Thursday, May 8, 2008
Blogging in the Museum
I recently came across this blog, created by the curators of the Justice and Police Museum as a way to explore some of the thousands of crime scene and mug shot photographs in their archive. Peter Doyle will be speaking about his work with the archive in the course in a couple of weeks, but I thought the blog was a really interesting example of the ways museums might use the internet to explore their collections in a way that invites the public to reflect on the processes of history-making. Plus the photographs are amazing!
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4 comments:
I was really impressed by this website. I really like the idea of a virtual museum where you can view the collection in your own home at any time of day. Just as importantly, the blog simulates the experience of going to the museum with people who are also interested in the exhibition!
This is a great way of exploiting one of the greatest advantages of the internet - getting in contact with people who have similar interests to you who you probably would not have met otherwise. Of course, the blog is somewhat different to a conversation. People could post on the blog, never to return again. It is also a great way for the creators of the exhibition to get feedback and maybe even fresh ideas.
It would be fantastic if more museums would create such websites. However, there seem to be a number of problems that would stop such an idea from becoming more widespread. Presumably, creating such a website would be quite expensive, which would divert funds from the creation of the physical exhibitions.
Maybe as a way of avoiding excessive costs, museums could simply set up blogs for current exhibitions they have so people can go online afterwards and share their thoughts.
Nadia, your comment reminds me of an exhibition I saw when I was in New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fantastic fashion collection, and they had a temporary fashion exhibition on 'blog mode. addressing fashion'. The room was set up in normal exhibition mode - display cases of amazing haute couture gowns and shoes, but in the centre of the room, a bank of computers were available for visitors to blog on the item of their choice. It was great to read the online 'conversations' people had with the clothes and with the museum - especially the ways that people enlarged on the social history of the older clothes they saw. While the exhibition is now closed, the blog is still available (one other advantage of the web for museums) at:
http://blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode/
I loved blog.mode: addressing fashion! The dresses are beautiful, and it was interesting to compare the different comments about each item, especially about the dress entitled Let Them Eat Cake. The assessments of the dress demonstrate the different levels of knowledge people have about this period in history. Some bloggers know their history, and in some cases even want to show off. Others are completely ignorant of the reference to Marie Antoinette.
Particularly interesting was the language people used. Even though I am only 22, I had the feeling of being old when reading some of these posts. I had no idea that some of the words (such as fierce) as well as some of the signs (such as <3) were currently in usage. Also, some people’s spelling was quite creative. Blogs such as these could be valuable for historians in the future, as they capture how people write in informal situations.
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