- Research Nancy Proctor before next class.
Some links -
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-proctor/6/6b5/6a5
http://museummobile.info/ - look at platforms page - http://wiki.museummobile.info/museums-to-go/platforms
http://tatehandheldconference.pbworks.com - look at platforms page - http://tatehandheldconference.pbworks.com/Platforms
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/proctor/proctor.html
http://twitter.com/NancyProctor
For the Roundtable discussion with IUPUI students, faculty, and area museum professionals
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Discussion Topic: What is the Museum, who is the Curator, in the age of social media? (from an upcoming article for Curator: The Museum Journal 53:1 Jan 2010)
Some questions, observations, curatorial moments in the museum to get our conversation started...
What's happening?
- Whether or not museums are actively embracing Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the rest, their visitors are: sharing their own photos, videos, and links about and to museums around the world through platforms that are not in the museum’s control. See Flickr's new 'Gallery' feature.
What's a Museum today?
- Steven Zucker, principal of Smarthistory.org and dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), has described this transformation of the Museum as a transition from Acropolis—that inaccessible treasury on the fortified hill—to Agora, a marketplace of ideas offering space for conversation, a forum for civic engagement and debate, and opportunity for a variety of encounters among audiences and the museum.
Who's a Curator in the age of social media?
-
Nicholas Poole is CEO of Collections Trust, an independent U.K.-based charity that campaigns for the public right to access and engage with collections. He spoke to the Social History Curators Group in Leeds, England, in July 2009. Looking at the exponential increase in data, publications, and knowledge on all platforms, Poole argues, “the only way we could hope to curate it is by enabling users to become their own curators. Hence a new phrase ‘citizen curators’ joins the ‘citizen digitization’ refrain . . . .”
- Angelina Russo responded to Nic's blog post with new precepts to form the basis of “a kind of New Deal for museums” as “public service broadcasters and service providers.”
- They’re our collections.
- Many voices are critical to the interpretation of culture.
- We will attempt to go where participation takes us.
- We will provide the platform for culture, the training and advocacy to support it, and we would like to work together to construct the content.
- Some examples of 'citizen curators':
-
Tate Britain, 2007: How We Are: Photographing Britain
- Brooklyn Museum, 2008: Click!: A Crowd-Curated Exhibition
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 2009: Fill the Gap! in Luce Center display cases
- Torrance Art Museum, 2009: “Call for Proposals: On Gonzo Curating"
- Powerhouse Museum, 2009: 'Citizen Scientist' completes online collections record
What do curators do?
- "[They] are the most trusted [subject] experts" (Neal Stimler, from the Image Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Curator of networked information (Melissa Buchanan, Milwaukee Art Museum, American Art / Googled webpage & digital labels)
- Educator (Melissa Buchanan, op. cit.)
- Interpreter
- Expert communicator/moderator/facilitator: 'curator of the conversation' with a broader public of experts, connoisseurs and amateurs alike
- "Assembler of many voices" & facilitator of "communities of passion" (Eric Johnson, New Media Specialist at Monticello)
- Node at the center of the distributed network that the Museum has become
Where are we going?
What do we need Museums & Curators to be - today?
Comments (4)
nancy@pinkink.net said
at 2:17 pm on Sep 26, 2009
In our round table, we talked about the definition of Web 3.0. It's still in flux as 'web 3.0' is still evolving and coming to be, but here are some more thoughts:
Web 1.0 is essentially just a digital version of our analog publications. Websites are digital versions of paper brochures. The communication is one-way broadcasting from the individual or organization to the audience.
Web 2.0 introduces feedback loops: the audience starts to respond to the web publisher, with comments & user-generated content. A conversation ensues, eroding the control & primacy of the 'publisher/broadcast' model.
Web 3.0. is expected to take advantage of technological advances and cloud computing to take the interaction to a new, more human level. Instead of keyword searching in google, the web will understand natural language queries (semantic web) so you can talk to it, engage with it more as you would another person. Increased computing power means the web becomes 3-d, and we can walk its streets as avatars - like 2nd life but better. Alternate Reality applications blur the boundaries between the digital world and the analog one: you put on your Internet glasses (or even today, hold your iPhone up on a city street using apps like Yelp) and you see 'reality' overlaid through that lens with information - like where the nearest restaurant serving your favorite dish is; the opening hours of the museum and today's exhibition & events program, etc. - or more: avatars? friends? Note that this can be personalized, so you're shown what you are likely to be interested in, and accompanied by those you invite.
Eric Johnson said
at 3:13 pm on Oct 7, 2009
test
Beth Harris said
at 6:49 am on Oct 28, 2009
This might be useful:
http://smarthistory.org/blog/61/web-30-and-education/
and
http://cnx.org/content/m19865/latest/
nancy@pinkink.net said
at 5:34 pm on Oct 31, 2009
Great resources on defining Education 3.0 at those links, Beth - thanks so much!!
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