The Museum Project Part 1 - Curating

Content/Unit6/U6-Intro-Museum-Project.htm

  

Unit 6 - The Museum Project

  Introduction - The Museum Project

In this unit, you will take the information you've learned in the previous units and apply it in a non-traditional way. Museums all around the world are now making large portions of their collections available digitally through "virtual museums." Though they are not a perfect substitute for seeing the exhibits in real life, they at least open a window onto artifacts and events that has never before been possible. And so, we have created an assignment called The Museum Project that will make use of these virtual museums to facilitate your understanding of the humanities.

You will begin this unit by writing a discussion about a select piece of art. This will give you an opportunity to practice what you should be thinking about when visiting the virtual museums and what you'll do when you create your project. You will then spend some time visiting some of the virtual museums and exploring the BC Online Library sources we have provided in this unit.

The Museum Project involves two steps:

1. Curation (Museum Project Part One)
   • To "curate" means to select and organize items for a presentation, such as a museum or gallery exhibit. For the Museum Project Part One, you are going to curate images and information from virtual museums and the BC Online Library.
   • In a sense, you will also "curate" your thoughts and ideas that you've developed throughout the course.  You will explain an idea or a reading that you found interesting and explain its relationship to the course and to the images you've found
   • You will also curate reference materials from the BC Online Library to assist you in creating your final project
2. Creation (Museum Project Part Two)
   • The Museum Project Part 2, you will use what you curated in Part One to create a final, researched presentation 
   • You may create a video, animated PowerPoint presentation, Prezi presentation, etc. 
   • Each presentation will have a written or spoken narrative wherein you explain your images, their meaning, and their connection to the course and to the humanities, generally  

We separate the curation process from the creation process because curating items is not as easy as it may seem. You must have your final project in mind before you begin. You must spend a good deal of time in the virtual museums and with BC Online Library sources to be sure you have enough appropriate images and materials to complete your project. You may not end up using all the images or information you curate in the final project.

It's important to remember that ALL images need to come from a physical museum's website or from a BC Online Library database. A Google image or web search is not acceptable. You must cite the museum from which you get each image or bit.

Also important to remember is that all research must come from the BC Online Library or one of its databases.  You may not use internet sources found with a web search.

Here are some general guidelines for the projects you might choose. If your project does not fit into one of these categories, contact your instructor for help and guidelines.

Video: 8-10 minutes of content. Videos should be high quality, using a video editing software such as iMovie or Windows MovieMaker. (Sources must be cited throughout. Complete citations should be listed on the last slide/frame or accompany the submission as a Word document.) The submission must include a narrative which explains the connections and conclusions that the reader should draw from your video.  In other words, you need to write out the narration or be sure that the video makes it evident as you present the material.  NOTE: Some videos exceed the file size for submitting to D2L. Please use an external dropbox or a YouTube link for your submission.

Animated PowerPoint or Prezi: 8-10 minutes of content. You may lecture over the presentation or include written narrative. In other words, you need to write out the narration that you might speak as you present the slides. (Sources must be cited throughout. Complete citations must be listed on the last slide/frame.) NOTE: Some submissions exceed the file size for submitting to D2L. Please use an external dropbox or a YouTube link for your submission.

These are the general outlines of the project. Read the article by John Berger, and spend some time getting used to the virtual museums. Then read the instructions in Research Project Part I. You will begin with an outline of your museum project, and then start curating images and text from the museums.

Examples 

Please remember that it will take you a good deal of time to complete this project.  Students who do well develop their project from ideas they generated themselves based on the course content.  Below are some examples of successful final projects.  REMEMBER: the best ideas come from your own thinking.  So the examples provided are by no means meant to limit your creativity and certainly they should not inform your own proposal.

The first example is from a student who created a PowerPoint presentation and included a written narrative.  The student worked within the disciplines of Art and History	Here's the PowerPoint and here's the Written Narrative
The second example is a PowerPoint with a recorded narrative.  The student worked with Literature, Art, and Greek History	Here's the PowerPoint
The third example explores the nature of Truth and works with Historical documents and Art	Here's the PowerPoint
The fourth example discusses art from Ancient Greece through the Renaissance and considers the role of Religion and Sexuality	Here's the PowerPoint
The fifth example looks at the changing roles of women through WWII and how they are represented in Art and Music	Here's the PowerPoint
The final example looks at representations of Contemporary Islamic Art and Religion	Here's the PowerPoint

HUM1020 Foundations of the Humanities