The post-digital movement for museum advocates for digital integration into the heart of museum operations, and stepping away from being a side venture. We have learned about its impact on the museum field. There has been notable increase in digital or “experience” leadership in museum over the last five years. Some museums are taking on digital projects, like the Brooklyn Museum’s ASKing About Art, that require full institutional investment to function. These are good signs for a future of more innovative, engaging museums. But, there is still a level of slow adaptation in the museum field. My final paper for the class is a look at the Cooper Hewitt, and “The Pen” project, something that surface level is a fantastic example of a post-digital, innovative museum and application. Through my reading, I learned more about their team structure. The museum definitely has championed strong digital and experience higher leadership, but also contracted out the work for the pen. They note the challenge of contracting includes being reliant on outside contractors to maintain something that is central to the museum’s experience, and it can cause a lack institutional knowledge on the mechanics of their projects. So there still is this tension of value in higher organization, but not neccesarily having the corresponding specialized work-force. So I see post-digital as there in thinking and leadership, but still struggling to fully flesh out in practice due to the nature of the field. This class on the whole has been a look at this tension, because museums do not have the same affordances as the private sector. They have specialized circumstances of resources and institutional culture that can make it difficult to reach the post-digital in actuality.

One example of an exhibition that uses audio to highlight the power of a good story is in Objects of Wonder at the National Museum of Natural History. The exhibition highlights distinctive objects from the museum’s collection (these are varied from insect specimens, to gems, to cultural objects). In this exhibition, there is the 1875 Tsimshian House Front that comes alive through audio story-telling. The voice of David A. Boxley, a member of the Tsimshian tribe, tells the story of Northwest Coast formline design artwork and the culture that created it. He tells the story of the mythical Undersea Chief Nagunaks, which is painted on the house-front and as he tells the story, characters on the house-front are spotlighted, so listeners to can connect Boxley’s story to the object infront of them. Noticeably in this case, audio is used to help visitors interpret an object in detail, hear a representative of the culture the object came from, and perhaps feel immersed in the story. Storytelling and audio experience like this can really enliven a museum’s collection.

Having high impact, creative in gallery technology is not always necessary (perhaps overwhelming?) or attainable, but this particular example shows that tech can go beyond the screen and has so much potential to connect to a museum’s mission in an innovative way.

whoooooooooooooooooooo I swear I saw all these images in a tumblr post about "pretty libraries guyz" but this one has text that maybe says something: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/the-evolution-of-the-college-library/282023/ I'm kind of ambivalent on "museums" but pretty into the death part: http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.ca/ Again with museums, but big on this as an example of a museum finding its audience online (aka by hiring away a video-blogger from somewhere else and then giving her a backstage pass -- the gem collection is crazy you guyz): http://www.youtube.com/user/thebrainscoop?feature=watch This is the eighth time I've heard of d3 and meant to play with it, I swear it'll happen soon: http://d3js.org/ Hrmmm, to volunteer at Museums and the Web or not to volunteer at Museums and the Web .... http://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/scholarships-volunteering/ Digital humanities yadda: http://www.allc.org/news-events/digital-humanities-without-borders-2014-annual-meeting-canadian-society-digital-humaniti# http://congress2014.ca/about-congress http://brocku.ca/congress2014/about-congress/ The privacy commissioner's exit interview, after ten years of technological disruption: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Exit+Interview+Privacy+Commissioner+Jennifer+Stoddart+tenure/9229678/story.html OCLC annual report: http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/publications/AnnualReports/2013/2013.pdf That silent-film-collection loss everyone's talking about: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/13-209.html GLAM TECHNOLOGISTS SHOULD APPLY FOR THIS: http://www.tides.org/impact/awards-prizes/pizzigati-prize/ (Honestly who do I know who could apply for this, heck) Cool new heritage-inventorying system: http://archesproject.org/what-is-arches/

Trash Museum 2.0 = trash tours??