A trip to the Wellcome Institute

In March the LVI TOK students visited the Wellcome Institute (a museum and library that explores health and human experience) to help prepare for their Exhibition task. We had an insightful talk from some of the Institute’s Digital Editors, helping gain an understanding of some of the unique ways in which the museum gains and shares knowledge. Pairing with fellow IB students from Westminster Academy, we then explored both the temporary and permanent exhibition spaces and used the Exhibition prompt questions to guide group discussions. Below is a selection of student musings on The Healing Pavillion.

How does the context in which this knowledge is presented influence how we respond to it?

The space has a tranquil atmosphere that creates the effect of a sanctuary and the dark coloured walls offer a quietness that allows one to reflect and contemplate the meanings and motives behind the tapestries and what they symbolise, in peace. The way the knowledge is physically presented in its surroundings, influences our responses as the peace felt in the pavilion allows us to focus our attention solely on the tapestries and reflect on the history.

Keira Grossman 

The healing pavilion with its lined walls and twin tapestries creates an immersive experience which allows you to fully absorb the knowledge presented. This immersive and authentic experience is further emphasised by the requirement to remove shoes which is required when entering a Buddhist temple in Japan, which this exhibition is based on. This suggests that the context in which knowledge is presented can be instrumental in the level of absorption and the way it is accepted. By immersing yourself in this type of exhibition, the knowledge is more readily accepted. 

Sia Van Den Kieboom

The Healing Pavilion serves the purpose of reimagining what textiles and architecture could do in a museum that was previously burdened by colonial history.  The significance of including work from colonised communities in a space that was previously for colonisers, reveals violent pasts  and the hidden power dynamics of the foundation of western museology. The Healing Pavilion allows us to have an opportunity to contemplate how we view the world around us, letting us ask questions, listen, share and  mediate.

Sofia Maher

How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement upon past knowledge? 

In the case of the healing pavilion, the knowledge presented is certainly an improvement upon past knowledge as it aims to use a space with colonial history and reimagine it. This demonstrates the ways in which knowledge evolves as past views are being dispelled and grown upon. 

Sia Van Den Kieboom

The exhibit works to recognise the  wrongdoings of colonisers by appreciating work of people all around the world. Additionally,  it is lined with Walnut panels which came from the Wellcome Collection’s ‘Medicine Man’ exhibit - this alteration and recognition of the past embodies a physical transformation of the past. Ndiritu (the artist who commissioned the exhibit) asks ‘ how we might energetically and architecturally reinvent the role of contemporary museums and transform these institutional spaces’. 

Sofia Maher