In the fall 2015, OCCAS offers a master studio as part of the international research project The Printed and the Built: Architecture and Public Debate in Modern Europe, in collaboration with the Museum of Cultural History.

The studio takes as its point of departure the two most important public institutions debating and presenting architecture to wide audiences in the 19th century: the illustrated press and the museum. On the backdrop of the collections of the former Department of Antiquities in Grosch’s University buildings and their transference to Henrik Bull’s Historical Museum at Tullinløkka around 1900, we will look into the public debates on acquisitions, cultures of collecting, practices of exhibition, installation design and archeological excavations, in short: the public debates surrounding artifacts of the past in changing, contemporary architectural frames. The illustrated press will provide new insights into one of the most important mass media of the 19century. We will study this publication culture in-depth, from typography and images to the international contexts of the debates.

In parallel with studying the historical debates surrounding this collection and acquisition history, we will work with contemporary exhibition design and curatorial deliberations. The Museum of Cultural History is in the process of re-mounting their permanent displays, with an exception for Sverre Fehn’s permanent galleries for the medieval collection. In collaboration with museum staff, we will develop new design schemes for several of the galleries, to be presented at the museum through the semester. An important reference for the new designs will be Fehn’s museum architecture and exhibitions of historical artifacts such as the show “Medieval Art in Norway” at Henie-Onstad Art Center in 1972 and Domkirkeodden at Hamar).

This research based studio will admit maximum 10 dedicated students, interested in visual culture, exhibition curating, as well as singular, fragile antiquities and their mass medial representations.