March 2013
2 posts
WatchFantastic video on the various issues/strategies for documenting and preserving installation art.
sofielh:
Here it is! The video from the project “Installation Art, who cares?”. A project started several years ago in the Netherlands, but with international collaborators, addressing the issues of installation art. Very interesting video for anyone working with these kinds of issues.
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On Museum Websites; e.g. Rijksstudio
For the last several months I’ve been contracted to update the Collections section of the National Gallery of Canada website. It has been a great learning experience to work in the, dare I say, murky, undefined, yet ever-evolving process of a collection’s digitization and distribution.
The ‘virtual museum’ concept is not new. From the NGC’s perspective, its national...
February 2013
2 posts
Object-Based Learning in the Classroom
I haven’t been posting much in the last..several months. I am still reading up on cool new ways that museums are engaging with visitors, but NOW I’ll make an effort to share more and be less selfish with these things…
Ok so, I’d say most of the educational programming in museums is still pretty dependent on the school curriculum. My jaded view has been that it’s...
September 2012
2 posts
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July 2012
1 post
May 2012
3 posts
Radio documentary: The Heritage Wars →
museumsandstuff:
Interesting documentary from the BBC (available to all) discussing how the heritage industry - including museums - are becoming more competitive in how they attract audiences.
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On Crowdsourcing
(Video still of Stedelijk Museum audio tour in 1952; courtesy of Nancy Proctor presentation here).
Simon Willison, software architect for The Guardian, gave this great presentation on how to build a crowdsourcing app. Go here for audio to follow along with the slides.
When I first started learning about mobile initiatives in museums, I held ‘crowdsourcing’ high as one of those hot...
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April 2012
5 posts
LINK: The Alternative Museum Establishment →
museumsandstuff:
“Highlights from an ongoing series of exclusive interviews exploring innovative museum practice where Gregory Chamberlain talks to alternative museum thinkers about their work and the future of museums. Full list of interviews in the ‘Alternative Museum Establishment’ series published in issues 09 and 10 of Museum/iD magazine: • Nina Simon, Museum of Art &...
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Picasso for Art's Sake at the AGO
This is going to be a bit of a rant and I apologize in advance. But this is a blog and that’s what these things are really for, so..
From yesterday’s article in the Globe and Mail on the AGO’s upcoming Picasso exhibition:
One thing visitors won’t be getting is lots of information on the walls. Each objet will be identified in situ – but there is only one substantive text...
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LINK: ArtFagCity Review on MoMA's Cindy Sherman... →
An amusing and pretty spot-on article about the poor usability design of MoMA’s Cindy Sherman website:
“Whatever the virtues of intimacy as a design philosophy, it takes a backseat when usability issues interfere with a smooth, comfortable scroll through a website. We’re all for MoMA’s stress on high-quality web content, but this time, MoMA’s investment just didn’t pay...
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Museums Mobilizing: On #MW2012 and Other Mobile...
It could be(/is probably to do with) the fact that I follow news about mobile tech and social media in museums more than I do, well, anything else pertaining to my career.* But these last few days, I have seen an overwhelming amount of discussions and events related to the topic. I find it really exciting to follow. A few examples below..
1) The Museums Association’s May issue is going to...
March 2012
3 posts
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LINK: Evaluation-led Mobile Experience Design →
It goes without saying, but I’m saying it anyway: this presentation should be a reference tool for any mobile strategies developed in museums.
It’s about evaluation and new approaches to mobile experience design, by the awesome Nancy Proctor. Summary: It’s not about the technology; it’s all about content and the experience/s you want to provide.
With great archived...
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On Museum Studies Programs
We are entering an age in which people don’t just want to be lectured to by experts, they want to contribute and curate their own content. In this environment, curators may evolve from being lecturers and authors to being moderators of discussions and editors of content. This requires a different set of soft skills, and calls for a different set of training.
(Center for the Future of Museums)
...
February 2012
9 posts
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WatchJust as I was beginning to lose hope for a good example of gaming apps in an art gallery context, I stumbled upon Tate Trumps: A free digital card game app for iPhone or Ipod Touch.
Players explore the gallery looking for artworks that will score highly in one of three modes: Battle, Mood, and Collector. Ex: In Battle mode, you ask yourself, “If this artwork came to life, how good would it...
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“It’s easy to equate participatory culture with social media but it’s important...”
– Gretchen Jennings of Museum Commons blog, in a great entry on participatory culture in museums.
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MORE THAN JUST A PARTY | Audience Development in...
How the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boosted Participation by Young Adults.
This report is part of a larger set of case studies, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, that describes and evaluates newly launched participation-building programs for audience development purposes in 4 American arts organizations .
There’s a context behind this study. Adult participation in cultural...
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“Lately, the word “curate” seems to be used in an greater variety of contexts...”
– Quote by curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist, in “This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking” Ed. John Brockman.
Immediate source here. Thanks for helping me feel smarter, Brain Pickings!
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How Text and Display Might Keep Museum Fatigue...
While I was researching mobile museum education (another blog entry for another day), I found an interesting article on SF Mobile Museum’s blog. THanks SFMM!
MUSEUM FATIGUE. Been there, talked about it lots. This article in The Australian offers some more insight on the topic: Too Much For The Brain To Take In.
A few thoughts:
1) I like the bit about how contemporary art frequently...
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This American Life "Simulated Worlds" Episode →
Kind of relevant…This is my favourite TAL episode. Act 2 on Dinosaur Exhibits is especially fascinating.
Among other things, it shows the lengths we can go to ramp up those visitor numbers!
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SEMINAR (Newcastle): The Role of Technology in... →
knowledgeexchangenetwork:
The registration for the fifth event in our Participation & Engagement in the Arts seminar series on “The Role Of Technology In Participation And Engagement In The Arts” is now open.
Places are free, but limited. In order to attend the seminar series, please contact us on participationandengagement-arts@leedsmet.ac.uk to reserve your place as soon as possible. ...
January 2012
8 posts
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SOCIAL MEDIA and Measuring Online Success
This explosion of user-generated platforms and social networking means that people have become a lot more experienced with their online interactions. They also have higher expectations for the way that content is presented to them online.
From my somewhat unfortunate experience working for a monster commercial website company, the cultural sector could learn from private industries and...
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Rub-a-dub-dub, Stedelijk almost has its tub!
After undergoing major construction since 2008, the scaffolding is off at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Looking good!
Up till now, the Stedelijk has had some interesting programming during its construction years, promoting itself as a museum without walls. For some serious theory chat on (con)temporary art institutions, including a lecture by Tim Griffin (Artforum...
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MAS MUSEUM #3 - Interactives/Visitor Response
The MAS Museum in Antwerp has created some super creative interactive components in all of the exhibitions. Look at this cool touchscreen map from the World Port exhibition:
I remember interning at a museum that wanted to digitize a large map for this very same purpose. The main opposition to the idea was that they wouldn’t have the long-term resources or know-how to maintain the...
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MAS MUSEUM #2 - Visible Storage!
Best part of the MAS Museum, hands down!
Look at those ship models! Essentially this whole floor at the MAS is one massive cabinet of curiosities, inviting the public in to see thousands of cool objects that did not make the cut for the themed exhibitions.
And not just view them but also learn about the collectors AND the importance of conservation, such as why the lighting, humidity, and...
“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right...”
– Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (1951).
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MAS MUSEUM in Antwerp #1 - Themed Displays
A few trends in new museological practice that will instantly sound familiar to you:
1) Flashy museum architecture turns a neglected dockside into an industrial-chic cultural enterprise
2) A European city’s dusty collection of colonial artifacts receives critical post-colonial revision of display and representation
3) A prominent cultural institution finally opens its secret vaults for...
November 2011
3 posts
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Creative Exhibition Design at Nederlands...
Last week I visited the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. Other than bringing me one step closer to my dream of one day using a dark room, the museum’s recent permanent exhibition has inspired me by its imaginative use of interpretation and design.
“The Dark Room” is the first and only permanent presentation about the history of Dutch photography. They’ve created one...
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ArtsWave Report on the Value of Art and...
I am very excited about this report. It brings together all the reasons I was so passionate about Art History during my undergrad, and why I went on to complete a Masters degree in gallery education and public programming.
What are museums for? What is the value of art and culture in society? My dissertation was about community art practice and whether it can be used successfully in an...
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Storytelling in the Museum
After weeks of shoving this thing under the carpet, I found last night that I have lost my way on the museum path lately, and that it is impossible to simply hop back on track to write some blog entry if I have made no effort to stay informed.
The more time I spend outside the field, the more challenging it is to keep myself updated on the exciting things going on in museums all over the world....
September 2011
4 posts
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Nina Simon, QR Codes & Visitor Motivation →
The other day I bought a bunch of chocolates with QR codes on them. I can’t lie, I thought they were cool and that I was cool by association just to have them. We are literally eating these things up, people.
But all tech-geeky gimmicky treats aside, where is this trend going for museums???
Nina Simon says it just right: “Tell them what they’ll get with that shiny...
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Exhibiting Performance Art
This one hits close to home in more ways than one. De Appel Arts Centre and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam are presenting A Little Less Conversation, a conference about exhibiting contemporary performance art!
Marie Reinert ©.
1 October 2011 @ the Stedelijk. Get more information and the time/location here.
It looks like the conference will attempt to solve, or at least address, the...
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Power of Making at the V&A
(Alphabet, by Dalton Ghetti)
The title of this exhibition says it all! The V&A’s Power of Making celebrates the ornate, refined, and imaginative nature of craftsmanship on a grand scale.
The exhibition explores the role of making & creating in our lives and in the world we have shaped around us.
Over 100 incredible objects have been grouped together based on either their...
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Nice to meet you!
It’s been a year since I graduated and became a Master of Art Museum Education at Newcastle University.
The past 12 months have followed with:
1) a series of failed attempts to join the gallery & museum sector in the Netherlands (where I’m currently living), and
2) my eventual employment at a corporate monster of hotel booking madness.
Yes, it’s been a year, and...
