Week 8

The Internet, technology, and other digital applications play an integral role in almost everyone’s lives. These new forms of communication facilitate new interactions, experiences, and expectations and have in turn reshaped the museum-going experience as a whole. As a generation that exists online, content is key, and it is abundant. The online community is obsessed with content, but they want more than just access to it, they want to be a part of the conversation. They want to be “producers” of content, not just “downloaders.” There is a new widespread desire to be “uploaders,” to be creators and contributors of the content itself. I think this new mentality should be reflected in a museums digital and online presence. Museums are already reshaping their intentions towards having more of a public service and engagement outlook. The public has more of a say than ever in what objects are deemed valuable and what is exhibited. As a result, objects and our interactions with them are more interactive than ever before. For these reasons, I think that museums that have an interactive, novel, and engaging online presence are the most successful.

After having explored Coursera, I think classes like “Big Data” or “Data Mining,” those that explore data visualization, are classes that I would be the most interested in and would watch from start to finish. I think it would also be great if those courses explored data visualization art, where the students get to create and design new interpretations for big data.

I think the MoMA has beautiful and well-produced digital storytelling pieces about the objects, artists, and artworks that are exhibited at the museum. The video, “Maria Hassabi | Plastic,” is haunting and mesmerizing. I think what makes their digital story telling successful is that each video is filled with such emotion and candor. They reveal the “human touch” that is hidden behind each piece that they explore, and as a viewer I feel I am uncovering it with them.