Last night I took some of my own advise and went to one of the many interesting lectures this campus offers. It was called The Social Museum: online community-building and the future of museums, hosted by Matthew Fisher, the founder and President of Night Kitchen Interactive. His discussion was in the plush UMMA auditorium where I found myself comfortably intrigued. I must say I had other motives for attending this event. First off, I have to attend three out of class events this semester for one of my museums classes and secondly the discussion pertained to my current internship at UMMA.
His work deals with forward thinking in museums and calls it a push towards a ‘social museum.’ UMMA was attracted to Fisher and his forward thinking and hired him to work on the project that turned into the Dialog Table as the final project. The Dialog Table is an interactive technological device located on the museum’s first floor. The hand gesture activated system allows you to open up any image in the museum’s collection to learn more about its location in the museum, how it was accessioned and a blurb about its meaning. There are also movies you can watch and links that can be made from one object to another.
The brains at UMMA behind this project are Lisa Borgsdorf and Ruth Slavin, my two lovely, smart, and intelligent supervisors. It is because of their collaborative work with Fisher that the museum has one of four Dialog Tables in the U.S. We are fortunate to have such a gem at our University. The basis for the table is to learn about art through a new, interactive, entertaining medium. The museum hopes people play with the table and strike a dialog with their family or other visitors to the museum. People can learn from each other and share an experience that is not found in many museums.
The table is located in an open area where people can move freely and speak as loudly as they want. The desire is for people to socialize through this technological device. Museums are in transition. They are changing from quiet environments to more social and upbeat settings where complete strangers can meet and interact. The experience is truly unique. Go to the museum and take a look for yourself!
Have a great weekend!
Sara majors in Art History and enjoys long walks!
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