The Exhibitions
Europe, Interrupted
The European Union emphasizes four 'freedoms of movement' – of goods, people, services and money – as both its key purpose and the basis of European citizenship. The idea is that by setting these things in ever greater motion, relationships in Europe will become closer.
Drives to create these freedoms of movement – and the hopes and fears that have accompanied them – have a much longer history, however, and technology has long played a key role in them. Beginning with railways and telegraphs in the middle of the nineteenth century and continuing on into the connectivity revolutions of recent decades, governments, firms and individuals have tried to create pathways over the natural or human-built divides that cross and surround Europe.
As these projects have moved forward, freedoms of movement have relied more and more on things like transport systems, electricity supplies and computer networks that we mostly take for granted in everyday life. In turn, the movement of new technologies has required knowledge and experts to travel over borders through channels that remain generally hidden from everyday view.
As a result, we mostly notice and understand these connections only when there is an interruption, such as the Italian blackout of 2003; or when big new connections like the Channel Tunnel are made, piercing our horizon of expectations.
Engineers and manufacturers have faced similar interruptions in their attempts to create broad standards or larger markets for their products. One way or another, interruptions allow us – and sometimes force us – to stop and think about the role technology plays, and has always played, in European movements.
Taking this idea on board, this virtual exhibition uses interruptions as way of telling a longer story about the efforts to connect Europe in the modern world. It will help us to look at the combinations of ideas, materials and institutions that must be made to work together in order to create and maintain the strange and changing entities called 'Europe'.
Structure of the exhibition
The exhibition consists of thirteen individual stories, illustrated with material from participating museum collections. On the sidebar, the exhibit presents further related material. This will change as the content on the internet changes.
The stories stand on their own, but also form part of five different themed tours through the website. Each of these tours (each a ´line´ on a exhibit´s ´network´ map) emphasizes a different theme in interaction between technology and Europe.
