tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37032121.post116309947255446782..comments2024-03-27T05:04:39.476-07:00Comments on Museum 2.0: What if it's Ugly?Nina Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11723930679606298550noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37032121.post-90343788465982681042006-11-20T03:48:00.000-08:002006-11-20T03:48:00.000-08:00Visitors create the most important content there i...Visitors create the most important content there is in museums...their presence, their social interaction. It is both my impression and reasonably well documented in museum research (falk et al) that the social function of museums equals or trumps their curatorial/exhibition function. By interacting with each other and with the content, the museum has an identity that is different from any other place identified with learning. <br /><br />A visit to the museum is significantly about people. When I was single and alone in the big city (pathos here), I frequented museums to people watch and with the normal hope of any 20 something, to find a partner. Sometimes I did, but thats another story.<br /><br />Now that I have a family, the social aspect of museums is still very vivid. I watch all the people with children and how children interact with each other and the art work. Oh, and the partner thing...well, never mind. <br /><br />I should say that I have spent many many hours in individual contemplation and interaction with an artwork, so I am not diminishing that value. But that is widely recognized as what museums do.<br /><br />Somehow we screen out the crowds of people at a museum, or consider it a deficit of the place. I consider it the distinctive quality of museums.<br /><br />So, we don't need people to create content for museums, they already create some of the most interesting learning opportunities we have.<br /><br />Eric SiegelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37032121.post-45966736900787547692006-11-11T15:59:00.000-08:002006-11-11T15:59:00.000-08:00Nik--
the difference is that bloggers, like PostS...Nik--<br /><br />the difference is that bloggers, like PostSecret contributors, have no specific credentials beyond a willingness to look at a bunch of content and make judgments about what's interesting. Try and sell a curator on that kind of credential...<br /><br />but it brings up the basic point that anyone-even a visitor-can be both a good creator and judge of non-expert content. I say non-expert because I do think there is value in the kind of art/content that requires more literacy to appreciate than the average person has. Some of what a museum does is display that kind of content to inspire us and help us learn that literacy. But when it comes to homegrown content, curators can probably step back and let the popular "cool meter" take over.Nina Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11723930679606298550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37032121.post-1163184119360603572006-11-10T10:41:00.000-08:002006-11-10T10:41:00.000-08:00I don't necessarily agree that the current museum ...I don't necessarily agree that the current museum experience isn't like the experience you described, Nina. Visitors (and for that matter, people) always "create content" no matter where they go. Give us both a painting, and we will both bring to it a different history/personal perspective, so that the meaning I make will be different. Because of our different points of view, the content we create from those points of view will be different. <BR/><BR/>For me, the more well-defined question is about how visitors *share the content they create with other visitors*. That's how the conversation continues beyond one person's experience; that's how knowledge gets shared.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37032121.post-1163173687322548372006-11-10T07:48:00.000-08:002006-11-10T07:48:00.000-08:00Recently got dragged to PS1 up here in NYC for som...Recently got dragged to <A HREF="http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/207/63/1/0/" REL="nofollow">PS1</A> up here in NYC for some exhibition openings. When did vomit become artistic? Ooooh, OK -- it makes me question "what is Art? how do my preconceived ideas impede my appreciation of non-traditional genius? blah blah blah" Really, I was just nauseated. And then there was the recreated suicide exhibition... eyes roll. If NYC's leading artists are <BR/><BR/>I'm an aesthete, so take this FWIW, but:<BR/><BR/>Teleology derives from the Greek for perfection, not imperfection. Beauty is the goal.<BR/><BR/>By now, I've realized that I missed completely the point of your post. Short answer could be: the Internet itself is the Museum of the Weird, with a site's/video's popularity the judge of its worth. YouTube's greatest hits have beautiful moments, and there's always PostSecret. Don't blogs function as curators, bringing to the surface the gems of the deep?<BR/><BR/>NAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com