Schedule & readings

Overview

This is a living document. Expect it to change.

When readings are available on the web, they’re linked from this page.

Some items require you to be connected to UCLA’s network via VPN; that is indicated by a little lock symbol (🔒).

If an item isn’t linked from this page, you can find it in our class’s CCLE site, under the appropriate week.

Contents of this page

• Overview
• Contents of this page
• 1. Friday, October 2
• Introduction + how to learn while the world burns
• 2. Friday, October 9
• What is a museum, and…does it have to be?
• Read and watch for this class:
• 3. Friday, October 16
• Digital asset management
• Read and watch for this class:
• 4. Friday, October 23
• Digital strategy
• Read and watch for this class:
• 5. Friday, October 30
• Digital engagement
• Read and watch for this class:
• 6. Friday, November 6
• Subversion within the “exhibitionary complex”
• Read and watch for this class:
• 7. Friday, November 13
• Decolonizing the museum
• Read and watch for this class:
• 8. Friday, November 20
• Collections as data
• Read and watch for this class:
• Friday, November 27: NO CLASS 🦃
• 9. Friday, December 4
• Virtual and augmented reality
• Read and watch for this class:
• 10. Friday, December 11
• Students’ choice

1. Friday, October 2

Introduction + how to learn while the world burns

Class One page with more detailed information and links

Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST

Small-group meetings + begin assignment one: 3pm–5pm

No advance reading necessary. Please check your email or CCLE for the Zoom link for our discussion.

2. Friday, October 9

What is a museum, and…does it have to be?

Class Two page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: 3pm–4pm: Dr. Porchia A. Moore (University of Florida)
• Swing space: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• International Council on Museums, “Creating a new museum definition – the backbone of ICOM” and note the pushback
• “The Problem with Museums” (video), PBS Origin of Everything
• Episode 16: The Colonial History of Archaeology and Museums, Lady Science podcast (CW: sexual assault, enslavement, anti-Black racism)
• Protest actions at the Guggenheim: February 2014, May 2016, February 2019.
• Explore: Voyage to the Islands: Hans Sloane, Slavery, and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean (Brown University)

3. Friday, October 16

Digital asset management

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Sarah Pham (LACMA), 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment three together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• “The Demand for DAMS”
• DAMS Implementation and Maturity Model
• VRA Metadata Standards
• Metadata Standards (skim): VRA Core, IPTC, FITS, PREMIS, reVTMD
• Vendors (skim): LUNA, NetX, OpenText, Piction, ResourceSpace

4. Friday, October 23

Class Four page with more detailed information and links

Digital strategy

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Susan Edwards, Hammer Museum, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment four together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• 🔒 Peacock, Darren. “Making Ways for Change: Museums, Disruptive Technologies and Organisational Change.” Museum Management and Curatorship 23, no. 4 (December 1, 2008): 333–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647770802517324. Note: I’ve been hearing that some students have had trouble downloading this, even with VPN enabled. I’m not sure what’s happening, but you can also find the article in CCLE, under Week 4.
• Museopunks, “Digital as a Dimension of Everything” (podcast).
• Skim: Museum Digital Strategy Examples and Resources
• OPTIONAL: Morrison, Alex. “Digital Strategy for Museums.” New York: Cogapp, 2017.

5. Friday, October 30

Digital engagement

Class Five page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Seema Rao, Akron Art Museum, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment five together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• “On Storytelling,” On View (podcast).
• Stack, John. “Exploring Museum Collections Online: Some Background Reading.” Science Museum Group Digital Lab, January 23, 2018. Note: This is largely a collection of examples. Click around and see what appeals to you.
• “Kimberly Drew on the Life-Enhancing Power of Art” (Slate Plus Podcast).
• Jia Jia Fei, “Art in the Age of Instagram” (video).
• OPTIONAL (but a great read!): Whitelaw, Mitchell. “Generous Interfaces for Digital Cultural Collections” Digital Humanities Quarterly 9, no. 1 (2015).

6. Friday, November 6

Subversion within the “exhibitionary complex”

Class Six page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Tyree Boyd-Pates, Autry Museum of the American West, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment six together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• Bennett, Tony. “The Exhibitionary Complex.” New Formations 4 (Spring 1988): 73–102. (This is an annotated version of the article that I hope will make it easier to understand.)
• Wilson, Fred, and Howard Halle. “Mining the Museum.” Grand Street, no. 44 (1993): 151. https://doi.org/10.2307/25007622.
• Caballero, Cecilia. “Mothering While Brown in White Spaces, Or, When I Took My Son to Octavia Butler’s Exhibit.” Chicana M(other)work, August 23, 2017.
• Laura Poitras and Forensic Architecture, “Triple-Chaser” (video).

7. Friday, November 13

Decolonizing the museum

Class Seven page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Meranda Roberts, Field Museum, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment seven together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• 🔒 Brown, Deidre, and George Nicholas. “Protecting Indigenous Cultural Property in the Age of Digital Democracy: Institutional and Communal Responses to Canadian First Nations and Māori Heritage Concerns.” Journal of Material Culture 17, no. 3 (September 1, 2012): 307–24.
• Investigate: Mukurtu CMS
• National Park Service, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Please familiarize yourself with this law.

Indigenous People’s Day actions, Decolonize this Place, 2017

Abbe Museum Strategic Plan

8. Friday, November 20

Collections as data

Class Eight page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Thomas Padilla, UNLV, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment eight together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

• Padilla, Thomas. “On a Collections as Data Imperative.” Library of Congress, 2017.
• “Coding Our Collection: The National Gallery of Art Datathon” (video; feel free to skip past boring introductions and acknowledgements!)

OPTIONAL

• 🔒 Navarrete, Trilce, and John Mackenzie Owen. “The Museum as Information Space: Metadata and Documentation.” In Cultural Heritage in a Changing World, edited by Karol Jan Borowiecki, Neil Forbes, and Antonella Fresa, 111–23. Springer International Publishing, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29544-2_7.

Friday, November 27: NO CLASS 🦃

9. Friday, December 4

Recommended, but not required, for this class: Google Cardboard or similar VR device (~$15 for the most basic models; requires a smartphone).

Class Nine page with more detailed information and links

Virtual and augmented reality

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: Dr. Matt Davis, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, 3pm–4pm PST
• Begin assignment nine together: 4pm–5pm PST

Read and watch for this class:

Matt Davis, “Towards Frictionless Augmented Reality”

“How Museums are Using Virtual Reality” (video)

Interact with the following 3D models on your computer or mobile device and, if you have it, with Google Cardboard or another VR device. Try interacting with the Snapchat models in different sizes, and take photos with the models.

• Sabertooth
• Sabertooth (snapchat)
• Dire wolf
• Dire wolf (snapchat)
• Shasta ground sloth
• Shasta ground sloth (snapchat)

If you have a pair of VR goggles, explore YouTube’s VR videos.

10. Friday, December 11

Students’ choice

Class Ten standalone page with more detailed information and links

• Synchronous discussion: 1:30pm-2:30pm PST
• Guest lecture: 3pm–4pm PST
• Swing space: 4pm–5pm PST