NOTHING FISHY TO SEE HERE: "FROM TIDES TO TINS" AT THE GULF OF GEORGIA CANNERY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Exhibition Reviews | Madison Carmichael

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Due to the global pandemic crisis, museums and galleries the world over were forced to close back in March, and months later, they remain closed. So, as you might imagine, Exhibition Reviews will look a little different this summer. Museums and galleries in recent months have moved quickly to redirect their visitors towards digital offerings, which presents us with the unique opportunity to explore such offerings and delve into the world of digital and online exhibitions. 

Given that I cannot physically go to a museum exhibition at present, I decided to cast a wide net (pun intended) and find something far from home and foreign to me; and so I landed upon “From Tides to Tins: Salmon Canning in BC,” an online exhibition about the history of Canada’s west coast salmon canning industry from 1870 to 2017. 

“From Tides to Tins” was produced in collaboration by the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, which is a historical site, and the Virtual Museum. The latter is currently run under the auspices of the Canadian Museum of History as a funding program to help institutions mount their own online exhibitions, which they then host on virtualmuseum.ca.

This page could function much like an introductory panel. It lays out what the exhibition will consist of. (Source)

Most exhibitions work very hard to immerse you. They employ evocative visuals, purposed lighting, and looping soundscapes. With an online exhibition, housed solely on personal technology and more critically within your home, it is very much up to you to create the atmosphere. Times being what they are, my current residence is filled with the myriad cacophony of my family and dog, to say nothing of the dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer running in the background, and so interruptions are a constant. As such, I headed over to YouTube to see what I could find in terms of soundscapes (here are a few). They tended toward the fantastical, but the sound of water, with seagulls echoing behind it, did the job well enough. 

“From Tides to Tins” consists of four overarching sections: Timeline, Working the Line, Map, and Game. The timeline takes you through more than a hundred years of the west coast fishing industry: from time immemorial to our very recent past, divided into distinct periodical segments. It is enormously comprehensive, covering early trade agreements between Indigenous people such as the Stó:lo and fur traders, mechanization, immigration, and the labour movement.

The timeline portion of the exhibition. Interestingly, you can either follow it temporally or by theme (i.e., global events, social change, environment) - a good use of its digital format. (Source)

In telling the history of this region and trade in this fashion, “From Tides to Tins” acknowledges, early and explicitly, the ethnic diversity of the labourers within the fishing industry, and it does not shy away from the racism inherent to policies of the time (i.e., the Head Tax) and how they influenced and were influenced by whichever industry required labourers at any given time. In doing so, the timeline endeavors to tell a more complete and comprehensive history of this region and those who laboured within it. This is also shown in the photos used to demonstrate the various steps of “Working the Line:” the various archival sources are representative of the Chinese, Japanese, Indigenous, and European men and women who worked either on fishing boats or in canneries all along the Canadian west coast. 

The timeline also notes the rise of over-fishing and accompanying regulations such as the Wilmot Commissions (1890 & 1892) and the Pacific Salmon Treaty (1930/37), which brings ecology into the conversation and invites the visitor to consider how this successful industry may have affected local salmon populations over time. 

From the portion of "Working the Line" entitled "Cleaning." The caption below the photo reads: "Indigenous women wash fish during canning preparation at a BC cannery. The photo is courtesy of the Delta Museum and Archives. (Source)

“Working the Line” and the “Map” portions of the exhibition paint a comprehensive picture of just how numerous and widespread canneries were along the western coast of British Columbia as well as what work within one would have entailed. The exhibition breaks this down into a fourteen-step process, from unloading fish from boats to packing and shipping. Each step details precisely how it would have been done and is accompanied by a short video from an industrial film depicting commercial salmon fishing and canning released in 1948. 

The “Map” is interactive. A sliding scale allows you to move temporally from 1870 to 2018, thereby watching canneries on the west coast diminish in number as time goes on. You are able to click on each one to get a little bit of detail about the cannery in question.

The map in question! Each red dot is a cannery, which you can click on to learn more about it. (Source)

As you might imagine, the fishing industry of the west coast is fairly far – both physically and figuratively – from my Ontarian suburbanite upbringing, so I found that I learned a lot. The great strength of it being an online exhibition was that I was able to experience local history without being local to it. While it may be felt at present that the in-person experience of museum-going cannot be replicated by the digital, the digital does allow you to go farther than you might be able to ordinarily. 

That being said, the reality of online exhibitions is that you’ll do a lot of reading. Which is not to say that that isn’t what you do in a live exhibition, but it’s usually accompanied the act of walking between panels, by immersive soundscapes, and by videos or hands-on activities. 

That brings me to the final part of this exhibition: “Build Your Own Cannery: A Game,” wherein you are put in charge of a new cannery and told to keep costs down and can as much salmon as humanly possible. 

You can choose your location along the B.C coast, your time period, and the name your cannery. I am now the proud proprietor of "Nothing Fishy Here" Cannery. (Source)

This is what I get for listening to my employees and keeping their hours low when they were upset. (Source)

Thanks, Mr. Anderson.

Check out “From Tides to Tins” here!

UNCOVERING UNION EXHIBITION

Alumni Check-In | Elizabeth Cytko

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People walking outside of Union Station. 2018.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko

Writing about the exhibition I created with fellow classmates is bittersweet. The winter semester of 2020 certainly ended abruptly. We did not get to attend many of the exhibition openings of our peers, and sadly have mostly parted ways without the chance to properly say goodbye. I want to acknowledge the hard work of my classmates, and say thank you for providing me with such an amazing time at the Faculty of Information. In the future I look forward to seeing everyone again, and celebrating our successes!

A group of attentive students on the Ottawa Museum trip. November 2019.
Three cheers for my amazing cohort!
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko

My group, which includes myself, Erika Ilse and Karen Macke, is fortunate — our exhibition is digital. This meant that while we were not able to meet physically, we still had privilege of Skyping and putting together the website Uncovering Union.

The Battle for Union Station.
Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives, Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 265, Series 1269, Subseries 7, File 2

For those interested in how a digital exhibition is put together, I will highlight some of the steps, so in future you can create one too!

1. Be on the same page as your team. Figure out your themes and what you want your exhibition to say. With Union Station we narrowed our focus to the social history, of the people who have a connection to the place. 
2. Make sure you know who your audience is. This will affect the style of writing and what sort of information you will include. If you will work with an educator, include them from the beginning! This will make the process much smoother!
3. Research! This involved delving deep into Proquest to dig up newspapers, taking out every book possible, and visiting the local archives! I spent most of my time at the City of Toronto archives reading up on my three stories – the archivists there are friendly and very helpful. 
4. Set a word limit and stick to it while writing your articles. 
5. Editing! Editing! Editing! Sometimes it is necessary to cut amazing ideas in order to fit the word count. That's ok! If you have too much information to share you're on the right track.
6. Somewhere around here, or maybe even earlier think about the overall design of the website. Choose your colours, fonts, logos! 
7. Make sure you have all the proper permissions in place for the images and multimedia aspects you plan to use. 
8. User testing! Have some people unfamiliar with the website go through it and make sure everything works. 
9. Launch!

In between all of those steps you are meeting your team at least once a week, and checking in with everyone. Things will unexpectedly crop up (such as a worldwide pandemic) so it’s important to give yourself some extra time.

Union Station food court, 2019.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth  Cytko

This exhibition has given us the opportunity to peek into Toronto history, and learn how interconnected Union Station is to the very fabric of the city. Uncovering Union centres on nine social histories with stories that vary from soldiers returning from war and new families coming together to civic activists uniting to save the station from destruction. The station itself is not just a terminus for the end of a journey, but the impetus for a new one.

If you miss the hustle and bustle of Toronto life, those moments where you could walk down the street and pass by others whose stories you could barely imagine, I invite you to view our exhibition.

THE POTENTIAL OF STORYMAPS FOR MUSEUMS

Technology Tuesdays | Val Masters

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This week, I want to introduce you to a digital resource that you can use as an individual or as an institution to tell multimedia stories on the web. StoryMaps, a part of ArcGIS Online, is a platform that is particularly suited for stories that involve a geographic component.

StoryMaps allows you to combine text, images, and custom digital maps, all without touching code. It is a powerful pedagogical tool for museums looking to expand their digital presence.

Who is This Tool For?

StoryMaps is an ideal tool for storytellers who are new to the digital realm, as well as those who are more experienced. It is also a great option for geographic information systems (GIS) users who want a clean and integrated way to present their mapping work.

Institutions such as museums, universities, and public libraries have all used StoryMaps to produce excellent-quality stories. Looking just at the museum sector, StoryMaps presents collections managers, researchers, digital content strategies, educators, and curators with a new way of telling stories and conveying information to colleagues and museum patrons.

What Can I Use It To Do?

StoryMaps has a number of narrative formats that allow you to connect text, images, video, and maps all in one. Aerial imagery of the Mississippi River Delta from NASA. Screenshot and sample map courtesy of the author

StoryMaps is especially suited to telling a multimedia story. If you want to include graphics, text, lists, quotes, links, videos, embedded content, or maps, this is the platform for you. The links below will take you to some examples relevant to museums, but the possibility for storytelling is nearly limitless--and new frontiers await.

You could use StoryMaps to . . .

• Create an interactive digital experience to supplement physical exhibits
• Create an educational resource for a particular group or audience
• Produce digital exhibitions
• Share digitized collections
• Communicate the power of geographic science
• Become a virtual tour guide
• Reveal the journeys of a collector or figure from your museum's history

You could also . . .

• Tell a story about an object's life--where it originated, where it traveled
• Present provenance information to colleagues or visitors
• Provide a suggested path through your museum based on a theme or interest

Stability and Privacy

Any content you upload to ArcGIS Online belongs to you, not the company. You can remove and download your content at any time. If you are using a subscription and the subscription expires, your data will be deleted from the servers after 30 days. You can read the privacy policy here. 

Want to get started?

Test out the capabilities with a free personal account for non-commercial use now! 

For institutional use, a paid subscription will provide increased storage capacity and the ability to share a StoryMap with other account users. It will also unlock several advanced features in StoryMaps. Contact ArcGIS for their discount program for museums and libraries.

I personally love StoryMaps for its vibrant community of storytellers and information visualization nerds. I get inspired looking through new and creative uses of the platform, and I have used it for course assignments, research presentations, and personal projects. Give it a try, and comment your thoughts below!

DIVING INTO THE DIGITAL: EXPLORING HERITAGE ONLINE

Heritage Moments | Carly Wolowich

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Museums are changing. With the advent of the World Wide Web, the physical bricks-and-mortar museum has now been extended, as audiences around the world are enabled to learn and engage with heritage from their very own home. Virtual exhibitions are subverting their seeming ephemeral nature to acquire a sense of permanence—as physical exhibitions have specific opening hours, online exhibitions are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As noted by Sara Angel, Founder, Executive Director and Publisher of the not-for-profit Art Canada Institute (ACI),

“Cultural expression is a need and a human right—one so fundamental that the United Nations General Assembly enshrined it in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Yet it is something that only 30 percent of Canadians are actively interested in or reached by”. 

With an increase in digital exhibitions over recent decades the answer as to how to interact with wider audiences seems to lie in the online realm.

Heritage Toronto, a charity and agency of the City of Toronto, celebrates and commemorates the city’s rich heritage and the diverse stories of its people, places, and events — both to make sense of our present and to inform our future. Creating programs such as Yonge Street: The Heart of Music City, a digital tour developed by Kristen McLaughlin, I find Heritage Toronto’s online presence exemplifies a sense of inclusivity and connection often remis in the walls of museums and art galleries. To learn more about Heritage Toronto’s digital creations I corresponded with Lucy Di Pietro, Manager of Marketing and Communications, to ask her some questions regarding the display of heritage online.

Image taken from Yonge Street: The Heart of Music City. Source.

In thinking of what work goes into creating web-based exhibitions and programming, Lucy notes there are two main streams which ideally should be developed in tandem – content development and digital production. The first, content development, follows much the same processes as it would for a physical exhibit or program; “the consideration of goals and outcomes, who the audiences are, and developing a strong narrative or experiences that meet the project's objectives and speaks to the audience(s) interests, needs, and desired behaviour”. According to Lucy, “in developing this content, ideally we would consider the delivery mechanism and medium. As an example, you might select a different visual for a digital project than if you were treating the same subject in a museum exhibit space”. In thinking of digital production, Lucy also notes such processes to span front-end and back-end development which could include the development of video and audio experiences. Digital production “is highly specialized, and in our case (and I suspect the same for many museums) the work is outsourced to professional contractors”.

In response to my question of what are the greatest strengths in sharing culture digitally, Lucy says there are two:

-Accessibility (assuming there is internet affordability and access to devices and equipment which is not always a given).

-Depth (you can layer a lot of information in a digital interface which you can't really address in a physical environment). This allows for customized user experiences that can be very high-level or be more like deep scholarly dives.

While there is an intrinsic malleability in the creation of web-based material, cultural institutions are still faced with determining what stories to tell, and whose voices to include in such narratives. Lucy notes moving forward, a main objective for all of Heritage Toronto’s programs (including digital) “is to bring under-represented voices and perspectives to the stories that define our city. Doing so, we believe not only contributes to sense of place, but helps create a compassionate city which honours its diverse stories so that each resident feel reflected, and has a voice, in its future”. As a result, Heritage Toronto has a broad definition of heritage, which Lucy says is best described in their recent State of Heritage Report. In this report it “includes the tangible (traditional) definition, but also the very important and defining intangible elements of behaviours, beliefs, traditions and cultural practices, etc”. Furthermore, Lucy asserts that “in all our work, an underlying priority is to pursue partnerships. This is especially the case where we are exploring the heritage of a cultural or ethnic community, to which none of our staff belong. Community members may reach out to us directly, (e.g. The Little Manila tour we offered from 2016-2018) or we may reach out to them based on a program idea/concept (e.g. The ArQuives for our PRIDE walk)”.   

Image taken from Yonge Street: The Heart of Music City. Source.

Woking in the realm of the digital affords cultural institutions a new medium for expression with new forms of communication. Online exhibitions and programming force us to rethink ideas surrounding access and inclusion and demand us to reconsider the very definition of the museum itself. Lucy Di Pietro noted “that many museums are doing fantastic digital work which is immersive and innovative”. At the beginning of a potential cultural shift, online exhibitions and programming hold the potential to reshape how society interacts with and considers heritage.

Please comment below any of your favourite online exhibitions and programs!

OPEN UP: ACCESS, EXPERIENCE, & PARTICIPATION IN THE GLAM SECTOR

GLAM Guide | Madison Carmichael

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In his presentation at re:publica 2019, the thirteenth edition of that conference, Douglas McCarthy centered his keynote talk around the following quote from the American judge and legal philosopher Learned Hand: 

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right...it seeks to understand the minds of other men and women.” (Learned Hand, 1872-1961)

He tells us that in this quote is a humility that he would like to see more of in the museum sector, though I’d argue that it’s applicable to the GLAM sector writ large. Certainly, there is a beautiful sort of freedom in the admittance of I don’t know. When we don’t know something, we reach out. We ask questions. And when others answer, hopefully we listen. 

McCarthy goes on to say that museums should embrace “a confident but unsure listening mode.” The time is past for top-down dictation to the public. There’s been a shift in how people interact with GLAM content and with the institutions themselves, so we’re faced with a more participatory reality, and the challenge for the GLAM sector, McCarthy says, lies in embracing it.  

So, it’s time for the GLAM sector to open up. Or, to continue opening up. This includes both opening the GLAM mindset to experiences that are immersive and innovative and opening the sector’s extensive collections to the public. It means re-establishing GLAM institutions as places for community. 

I’ll admit that this is a very lofty assertion. But it is a worthwhile one, and it’s not as though we’re starting from scratch. In the GLAM sector, several institutions have already begun to embrace a more accessible, experiential, and participatory approach to their work. 

Through the Rijksstudio, the Rijksmuseum has allowed for much of their collection to be viewed by the public. Source.

Perhaps the most well-known and widespread trend in the GLAM sector is growing access to the full collection of an institution through digitization. These collections are available in their entirety, rather than as curated exhibits. The Rijksstudio, a project from the Rijksmuseum, takes this a step further. By allowing visitors to create their own “studio,” or collection of artworks and objects, the Rijksstudio makes apparent the stories that each and every visitor uncovers within the collection. Flowers, fancy headgear, animals and more – studios created by users reveals the multitude of stories hidden within the collection that are yet to be told. 

With less than 5% of the collection shown in the museum, the SFMOMA decided that the best way to show off their artwork was to bring it out from the museum. Source.

In the same vein, GLAM institutions are changing how they display their collections physically. For museums like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an institution that displays less than 5% of their collection within the actual museum, physical display isn’t enough. In June 2017, SFMOMA launched “Send me SFMOMA,” a digital initiative wherein a person would text a number, with a keyword, colour, or emoji, and the SFMOMA would send them a related artwork by text. The aim was to show more of SFMOMA’s collection with people across the United States, and through this service, people could personalize what artwork they received. The response was overwhelming; by the end of July 2017, SFMOMA had received over 3.7 million text requests. Many, many people invited art and culture into their daily lives, and they didn’t have to visit the museum to do it.  

More than just their collections, GLAM institutions have also begun to digitize exhibits, opening up their content and stories to audiences beyond their buildings. The Warsaw Rising Museum exhibits decades of Polish history online. Source. 

Part of that “listening mode” I mentioned earlier is learning where people are at. For some, that is not within a GLAM institution, for a multitude of reasons. As with moving collections online, many institutions have begun to move visitor experiences beyond their walls as well. SFMOMA did so through a digital service, bringing a personally curated art experience to people across the United States. The Warsaw Rising Museum  delivered an entire exhibit through a website. “Warsaw Rising” depicts the history of Warsaw from 1918 onward. The focus is, of course, is the Warsaw Rising, but there is certainly a thematic emphasis on Warsaw as a dynamic, developing city, despite its hardships. It is a fully interactive exhibit with compelling text, audio, and visuals – it is indeed an entire exhibit online. 

Europeana provides access for 50 million digitized items from many European institutions. Source.

I want to close by returning to Douglas McCarthy for a moment. As Collections Manager for Europeana Collections, McCarthy is part of an organization that works with thousands of European archives, libraries, and museums to share cultural heritage with the aim of making it easier to use, whether that be for work, learning, or fun. This approach is useful, I think, for the GLAM sector wholesale; in working to make cultural heritage easier to use, access, and explore, we make it accessible to a wider public, thereby opening up our institutions to a greater world of possibility. 

DIGITIZATION TO THE RESCUE

Conservation Tips & Tricks | Selin Kahramanoglu

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The much-anticipated (just humour me, you guys) third and final part of the "Alternative Conservation" series has arrived! This post will address the digitization approach to conservation, using the Lascaux Caves as our case study. Hold onto your floppy disks and let's get going!

Wall painting in the Lascaux Caves. Source.

Don't Get Too Excited

Now, I'm not going to sugar coat this (partly because I'm on a diet), but digitization is some tricky business. Creating digital records is an everyday occurrence that can't be helped. Left and right, born-digital records are being produced almost as often as superhero movies. Unfortunately, with digital records, we can never go back to the original context of the record's creation. For this reason, records are unstable.

Let's say that I want to remember my trip to the Lascaux Caves. I can take a picture, a video, an audio recording, or even a 3D scan of the site. What if I want to post a shorter version of the video of my trip on Instagram? Then, it's no longer the same video. It doesn't matter that the edited video is from the same source, and has the same content. It's been changed, and that's that. No turning back.

Tip: Metadata is always changing and updating, so it's important to acknowledge that it's difficult to keep up with digital records, but not impossible.

Source.

More Bad News

One thing we can't ignore is that digital records live fast, and die young. In the next couple decades, some hardware and software will be obsolete. This means that some records will no longer be accessible, retrievable, or even comprehensible. If you want to record an audio file on your visit to the Lascaux Caves using the recording app of your smartphone, think twice. In two years, that phone won't charge anymore, the battery will die, and your file will be lost.

With planned consumerism, the lifespan of digital mechanics are getting shorter and shorter. Still, the digital method is convenient. Especially when it comes to phones, laptops, and tablets, these digital resources are right at our fingertips. The question is, do you think constantly paying for the newer update is worth the trouble?

Tip: The reality of the matter is that restoring an older digital format or reader is time-consuming, requires resources, expertise, and money. A lot of money.

Source.

ANYTHING Positive to Say?

After all those limitations, why in the world would we use digitization as a conservation method? Remember that digital records are easy to create, to manipulate, and to dispose of. That's why it can be an excellent method for conservation! Let's say that you want to teach someone about how the light dances in the Lascaux Caves. Just take a video and show them. You've just created a digital record of an entire experience, easy-peasy.

With so many artifacts in a museum collection, it is not very realistic to put them all on display. However, digitizing the catalogue and making it available for public online viewing is similar to displaying them. Some museums are strictly digitally accessible. In any case, digitization allows the museum visitor to see and experience much more, pushing the boundaries of the physical museum.

Tip: Limited exhibition space? Place a tablet containing digitized artifacts relevant to the exhibition theme in the gallery to compliment the physical objects on display.

Source.

Finally, Good News

With the digitization of artifacts, rare, and unique object can be seen at any time, and anywhere in the world. We can simulate realistic, and immersive, interpretations of lost heritage to our heart's content! Through landscape digitization, we can visit the Lascaux Caves, and even walk among the site in a virtual reality experience. Digital copies of artifacts and archaeological sites also protects the originals from the damages that can occur from too many physical interactions. Not only that, digitization can be useful for wayfinding. Have you ever gotten lost, or unsure of what your destination looks like? The Google Maps app and Street View can get you to where you need to go because global geography has been digitized!

Tip: The digital record has the potential to become an exact replication of the original, but it can never replace it. Rather, the digital adds another dimension to comprehending information.

Source.

The next time you're considering alternative conservation methods, digitization is a very real and frequently used approach in the modern age. Of course, the more traditional methods of preservation and restoration are good options too. It all depends on what you're trying to salvage, for how long, and if you have enough resources to do so. Good luck with your upcoming conservation practices, my friends, because I know that choosing one method is not as easy as it looks.

MONSTERS ON DISPLAY: AN EXHIBITION AT THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY

Special Feature | Selin Kahramanoglu

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Interested in unicorns? Giant sea creatures attacking sailing ships? The tales of world travels and scientific discoveries? The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has a new exhibition open, called De Monstris: An Exhibition of Monsters and the Wonders of Human Imagination. This month's post will be a featured article about this exciting new exhibition, including some of my insights as an intern with the project!

Photo courtesy of Selin Kahramanoglu.

Curated by Fisher librarian, David Fernandez, this exhibition explores how the West came to understand monsters and ideas of monstrosity throughout history and varying disciplines. The exhibition utilizes literature and illustrations from areas such as science, religion, philosophy, and arts. The exhibition incorporates texts from the classical period, up until the modern age.

Through physical displays and interactive iPads, the exhibition highlights five main themes:

1. On Monstrous People: Classical and medieval texts explore the creation of monsters through topics like divine rejection and prodigies. 
2. On Monstrous Encounters: Journals of exploration and geographies tell the tales of finding monsters while discovering the world. 
3. On Monstrous Nature: Philosophers and natural historians ponder the origins of monsters, and how society understands them.
4. On Monstrous Bodies: Medical theorists debate whether human deformities and diseases are elements of monstrosity. 
5. On Monstrous Stories: Items such as children's storybooks and illustrative pamphlets reveal artists' creations of monsters in recent popular culture.

Source.

Is it starting to catch your interest? Let me tell you how much I enjoyed working on this project...

As a summer intern, I had the privilege of assisting the curator with this project by preparing the digital exhibition content. The goal of my work was to digitize images for the online catalogue, some of which are used in the iPads. With these devices, visitors can "flip through" the iPad and see more hidden illustrations from the books behind the glass cases. Here is how I helped with this component of the exhibition:

Research & Curation: David already had a preliminary list of items he wanted to include in the exhibition, so I started from there. I searched the catalogues of the University of Toronto and other institutions to find items that suited David's criteria. Then, I would request the items, and sift through every page to find suitable imagery to display. I created a list of items that didn't have the appropriate exhibition requirements, so that I wouldn't repeat myself and search for them again.

• This was the exhibition phase that took the longest to complete. However, as a book nerd, I often admired the large stack of 18th century books with intricate bindings and cover art on my desk. 

Source.

Data Documentation: All illustrations and texts have data associated with them, and I needed to record this information accurately and efficiently. It was important for library visitors to clearly understand the labels, and for future scholars to be able to retrieve all necessary information. I made two metadata documents with differing levels of detail - one document had only the necessary "tombstone" information for the labels, while the other document had all the detailed data for all researched items.

• This phase was very rewarding, because it allowed me to apply all the knowledge that I gained from my Archives & Records Management courses up to that point. 

Source.

Digitizing: I can tell you first hand that all of the illustrations that I scanned have stunning artistry. By consulting my metadata document with the tombstone information, I digitized all the illustrations that were meant for the iPad displays. I also did some basic editing like cropping the image, resizing it to a standard measurement, and changing the file format.

• This phase was the most enjoyable for me, because I got to work with beautiful illustrations and bindings. My favourite item is a map of a sea voyage, where a sailor documented an encounter with a female marine creature (and it's on display, so go see it)!

Source.

Uploading: Once all the items were selected, with their data collected, and then digitized, all of this information was finally uploaded to the library's server. I met with other colleagues involved with the project and we discussed the iPad interface, and how to best organize the data so that it makes sense to visitors and is visually appealing.

• This phase was finished last, and it was also the quickest to complete. I really felt like a true library professional, especially by contributing to staff discussions and by utilizing modern library technologies.

Source.

Even though I'm biased, this exhibition is not only interesting, but is also easy to access and has free admission! The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library also showcases some of their rarest and most famous items, like the illustrations of Ulisse Aldrovandi. Visiting the exhibition is a great way to discover the library, if you haven't already visited it.

Lucky for iSchool students and visitors to Toronto, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is located in the middle of the University of Toronto's St. George campus. If you need to take a class on a field trip, you have an hour until your lunch meeting, or if you're excited about the topic, stop by the exhibition! Grab a friend and go to the main Robarts Library building, head up to the second floor's south wing and see for yourself.

Source.

Let me know what you think about the exhibition in the comments below! Stay tuned for the return of my column, Conservation Tips & Tricks, starting up next month.

NO BUDGET, NO PROBLEM; 4 CHEAP & EASY WAYS FOR MUSEUMS TO ENGAGE THEIR DIGITAL AUDIENCE

TECHNOLOGY TUESDAYS

BY: ORVIS STARKWEATHER

I have been noticing that many of the smaller museums I’ve been visiting have implemented impressively large and expensive digital projects. Yet the resources these projects require, often mean that the museum will only undertake a new initiative every few years. Even if audience members are impressed with a digital initiative, they are likely to forget by the time the next project is developed. Which raises the question 'How do you create sustainable projects which cultivate your online audience?' One way would be to create smaller projects that simply require fewer resources to create. Below I have included four quick and easy ways to energise your digital audience.

A great example of a colouring page from the Mütter Museum. Source.

#1 - Create Colouring Pages Based on Your Collection

I admit to being a strong supporter of adult colouring, but this latest trend of museums getting on board has me beyond excited as I’ve watched my twitter feed light up with images tagged #ColourOurCollections (#ColorOurCollections is used in the United States). In case you missed out on the phenomenon, throughout the week of February 1-7, museums have been releasing black and white images of their collections, designed for users to download and colour themselves at home. Some of the creations are stunning and definitely lets users look at the objects with new eyes. 

#2 - Make a Quiz

In my Museums and New Media class, we broke up into groups and were tasked with developing a tool for enlivening museum collections online. My group came up with a personality quiz, like those on Buzzfeed or Zimbio that would allow social users to develop personal connections with objects in the collection. Examples of quizzes could be: “Who is your historical BFF?”, “What iconic fashion accessory should you wear?”, “Which dinosaur would you like as a pet?”. I went ahead and made a quick example on “What Historic Toronto House Should you Have Lived in?” If done well, visitors will share the quiz results over social media.

#3 - Run a Photo Editing, Gif Creating, or Other Kind of Contest

When I first saw the Tate’s 1840s Gif Party I was smitten. The creations were delightfully fun and made me notice details about the artworks that I would have otherwise glanced over. While certainly impressive, not all contests have to have to be done on such a large scale. You could send people on a scavenger hunt of your collections to win coupons. Another possibility would be to offer free coffee for the best museum selfie.

One of the creations from the 1840s gif party. Source.

#4 - Create a fill in the blanks game

I used to love laughing over Mad Libs at sleepovers as a child, but they are still great fun as an adult. The basic premise is that you generate a list of words based on prompts and then transfer them to the paragraph below. The results are normally pretty hilarious and it’s easy to create your own. You can circulate them as text or use one of the fancy online generators like Word Blanks. Feel free to leave your results in the comments section.

BONUS: Fill in the Blanks Game

____________________ The name your favourite museum
____________________ Adjective
____________________ Plural noun
____________________ Noun
____________________ Emotion
____________________ Verb (past tense)
____________________ Adverb
____________________ Noun
____________________ Noun 

____________________ Noun
____________________ Adjective 

____________________ Plural Noun
____________________ Adjective
____________________ Noun
____________________ Verb (past tense)

A Trip to the Museum

Today I went to the _________________________ (the name your favourite museum) . They had a new exhibition on _________________________ (adjective) _________________________ (plural noun). My favourite part of the exhibit was the terracotta _________________________ (noun). When I saw it I was so _________________________ (emotion) that I _________________________ (verb - past tense). A _________________________ (adverb) security guard came over to ask if everything was alright, but I reassured her that I was fine and just needed a _________________________ (noun). I then visited the _________________________ (noun) gallery and saw a giant _________________________ (noun). There was a _________________________ (adjective) class in the gallery studying _________________________ (plural noun). Before leaving, I stopped at the gift shop and bought a/an _________________________ (adjective) _________________________ (noun). I was so excited that I _________________________ (verb - past tense). 

CAN ART SURVIVE THE DIGITAL AGE?

TECHNOLOGY TUESDAYS

BY: JENNY FORD

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about digital art preservation. This isn’t a new topic, nor is it the most thrilling at first blush, but my inner museum geek is genuinely concerned about preserving digital art for future generations to enjoy.

A report earlier this month from the Council of Canadian Academies found that “Canada is falling behind as the vast amounts of digital information created are at risk of being lost because many traditional tools are no longer adequate.” Galleries and art museums are not excluded here.

Electronic Superhighway by Nam June Paik. Source.

Digital art is any artwork born digitally, no matter the presentation medium. Some of these pieces use crowd sourcing or are even designed to be ever changeable. So, how do you preserve something that’s meant to be ever changing? Moreover, how do you preserve a work whose mode of presentation will eventually become obsolete?

An example of this challenge is the work Heaven and Earth by Bill Viola. Viola used old school CRT television monitors to present the work, where images projected on one TV reflect off the glass of the other. Newer LCD screens would fail to create the same desired effect. So what’s a museum to do, knowing the old monitors won’t last forever? Stockpile old TVs?

Heaven and Earth by Bill Viola. Source.

One solution spearheaded by the Guggenheim was to have artists describe their art and its concepts independently of the actual medium of presentation. That way future curators can replicate the same “effects” without relying on hard-to-find and obsolete technologies.

Viola’s work is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of challenges. The artwork Loops poses all sorts of headaches for collections. The artwork by Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie uses motion capture technology to map the movements of subject Merce Cunningham. An algorithm created by Downie makes the sensor nodes appear differently at random. On top of this, there is narration and music. The digital portrait loops indefinitely and never repeats.

This is a little bit of a conservation nightmare. The layers of technology and the regenerative nature of the piece beg the question if there is even a proper method that can house this piece for the long-term. Is there a way to preserve the artwork's desired effect accurately?

Loops by Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie. Source.

Both these examples showcase the challenges of digital art that curators, conservators and collections managers face alike. As the Council of Canadian Academies outlines in their report,  the much-lauded issues of accuracy, authenticity, and software obsolescence are still facing many Canadian institutions.

Time will tell what happens to art pieces like Heaven and Earth and Loops. But Canadian institutions are still coping with the ever-growing amount of digital material and what exactly should be done with it.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

INTERSECTIONS: Art in the Digital Age

As an artist working at the intersections art and code, eepmon will present two of his art projects where use of computers play a key role into his creative process. Specifically: - See more at: http://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/content/ischool-colloquia-series-intersections-art-digital-age#sthash.aJ4i987A.dpuf

Join us for the iSchool Colliquia Series! Eepmon, an artist working at the intersections of art and code, presents two of his art projects where computers play a key role into his creative process.
Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, 4:00-6:00, Bissell Building, Room 728

SOURCES:

Dismantling the Monolith: Post-media Art and the Culture of Instability by Nora Almeida

Preservation of Electronic Media in Libraries, Museums and Archives by Carey Stumm

Date: 

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - 16:00 to 18:00

Location: 

Rm 728, 140 St. George Street

- See more at: http://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/content/ischool-colloquia-series-intersections-art-digital-age#sthash.ZZRxxImR.dpuf

THE BEST ONLINE EXHIBITIONS

EXHIBITION REVIEW

BY: MEAGHAN DALBY

Welcome Back!! I hope you all are full of turkey and chocolates, and are ready to tackle a new semester.

Sadly, my holidays did not include any trips to museums, so I thought I’d take a crack at evaluating some online stuff. I did some research, and made a (small) list of the 3 Best Online Canadian Exhibitions.

Since the internet is literally limitless, and there are thousands and thousands of museums online all over the world, I thought I’d create some criteria to narrow down my list. I decided I wanted to look at exhibitions that are solely created for the internet, and do not have a physical component in any museum. And then I thought I’d just look at Canadian exhibits, just for kicks. This narrowed the field considerably. Here’s what I came up with:

# 3. MAVERICKS: AN INCORRIGIBLE HISTORY OF ALBERTA

Screen Shot of the landing page to Mavericks
Credit: http://www.glenbow.org/mavericks/

This exhibit was created this year by the Glenbow Museum in Alberta. I chose it for a couple reasons. 1: it uses the word incorrigible. I couldn’t help myself, and 2: It’s an example of good intentions not QUITE hitting the mark. Right off the bat, they have a fancy intro video, and I’m getting all excited to learn about Alberta (which is rare… I apologize to a certain Musings writer). But the whole exhibit is on this weird pop-up screen, which is pretty small. The icons are great, the photos are beautiful, but the text is tiny. And every time you hit the home button you have to watch that damn intro video (I was excited, now I’m annoyed). However, not all is lost. The information IS interesting and I did learn about Mavericks in Alberta, but there are little things that made the site not-so user friendly. Also, there weren’t any interactive elements… bummer. Hence, the #3 spot.

#2. CANADA AT PLAY: AN ONLINE EXHIBITION OF TOYS AND GAMES 

Screen Shot of the home page
Credit: http://www.historymuseum.ca/canadaplay/introduction/

This online exhibit was created by the Canadian Museum of History. There is no copyright date that I could find, but I would guess that it was created within the last 5 years or so. Canada at Play explores how playtime and toys played a role in development and socialization for Canadians from past to present. Visually, it’s quite compelling, using well-known themes from retro toys and packaging to draw the audience in. While retro on the surface, underneath, the website is quite modern, and has the interactive elements contemporary users are looking for. It’s also very visual, and doesn’t rely too heavily on text. What I really liked (because I’m a giant kid) was the “Play!” section. Here, games tested your knowledge learned in the exhibition. Yes, I played them. Yes, it was awesome. Another component in the Canada at Play exhibit was a Teacher’s Corner, which had lesson plans and work sheets for grades 1-7. I think it’s a nice inclusion, but I wonder, in practice, how much that actually gets used.

#1. BURGESS SHALE

Screen shot of the home page
Credit:http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/en/index.php

This is exactly the kind of website I was looking for, when I started this little quest: a truly autonomous, on-line exhibition. This exhibit was created in 2011 through a partnership with the ROM, UNESCO and Parks Canada. As a result, it has more of the up-to date visuals, layout, and interactives (some cool virtual videos) I am used to seeing/was expecting.

Online exhibits can easily give the reader MUCH too much information, since they are not hampered by space constraints, but I think that the Burgess Shale Exhibit does a nice job of not overwhelming readers.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Ok, so obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list, but I learned a few things from scouring the internet (well, the Canadian internet…is that a thing?):

1. A really well put together online exhibit that is visually pleasing, interactive, and informative costs a lot of money and time. My favourite websites were from large institutions, who (presumably) have the resources. So, while an online exhibition may SEEM like a cheap and cheerful way to reach your audience, once you get down to it, it might not be. 

2. An online exhibit is NOT (I repeat not) simply links to your collection page.

3. Online exhibits get old fast. Even exhibits from 5 years ago can seem outdated.

What do you think? Are there some fabulous exhibits that I’ve missed? Share them in the comments below!