Marta Paccani

Article

"I feel torn between pride for what I have done and a certain terror for the intellectual responsibility for it."

Marta at St Pauls Cathedral
Marta at St Pauls Cathedral

One of the main problems in the realisation of this project is related with issues of conservation. Unlike museum rooms, the environment inside the cathedral (e.g. room temperature, humidity) might prove to be damaging for some of the objects, raising serious questions about the possibility of their display.

I learned how to order and make explicit the information in pre-made categories, to make it accessible to a wider audience in a straightforward way. I also discovered the value, as well as the immense pleasure, of working as part of a team. I doubt that there is anything as thrilling or as deeply satisfying as to pursue a research in open dialogue with other people. If I look at my work, I can see how the final product is nothing but the outcome of this on-going dialogue with my colleagues. I start now to reflect on the kind of contribution that it will represent once gone online. My work will then become part of much wider discourses.

I found it rewarding to use an approach that takes into consideration the social lives of the objects and their materiality in order to offer context, meaning, and interpretation.

I feel torn between pride for what I have done and a certain terror for the intellectual responsibility for it. But most of all, I am excited as somebody at his first school day, feeling that I have somehow crossed the threshold marking the entrance to the field of history as a profession.

Some inscriptions on the walls of "my office" are dating from the 19th century. Apparently workers got bored sometimes back then too.