Timber Mafia
This is a recent documentary about questionable logging practices in Indonesia, produced by Journeyman Pictures. It was one of the few documentaries that have been produced about the lumbering industry in recent years, and made me wonder if it would be a good idea to do more research about overseas logging, and how it compares to our practices in North America.
American Loggers
American Loggers is a recent television series by the Discovery Channel. It follows a logging company based in northern Maine, and chronicles the ups and downs of the loggers and truckers as they attempt to stay afloat in the industry. I would say that this is probably the only new piece of film to do with the Maine logging industry in ages, and should definitely be a part of my research and development.
Dead River Rough Cut
This documentary is one of the few that the museum sells in its gift shop. So, right away I can tell that this is something worth looking at. It chronicles the story of two lumbermen, living together out in the woods and making a living off the land. The two of them appear to be real characters, making for a fun and rather politically incorrect documentary. The sort of stories I saw just from their previews on this site are exactly the sort of thing I want for the storytelling portions of my documentary work.
AMNH Explorer App
The American Museum of Natural History recently produced this iPhone/iPod Touch app for patrons of its museum. It walks users through pre-defined tours, and also allows them to create their own tour path through the museum based upon the exhibits they want to see. While something like this would be way overpowered for the Lumberman's Museum, it's still an inspiration as to how technology can add to the museum experience.
MemoryMiner: Digital Storytelling for Museums
MemoryMiner is a program that allows users to view pictures scanned into the program in high detail, and answer questions to begin to form connections between the various photographs. It has been used to form connections just in terms of a single family's photos, and now museums are using it with their vast collections of photographs in order to uncover hidden connections and stories that they never knew existed. The Lumberman's Museum has a large collection of old photographs. See the connection? I certainly do...
British Museum works with Wikipedia
The British Museum invited several top Wikipedia contributors in for them to learn more about the museum's collection, and the museum to be able to suggest places to aid the Wikipedia articles. While the article seems a little strange (why invite Wikipedia people in when the museum could have just edited articles themselves?), it shows the need for the "old" institutions to try to embrace the future and work with Internet heavyweights like Wikipedia.
Take a Side Trip to the Denver Art Museum
This is a person's firsthand account of an interactive exhibit called "Side Trip" at the Denver Art Museum. It accompanied a "rock art" exhibit, and allowed people to create their own types of rock art and basically interact with an area designed in the spirit of the pieces. I like the idea of interacting with a space that corresponds with the items you are looking at. For the Lumberman's Museum, though, that would mean being in a forest. Still, something to think about.
Ralph Appelbaum's Transformation of the Museum World is Clearly Evident
(From the Washington Post) Ralph Appelbaum and his design company has been behind the re-working of many museums in recent years, bringing them up-to-date and relevant to the modern world. His mode of operation is to turn the museum into less of an area for silent contemplation of exhibits, and more into an overall experience that makes you feel something. It turns the museum into a place where there's an overall "big picture" for you to discover, and that is felt throughout all the exhibits. I'm not exactly sure that this sort of design could be used in terms of the Lumberman's Museum, but it is the recent trend in museum design and thus should most definitely be researched.
Redone American Galleries, Satisfyingly Staid
(From the Washington Post) This article covers the re-opening of the American Galleries at the National Gallery of Art after some extensive renovations. However, unlike the design philosophies of Ralph Appelbaum above, the galleries look about the same as they did before. The galleries are still just pieces of art hanging on the walls, with no other fancy media things going on. In the point of view of the author, that lets the pieces of art continue to have the gravity and full attention of the viewer. It's better for them to be "staid" and "lifeless." In a world where we want to make everything more lively and exciting, this sort of viewpoint is interesting. I feel that when I do my work for the museum, I shall have to strike a precarious balance between keeping the past in place, and making things more lively.
Virtual Museum of the Pacific
This is a new venture designed to combine the standard exhibits of a museum with elements of social media. Visitors to this virtual museum are presented with a 400-item "collection," and tools that they can use to find exactly what they want to look at. Using a tagging system, users can sort and search through the items in the collection to find connections between items, and look only at items which interest them. I found this idea of a "virtual museum" very interesting. Apart from the big exhibits, looking through a museum's collection can often be an exhausting task. This site condenses the experience and makes it incredibly easy to find what you're looking for. This sort of viewpoint towards the museum collection is perhaps what I need to take as I start to look at what I'm going to do for the museum.
Lumberman's Museum
And finally, the Lumberman's Museum web site. Old, static, and boring. This is a representation of all that I need to work on for the place. It needs work to bring it into the new age, and I'm just the one to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment