Hello. My name is Pete. A few facts about me. I have a double-jointed thumb. I was born in Brighton. I sing in a band. I'm starting a Masters in Public Humanities at the University of Sheffield in 4 weeks. This last fact is the one I'll be writing about on this wee blog. It's allllllllll about the process, as far as I'm concerned and this here will be one of the documents of that process.
So.
What is a Public Humanities Masters all about? In truth, I do not know because I haven't started, but I will tell you a few things that have turned me on about the prospect of signing up. The course combines public engagement with digital technologies (that's the tagline, people). It is PRACTICAL. As in, we do projects that demonstrate public engagement. It also involves some modules from the Arts & Humanities faculty, so I get to immerse myself in some really great subjects I'm interested in, but, as the course isn't too research intensive, I won't go insane. Win. Ok, I think it's time for a conversation (with myself).
Well, what is public engagement?
It is the very simple yet difficult process of taking something specialist, or niche or something perceived to be complex and communicating it in an understandable way to a wide audience.
Ok, do you have any examples?
Well, here in Sheffield we have a few. Festival of the Mind, run by big cheese, Prof. Vanessa Toulmin, puts University staff (boffins and whatnot) together with artists, storytellers, film-makers, musicians and other creative folk in one collaborative mesh of collaboration.
What the hell does the word 'collaboration' mean? It sounds like an annoying buzzword.
Yeah, it is. In fact, in the brilliant overhaul of the gov.uk website, 'collaborate' was one of the banned words for the website's authors. It was part of their idea to rid the government site of words that only mean something to those who work in government and nothing to anyone else. But, back to the question. It means 'working with'.
So you basically try and simplify complex ideas - that sounds like you're watering down the message? Also, isn't it insulting to the public to say that they couldn't possibly understand all these smarty-pants ideas, and that they need to you to tell them in short sentences?
Woah! One question at a time. And I like short sentences. Although, I do hate starting a sentence with a conjunction and I've done that twice already. I woudn't describe it as watering down the message. The complexity of an idea can always exist, but the truth is that some ideas have taken years to arrive at or ARE a very specialist interest. Perhaps we can just take an element of that idea that might just resonate with more than 7 people, and tell a story about it. That would be cool, right? It's the connection with more people that matters. It really does matter. Also, we're all ignorant. I bet that boffin can't tell me the 1993/94 Newcastle United lineup, can he now?
Are you saying boffins don't like football, too?
Let's not get bogged down in this!
Ok, fair point. Anyway, this all sounds a bit like marketing?
There's obviously an element of selling in public engagement. But what business isn't involved in selling? We sell ideas as we sell apples. Well, not exactly in the same way but they are certainly traded for cash or participation. It differs from marketing in that we are not particularly interested in money (although it helps grease the wheels), we are interested in creating a world where people own their public space, know who they vote for, create more than they consume and shape their own environment. That sounds pretty exciting to me, anyway.
