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| Erin poses in the Aga Khan photobooth. Photo courtesy of Erin Canning. |
Erin Canning is the Digital Platform Administrator at the Aga Khan Museum. They defended their Master’s thesis Affective Metadata for Object Experiences in the Art Museum in 2018 and graduated from the University of Toronto in 2019. Erin also sits on the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) Linked Open Data advisory committee; CHIN’s mandate is to assist Canadian museums in documenting, managing, and sharing information about their collections now and in the future.
What is your favourite memory from your time in the Museum program?
My favorite memory is probably my thesis defense. It can be really stressful. And there definitely was a lot of stress involved with it. But it was also probably like what a lot of exhibitions students feel with their exhibition opening. It's a culmination of all of this work that you've put in and a real critical point that shows all of the different things that you've learned during your time at the iSchool. For myself as a CRO*, it was really a chance to work across both departments, applying the things I learned in the MI program to the MMSt context, and just get a chance to really look back at all the work that I had done in putting the pieces together and seeing it actually work.
*Concurrent Registration Option, now known as the Combined Degree Program
Why did you decide to pursue a thesis instead of the exhibition project?
I did my MI studies in Information Systems Design and User Experience Design. I'm really interested in information structures and information systems design in the arts and culture heritage context. The exhibition option didn't really speak to those things. Additionally, I'd spent a number of years working at an artist-run center during my undergrad, so I had a lot of exhibitions experience already and I was looking for something that could sort of take what I was interested in now to the next level.
Did your thesis feed into your current position?
Definitely. All the database courses, database structure, coding, etc., that's what I do. I spend most of my days in SQL and in the back end of databases. But having that museum studies knowledge and being able to understand it through that lens and in that context is really essential for doing the work well, making it fit the institution and knowing the kinds of questions that I need to raise or that should be discussed, and finding the people to talk about those with. Databases are not these neutral things: we make them, we actively configure them, and the ways that we label and structure and present information is very political. We need to make sure that the ways that we're developing our information systems speaks properly to the concerns that we have around collections, and that theory really comes from the museum studies side. The work that I do really encompasses a lot of the core concepts that I was taught about in the MI and the MMSt sides at my time at the iSchool.
What pulled you toward digital platforms?
I've worked in digital for quite some time. In my first jobs out of undergrad working in the commercial art scene, one of the biggest issues that I always noticed was that we had great artists, we had amazing art, we had amazing collectors, but we weren't really great at connecting the information about the art in the artists with the collectors in the ways that they wanted to see it. A lot of that came down to the fact that our databases weren't really working for us. I realized that everything could be much more efficient if we had our information systems geared up in a way that actively works to support our end goals. That got me really interested in digital platforms because databases now are digital; this led me back to the iSchool for my Master's program.
What is digital infrastructure?
It’s the plumbing in your house, it’s the lay of your foundation. If I'm going to put it up an exhibition online, that may be your public presentation, but the infrastructure is the piece behind that links all these things together. So if we want to create a publication after the website we don't have to recreate pulling our assets together. Infrastructure is the work that the public doesn't see that has to take place in order for us to produce the best exhibitions and programming and educational initiatives because we can spend our time focused on those public presentations as opposed to finding the things that we need in order to make them.
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| Databases are not all Erin works on. Here is a "hologram" they made. GIF Courtesy of Erin Canning |
What should current Museum Studies students keep in mind when it comes to digital collections?
Just because you see digital collections one way doesn't mean that is the way that it will always be or the way that is the best. It means that it's the way that we are currently trying, because it's the best that we've gotten to so far. You might see an online collection and think, “that doesn't really come across very well, therefore, digital doesn't do anything for me”. That makes about as much sense as going to one exhibition and saying that all museums aren't working: you're seeing just one thing in just one way, because we're trying things that are new. Keep that open mindedness towards it, but come at it with a critical eye as well.
Don't shy away from it and don't shy away from learning about the mundane tasks that are required in order to make those things happen. With any of those projects, there's a monumental amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. No matter where you're working in the museum, being able to understand a little bit of that is really helpful.
Is there anything you wish you had done while you were in the program?
I didn't start going to conferences until my third year, I wish I started going earlier. My advice here would be to go to all the conferences you can, take advantage of that student funding. Everyone that I've ever met at a museum conference has been nothing but welcoming, and willing to Skype with me about their projects. Take advantage of those things and start doing it as early as you can.
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