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Mark Lumsden: Pop-Up Data Centre

A project for the analysis of personal artifacts and social objects in a shifting data centered world. UoR MA Fine Art final show proposal.

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<< back | MERL: Closing Down Poster

The MERL invites MA Fine Art students to show work annually. I submitted three pieces of work:

MERL: Closing Down Poster
MERL: Animal Feed
MERL: Air Conditioning Unit

I have created 3 pages to describe each one. Of which, this is the first. The text below is from the proposal which was sent to the MERL staff in early 2026.

Jan 2026

MERL Closing Down Poster

Is time running out for the MERL? it would seem not. At the moment, at least. So why produce a poster saying the MERL ‘is’ closing down?

For a museum to exist requires a social need for historicity. What could cause that situation to change?

Which narratives create our history? Which alternative narratives try to influence and or erase one history over another? Globally we have many political view points with their own emphasis on eschewing one historical version over another. Are those influences really so far away that the UK wouldn’t be forced/want to rebrand it’s own history? Would the MERL’s version of history be relevant in that situation? I think these are important subjects to be aware of and be critical of, should alternative narratives gain prominence in our ‘post-truth’ era. Even if that isn’t the case at the moment, it is a thought to explore, what could cause the situation of the MERLs closure in the future?

The closing down poster would include a URL/QR code pointing to an online explanation of the posters artistic purpose (textually similar to the paragraph above) The webpage would also have questions of the sort:

Why would the MERL close?
Who could make that decision?
What could be the events/situations leading up to that decision?
What would be lost? Culturally, historically, educationally?
How many people would be directly affected?
How many people would be indirectly affected?
Could the MERL’s closure be indicative of some wider movement of removing public history?
Could it be indicative of changing cultural habits?
What other questions could arise around the MERL’s closure?

Regarding the design of the poster above, I have used an existing MERL poster as a template. It is simple and text only. However, perhaps including an image is more striking?

MERL Response

The above proposal was rejected on the grounds that it would sow confusion amongst the public and send out the wrong message.

[Note I asked Hannah Lyons from the MERL for the communications which took place within the MERL regarding the decision to reject the 'Closing Poster' proposal. She did send the communications to me with the clause that it shouldn't be made public. This website is theoretically viewable by the public so I have decided to not public the internal MERL correspondence here.]