As a part of my research this summer, I travelled to Denmark to sample 66 million year old sea urchins along its eastern shore. To improve my dataset, I also reached out to a number of local collectors in the area to enquire about recording their collections (having had no luck with official collections). One of those whom I managed to get in contact with was Michael Lykke-Bertelsen, founder of Geocenter Grenaa and a locally certified expert on the palaeontology of Djursland (colloquially known as the nose of Denmark).
Communicating through Facebook messenger, we arranged to meet when I was over to visit the best sampling spots as well as the geocenter. In our communique I was struck by his passion for my project, despite only just hearing about it. It was particularly noteworthy as his excitement for this area of study was something I hadn’t experienced from most of the qualified professionals working in this field whom I had reached out to. As I have continued working on my project, this dichotomy between the ‘professionals’ and ‘amateurs’ has only continued to stick out to me. Despite their clear expertise on the subject, many researchers who I contacted simply sounded disinterested. This could mean one of two things. Either my project is deathly boring or, more likely, workload and ‘professionalism’ have created a clear divide between a passion for a subject and its study.
I first came across the idea of professionalism as having negative connotations reading Tim Ingold’s ‘In Praise of Amateurs’ where he describes how corporate influence over his field of anthropology has created a stark contrast between the ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ study of the subject. Professionalism, he quotes, is the attitude that intellectual work is “something you do for a living” whilst adhering to a fixed set of rules on how this work is to be approached which leads to a linear progression of your career. The amateur, however, is driven purely by passion, with no personal gain outwith a satisfaction of their interest and affection for the study (Ingold, 2021). This is no better exemplified than in Michael.
The Geocenter is a beautifully curated museum of his personal collection in the basement of his house. As a part of the centre, he has also constructed a fully kitted workshop in his garage which he loans out for other amateurs to prepare their own collections as well as running popular guided tours along the coast to allow the wider public to fossil hunt. Unrestricted by ‘professional’ requirements, Michael can choose how, when and where to pursue his interests, ensuring they are kept alive. As a result, he has been able to approach this field purely through his own passion and thereby much more easily excite a similar passion in the general public. His local expertise shines through, but goes beyond a purely academic form.
There is no doubt that most, if not all researchers are as passionate for their field as Michael. However, corporate restrictions means that displaying this in modern ‘professional’ systems can become difficult and interest in the work can wane. Of course research should be driven by what is needed, but what is interesting or exciting should also be considered. How can an author be expected to convey the importance of a piece of work that they themselves are hardly interested in?
This is the conclusion I have come to over the past couple weeks after meeting with Michael and it has caused me to change my own approach to my project as well. Initially I was intending to investigate both crabs and sea urchins, however, I soon realised I was spending a disproportionate amount of time on sea urchins and finding a great deal of information as a result. This was entirely due to the fact that they interested me more and therefore I had uncovered significant information I wouldn’t have found otherwise if I was trying to divide my time. So I altered my project to focus exclusively on sea urchins and as a result I have been left with much more meaningful results and a more complete project. By allowing my passion to influence my work as Michael does his, I have been left with an ultimately much improved project.
Grenaa Geocenter Website - https://geocentergrenaa.dk/
References
Ingold, T. (2021) In Praise of Amateurs, Ethnos, 86(1), pp. 153–172. doi: 10.1080/00141844.2020.1830824.