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Museum blogging 3 October, 2008

Posted by Kostas in Museum Related Blogs, musings, social media.
3 comments

It is interesting what is happening at the Manchester Museum. More and more members of staff turn to blogging to talk about collections and exhibitions, reflect upon their own work, offer a glimpse of what happens ‘behind the scenes’ and invite people to voice their views about all these. There are currently seven blogs by members of staff at the Manchester Museum, covering a range of topics and interests: from mummies and the Lindow man to frogs and fossils (full list below). This and the printscreen’s ‘what do you think’ question indicate that curators’ blogging is taking up a more systematic consultation role with the wider community(-ies).

It is also interesting that these blogs are not ‘based’ in the museum’s institutional website, but hosted in popular blogging platforms (such as wordpress and blog.com). In turn, people that arrive to the Manchester Museum’s website are invited to ‘visit’ the blogs, which, when clicked, open up in a new window and a new online environment. In a way, those are the ‘new spaces’ where the Museum takes place; online spaces that escape the ‘digital walls’ of the official website of the Museum.

Manchester Museum Blogs:
Egypt at the Manchester Museum
Lindon Man blog
Myths about Race
Our City blog
En-quire blog
Palaeomanchester
Frog blog

Blogging over Break 17 March, 2008

Posted by littlechops in Museum Related Blogs, conference, digital strategies.
1 comment so far
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/13586-large.jpg
Centenary Building, Salford University Campus

I am sure all of you are out enjoying your holiday and…visiting Museums ;)

At the prompt of our esteemed Professor I thought I would share one of my Museum related experiences and hopefully encourage anyone else who may want to contribute…errr, yea!

So, recently there was a “Museums as Creative Spaces” symposium at Salford University. It was amazing to realize was the great resources and thinkers that are so close to us yet so far from our own University umbrella. There were a lot of speakers, I won’t bore you with all the details, however it is worth saying that the tone of this event was very open. Professor Pat Sterry, the diva of the day, mentioned a couple times that if anyone had further questions they can email her or the speakers present on that day. This is definitely a useful resource for some of us. So, here is the link so you can see for yourself:

For Details about this event follow this link: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/772

If there are any basic questions about the speakers I’d be happy to try my hand at answering them ( I have some of their emails via a handout).

You will notice Professor Kostas was on the itinerary for his talk about how Mobile Media can be used by Museums to effectively, ‘turn up the volume’ of the every day visitor’s experience. Everyone will be happy to know that with in the first 3 slides Kostas had identified his title, Methodology ( Michel de Certeau), and research question to the audience. So, its reassuring to know that a lot of what we are learning is truly a ‘best practice.‘ His talk was very well received and included a number of well placed jokes, images, quotes and analysis.

Basically, this symposium was probably the best symposium I have ever been to in terms of the diversity, practicalness and clarity of the speakers as well as Pat Sterry’s enthusiasm and grace.

Hope this blog finds you well and see you after the Easter Holiday!

Week 6 The Onsite Museum 6 March, 2008

Posted by emma84 in Museum Related Blogs, exhibitions, interactivity, learning, news, week 6.
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2 comments

Hello All! 

After a busy week of presentations, proposals and placements, I thought it was about time I sat down to reflect on this weeks action packed seminar which included Kostas’ presentation, fun with post-it notes and a quick dash to Manchester Museum.

This week, we examined the use of digital interactives in exhibition spaces and considered the evolution of digital media through Ross Parry and Andrew Sawyer’s framework in Space and the Machine. We tracked the progression of digital media from its humble beginnings completely outside of the museum to becoming totally integrated in to the exhibition in the innate stage of the model. 

I particularly enjoyed watching Louise’s bemused expression as Kostas handed her his mobile phone in 3 parts, and said nothing more. I though this was a really good example of illustrating how interactives in museums need to make it obvious how the participant is supposed to participate in the experience. Although it can’t always be assumed everyone has the same prior knowledge, and would instinctively know what to do. Luckily Louise knew exactly what to do from her previous experience of mobile phones, and put the phone back together in a matter of seconds!

While we were sticking post-it notes everywhere, one of the images we were looking at particularly interested me, it showed a text panel, film and label.  In the image, the digital media which we had been discussing as a tool for interpretation, actually swapped roles and became the object. I am particularly interested in the idea of using digital media as a medium for art, and I am currently researching the relationship between Internet Art and the Institution. Internet Art has a strange attraction and I’ve become addicted to exploring the work. I’ve added a couple of links in case anyone else wants to take a look, and no your computer isn’t broken, its supposed to look like that!  

I’m really looking forward to seeing the other groups presentation next week, its all been very secretive so have no idea what they have in store for us. Our group was particularly pleased when we actually managed to get our website up and running and live on the net, and we are looking forward to sharing it with everyone.

 http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_1_42/ai_108691821

See you next week,

Emma

Relexivity (and an animal icon) at the Melbourne Museum 15 December, 2007

Posted by helenreesleahy in Museum Related Blogs, exhibitions.
1 comment so far

Institutional reflexivity and the uses of performance in museums are topics that frequently arise in our teaching and research. This week my first visit to the Melbourne Museum prompted reflection on both issues.

The Melbourne Museum opened in 2000, following a reorganisation of the Victoria’s nineteenth-century state museums. Within the museum, Bunjalika (meaning the land of Bunjil, one of the main ancestral beings of south-eastern Australia) is the Aboriginal cultural centre and Keeping Place, which includes a meeting and performance space where community events and ceremonies can take place. Reflexivity and performance are also inscribed in the displays in Bunjalika, which do not attempt a totalising survey of Aboriginal culture, but rather tell a conflicted narrative of contact, power and mis/understanding between colonialism and Indigenous peoples. In a section called ‘Two Laws’, the anthropologist Baldwin Spencer, finds himself on the other side of the glass case. A life-size model of Spencer (director of the National Museum of Victoria from 1899 to 1928) is installed within a vitrine, nicely drawing attention to the politics of looking within the museum. The dialogic approach to interpretation is extended in a nearby video installation in which two actors play the parts of Spencer and his contemporary, an Aboriginal elder called Irrapmwe, respectively. In the piece, the two men, each an ‘expert’ in the context of his own cultural traditions, reflect on the conditions of their relationship and the subsequent uses of Irrapmwe’s material culture within the museum, including issues of display, authorship and restitution.

Meanwhile, as some of you may know, my colleague, Sam Alberti, is developing a research project on ‘iconic animals’ in museums. It is a wonderful topic – and the Melbourne Museum houses a wonderful example: the famous race horse Phar Lap, whose success on the track cheered up hard-pressed Melburnians during the Great Depression. Poor Phar Lap died quite young, but he is just as popular in his afterlife, mounted in a glass case … As one member of staff said to me, the first two questions that visitors ask when they come to the museum are, where’s the lavatory (or words to that effect) … and where’s Phar Lap?

Any student who wants to find out more about the Melbourne Museum, send me an email and I can give you some references.

Museum Staff Blogs 19 February, 2007

Posted by Anna in Museum Related Blogs.
1 comment so far

Looking at the website for the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) I clicked on the ‘Blog’ tab and found a list of blogs by different staff members at the ICA. These include blogs by the artistic director, press officer, bookshop manager and (note job title!) web manager. Through commenting on these blogs and creating dialogue with the staff, I think this becomes an interesting way for people to engage with the Institute, and feel their opinions are valued. It also poses some interesting questions for the future job descriptions of museum and gallery posts – will the writing of a blog become the norm for museum professionals?