There is an aesthetic dimension to science itself. Scientists have to make aesthetic judgements every day, he explains.

»A surgeon has to consider aesthetics too. A clean cut is preferred to a messy one. He needs to try his best to leave as little scar tissue as possible.«

The Medical Museion is currently advertising for associate professors, also internationally, with a broad range of qualifications and experience in the fields of arts and communications in addition to the sciences.

Uni-avis@adm.ku.dk