I never got my other blog up and running but thought I would share a post I drafted from March 3rd 2018
I’ve been rapturously enjoying community connections in my GLAM circles recently and all the different conversations that are had outside of the workplace so will now also be blogging my voice into the cyberether. But what has been floating my boat on the greatest king tide of all is the opening of a new exhibition in our temporary gallery with every new technology we could prototype into the space as an experimental and research based path to future development.
For context, yesterday was the National Sports Museums 10th birthday and like so many other GLAM institutions we are headed towards a refreshing redevelopment (I’m looking at you Western Australian Museum, State Library of Victoria, and QAGOMA) which will see renewal, change, and no doubt minor controversies.
I got to wander the galleries telling visitors that a new door had been opened and that if they wanted to look inside they would find eye tracking, dome projection, holograms, projection tracking, touch sensors, augmented reality, app downloads, feedback stations and some friendly volunteers. Our intention is not to get everything in to our next final shape but to learn what works, engages, enthrals and doesn’t break too much.
New exhibitions create a powerful energy across the staff, volunteers, and visitors of an institution. I went through this once before when ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ opened at the National Museum of Australia while I was an educator there but I didn’t have any skin in the game or deadlines of development that affected me just the joy of novelty and wandering wonder. This time I had a role developing our augmented reality app, working with a startup company, and collaborating with our tech team for content creation so really felt the impinging deadlines floating towards our creativity and productivity like a temporal garrote.
A GLAMmer with many more years of experience once described galleries to me as a kind of static theatre. One in which narrative and emotion were woven between the stillness and tides of incremental change. My small part in this process has reinforced this framework in my mind. Production schedules meeting logistical issues, overcoming obstacles with creativity and collaboration, and always heading towards that inexorable opening date.
The show must go on!