ABSTRACT
In recent years politics has erupted publicly into the imagined sanctity of science and of museums on an increasing number of occasions. Two cases which have caused worldwide ripples of concern are the controversy over the representation of the Enola Gay-the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War II-and the Science in American Life exhibition, both at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington (see Gieryn, this volume). Although most science exhibitions have not achieved the same notoriety, the questions that were raised in the controversies can be asked of other exhibitions too. Who decides what should be displayed? How are notions of ‘science’ and ‘objectivity’ mobilized to justify particular representations? Who gets to speak in the name of ‘science’, ‘the public’ or ‘the nation’? What are the processes, interest groups and negotiations involved in constructing an exhibition? What is ironed out or silenced? And how does the content and style of an exhibition inform public understandings?
