I found that the Wellcome Collection has many items that relate to the history of mental and physical illness. Particularly, I found a few objects on Phrenology that I found interesting, especially in connection to the ideas in the brief about museums' history of colonisation, racism, and imperialism that affect how we display and collect objects now. The objects in this section reflect Western medicine's racist and eugenic histories, particularly through the practice of Phrenology in the 19th century, and how this practice was used for racist, sexist, and ableist ends.

https://www.sexandu.ca/contraception/non-hormonal-contraception/#tc3

This object could be interesting to use given the fact that it was common but also has some side effects, so it highlights how new advancements in contraception are not always better or without consequence.

Some of the objections written about we could address:  

• Contraception is unnatural.

• Contraception will lead to "race suicide" - a product of the eugenic ideas spread at the time

• Contraception will lead to lower-quality offspring.

• Aesthetic objections as people believed contraception "shock the sense of delicacy in the users" (30).

• Use of contraceptives results in barrenness (31).

2. The AIDS epidemic largely influenced the ways that medicine, government, and society think about educating the public about sexual health.

3. The way we think about sexual health has changed drastically from the 1980s to now. This exhibition displays the ways that the AIDS epidemic transformed the way we view sex education.

4. This exhibition aims to chart the changes in attitudes towards sex education from the onset of the AIDs epidemic to the present.

5. The sex education work of the LGBTQ community was crucial to the changing view about sexual health during and after the AIDS epidemic.

6. The knowledge and advocacy of the LGBTQ community during the AIDS epidemic contributed to changing attitudes about sex education.

• One idea expressed per line

• Line breaks placed at natural pauses in a sentence

• No more than 3 lines per sentence

• Simple sentence structures, no complex clauses

• Use active forms of the verb where possible

• Conversational rhythms, easily spoken out loud

• Maximum 52 characters per line (including spaces)

• Maximum 8 lines per paragraph

• Maximum 15 lines for labels, 22 lines for panels (including spaces)

Some possible ideas that we spoke about and could work with:

The history of contraception

Changing ideas of contraception

Medical advances in contraception 

Political implications of contraception 

Aids epidemic in Britain as a case study in a larger conversation about healthcare messaging and how community approaches to health messaging come across in comparison to government ones

• Official NHS messaging versus education done by the LGBTQ+ community

• focusing on raising awareness of community knowledge and traditions to address a problem.

Using voices and accounts: 

• Using written, spoken, filmed materials from outside the Wellcome collection to supplement our big idea. film/video or audio, spoken word, poetry, personal account/autobiographical info.

• Think about copyright and issues when using materials from the internet. 

Use of comedy, irony, in-group slang

• Tone of irreverence

• Perhaps a glossary of terms that help 

• Idea: using Polari as part of our tone of voice for the exhibition

Strategies of audience engagement

• How are we welcoming people to engage with the exhibition? 

Thinking ahead to week 8 - draft texts- draft title, summary texts, section texts, and individual labels

• Polari traces back to the late 19th century and was used widely during the 20th century, especially in London. The words in Polari draw from other languages, such as French, Yiddish, Italian, and Gaelic. 1

• Some words have double-entendre to either hide their meaning within the gay community or to evoke humor. For example, bona, which comes from the Italian, means good in Polari. When speaking, one can play with the meaning of the word a bit.

  • for example: "Spread your bona all around. Share it with cherished friends and loved ones, and remember the bona deep within you. Look for that bona each and every day."²

• A full sentence in Polari, to greet someone: Ello duckie, it's lovely to varda ya eke.³

Watch Julia and Sandy sketches for more examples.

Date: [between 1990 and 1999]

Reference: 666699i

This object may be under copyright.

Date: [between 1990 and 1999]

Reference: 675175i

I really liked this image and thought it would provide a powerful message but it is under copyright so we cannot use it.

This video shows the changing attitudes and gained knowledge from the time the first TV advert about AIDS-the "tombstone" advert-aired. This advert aired in Scotland and focused on the stigmas and false information that persist, even after being debunked, since the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Now that medical advancements have been made, the focus of sexual health marketing has shifted from being alarmist about spreading the disease to being informative about the truths about HIV.

We need to be mindful of this, as well as of the conventions that shape how we will communicate with our audience. We will adhere to the Ekarv conventions (also in this section) in regards to our object descriptions, introductory and section texts.

promotional notice

• Centre for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies website is where our event will go

  • ccsmgh.leeds.ac.uk 

• Create a promotional notice about your project

  • Will tell people how to access your exhibition

  • Look at past years’ work and how it is done

  • Name of exhibition, venue, dates, and summary in 200 characters

    • Further details: engaging and to the point (more info about the exhibition, context that it is curated by us students, include the link, and image caption and credit at the bottom)

    • Make sure the details let potential audiences know what to expect and why they should visit

    • Good image is important (need caption and credit details and ALT text)

    • News story

  • Can be a more in-depth story about a piece in the exhibition or a reflection about how it was to make this exhibition

  • Title, main body of text (500 words), strong intro paragraph, written for a public audience, quotes, good image.

  • Comms.leeds.ac.uk

After all, who wouldn’t glove up for a dish like this?

Wage the war on AIDS! Five men work to plant the pride flag into the ground, as though they were soldiers. The image emphasises the strength it takes to conquer AIDS and tells us that it’s possible when we get behind one another in solidarity, anything is possible.

This tough omi palone reminds us we’ve got what it takes to fight back. The boxer’s raised fists are indicative of the stance the gay community took against AIDS, as well as the attitude organisations like GFMA took when promoting safe sex practices. Condoms and lube pack a punch in the fight against AIDS. Rather than fearing it, fight it!

Interestingly, the voiceover you can hear is by John Hurt, an actor known for playing a gay icon, the famous raconteur Quentin Crisp.

This TV advert that aired in October conveys health officials' changing attitudes and priorities about AIDS and HIV. Instead of death and doom, this advert focuses on fighting stigmas and false information that persist today, even after being debunked.

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qyudx5yp/items

These moving images by the famed photographer, Annie Leibovitz, are a hopeful advertisement for the HIV treatments that emerged in the early 1990s. Here, we see that survival has become a possibility. Notice how this poster also sensitively acknowledges that a variety of demographics may be affected by HIV. 

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y3t89urz

The red AIDS ribbon was created by the Visual AIDS Artists Caucus in 1991, as a way to show solidarity with HIV positive people worldwide. Celebrities played an important role in popularising this symbol. Elizabeth Taylor wore it during her fundraising efforts for AIDS research, and the performers at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert sported the ribbon to commemorate the lives lost during the epidemic.  

Date:[between 1990 and 1999]

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ezm54gfc/items

This advertisement highlights that pleasure-focused advertising for safe sex was embraced by many marginalised communities. The Black HIV/AIDS network mobilised to address the lack of inclusivity in sexual health resources for people from minority ethnic groups. This poster in particular advertises the femidom, a new form of contraception which provided protection during oral sex performed on vaginas.

• Reviewing ethical problems with social media and copyright of our object use on Instagram. Everything is in place besides our copyright issues. 

  • Review Canva licensing uses

  • Review object licences-some of them have confusing copyright descriptions. We may have to find different objects or embed the objects in the website to share.

    • We are going to email Wellcome Collection about the use of some of these objects to be clear about how we are using the objects and see what they say (if they say anything!)

• Reviewing our current website design that Chloe has worked on-Helen let us know that we are using good visual design that supports our big idea. 

• Presentation: 10 minutes-talk about our process, developing the big idea, finding our objects, writing our descriptions, our visual strategy, and marketing. 

• Our next steps: finding alternative objects for if we need them, possibly writing new object descriptions.