2 Positives and 3 Negatives

Let's start on the bright side.

My Cyperpedagogy class required us to look at a blog entitled Museum 2.0. The objective: Designing and Researching Participatory Museum Experiences.

My first impression was interesting research possibilities, yet information overload. I'm sure that's because the blog has been around for some time and there's a lot going on. I decided to stick with looking at the top five posts and the most commented on posts.

Positives:

1. A post titled Deliberately Unsustainable Business Model drew my attention first. What a strange idea? Who wants to deliberately set up for failure? But as I plowed through the post where the author interviews various museum / exhibitor managers, I found the angle to be quite interesting. One manager expressed their view as have as much fun as you can until they shut you down. I like that motto... really. Live life to the fullest, man. But, there is something fundamentally wrong with this idea for a business. How about the new motto being, let me give you a taste of the icing, but you can't have a piece of the cake.

2. Self-Expression is overrated. Alright, I feel a little hypocritical because just this morning in my curriculum and instruction class, I was presenting a one class lesson plan where I draw on the open-ended, self-expression yada, yada material study for model magic. But I'm with this lady on museum visits over-doing the self-expressionism. I especially feel this for perhaps the inexperienced artists. Guidelines can be just as freeing and actually promote thinking outside of the box more often.

So here's thinking outside the box. Not.

Negatives:

3. Museum Photo Policies Should Be As Open As Possible. Ummmmmmm.... no. I don't mind the occasional visitor to snap a photo or two, but hey, one thing that drives me crazy is when my museum visit gets interrupted by the visitor who insists on being in every photo with the artwork or for that matter want to take a picture of every artwork. Having to wait for 6 people to take a photo of the Jackson Pollock piece at AIC is frustrating. Then, of course, they get pissed at you for stepping in front of the camera when you want to look at the work closer or from a different angle. I think really it takes away the intimacy of seeing a masterpiece and adds a filter by viewing it through a lens.

4. Avoiding the Participatory Ghetto: Are Museums Evolving with their Innovative Web Strategies? Okay, the title is a little misleading. Because yes, I believe museums are evolving with innovative web strategies. The internet is one of the most accessible resources for people today and it's okay to to evolve the website to fit that market. Not to mention, I think it's a cop-out to ask if museums are scared to do interactive/participatory strategies within the physical context of the museum. Because I don't think they are. One of the most sustainable aspects of a museum is credibility and if you ask everyone to come in and make new labels for artwork, (as the author suggests), not only discredits the artist for sure, but as well as the museum professionals.

5. Which brings me to my last negative. Title: Warning: Museum Graduate Programs Spawn Legions of Zombies. Seriously?? See previous to see my feelings about this.

Okay. So this Museum 2.0 blog has an agenda, sure, I suppose all do really. But I feel overall, the author is doing a bad job at writing a museum manifesto (maybe?). Not a blog I'll be visiting again.