Membership Options: Strangers Included?

Every once in a while, I find myself in a round of “Fantasy Museum. “The rules are simple: What would I try if money and practicality were no object? A lot of my ideas are predictably extreme, but more than once those impossible ideas have filtered down into something plausible and even reasonable. The other day I…

Is That All There Is?

The main art museum in my city - the Augustinermuseum - is under construction. The museum is expanding, and will eventually have new galleries for graphic and historical objects. For the past year, the fences around the construction site have been decorated with panels highlighting the city’s museums and what visitors can see there. And, for…

Un-Prompted Visitor-Contributed Content: An Example

While working on a new evaluation project with the Freiburg Museum Natur und Mensch, I’ve come across an interesting example of how un-prompted visitor-contributed content can work. In the temporary exhibit “Letzte Ölung Nigerdelta,” one room invites visitors to sit and watch a projected series of photographs exploring the social, economical, and environmental affects of the oil industry…

Tips For Developing Multi-Language Labels - Part 2

Find Part 1 here. Part 2: When You’re Ready to Write (1) Identify Language Form(s) Once you’ve established your target languages and begun connecting with those communities, you need to identify the appropriate language forms. No language is neutral or only has one pan-global form. So will it be British or American English? High German or…

It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged…

That if you give museum visitors an opportunity to create, one of them will eventually create a penis. However, this was found at a museum dedicated to an artist who drew and sculpted his own share of penises, so we can probably cut this particular visitor some slack. Psst - this isn’t the first time penises have…

Tips For Developing Multi-Language Labels - Part 1

Since moving to Germany, I’ve developed a keenly-tuned English-language radar. No snippet - spoken or written - is too small to escape my notice, and I delight when I find them. Along with hunting for moments of my mother tongue, I’m helping create them. I’m involved in several projects exploring different ways to incorporate English…