A Day in Milton Keynes (1)
The trip to Milton Keynes is going to be in two parts. The first part will begin with a little bit of the background on my future research project, which will explain myvisit to the National Film & Sci-fi Museum. The second part will recount a visit to the Bletchley Park.
I was busy in January. Besides the module, many other prep events were taking place in order.
First it was the placement workshops, which actually started last year. We had had two or three workshops by the end of December, but none of us really paid attention to any of them, because it was just basic content, such as “know yourself”, “find your strengths”, and so on. But after the Christmas and New Year, suddenly, with all the schoolwork and commitment, at least some of us started feeling the weight of inevitable process: CVs, interviews, and the result.
Emma and I had a chat with the placement officer Sarah last year. Emma was quite concerned because she did not know about the schedule of the process. In January, it was clear. After a brief workshop, though not outspoken, everyone was waiting for the list: the list that shows all vacancies that we could apply for. These vacancies are provided by museums across the UK; some museums were world-renown ones, like the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, and some were smaller and based in more rural regions. Some offered more than one under different sectors and orientations, and some listed just one. We were told that the list would be finalized and come out in late February.
Another essential work that kicked in at the same time was the research project. Our study program required us to hand in an 8000-word (within a 10%-margin) dissertation before we begin our placements. Throughout my meetings with Sarina (my tutor) since last year, she had been casually asking if I had anything particular in mind, that was worth being developed into a research topic. In January, I learned that Sarina was the governor of the research module, and the class had a few sessions on the details and requirements of the dissertation.
Originally, I was thinking about extending a topic that I wrote in my second assignment last year, which was the relation between Orientalism and colonialism. I intended to point this out with many portraits mostly painted by artist like Reynolds and van Dyck. A point of view was that the sitters dressing in “oriental” and “exotic” garments should be considered cultural inappropriate, and an early version of colonialism.
In one of the research prep sessions, where the class was asked to put our ideas — no matter how crude and premature they were — onto Padlet (it’s a social platform where a person can display posts in a variety of forms, like pure texts, videos, multimedia, etc.). Some of us were still uncertain, while some of use were already resolute in what directions to march.
However, after the sessions, I kept reevaluating this topic. To be honest, I was not very drawn to it: Surely, it would be cool to participate a curation that talks about Orientalism being a prelude of colonialism, and I already had done a few reading to finish the assignment. I concluded eventually that this topic was not what I should be doing, because there were several requirements that I simply couldn’t fulfill in a short amount of time. One was a profound understanding in art history, especially portraiture. The other was the decolonization, which included the knowledge of how colonialism was formed. I do not have a background nor degree in neither of them.
I kept searching. One day, when I was showering, it was like I was struck by a lightning: movies and museums. I did not have the full idea, but these two words connected like two odd pieces of puzzles but fit perfectly. I dashed out the shower room and spent a whole evening trying to figure out what made the two pieces sound fit.
It was props. The next morning, I woke up with a clearer mind. To me, it was like these elements have been scattered everywhere in my mind-palace. Somehow I knew all along that they would work together, but I never had picked the pieces up and assembled them. It was time. I sat down and started looking closely at what props had anything to do in a museum. It was a wild-goose-chase in the beginning because I searched everything: props, film history, film art, objects, museums, exhibitions, archives, etc..
I remembered it was around the 20th that I became more certain that I should be doing film props and museums instead of Orientalism in portraits. During the wild-goose-chase, I stumbled across a brilliant news: a brand-new film prop museum just opened in August 2021, and it is not far away. It is in Milton Keynes, a name I often heard on my way to London.
On the 23rd I boarded a coach to Milton Keynes. About an hour later I arrived in a shabby coach station in the middle of nowhere. On a bus that drove towards the city centre I started seeing what this little city looked like: rows of two-store houses, newly built, cement instead of bricks, all gray. Every construction was neatly designed to fit in a checker board; nothing out of ordinary.
The bus stopped at a place that looked like a gigantic parking lot with islands of bus stops. Next to the parking lot were enormous complex of food court (McDonald, subway, KFC, Starbucks, etc.) and common entertainment facility (gaming, cinema). It was till early and none of them was open, and to be quite frank, I felt weird enough because there were hundreds of cars in the parking lot, but I simply didn’t see that many people shopping nearby. This was the most depressing and eerie place I’d been to.
My plan was to walk around the city, figuring out where the local museum and gallery are before I entered the Film Museum. But there was nothing that drew my attention: everything I saw was commercial products of chain companies. I did think about sitting down for a coffee or a snack, but it seemed like Milton Keynes thought Costa or Nirò were too low for them, and the beer garden or Italian restaurant were charging ridiculously. I already had pints of disappointment by 10.30 in the morning. Remarkable.
I did find the National Film & Sci-fi Museum. It was on the first floor, and there was an arcade next to the entrance. I heard bangs and electronic musics with (apparently) children’s shouting coming from, and decided it was better not entering it.
Due to copyright, it is forbidden to take photos in the Film Museum, which was bad enough though understandable. Most of the props are from famous sci-fi movies, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and of course, Star Wars and Star Trek. I was impressed to see a helmet from Alien that was signed by Sigourney Weaver, and a whole range of Enterprise original costume from Star War. There were also a lot of miscellaneous props from non sci-fi movies, like Pete Maverick’s jacket in Top Gun (1986), the one that shows four flags on the back, including Taiwan. The jacket became notorious when the issue of Taiwan being part of China surfaced, and the jacket was either pixelated or blurred when screened in China. Top Gun was one of the very few movies that my parents went to theater together, and they were surprised to see the flag of a tiny island being featured on an American movie.
The museum also displayed occasionally storyboards and vintage movie posters. I remember seeing the Neuralyzer placed under the poster of MIB, and a kid was staring at it. He wouldn’t know how many memes and jokes that came with the light stick. I remember when my brother and I watched Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (2002), during a scene when Lockhart tried to cast the spell of oblivion on Harry and Ron, my brother said he could’ve used the Neuralyzer.
What I liked the most was the living room set brought from the production of Sherlock (2010), the TV series produced by BBC. I was thrilled, being a huge fan of every version of the great detective of all times. Seven to eight years ago, when I came to London for a trip, I visited the Sherlock Holmes Museum on 221b Baker Street, and even had a photo then.
Most props were labelled as clearly as possible. Special features were noted, such as signature from the actor and actress, or being a kind donation from someone. If the prop was allowed for selfies, there would be a sign (There were only a few chances). The biggest problem for me, as I later wrote in my research Padlet, was that the props are not exhibited in a certain theme or genre order. Not being chronologically organized is perfectly fine with me, but seeing props from the same movie but being scattered across the museum caused confusion in me, even though I haven’t watched it. Take Star War for example. I have never watched a single episode or any of the franchise, but I have a vague idea of the characters and plot. I saw some costumes near the entrance, a smaller sale model of the Millennium Falcon next to Sherlock’s living room, and a suit of Storm Trooper in a corner. My guess is that the arrangement was based on the limited space: some props are bigger and it might be hard to put them all in one section.
Another more subtle issue is that the labeling doesn’t invite nor explain what am I looking. I’m not finding excuse for not having watched any Star War or Star Trek. My concern is that this kind of curatorial decision exactly fits the public impression of “nerd” and “fan” behavior. Surely, retro and vintage board games and arcades have made a come back when Stranger Things, a Netflix show, was gaining huge popularity. People feel nostalgic when seeing their childhood memories make an appearance. But still, it’s nerdy. I don’t mean to degrade the character of these wonderful collection, but there has to be a way to make museum professionals aware of their importance. Basically, the Film Museum was a passionate fan sharing their proud precious, and I love that, but there is only going to be so many as a handful of fans who visit. And they might only visit once. Are they going to buy souvenirs? Probably.
Nonetheless, I appreciate the effort put into the museum. I also saw that technicians were working to restore props. There are clearly a lot more work to be done, but this is a wonderful start, especially considering that the museum only opened last August. I genuinely hope that more people would come and that the charity could acquire more collection.
