: Amgueddfa Cymru

Mae'r blog yma'n dilyn blog Marsli Owen.

Pan benderfynom ni wneud digwyddiad o’r enw ‘Trwy’r Twll Clo’ meddyliais am y gwahanol bethau y buaswn yn gallu dangos i bobl yn adeiladau hanesyddol Sain Ffagan. Roeddwn i eisiau rhywbeth oedd yn cysylltu’r gorffennol a’r presennol, felly dewisais hanes yfed te a lleoli fy hun yn y parlwr yn ffermdy Kennixton.

Mae’r parlwr yn Kennixton wedi ei addurno yn steil y 1750au - efallai eich bod yn ei adnabod fel tŷ Capten Blamey oddi ar y gyfres deledu ddiweddar Poldark. Penderfynais fod mewn gwisg ar gyfer y digwyddiad er mwyn ceisio dod a’r tŷ yn fyw, a gosod y bwrdd ar gyfer te fel y buasent nhw wedi gwneud yn y 18fed ganrif.  

Mae gan de hanes gyffroes iawn yn ysbrydoli ffasiynau, ffortiynau, chwyldroadau a throseddau. Daeth i Brydain yn 1657 gyda Catrin o Fracança, gwraig Siarl yr 2il o Bortiwgal. Daeth yn ddiod ffasiynol iawn yn sydyn, ychydig fel y ‘Kate-effect’ heddiw,

Fel llawer o bethau poblogaidd, rhoddwyd treth uchel arno gan y llywodraeth. Roedd rhai delwyr diegwyddor yn ceisio gwneud i’r te fynd ychydig pellach gan ei amhuro gyda dail y ddraenen wen neu hyd yn oed baw defaid! Er mwyn goresgyn y dreth uchel ar de, buasai llawer o bobl yng Nghymru wedi prynu eu te gan smyglwyr. Mae’n bosib y buasai preswylwyr Kennixton wedi cael gafael ar de yn yr un ffordd. Roedd yn wreiddiol wedi ei adeiladu ar arfordir Gŵyr a buasai te wedi ei smyglo wedi bod ar gael yn hawdd. 

NId y Cymry’n unig oedd yn gwrthwynebu talu treth mor uchel ar de; doedd yr Americanwyr ddim yn gweld pam y dylen nhw chwaith. Er mwyn dangos eu teimladau, taflon nhw de Prydeinig i mewn i'r harbwr yn Boston - y Boston Tea Party - gicdaniodd Rhyfel Annibyniaeth America yn 1775.

Carais wneud y digwyddiad yma, a chynhyrchiodd rai sgyrsiau diddorol iawn gydag ymwelwyr. Roedd yn dŷ yn teimlo llawer mwy fel cartref wrth wneud ychydig o weithgareddau dydd i ddydd. Ond mae’n rhaid i mi gyfaddef, mi oeddwn i’n falch iawn o ddod allan o’r ffrog ar ddiwedd y dydd - roedd y sgert fawr a llewys tynn yn gyfyngedig iawn. Gorffennais y dydd yn gwisgo jeans cyfforddus a’n mwynhau paned o de yn dorch ar y sofa!

Bydd blog arall wythnos nesaf gan Heulwen, a fydd yn trafod y Prefab.

We have created word clouds based on the most commonly used terms in the responses to two questions on display in the exhibition. Figure 1 shows the feedback to the question "Which object would you recommend to a friend?" and Figure 2 shows the terms used to the query "How do you feel surrounded by so many fragile objects?".

We hope to periodically produce these word clouds; they may show that the most frequently used terms change over time or that they remain the same. Interesting conclusions could be drawn from either. If they change it could be that people will appreciate certain works due to the time of year, the likelihood that they attended an event or changing fashions. If they remain unchanged the conclusion could be drawn that some works resonate strongly with the majority of visitors.

The questions are posed using two methods on the landing of the west wing galleries; as a comments section on the iPad's and a bulletin board with paper and pencils provided to write a response (Figure 3).

These questions were posed to combat the standard "What do you think of the exhibition?". Rather we wanted to create questions which would encourage key concepts of the exhibition: to stimulate curiosity and encourage debate. This (we hope!) will happen through visitors reading the questions and considering their own responses and by seeing the responses of others which are left on display in the space.

Excitingly we have found visitors have taken to this style of questioning; the responses to the question about recommending an object to a friend (on the "bulletin board") have been through text and images with some visitors expanding upon why they like certain works (Figure 4) . In the comments field on the iPad's which asks about personal experience in the exhibition we have been interested to seeing the varying reactions. Such as a visitor on the 5th May who responded: "Scared worried but its lovely" or from the 16th May "I really liked the pull between wanting to touch and not being able to touch. When i stepped into the first installation i was overwhelmed with a child like want to feel and discover for myself.".

Let us know If you have any comments on the exhibition, questions or if there's a subject you'd like to see a future blog post about. By Penelope Hines & Jennifer Dudley

Our expedition has now drawn to a successful close. Our collections of several thousand specimens have (mostly) been successfully exported from Ecuador and initial analysis of them has started. Entomological expeditions to remote areas are great fun of course. However the less glamorous but harder work comes later, involving months or years of detailed study during which new species are described, evolutionary trees constructed, and ecological or biogeographic conclusions etc. are developed.

In the field there may be great excitement about finding a particular insect but to a scientist, the level of excitement can only grow as the real significance of the finding is revealed subsequently through painstaking study and reference to our already extensive collections. Already we have glimpses of results that might tell us more about how the insect fauna of the upper Amazon Basin came about. For example the unexpected presence of Cladodromia (a classic ‘Gondwanan’ genus) suggests there has been immigration from Patagonia whereas the high diversity of Neoplasta (which is essentially North American) hints at a south-bound migration along the Andes. On the other hand, an almost complete absence of Hemerodromia puzzles us as it is widespread in the lower Amazon so why didn’t we find it higher up? We suspect that the answer may be that it has only recently arrived in South America and is still spreading to Ecuador. Then again the unseasonal rains (due to a strong El Niño this year) may be a factor. Investigations continue.

In the field, our successes were often hard-won; difficult slogging through trying terrain, inclement weather, frustrating officialdom and many other factors sometimes worked against us it seemed, and intermittent access to the internet made writing these blogs challenging at times. We have been very fortunate in that our expedition was entirely and well-funded by the Brazilian Government as a part of their noble and ambitious efforts to understand the biodiversity of the Amazon. Our own exertions will plug one significant hole in knowledge and contribute to greater appreciation of Amazon biodiversity.

To read all of Adrian's entries, go to our Natural History Blog

Back to civilization again - the regional capital of Loja, a small town nestled under forested Andean slopes and home to the regional Ministry of Environment where we must go once again, to obtain permission to move the samples we have collected back to Quito.

Unlike our previous brush with officialdom in Tena (our samples from there still have not been released!... but we have some local support to ensure that they eventually will be), the officials in Loja were helpful, polite and efficient! We had allowed 2 days to process the permissions in Loja, but in the event, we received our permits within 30 minutes, leaving us the best part of 2 days to explore the town and sample the local culture and cuisine.

Meanwhile, here are some more photos from our time in the field.

To read more about Adrian's travels, go to our Natural History blog page

A week has passed during which the rains slowly abated (at least for part of each day). Dryer vegetation means that our nets (and ourselves) don’t rapidly become water-sodden and we can catch insects more easily and effectively. Whenever the weather has allowed, we have been climbing through the forest searching for flies and enjoying a good measure of success in our quest.

Many of the species we have been catching belong in genera with which we have little familiarity; being rare and little-known, even to specialists such as ourselves. Finds such as these make all the hard slogging up precipitous slopes, cutting through dense vegetation, deep sucking mud and scratches and bites from a myriad of thorny plants and man-eating insects worthwhile! I guess you have to be a shade unhinged to enjoy this sort of thing. . . or a field entomologist perhaps?

Our time at Estación Científica San Francisco is now drawing to a close and tonight we have been sorting and labelling our samples carefully to ensure they are ready for shipment back to our bases in Cardiff and Manaus. Proper field curation of collected specimens is a vital part of expeditions such as ours, ensuring that all data (where/when an insect was captured, what it’s habitat was and how it was behaving etc. etc.) is properly cross-referenced with the actual samples. Were the samples to become detached from their data they would be rendered useless, of mere cosmetic interest.

To read more about Adrian's travels, go to our Natural History blog page