Engaging Objects: The Talking Objects Programme at the British Museum

On a hot summer's day in August 2008 a group of eight young people joined the throng of visitors crowding around the Rosetta Stone, one of the British Museum's most visited objects. Like many of the tourists milling around, none of the young people had been to the British Museum before, and only one person in the group, a young man called Moser, had heard about the stone - during his schooling in Guinea. This was day one of the Talking Objects pilot project - the first in a three year programme of projects drawing on a range of art practices to discuss and debate the meanings of museum objects with diverse audiences across London. This paper provides a critical reflection on the process of bringing art practices into the museum to facilitate new conversations around objects. It will examine the experimental ideas which underpin the Talking Objects programme and the ways in which object histories and the personal responses of the project participants come together and are mediated within the British Museum - 'a world collection for the world'.