Blog Post One: Reflecting on Things
Due Wednesday, Jan. 18. Approximately 400 words.
Consider the readings for today on materiality. Think also about our time together in Special Collections on Jan. 11. Did handling physical objects affect your understanding of George P. Johnson, or of the time during which he lived? Discuss your experience in detail, with reference to the readings for today and the reading you did last week on Johnson and race film.
Blog Post Two: Museum Map Analysis
Due Monday, Jan. 30. Approximately 400 words.
In your reading for last week, Steve Conn writes, “Museums in this era prided themselves on their rational organization into categories and departments. … Likewise, museums could not make rational sense out of the world unless they devoted themselves to collecting, organizing, and displaying particular categories of knowledge” (21).
Categorizing knowledge has always been fundamental to museums. From the website of a museum that interests you, find the museum’s map for visitors (example). What categories comprise the museum’s site plan? What subcategories? What can you say about how this particular museum views its mission, based on the way it categorizes its objects of scrutiny? If you want, you might even think about the last part of that Conn quote: “rational sense out of the world.” Do you think that’s museums’ task?
Imagine an alternate system of categorization. What would it be, and what would it mean for the museum’s outlook on the world?
Blog Post Three: Research Report
Due Wednesday, February 8. Approximately 300-600 words.
Claim an article (two articles if you’re a grad student) from this list. In your blog post, write a précis of the piece you read (or both pieces you read). In class on February 8, you’ll divide up into groups based on theme, summarize your research for each other, and prepare a report for your classmates on what you’ve collectively learned. Find our symposium notes here.
Blog Post Four: Site Visit Report 1
Due Wednesday, February 15. Approximately 500 words.
Visit a museum that has applied a technology within an exhibition context. Observe how visitors use it and try it yourself. Take notes and spend at least 20 minutes observing. Take a photo. How do visitors interact with the technology? To which elements of the exhibit do visitors pay attention, and which do they ignore? How much time do visitors spend reading wall text versus looking at artifacts? In your blog post, report on what you observed and post your photo. (Assignment adapted from Phyllis Hecht.)
Note: I’m cutting this one so you can focus on project work!
Blog Post Five: Resonance and Wonder
Due Monday, February 27. Approximately 400 words.
What does Stephen Greenblatt mean by “resonance”? What about “wonder”? Reflect on the museum visit you conducted for the last blog post. Which of these two phenomena did you experience? Or did you experience something different?
Blog Post Six: Site Visit Report 2
Due Wednesday, March 8. Approximately 500 words.
Visit a museum that has applied a technology within an exhibition context. Observe how visitors use it and try it yourself. Take notes and spend at least 20 minutes observing. Take a photo. How do visitors interact with the technology? To which elements of the exhibit do visitors pay attention, and which do they ignore? How much time do visitors spend reading wall text versus looking at artifacts? In your blog post, report on what you observed and post your photo. (Assignment adapted from Phyllis Hecht.)
Final Group Report
Due Friday, March 24 by 11:59 p.m. Submit on CCLE.
Your group’s final report will contain all planning documents and a report on what the group did (with relevant dates), identifying what each group member did. The length of the report will vary, depending on how many planning documents you produced, but the narrative describing your work should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words.
In addition to your group report, each team member will prepare an individual reflection, detailing what he or she learned and connecting these insights to the themes and readings from the class. This should be a little longer than a typical blog post; 500 to 600 words.