Digital Heritage

Second Semester 2008-9
The course is assessed through:

a. 5,000 word essay
Students are required to prepare their essay proposals by reading extensively from and beyond the course bibliography: one criterion in the assessment of both the essay and project is evidence of having read widely and critically.

b. Student project. Apart from preparing short presentations or participating in the course’s blog, throughout the semester students will work in their group on a project to be presented in week 8. This will give them an opportunity to apply, test or challenge some of the theoretical issues and principles discussed in class to practical museum or gallery situations. The group project involves the concept development of the use digital media in the Egypt Gallery of the Manchester Museum. The Digital Heritage students will be also liaising with the students of the ‘Museums and Archaeology’ course, who will be also working on a redesigning of the same gallery. The Museum itself is in the process of consultation for the redevelopment of the Egypt and Archaeology galleries; you can read all about it on Karen Exell’s blog (Karen is Curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum).

The outcomes of the projects will be

a. a presentation of 15-20 minutes in week 8, 24th March 2009, given by one or more members of the group, with supporting visual material if appropriate.

b. a portfolio of supporting material (c. 1,500 words), including:
• A paper prototype or a demo of the digital media applications
• An introduction to the project, including the primary and secondary research that has been undertaken, a rationale for the approach that has been adopted, an account of its execution and an explanation of the division of labour
• The reasoning, aims, target audience(s), and an account of the proposed new media
• Supporting documentation, literature, transcripts of interviews, etc and visual material, if appropriate