e-artcasting

Tendencias de la Web Social: Oportunidades para Museos

2008-10-14T07:48:00.008-04:00

Más vale tarde que nunca. Por fin puedo compartir con vosotros la presentación visual de mi conferencia para el curso: "Las instituciones de la memoria en la red. Nuevas dimensiones del museo", organizado por la Fundación Rey Juan Carlos y el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza y celebrado en Aranjuez en julio de 2008.

He de decir que el curso fue una experiencia magnífica, tanto por los ponentes que por allí pasaron, como por el público que asistió. Los participantes (nunca mejor dicho) fueron tremendamente interesantes, participativos y pusieron de relieve que en nuestro país existen muchos profesionales de museos deseosos de que sus instituciones adopten herramientas web 2.0 de interacción y participación cultural. En resumen, muy esperanzador.

Como parte de mi presentación proyecté una serie de vídeos sobre museos que extraje de las redes sociales y que iré compartiendo con todos vosotros en entradas posteriores, dentro de la sección: "Lo que los museos dicen..." / "What museums say..."

Tendencias de la web social: oportunidades para los museos

Ver más presentaciones de Pilar Gonzalo.

What Museums Say... about Tate

2008-08-08T07:45:00.002-04:00

Today, for the section "What Museums Say..." I am posting a totally relevant testimony by art museums. Here it is,

A discussion with Tate about the use of sites like these shared by grewliketopsy. As the author remarks, the video is,

A 14 minute interview with John Stack, Editor of Tate Online and Sarah Briggs, marketing manager for Tate, about how organisations and individuals can use sites like flickr, facebook, MySpace and YouTube etc for reaching a broader audience and giving increased functionality and interactivity than what is possible on an individual website.

It is pretty long to be into the standards of online videos, but interesting indeed.

What Museums Say... about Seattle Art Museum

2008-08-06T13:26:00.002-04:00

This post is the first one in English of the series "Lo que los museos dicen...", which in its English version is called, "What Museums Say..." This section shows a different point of view to the so called "User Generated Content" (UGC) by featuring what art museums are saying -online- about themselves.

One of the most interesting approaches to this problem is checking how museums are advertising themselves. As you will keep watching in future posts of this section, there are lots of wonderful and very creative examples of self-introductions by art museums. One of my favorites is this one by Seattle Art Museum, USA, posted by coleweber, I guess, the author of the featured spot. I t is my belief that this is a good spot because it is focussed on museum visitors' experience and not on, as often used to happen, what museums do, have, want, etc. Here I can f-e-e-l what is going to happen to me if I visited Seattle Art Museum, because when I visit art museums, I not only used to learn, mainly I have experiences. Here you can have yours. Any comments on how to interpret this video?

If you also understand Spanish, do not forget checking the topics section of the right column, and clicking on some other examples of Museums talking about themselves at "Lo que los museos dicen..."; or, why not, people speaking about museums at "Lo que la gente dice..." and its equivalent in English, "What People Say..."

Summertime...

2008-08-02T16:15:00.004-04:00

lamusediffuseTV

2008-07-28T05:58:00.007-04:00

Two days ago the always interesting blog "El Blog del Guerrero" by Centro José Guerrero in Granada (Spain,) published an article on Artforum Video, the new section of Artforum compiling a selection of videos available on the social web. Although the initiative could present some issues on artists' permissions and I agree on, "some kind of permissions disclaimer should appear on ArtForum, since the authority of their site’s curation outweighs its source;" I consider it a good understanding of the benefits social web can provide to the art world. In fact, during the past months at lamusediffuse we have being doing something similar.

lamusediffuseTV is a group of YouTube Playlists on relevant topics of museums. From specific areas of the world to common topics, lamusediffuseTV tries to present a curated vision of museums at YouTube. We encourage you watching them and sharing with us your reactions and any other video you considered interesting to add at lamusediffuse's channel. Maybe, if you are planning any visit during this summertime you should check first our lamusediffuseTV - Queues at Museums. Discouraging, but soooooooo real...

Lo que los museos dicen... del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao

2008-07-01T05:00:00.001-04:00

Sin lugar a duda, los museos están cambiando su forma de concebirse y presentarse. De meros contenedores de objetos han pasado a tomar conciencia de que, además, son la comunidad a la que se deben y que les visita y conforma. Se trat pues de una idea muy ligada a las nuevas formas de relación social propiciadas por las tecnologías sociales de interacción y participación a través de internet. Debido a estos cambios y a que los propios museos y los profesionales que en ellos trabajan desean también presentarse y contar lo que hacen, voy a comenzar con otra sección denominada "Lo que los museos dicen..."

Un buen ejemplo de esta nueva forma de entenderse por parte de los museos lo ha protagonizado el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, quien para conmemorar su centenario ha utilizado como imagen la esencia de su naturaleza: sus visitantes y usuarios. Y es que las propuestas más modernas no tienen por qué ser patrimonio exclusivo de los museos de corte más contemporáneo.

Vídeo: Spot Museo Bellas Artes Bilbao, 100 años de historia. miraloqueveotv, 2008

Museum of Iraq Moving Forward

2008-06-08T04:36:00.000-04:00

After the campaign for raising awareness on the looting of the National Museum of Iraq, there is some hope about the recovering of such a marvellous museum,

The Baghdad Museum, which has been sealed with concrete, is to be reopened to staff. Shortly before antiquities head Donny George went into exile last August, he had all the entrances to the building blocked, because of the deteriorating security situation in Baghdad. Dr George admitted that this could have created environmental problems, but he felt it was too dangerous to protect the museum with just locked doors.
Dr Abbas al-Hussainy, the new director of the state board of antiquities, told The Art Newspaper last month that he is now “very worried about underground water”. This could cause dampness, or even flooding, since the museum is located close to the Tigris. Ivories and cuneiform tablets would be particularly vulnerable. There are also concerns that rats may have multiplied in the museum over the past year.
After facing the dilemma of having to balance security and environmental risks, Dr Abbas has decided that the building should be reopened to staff. In the current security situation, there is no immediate prospect of the museum being open to visitors.
The Italian government recently provided a massive steel security door for the Baghdad museum. Last month a gap was breached in the wall and the new door was cemented into place. Beyond the security door there are two further locked doors, and when we went to press, these had not been entered, so conditions inside the stores still remain unknown.
Dr Abbas also revealed that there have been three attempts by Coalition troops to enter the museum and antiquities office in the past two months. The first two incidents involved Americans. On the first occasion they forced their way into the compound (but not the buildings); there was a similar incident a week later. On the third occasion a group of westerners in civilian clothing brandished an unsigned letter of authority, but retreated on being questioned.
Meanwhile the British Museum is in discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about financial assistance to aid the Baghdad museum and Iraq’s archaeological service. (The Art Newspaper)

However, the reopening of the museum still seems to be very far. In addition to the important budget constraints for the rehabilitation of the building, the recovering of the looted artifacts and the restauration of the remaining pieces; another crucial problem is the lack of security for protential visitors. For this reason at lamusediffuse we have started a project on Flickr called "Museum of Iraq 2.0" on Photos on Iraqi art, artifacts and cultural heritage disseminated in collections from all over the world. Add to this pool all the art works which belonged to the looted National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad or are part of the Iraqi Heritage and currently are in other museums' collections. We are looking forward your contributions to make this museum and Iraqi culture open to everybody.

Image: Wahish: Beauty, 2006

Lo que la gente dice... del MNCARS

2008-06-05T09:37:00.011-04:00

Continúo con la serie "Lo que la gente dice...", que recoge vídeos con comentarios hechos por la gente sobre museos de arte, encontrados y disponibles en la web social. En anteriores ocasiones pudimos, desde escuchar lo que unos sufridos turistas decían sobre Tate Modern, hasta bailar con el divertido vídeo de Guillermo Trujillano sobre el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA), pasando por el debate más serio gracias las visionarias palabras del trístemente fallecido Santiago Amón sobre el Museo del Prado y la desgracia que asola al Museo Nacional de Irak. Ahora, le llega el turno al Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) de Madrid.

La historia de hoy es realmente inquietante ya que se trata de un testimonio sobre "los fantasmas del Reina Sofía". Evitando chistes fáciles sobre la reciente historia gestora de este museo y sus lamentables "fenómenos paranormales", debo señalar que el tema de los fantasmas del Reina no es algo desconocido para los muchos amantes de este museo. Lo que sí es un auténtico fenómeno extraño es que se hagan programas de televisión deicados a esto y no a su magnífica colección.

Así que para hoy, nada de arte. Aquí os dejo con este par de vídeos emitidos en el programa Nuevo Milenio y que atilop ha compartido en la red. Me voy a por unos ajos...

"Museos en Libia 2.0" en LabforCulture.org

2008-05-13T03:01:00.011-04:00

El proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0" está empezando a tener una importante trascendencia en los entornos web de colaboración cultural. Tras la exitosa presentación en el Medialab-Prado de Madrid, ahora es la organización europea LabforCulture la que ha considerado incluir nuestro proyecto dentro de su Base de Datos de Casos de Estudio.

No dejéis de consultar otros proyectos incluidos en tan interesante organización. Puede llegar a ser impresionante tener una idea aproximada de cuántos son y qué útiles y diversos pueden llegar a ser.

Can ART be experienced on a phone?

2008-01-05T05:48:00.002-05:00

Mobile technologies are becoming a must among art museums from all over the world. A huge variety of devices are regularly offered to visitors for an enhanced experience of their on-site visits.

Cell phones, iPods, PDAs, etc. are the very new substitutes of the not so old museum audioguides. Users find some advantages using their own devices: they can use them at any moment and place, in other words: not only in the museum physical space and opening schedule. Besides, museums can save a huge expense in maintenance and updating their technology. Museums only have to provide contents suitable for being downloaded from their websites.

But can these technologies substitute on-site experience? Listen David Lynch's opinion about seeing films on a cell phone and try to remember your own daily experience with art museums.

I personally agree with Lynch's opinion and with Steven Spielberg's dislike about seeing films on the screen of a computer. However, thanks to these alternative ways of experiencing art, sometimes I could have that (incomplete) experience that otherwise never had been possible.

Documentación del proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0"

2008-01-04T15:25:00.002-05:00

Ya está disponible en internet el vídeo de la presentanción de nuestro proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0" que se celebró durante el encuentro Inclusiva-net: nuevas dinámicas artísticas en modo 2.0. Aunque en la grabación no se ven las imágenes que fuimos proyectando a lo largo de la exposición oral, podéis consultar y descargar la presentación completa en nuestra página de Slideshare.

Asímismo, para aquellos interesados en indagar en los pormenores del proyecto, os podéis bajar el texto de documentación en la parte inferior derecha de la página de Medialab-Prado, que también estará disponible en inglés a finales de enero de 2008.

Una nota final: no dejéis de consultar la documentación completa del encuentro que se puede descargar por proyectos específicos o en forma de e-book en lo que forma parte de la excelente línea de difusión cultural que está llevando a cabo Medialab-Prado de Madrid. Es, sin lugar a dudas, uno de los mejores puntos de encuentro, creación, mediación y dinamización cultural de nuestro país, situado a la mejor escala internacional.

Rare Look Inside Baghdad Museum

2007-12-13T14:19:00.003-05:00

(See related news from minute 2.44)

Article by: Cara Buckley at The New York Times (December 12, 2007)

BAGHDAD — For a few brief hours Tuesday, three dozen spectators — journalists, local politicians and their guards — gathered at the National Museum of Iraq here, their voices echoing through its vast, darkened halls. It was one of the few times outsiders had been allowed inside since Baghdad fell, looters stripped the galleries of some 15,000 Mesopotamian artifacts, and the museum became a wrenching symbol of the losses of the war.

Aside from a brief opening in late 2003, when officials and other guests were invited in, the museum has been shuttered since the invasion. But there has been a great push to reopen it of late. Its directors have managed to recover 4,000 missing pieces, among them gems, Islamic coins and carved stones. The pace of recovery picked up as word spread that rewards were offered for items returned.
Still, the executive director, Amira Eidan, said Tuesday that she could not forecast when the museum might reopen again because restoration efforts had been slowed by insufficient financing. The cost of recovering the artifacts has consumed the bulk of her museum’s budget, and pieces sometimes have turned up at foreign auctions and been too expensive or difficult to retrieve, she said.
The museum still houses hulking centuries-old statues and intricately patterned stone panels, items too heavy for plunderers to haul off. Its most valued items, including pieces of Assyrian gold known as the Nimrud treasures, were saved because they had been sealed in crates and locked in a bank vault.
Yet on Tuesday, much of the museum’s collection remained out of sight. Many of the ancient heavy stone statues were covered in plastic. Dozens of glass display cases sat empty but for thick layers of dust. Workers were mixing epoxy in one gallery, the Assyrian Hall, where walls were lined with great stone bas-relief and little else. The 4,000 pieces that have so far been recovered remained in the museum’s underground vaults.
Ms. Eidan, who had recently said that two halls of the museum would reopen this month, said Tuesday that even if the museum was fully restored, she was not certain that the city was stable enough to ensure a safe reopening. She also lamented the illegal digging that continues at Baghdad’s 12,000 largely unguarded archaeological sites. According to Abdul Zahra al-Taliqani, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, thieves have stolen, and likely trafficked, 17,000 pieces from these sites so far.
American forces have been widely faulted for failing to protect the museum as pillaging swept Baghdad after the invasion. Concern over the museum’s fate peaked again in August 2006, when the museum’s director, Donny George, resigned and left Iraq, saying he had been threatened by extremists with ties to the Shiite-led government.
The museum visit on Tuesday, a media event, was organized by Ahmad Chalabi, the Shiite politician and former exile leader who helped shape the Pentagon’s case for war. By organizing the visit, Mr. Chalabi sought to highlight the museum’s restoration efforts and insert himself in the recovery process. Before a row of photographers and cameramen, he presented the museum’s director with some 400 missing artifacts that he had procured through a friend.
“We need help from international experts,” he told Ms. Eidan. “We have so many more missing pieces, we need to do active search to get them back.”
In violence in Baghdad on Tuesday, two policemen were killed when a car bomb exploded near security booths guarding the homes of Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, and Saleh al-Mutlak, a member of Parliament.
Mr. Mutlak is the head of the Sunni-Arab party, the National Dialogue Front. Twelve policemen and guards were wounded, though neither Mr. Allawi nor Mr. Mutlak was hurt.

Video: Mosaic, April 14, 2003

De cuando la cultura libia era referencia mundial

2007-11-16T14:26:00.001-05:00

Lo sabemos: ha sido un largo tiempo de silencio, pero no de falta de trabajo. Tras el proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0", intenso y apasionante, decidimos tomarnos unas merecidas vacaciones :)

Tras ello hemos difundido el proyecto, tratado de ponernos en contacto con profesionales de museos en Libia, hemos concedido entrevistas (como la que nos hicieron nuestros colegas de Museodata) y además, hemos iniciando nuevos proyectos, el fascinante proyecto colaborativo "Museo de Irak 2.0".

En la actualidad estamos participando en el taller Visualizar, en las nuevas instalaciones del Medialab-Prado de Madrid. Sheila Pontis inauguraba el simposio previo de dos días con la conferencia "La historia de la esquemática en la visualización de datos". En su intervención presentaba una imagen reconstruida del primer mapa del mundo, hecho por Anaximandro (610 a 546 adc) en el que Libia ocupaba poco más o menos que un tercio del mundo (en la imagen).

Eran sin duda otros tiempos para la cultura libia que de nuevo parece adquirir relevancia en el escenario mundial con un superproyecto ecológico. A ver si, entretanto, conseguimos hacer llegar nuestro proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0" a algún profesional libio y paliar un poco la brecha digital que ataca la visibilidad, la accesibilidad y la presencia igualitaria de la diversidad cultural en internet. Pistas y ayuda son bienvenidas.

Museums in Libya 2.0

2007-07-06T05:39:00.004-04:00

After several months of intense and exciting work, the project “Museums in Libya 2.0” is already available on the Internet.

lamusediffuse proposes the use of Social Web tools for the inclusion of non-dominant cultural expressions in the scopes of culture diffusion on the Internet. Accordingly with this objective, the project “Museums in Libya 2.0” is focused on two starting facts, the first is the lack of information about Libyan museums available in the website of the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM) and the second is the apparent lack of museum websites in this country. As a consequence of this, the objective of our project has been overcoming both realities through the following actions,

Overcoming the gaps of Web 1.0 by using a methodology based on Web 2.0 tools as a flexible, interactive and participative alternative option of information exchange,
Proving Social Web academic usefulness and its tools as a valid and effective research tool,
Palliating the lack of contents on Libyan museums on AFRICOM website by compiling, contrasting and structuring the information available on the Internet about the subject,
Elaborating a reference map where gathering and locating the museums of Libya,
Raising awareness about the online institutional forgetfulness situation of Libyan Museums at the present time in comparison with others in the rest of the world,
Creating a methodological model for small museums and museums of developing countries or under conflict situations, reasonable in economic and maintenance terms,
Encouraging museum professionals to Web 2.0 tools use as an economic, simple and effective solution to overcome any lack of computer science personnel or tools and digital technology,
Emphasizing the importance and role of the Jamahiriya Museum of Tripoli and improving its online visibility for both international and local audiences,
Finally, creating a reference document on the Libyan museums that will be published under a Creative Commons license of attribution and for noncommercial use,

You can find more details about this project on lamusediffuse's website.

From now on you can enjoy the wonderful Libyan museums strolling through the interactive map, where you will find information on each museum provided by our collaborators and Social Web users. Do not forget also consulting our wiki and updating it with new data. Besides, you can collaborate sharing your photos of Libyan museums including them in our group in Flickr, e-artcasting.

At this moment we leave you with the presentation we have made to present the project on next July 11 at the Medialab of Madrid (Spain,) within the Inclusiva.net encounter: New Art Dynamics in Web 2 mode. Besides, you can consult the references of the project in lamusediffuse's del.icio.us account. We hope meeting some of you there!

Museos en Libia 2.0

2007-07-05T18:47:00.001-04:00

Tras varios meses de intenso y apasionante trabajo, el proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0" está ya disponible en internet.

lamusediffuse proponemos el uso de las herramientas de la web social para la inclusión de expresiones culturales no-dominantes en los ámbitos de difusión de la cultura en internet. En consonancia con este objetivo, el proyecto "Museos en Libia 2.0" se centra en dos hechos de partida: el primero ha sido la falta de información sobre los museos libios en la página web del Consejo Internacional de Museos Africanos (AFRICOM) y el segundo, la aparente carencia de páginas web de museos en dicho país. Como consecuencia de ello, el objetivo de nuestro proyecto ha sido superar ambas realidades por medio de las siguientes acciones:

superar las lagunas de Web 1.0 por medio del uso de una metodología basada en el uso de las herramientas de la web social (Web 2.0) como una opción alternativa flexible, interactiva y participativa de intercambio de información,
probar la utilidad académica de la web social y de sus herramientas como instrumentos válidos y efectivos de investigación,
paliar la falta de contenidos sobre los museos libios de la página web de AFRICOM compilando, contrastando y estructurando la información disponible en internet sobre el tema,
elaborar un mapa de referencia donde reunir y localizar los museos de Libia,
sensibilizar sobre el olvido institucional en internet que en la actualidad están sufriendo los museos libios en comparación con los de otras areas del mundo,
crear un modelo metodológico para museos pequeños y museos de países en desarrollo o en situaciones de conflicto, que sea asequible en términos económicos y de mantenimiento técnico,
animar a los profesionales de museos al uso de las herramientas Web 2.0 como una solución económica, sencilla y eficaz para superar la falta de personal informático o de herramientas y tecnología digital,
subrayar la importancia y el papel del museo Jamahiriya de Trípoli y mejorar su visibilidad en internet para una audiencia internacional,
finalmente, crear un documento de referencia sobre los museos libios que sea publicado bajo una licencia Creative Commons de atribución y para uso no comercial

Puedes encontrar más detalles en la página web de lamusediffuse. Disfruta a partir de ahora de los maravillosos museos libios dándote un paseo por el mapa interactivo, donde encontrarás información sobre cada museo proporcionada por nuestros colaboradores y usuarios de la web social. No olvides consultar también el wiki y actualizarlo con nuevos datos. Asímismo, puedes colaborar compartiendo tus fotos de museos libios incluyéndolas en nuestro grupo en Flickr, e-artcasting.

De momento te dejamos con la presentación que hemos realizado para dar a conocer el proyecto el próximo 11 de julio en el Medialab de Madrid, dentro del encuentro Inclusiva.net: Nuevas dinámicas artísticas en modo web 2. Entretanto, puedes ir consultando las referencias del proyecto en nuestros enlaces en del.icio.us. ¡Te esperamos!

Museum of Iraq for the International Museums Day

2007-05-18T18:07:00.001-04:00

To celebrate the International Museum Day, at lamusediffuse we have started a new Flickr group called Museum of Iraq 2.0 Our goal is sharing photos on Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Mesopotamia or Iraqi art, artifacts and cultural heritage disseminated in collections from all over the world. We want to create an online reference for all those who love that museum by gathering photos and videos of art and artifacts from Iraq.

After the Cadlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum and because today is a day internationally devoted to Universal Heritage, why do not we re-open that wonderful museum, although virtually. If it is not possible in Baghdad, we can do it online from outside. Any volunteer for a Second Life one?

Día Internacional de los Museos: Patrimonio ¿Universal?

2007-05-17T13:47:00.001-04:00

Este año, el Día Internacional de los Museos está dedicado al Patrimonio Universal. Con motivo de esta celebración el Consejo Internacional de Museos (ICOM) recoge en su página web un listado de las actividades que tendrán lugar en todo el mundo. Lo más probable es que, afortunadamente, tu país figure entre los que estén organizando actividades. Pero en e-artcasting queremos subrayar la presencia de "los que no están".

Las razones por las cuales ciertos países del mundo no tienen información disponible en internet sobre sus museos y su patrimonio cultural son complejas a la vez que tristes, tal como estamos comprobando en nuestra investigación sobre museos en Libia. Esta falta de presencia en internet provoca que la indiferencia mundial esté encubriendo los saqueos masivos de los que están siendo víctimas ciertas áreas del mundo. e-arcasting colaboró recientemente en la campaña de sensibilización y recuerdo del saqueo al Museo Nacional de Irak y participó activamente en la vigilia celebrada en San Francisco el mes pasado. Sin embargo, muchos son los que están haciendo una tremenda labor por la recuperación de los artefactos robados, como los que ayer y hoy mismo están siendo robados en Irak.

Aunque el blog de Francis Deblauwe, The Irak War and Archaeology Blog, se dejó de editar hace ya casi un año, todavía podréis encontrar en él magníficos recursos y enlaces sobre el tema que esperamos os hagan más conscientes de la gravedad del problema.

SAFE, Saving Antiquities for Everyone, la organización con la que hemos estado colaborando recientemente en la vigilia a la luz de las velas para recordar el saqueo del Museo Nacional de Irak, también publica en su página web interesantísimos recursos y enlaces.

Asimismo, otra página compilatoria de recursos llamada Iraq Museum International, también incluye con interesantes enlaces sobre el tema entre los que destacamos el maravilloso Museum Open Directory.

Pero mientras nosotros estamos aquí tratando de evitar el pillaje y colaborando en la recuperación objetos robados a sus museos, los museos (aquellos en los que la seguridad de sus colecciones no está en inmediato peligro) parecen estar en otros menesteres. Así pues, el debate del papel contemporáneo de los museos en la sociedad tecnológica, la "cultura del espectáculo" y el papel de las tecnologías interactivas en ellos parece seguir siendo controvertido a juzgar por el artículo de Román Gubern, "¿Han desertado las musas de nuestros museos?"

Aunque entendemos que Gubern está dirigiendo sus críticas a aquellos museos cuyos directores parecen preocuparse más de las fiestas y de su propia persona que de los contenidos de sus colecciones y la consolidación de su valor, queremos subrayar que el papel de la tecnología en los museos ha de ser siempre positivo, pues es un instrumento que complementa los objetivos de los propios museos. De hecho, nuestro objetivo fundamental en lamusediffuse es utilizar las tecnologías sociales para hacer la cultura accesible a todo el mundo, ya se trate de un Rembrandt o del último premio Turner.

De modo que ¿por qué no dedicamos este Día Internacional de los Museos a hacer un positivo de estas tecnologías para los museos? El reto que te proponemos es compartir información sobre museos de algún país que no figure en la lista de celebraciones del ICOM. Nosotros hemos empezado con Libia.

Imagen: Duimdog: Jamahiriya Museum en Tripoli, publicada en abril del 2006.

Museums in Libya: Call for Collaboration

2007-05-15T13:27:00.002-04:00

At e-artcasting we continue involved in a research to make Libyan museums visible online thanks to digital technologies and social software. Although Libya has fantastic museums, they are suffering from a pitiful lack of online visibility. This is something we want to palliate by using the possibilities of Web 2.0 tools and social collaboration.

Our project addresses two facts. The first one is the lack of information about museums in Libya available on the websites of related institutions, particularly on the AFRICOM’s one. The second fact is the apparent lack of museum websites in Libya. Thus, our final goal is achieving a reference document on Libyan Museums -focused on the specific example of the Jamahiriya Museum at Tripoli- and made it available online for researchers, professionals and people interested in Museums and Libyan Culture.

Till now and thanks to contributors like you we have been able to locate 12 museums on our map of Libya on the photo. However, we already have 24 museums listed in our Libyan Museums List belonging to our Museums in Libya wiki. Now, we want to populate and polish this information and create an interactive map with all your photos. To achieve it, we need your collaboration.

We would really appreciate if you check the Libyan Museums List to add any additional information you could know on any museum in the list or about anyone still not on it.

We also encourage you to share your photos on Libyan museums in our Flickr group, e-artcasting. We need you tagging photos on museums in Libya with, at least, this information,

Continent where the museum is
Country where the museum is
City, Town, or specific location where the museum is
Complete name of the museum
the tag “Museum”
the tag “Art” (in case of Art Museums)

Note that if there is any name composed by two or more words, like “Jamahiriya Museum,” you should write it between quotation marks. In addition to this, you can add all the tags at the same time by writing them, separated by commas, at the moment you drag them from your Organizer to e-artcasting pool. Please note that if not, we should revise them, one-by-one, which is very time-consuming.

If you have any video, article or any other kind of information; you can post them here at Ly-Hub, send it to our del.icio.us account with the tagg "for:e_artcasting" or contact us at contact@lamusediffuse.com

Please, help us to spread the word and do not hesitate to make us any question. We are looking forward your collaboration!

Your Photos on Museums: Ile Ife National Museum, Nigeria

2007-05-11T18:54:00.001-04:00

You are e-artcasting's most precious value. Thanks to your emails, comments and contributions e-artcasting's mission is increasing its diverse outreach.

One of our most active activities is located at our Flickr group. "E-artcasters" are about to contribute 1,000 wonderful and rare photos on art museums from all over the world, so it is hight time for celebration. Today we start a new section named, "Your Photos on Museums" in which we will rescue on weekly basis a selection of your best contributions at our Flickr pool.

For our Grand Opening, this exquisite image of the Ile Ife National Museum (Nigeria) taken in April 1958 and posted by Rabinal, who also shared with us a fragment of The White traveller in Black Africa, by Colin Wills,

The Creation of the World (Yoruba version). The creation of the world took place at Ife. Orafame. The Supreme Being, the Creator, sent Orishala out from heaven to create the world. The way was long and hot, and Orishala rested in a grove of palms. He was thirsty, and he drank palm wine, and fell asleep, a serious dereliction in one with such a high task. Orafame was disappointed. He called another demigod named Oduwa, and sent him forth to carry out the mission. Oduwa did not pause by the way. He took earth, a hen, and a chameleon. The hen spread out the earth and scraped it into a mound, just as you will see her do today. The chameleon moved over the mound, testing it with his light weight, feeling gently with his little feet. His delicate,tremulous movements which you can see today, are a memory of that great task. From the mound grew the Earth. It was there that Orfame set down the first man and woman, and from there stemmed the Yoruba people. The mound still exists; I will show it to you presently, said my guide. Oduwa, naturally, is worshipped by millions of Yoruba. The chameleon is also sacred, and the hen, though eaten, is regarded with great respect and affection. But the strange thing is that Orishala also has his devotees. One might expect them to be the wine-bibbers of the community. On the contrary, they are the teetotallers. When Orishala awoke and found that somebody else had created the world while he slept, he bitterly lamented his failure, and swore never to touch palm wine again. He never did, and neither do any of his followers. His failing remains an example forever, a warning to men of their own frailties.

Image: Rabinal: Museum at Ife, posted on September 2006.

How to know if your museum is Web 2.0

2007-05-03T17:59:00.002-04:00

Tired of reading the always ultimate-definitive advice about building Web 2.0 audiences and continuing without any tool to assess the potential of your museum? If you want to know if your museum is Web 2.0 friendly without hiring the services of any expensive consulter, try by addressing those simple steps,

Buy some sticky label paper for printing,
print the designs listed below,
match your staff members with their correspondent stickers,
encourage your staff wearing the stickers with pride

To match your people with their stickers, just follow these guidelines,

For Registrars

If your registrar is really, really cutting-edge, try with this other,

For Curators

If your curator truly loves hanging our with other staff members, try a step forward,

For Educators

If your educator organizes activities other than "for kids,"

For Directors

If your director thinks other than only on fundraising,

For Board Members

If your board members are truly mission-focussed,

Finally, do not forget taking some photos and posting them on your museum blog!

(Thanks to the Tech-CH Blog guys for providing this wonderful tool)

Museos en la web... ¡en Español!

2007-04-19T00:00:00.004-04:00

En e-artcasting somos más conscientes que nunca de las posibilidades de la web social para los museos. La semana pasada tuvimos la oportunidad de asistir en San Francisco al congreso Museums and the Web 2007.

Durante cuantro intensos días participamos en cuantos eventos permitía tener un sólo cuerpo. Además de en distintas conferencias y talleres, recepciones y presentaciones, estuvimos en el encuentro de bloggers de museos, presentamos un proyecto de investigación en el Foro de Investigadores y además participamos en la vigilia para recordar el saqueo del Museo Nacional de Irak (en la foto). Por si fuera poco, durante el desayuno "Birds of a feather" hicimos un improvisado intento de reunir a los varios profesionales de museos hispanohablantes que andaban por allí.

De ese pequeñísimo encuentro tomamos la resolución de reunir a la inmensa comunidad de profesionales de museos en español y darle más visibilidad en un contexto claramente dominado por el mercado anglosajón. La calidad de nuestros museos y colecciones, así como la de los profesionales que trabajan en ellos, es excelente y sólo necesitamos unirnos para contarlo. ¿Te apuntas a "Museos en la Red"?

Manda tu email a contact@lamusediffuse.com

Important Dates for Museum Lovers

2007-04-11T11:37:00.001-04:00

Just some reminders,

Since April 10, a Candle Light Vigil to remember the looting of the National Museum of Iraq is taking place in different parts of the world. Check SAFE's website to see where is going to be in your city. Sand up against cultural heritage looting!
Museums and the Web 2007 starts today in San Francisco. If you are over here, do not miss the meet up of museum bloggers next Friday.
April 18 is the International Museum Day 2007 organized by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) with "Museums and Universal Heritage" as the topic of this year. Help us to spread the word on this crucial issue for culture.

The State of the Museum Blogosphere

2007-03-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

We just knew via Ideum that the study "Radical Trust: The State of the Museum Blogosphere," which will be presented by Sebastian Chan and Jim Spadaccini at Museums and the Web 2007 in San Francisco, is now available online.

As part of the Museum Bloggers Community, e-artcasting want to thank this interesting analysis to its authors and encourage all museum bloggers to read it. We have found there very interesting feedback and some insights to think about.

To those attending the lecture, please do not forget to join us in a meet up of museum bloggers just after it.

See you there!

Is Social Software Twisting to Populist Elitism? YouTube Awards and User Generated Content

2007-03-27T13:30:00.002-04:00

It seems clear that the most popular social software platforms are for profit initiatives as explained in our former article on Second Life and art museums. Unfortunately or not, social does not mean gratis. However, and as a result of the twist to a more commercial strategy from social software companies, we have noticed an increasing will for establishing “quality differences” among user generated content.

The New York Times' article, “YouTube Awards the Top of Its Heap” by Virginia Heffernan underlines the consequences of those changes implemented by YouTube. This online community is not any more about “no judgments, no hierarchies, big bandwidth and lots of freedom” but about competition for popularity. In other words, the most voted video, the best one.

We can bet that never a museum related video will win any award at YouTube. But do not panic, although we would love it, being popular is not the same as being prestigious. Prestige is about being important to the ones you really (your museum) care. Should museums care about everyone’s opinion? Ideally, yes because we are institutions opened to everyone. But if our standard is everyone’s opinion, how should we understand the fact that most of people do not care about museums? Is everyone's opinion really meaningful to us? Let us assume it: we are a minority’s subject, we talk to a minority, and we have to live with that fact in the world of social software “the most voted” competitions.

As it is our belief that museums should be primarily prestigious and if so, popular as well, being a minority should not mean any problem. The problem comes when the idea of prestige is twisted to elitism because of a commercial strategy. Apparently, “being different” is becoming the most important value among online community members. Should be social software about establishing differences inside communities, or about sharing? The answer is not easy because what museums really do is establishing quality differences by proposing selected exhibitions and collections. We are lost…

Video
waterrandi: The Museum of Lost Wonder, 2006. Posted on October 2.

What People Say… about the National Museum of Iraq: Raising Awareness on that Shameful Looting to the Humankind

2007-03-20T14:34:00.006-04:00

What people say about the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad is certainly not enough. The shame that the looting of Iraq Museum in Baghdad meant to the so called “civilization” is nothing in comparison with its irreversible loss, better said: our irreversible loss. That crime was something that not only affected thousands of museum professionals, archaeologists, art historians, and researchers from all over the world; that crime was a looting of our history, of our humankind heritage.

The first sentences of the Iraq Museum Database created by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago can give an accurate vision of the scope of the looting,

No other museum can rival the collections of Mesopotamian artifacts in the Iraq Museum. Spanning a time from before 9,000 B.C. well into to the Islamic period, the Iraq Museum's collections includes some of the earliest tools man ever made, painted polychrome ceramics from the 6th millennium B.C., a relief-decorated cult vase from Uruk, famous gold treasures from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Sumerian votive statues from Tell Asmar, Assyrian reliefs and bull figures from the Assyrian capitals of Nimrud, Nineveh, and Khorsabad, and Islamic pottery and coins--an unrivaled treasure not only for Iraq, but for all mankind.

To the ones who maybe could think that the stolen objects be recovered with a lot of effort, money and politics’ will; we would say that nothing can be done to retrieve Iraqi antiquities to their original state before the looting, nothing. Apart from the massive pillage, lots of art works were literally destroyed and smashed as you could see in the video titled "Remember Iraq's Heritage, Our Heritage" posted on the social software by non-profit organization Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE.) This organization dedicated to preserve cultural heritage worldwide has organized “A Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum” to raise awareness about that terrible crime.

April 10-12, 2007 will be the fourth anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone is organizing a worldwide candlelight vigil to end the looting and destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq, and around the world.

With that aim, SAFE has interviewed Dr. Doony George Houkhanna, former responsible of Iraq Museum in Baghdad’s collection and currently visiting professor of Stony Brook University, in a video that we wish you will hopefully help to spread in blogs, workplaces and classrooms.

On April 10, 2003 news broke that shook the world. During three days and nights, thousands of priceless artifacts from the cradle of civilization were systematically looted from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. As Director of Research, Dr. Doony George Houkhanna has been responsible of the museum’s collection for decades and became a witness to a terrible event.

lamusediffuse, the organization behind e-artcasting project, is an international collaborative team exploring the forms, impact, and possibilities of electronic technologies in contemporary culture. Our mission is improving lives for individuals by improving access to culture through digital technologies and their creations, and in fact, some of us are from Baghdad. Witnessing the looting that our beloved country has suffered and still does exceeds the irreparable impact of the pillage at National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, as it is accurately underlined by Dr. Houkhanna when he speaks about the loss and destruction in Iraqi excavations. As Dr. Houkhanna proposes, “Let’s gather together and see what we can do, so that people will not forget what happened.”

In addition to SAFE, some other organizations have implemented praiseworthy initiatives for the Iraqi cultural relief. Apart from the cited Oriental Institute of Chicago and its comprehensive website Lost Treasures from Iraq, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has implemented a specific webpage entitled Resources on Iraqi Museum Collections in addition to the Emergency Red List of Iraqi Antiquities at Risk, which has been placed among other sad and shameful bunch of red lists on cultural heritage. Do not also forget to check the comprehensive SAFE List of Resources on Iraq.

“A Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum” will take place on April 10-12, 2007 to, "show your support for Iraq. Demand the return of the missing Iraq Museums artifacts. And demand the end of the looting and destruction of the world’s cultural heritage." lamusediffuse will of course join this wonderful initiative and we will do it in different places.

At the moment, one of the venues in which we will be part of and where can not be a better context because it is a museum professional meeting, the Museums and the Web 2007 International Conference for Culture and Heritage Online at San Francisco. Another venue we are trying to implement will be at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. We will provide you more specific details about it at e-artcasting.

However, in some places this gathering call is going to have no visible face, because life for Iraqis working for humankind’s culture is not easy, as Dr. Houkhanna explains to Cindy Ho in this 38-minute interview to SAFE. We will be there, be sure. We just need you too.

Images
SAFE: Flyer of "A Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum." 2007
savingantiquities: Remember Iraq's Heritage, Our Heritage. Posted on March 20, 2007
namirkh: End of Civilization. Posted on February 15, 2007
BI30: "Stuff Happens!" - Rumsfeld on looting after fall of Baghdad. Posted on August 01, 2006