(Untitled)

[normalhumanbein]

This probably belongs over at the other elj, but I no-one actually reads that, soI (might be) about to embark on a research project which looks at the different ways in which museums use new technology to attract new audiences. Does social tagging make an archive seem more accessible? Are virtual tours impressive or pointless? Does advertising on

Comments

[hils]

The two big tourist attractions here are York Minster and The Yorvik Viking Museum :)

[normalhumanbein]

Thank you! I'd forgotten about Yorvik *moves to the top of the list*

[tricksterquinn]

I live in Washington, DC, so we have oodles. Basically anything Smithsonian is a good bet, plus there are a bunch of more-expensive trendy museums, like the Spy Museum and the Crime & Punishment Museum. In New York I would mention the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History and in Boston the Boston Museum of Science. If you count aquariums I'd add the Baltimore and Boston ones to the list. Uh, otherwise... Cleveland, OH has the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Chicago has the Museum of Science and Industry. Not sure all of those are the only or even the most hyped, but they're the ones I've been to.

Hope that was some help!

[normalhumanbein]

That's great, thanks very much. I'll go and harass them directly.

[tricksterquinn]

I can make there be links if you'd like!

[normalhumanbein]

Don't worry about it - I feel like I should do at least some part of the museum-hunting myself, if only for appearances' sake.

[mercurybard]

Smithsonian...I particularly like the National Air and Space Museum.

Houston has a pretty decent Museum of Fine Arts (amazing since Houston has virtually no culture of any kind). One of my favorite paintings is located there (I can't think of the name and it isn't famous, I just like it--I used to get hired out to catering companies and worked a lot of parties at the museum, so I'm scary-familiar with the museum's permanent collection).

The thing with the United States is that we'll build a museum to anything and like our World's Largest Ball of Twine.

[normalhumanbein]

Awesome, thank you. The temptation to try and work the world's largest ball of twine into my dissertation is weirdly strong...

[mercurybard]

There are several that claim to be the largest.

[mercurybard]

My brother, Tannim, is in his final semester studying computer graphic design, and one of their projects is to design a game for 8th graders to explore a Cleveland museum interactively.

MUSE Awards--what they're working on.

Their project's blog.

[littlerhymes]

That project sounds really interesting! Back when I was at uni I worked on a project about virtual archives and integrating the internet into museum spaces and displays. And I recall next to nothing about our conclusions, ahahaha.

In Sydney the major ones would probably be:
The Australian Museum (natural history, fairly old-school)
Powerhouse Museum (science/design, the "fun" museum and the most interactive)
Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Sydney (haven't been there in a long time but they seem to have an organisational bent towards innovation)

And the National Museum is located in Canberra.

[normalhumanbein]

Fantastic, thank you!

That project sounds fascinating. I'm not entirely sure what mine *is* yet - I'm just flailing through various people's archives and hoping wildly that they'll begin to make sense soon.

...oh, well. It's better than hiding, right?

[megyal]

The National Art Gallery is wonderful here for local and awesome art. The School of Art is awesome, too. Two Sisters Cave and Green Grotto are not museums, they're caves, but educational.

[normalhumanbein]

Thanks! I'll be sure to check those out. My city also goes in for educational caves - we should make t-shirts, yes?