21 days in the life of the museum

We had a strange request come through our internal email a few months back. The poster wanted to know if any museum staff were willing to spend 21 days filming 4 second clips of their lives, and the lives of the museum. Given my long standing dedication to dadaism in the workplace and ever-so-slightly worrying attachment to my iPhone, you can probably accurately predict my response. Yup. Hand up in the air, stepping forward to volunteer, any excuse at all to take more footage of things with the phone...

The project is the brainchild of the artist Tony Harris (tonyharris.org) for the Campsite event hosted during half-term. If you didn't catch the Campsite at Natural History Museum, it was actually pretty amusing (more here). Arctic explorer tents, people in outlandish field kit wandering around the museum... and of course, our little video installation (screened in a tent, no less!).

For 21 days friends, colleagues, volunteers, and anonymous members of the public were subjected to the constant refrain 'oh hey, do you mind if I just film this...?'. So, thanks to everyone: the anonymous collegial hands sorting primate teeth and photographing specimens, the birthday boy, the waiter, and the adorable Spanish lizard that had nothing to do with anything at all :)

So here it is, your insider, back stage, all-access pass to bits of the museum only we get (have?) to see...and good luck figuring out which one is me :)

leapCopy from Brenna Hassett on Vimeo.