As I was in Manchester over Easter, I visited the IWM North, the only
one of the five IWM sites I hadn't been to. It was a bit of a
disappointment. Images follow:
cc-by-sa on
everything.
(Incidentally, all photos here were taken with the Panasonic
Lumix GF1 I recently bought second-hand from a friend. It's a lovely
piece of kit, a slight upgrade over my Pentax K10D and, as you'll see,
with much better low-light performance.)
I see basically two approaches to museum design: lots of glass
cases with the actual original (whatever), or lots of buttons and
interactive video to engage people who don't know much about the
subject. I tend to feel that buttons and interactive video can be done
just as well on-line.
The IWM North takes a middle ground: there's a fair old bit of
interactive video, but they also have glass cases with artefacts
related to a particular subject (as it might be, "things soldiers make
while they're not fighting"). The overall theme is "the impact of
modern conflicts on people and society"; there's not much here from
before the Great War, and that and WWII get the most attention.
There is also abstract sculpture.
This was a 3.2-second hand-held exposure. You know, I think this image
stabilisation thing might actually work a bit.
(Though why they feel the need to keep everything in dimness is not at
all clear. Sure, some artefacts get damaged by bright lights, but the
main IWM in London is nothing like this dark.)
A rare naval flamethrower, fitted aboard HMS Vindictive for the
Zeebrugge Raid of 1918.
Early airborne wireless transmitter.
Vivat ribbons of the
Great War.
Various small-arms, same period.
But in the end we didn't really feel much enthusiasm for continuing
with WWII and later; yes, it's a whole heap of Not Fun to be involved
in or affected by war, we get it, and if that's all you have to say
you don't need another hour of my time to say it to me. While there
are some interesting items here, I'd have to say this one isn't worth
the trip even if you're already in Manchester.
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