Listen to the Gears: 1

Listen to the Gears is a new podcast-related column written by new staff writer August.

I recently attended a symposium where all speakers had been tasked with ‘mixing up the conference experience’ in any way they chose in order to offer an atypical angle. One paper was successfully presented via Skype. Another delegate revealed behind-the-scenes of her digital textile practice instead of the finished artwork. These different ways of working were well received and I kept them in mind whilst listening to this week’s podcasts. What ideas came up that could offer fresh perspectives for museums?

There seemed few podcasts that did not mention the iPhone upgrade CNET UK and wired.com’s Gadget Lab both weighed up its pros and cons in very different styles. I suggest that the lauded voice recording system on this and other smart phones could record instant reactions to objects and exhibitions. In a wifi hotspot files can be emailed straight to a curator. These clips can be processed and fed back into the galleries via headphones adding an extra dimension to the exhibition. The application might also be used for oral history collection. Don’t you all want to know what the visitors are thinking? Of course public participation is open to abuse and would need managing. It may make an interesting project for a group of interns.

Anthropology podcast ‘absolutely intercultural’ discussed the idea of virtual mobility in relation to university exchange programmes. Instead of actually travelling to another country, classes from the host university are delivered to students in their home university. The presenter was very keen, but admitted that not all believe in the idea. While I am not sold on cultural exchange without the actual exchange, it may have an application in museums. In literal terms, it might appear forward-thinking for children from Britain and Israel to take museum education classes together by video link  (as happens with some schools in remote regions). However this could stray into dangerous territory by using museums as tools in global politics. More practically, an extended family of global staff working remotely on projects where being onsite is not needed expands opportunities for recruitment.

The Museum of Science, Boston’s Current Science and Technology podcast explained in simple terms the 5D data storage system that is currently under development in Australia. The implications of disks which can store 7.2 terabytes of data each are enormous for museums. How many disks would it take for the catalogue of the British Museum. Or the Smithsonian? I like the idea of a whole museum being on one disk. Museum store in a drawer.

The best listen this week was BBC Radio 3′s Arts and Ideas. They discussed  how cultural figures ‘become adjectives’ (Orwellian, Dickensian etc). Back in January Pete suggested ‘McGregorism‘ to describe the global policies of  the BM’s director. Who else from the museum world might earn their own adjectives? Will we talk of Serota-esque and Lowrian display or Andersonian collecting policy in the future?