Welcome

Circuits of Practice is an AHRC-funded project that explores the role of museums in constructing a historical heritage centred around the emergence and development of computing and digital media. It interrogates how leading museums in the UK are helping to construct and disseminate historical narratives about computing through which the past, the present and the future of our societies are imagined and culturally constructed.

Taking up the metaphor of the electronic circuit, where electrical connections between diverse components enable complex operations to be performed, the project will bring together curators from leading museums in the UK (Bletchley Park, the Centre for Computing History, The National Museum of Computing, the National Science and Media Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum), leading international institutions (the Computer History Museum in the USA, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation “Miraikan” in Japan, the National Museum of Science and Technology “Leonardo Da Vinci” in Milan, Italy), a company partner (BT Group), and an interdisciplinary team of university-based researchers including Dr Simone Natale (Loughborough University), Professor Ross Parry (University of Leicester) and Dr Petrina Foti (Loughborough University).

The project will enable transformative impact in the cultural sector, enhancing the capacity of heritage institutions to effectively collect, preserve and present relevant information about the development and societal impact of new technologies.