Plane crashes into Hudson River near Intrepid Museum

Hearing a lot about a plane crashing into the Hudson River near the Intrepid Museum.

I’m currently looking at the Intrepid’s webcams to see if anything is happening.

“Though she doesn’t know the difference between a vitamin and a bus ticket”

The Science Museum in London releases some of these early science films as part of their Films of Fact exhibition. Witness the first microscopic view on camera, fat rats and a time when scientists didn’t have to be remotely polite.

Museum Games

The last in NPR’s series of Museums in the 21st Century looks at using games, specifically alternate reality games, in the museum “to turn visitors into players”.

I highly recommend listening. This is a whole new world of potential curatorial activity.

Contemporary Art in Schools

Human Sexuality? by kid_entropy. Used under Creative Commons.

Carolyn Sutton writes about using contemporary art in schools as ways to start difficult topics with students. This goes into Museum Expansionism, as these are discussions taken outside of a safe museum context.

There is a bravery to this. Using contemporary art to be open to students about issues surrounding sexuality and identity (and treating them like grown ups) would make some museum professionals heads explode. Look at Nina Simon’s list from last year’s ASTC conference. Going further through the “iffy layers” will find more human sexuality topics. Funny how one of the “no ways”, Adult-only-time, is quite a big thing in London.

Wikipedia Loves Art

Shelley Bernstein over at the Brooklyn Museum announces the Wikipedia Loves Art project. The rules are posted here on the project’s flickr page. The aim is to take photographs of museum pieces and use them on wikipedia articles. In a genius move to get around the sticky copyright issues, the photos are to be Creative Commons and the museum objects have to be from before 1923.

And Shelley dares to tell us that they’re “lo-tech” over there. I’ll enjoy following this how this project turns out.

Video: It’s a Material World

Who decides what gets conserved? The importance of conservation to culture and heritage.

What is interesting is the very curatorial method these issues are being presented. Also, this is museum practices leaving the confines of museums (i.e. the idea of conservation of graffiti/any underground culture)

Online/Onsite/(Off?) Engagement

The ever-interesting Nina Simon over at Museum 2.0 has a great post on designing online/onsite engagement for museums. This is the kind of information that a consultant once told me he would “normally write on a piece of paper and charge you £500 for”. 

Could this process be used in my “Museum Expansionism” notion? That you add a third platform “Off”, as in offsite and offline. Some of the examples could go nearer to “Off”, like reaching an audience, a sense of community and (depending on circumstances) convenience. Some examples are probably not possible, such as interacting with staff (they would have to be “Off” all day as well), delving deeper into content (unless there’s free wifi nearby). There would have to be many other additions as well, like taking the message to people, potential for new levels of engagement and building upon the brand name.

When put like that, it sounds like Museum Evangelism. Since Step 6 is “Use it to drive design decisions”, there would also to be added precautions as to being active or passive. A passive “Off” museum platform could take the form of a simple display on the street. An active “Off” platform could feel like those people who bother you with clipboards, which may not be the intent.

Intro: Museum Expansionism

San Francisco Airport by riacale. Used under Creative Commons.

This term is used to describe a new form of museum outreach that goes beyond standard museum practices. This term may also prove to be difficult to understand as I’ve completely made it up.

A lot of museums look to go beyond their walls in many different ways. Loan boxes are a good example; a school has the opportunity to obtain a box of museum objects for a short time. Conservators and collection managers are often offering services outside of their own institutions. Since museums often deal with archaeology and archaeology is typically an outdoor activity, it could be argued there is associated museum practices included. There is another form of museum expansionism that doesn’t seem to be as centralised. It’s when a museum starts invading open spaces or when you find something like a bit of a museum where you didn’t expect.

Memorial by wenedeux.com. Used by Creative Commons.

There are many general examples of this growing area. Airports seem to be the most typical: works of art or museum cabinets of artefacts have started appearing next to departure lounges. What makes this more interesting than a cabinet in school is that airports are nothing more than obligatory pauses in a person’s transit. The equivalent would be a museum exhibition on the street. In saying that, there are instances of street museums to be added to street art and street performances.

If you had a museum with no walls, what would the changes to the curatorial process be? What if you had the resources to spread a museum across an entire city? These are question pointing to an extreme, but the answers could become very interesting when made a little more practical. Looking at some of the possible issues faced seems to almost reflect issues of the entire society. Security of the objects is one to go alongside the security of the people or the nation. Would a cabinet with items from a museum be any different than a billboard, and would people react the same way? What happens when someone doesn’t like what they see or takes offence? Does the museum have a right to be so forward?

This category will hope to find more examples of finding museum practices expanding into new space.