On Thursday, we started the day with a meeting with Laura and Kerry. We ironed out the details of data input and what we'd be doing for the rest of the summer. Dani and I made a list of every object and prompt in the exhibit and numbered the cases so our spreadsheets would have the same basic structure. We also decided to each do one set of tracking maps: they took the maps for June and I took the ones for July. June and July were going to have to be separate anyways because of the new ArtSplash activities and the different behaviors we tracked.
At 2 PM, we led a tour of the exhibit for the Penn interns! I thought it was really interesting how overwhelmingly positive all the interns were about the exhibit. They thought it was interesting that the works were displayed as valuable works of art that mattered, which was contrasted with the Penn's exhibit, which feels like an afterthought. A few of them noted the vastly different use of lighting and color in Look Again, which has always been one of my favorite aspects of the exhibit as well. They liked that there was more space for individual objects and visitors could walk around them to see them from many angles.
Their positivity was interesting at first, but it started to get frustrating when it began to feel as though none of them were willing to critically engage with the exhibit. Stephanie was asking some pretty leading questions, and the same voices kept jumping into the conversation to defend the exhibit. A few things they said were particularly amusing to me in light of all of the conversations we've been having this summer: someone said that art museums don't create a narrative about a progression of art, and another intern said that she thought that the technique "works really well for objects, but I don't know about art." Some of the things Stephanie was asking were really intriguing to me, like when she took the narrative of progression statement and asked why the timeline isn't applied to the ethnographic arts, and whether it is the job of the curator to draw connections and individualize time periods/styles/groups within the greater idea of Africa. I was shocked that none of them had any issue with the amount of information provided in the exhibit, except for one intern (maybe two, it's difficult to hear on the tape) who wished for maps. They all gave the "oh, it's an art museum" excuse we've been hearing all summer, without stopping to complicate what it means to be an art museum. Only two interns agreed to be interviewed, which was also frustrating. They all seemed to be so bowled over by the atmosphere of the museum that they didn't really want to engage. The few critiques that were voiced were very helpful, though.
That evening, we went to Monique's to watch the Barnes documentary! I feel like I still have a lot of questions about how the Barnes Foundation operated as an educational institution (who they let in, what they taught, etc), how their education program runs now (is it at all faithful to Barnes' vision?), and how the "public" is defined (for Barnes, for the people who moved it to the city, etc). It was a really fascinating glimpse into the museum politics of the city, and I've caught myself rolling my eyes at the Annenberg name when I see it all over Philadelphia.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Maeve Day 27
Wednesday we worked from home! Dani and I communicated via googledoc to organize what we would say on our Thursday tour for the Penn students. I also started messing around in excel and trying to see how data input would work, but I realized I didn't really know what I was doing and decided to wait to determine how we'd arrange everything.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Maeve Day 26
I used Tuesday morning to write blog posts at home. I met with Monique, Dani, and Summer at the Penn Museum a little after 1 PM for lunch and a chance to catch up on what we'd been doing. After lunch, Dani and I had some free time to walk around the museum. The labels contain far more information than is available at the art museum, of course, but many of them also acknowledge the artistic process by which the objects were created. For example, two large ceramic lions sit by one of the entrances to the Chinese gallery, and their description included historical/contextual information (what lions symbolized, when they were commissioned, why the female and male lions were different) as well as an explanation of cloisonne (the technique that produced their designs). I recognized the word from seeing it in the Chinese galleries at the PMA, but I realized that I'd never actually seen an explanation of what the process was, at least not one that I understood. The Penn's labels often took into account the artistic history and procedures that might be seen at the PMA, only they had ethnographic information as well. One of the things that really bothered me about the Penn was how the galleries are organized. It's pretty difficult to find your way around the museum, it's hot and dark and dusty, and many objects are tucked away in strange corners and tiny rooms. The Egyptian and Asian galleries felt weirdly empty, even though they were full of objects. The exhibits just had a vaguely disorganized feeling to them, as though they were undergoing renovations, and the massive vaulted ceilings emphasized how little there was to look at besides the objects themselves. The Penn feels outdated, dusty, and almost painfully academic, which is a shame because many of their labels are quite transparent about the museum's involvement in obtaining the objects. The Iraq/Ur exhibit, which was obviously more recent, mentioned the looting of the museums in Baghdad and the failures of the U.S. army to protect the objects, the complicated relationships established among international museums on exhibitions, and so on.
At 3:30, we met back up with Monique and Summer and went to the tour of the African collections. I didn't catch Dwaune's last name, but I thought it was really interesting that she is only the keeper of the collection and there isn't currently a curator. Though I think the fact of the solitary expedition had been mentioned to us before, it continues to strike me as outrageous that the Penn Museum only conducted one African expedition ever. It was to Sierra Leone in 1937, which is surprisingly late for a museum expedition. That collecting bias on the museum's part can be seen in the collections, but it just reminded me of how evident it is in the show at the PMA, where pretty much every object is from west and central Africa. I thought it was really interesting that many of the objects were (probably? definitely?) made to be sold to colonists and museum expeditions rather than being made for everyday use, and I wanted to know more about how that is dealt with in terms of seeking accuracy. I also wish I knew more about the African collections at other museums, just so I'd have something to compare it to in my mind. Dwaune mentioned turning down things like paintings, which made me realize I'd never heard of anyone saying anything about African paintings before, and I want to know more about that. When we walked through the collections, I couldn't help wishing I could compare some of the textiles they have (which are older and produced in Africa according to actual African tastes) to the Vlisco patterns. I still want to know more details of how the objects in Look Again were chosen (and why they left out baskets, musical instruments, and masks), but I thought it was fascinating that they were apparently copied almost directly from the book about the 1986 exhibit.
After the collections, Steph gave us a brief tour of the Africa exhibit. It was interesting to look at it again after my first trip through, way back at the beginning of the summer. I was shocked that Imagine Africa has been up since 2011--it's so obviously a temporary thing, but that kind of permanence is really frightening to think about as what five years of visitors have been "learning" about Africa. The Africa exhibit is tiny, especially in comparison to most of the other exhibits. That one room is about the same size as the Etruscan gallery upstairs, and Africa is an entire continent, not one specific culture from one specific country. The themed cases are interesting in that they disrupt the idea of people being tied to their land, but I felt like they homogenized the continent and were just confusing for when I was trying to place things in my head. The African objects were lacking a lot of context--the other interns pointed out that not only did they generally not tell you where a culture was from, the objects weren't dated, they didn't tell us much about how objects were made, and it was all very generalized. Someone said that the visitor is left to piece the exhibit together on their own, which I thought was a really great observation. I have no idea what I was supposed to take away from that, other than the idea that a lot of stuff was made in Africa. It made me wonder if the Look Again exhibit is really as different from the Penn exhibit as they purport themselves to be. There are definitely good aspects to the Penn exhibit (I think I was far more positive the last time I visited), but at this point, it's kind of shameful how static it is.
At 3:30, we met back up with Monique and Summer and went to the tour of the African collections. I didn't catch Dwaune's last name, but I thought it was really interesting that she is only the keeper of the collection and there isn't currently a curator. Though I think the fact of the solitary expedition had been mentioned to us before, it continues to strike me as outrageous that the Penn Museum only conducted one African expedition ever. It was to Sierra Leone in 1937, which is surprisingly late for a museum expedition. That collecting bias on the museum's part can be seen in the collections, but it just reminded me of how evident it is in the show at the PMA, where pretty much every object is from west and central Africa. I thought it was really interesting that many of the objects were (probably? definitely?) made to be sold to colonists and museum expeditions rather than being made for everyday use, and I wanted to know more about how that is dealt with in terms of seeking accuracy. I also wish I knew more about the African collections at other museums, just so I'd have something to compare it to in my mind. Dwaune mentioned turning down things like paintings, which made me realize I'd never heard of anyone saying anything about African paintings before, and I want to know more about that. When we walked through the collections, I couldn't help wishing I could compare some of the textiles they have (which are older and produced in Africa according to actual African tastes) to the Vlisco patterns. I still want to know more details of how the objects in Look Again were chosen (and why they left out baskets, musical instruments, and masks), but I thought it was fascinating that they were apparently copied almost directly from the book about the 1986 exhibit.
After the collections, Steph gave us a brief tour of the Africa exhibit. It was interesting to look at it again after my first trip through, way back at the beginning of the summer. I was shocked that Imagine Africa has been up since 2011--it's so obviously a temporary thing, but that kind of permanence is really frightening to think about as what five years of visitors have been "learning" about Africa. The Africa exhibit is tiny, especially in comparison to most of the other exhibits. That one room is about the same size as the Etruscan gallery upstairs, and Africa is an entire continent, not one specific culture from one specific country. The themed cases are interesting in that they disrupt the idea of people being tied to their land, but I felt like they homogenized the continent and were just confusing for when I was trying to place things in my head. The African objects were lacking a lot of context--the other interns pointed out that not only did they generally not tell you where a culture was from, the objects weren't dated, they didn't tell us much about how objects were made, and it was all very generalized. Someone said that the visitor is left to piece the exhibit together on their own, which I thought was a really great observation. I have no idea what I was supposed to take away from that, other than the idea that a lot of stuff was made in Africa. It made me wonder if the Look Again exhibit is really as different from the Penn exhibit as they purport themselves to be. There are definitely good aspects to the Penn exhibit (I think I was far more positive the last time I visited), but at this point, it's kind of shameful how static it is.
Dani Day 25 Reflections
July 9th, 2016
Interview Questions
10am-11:30am
Maeve and I worked together to edit the interview questions so that they were appropriate for the art splash audience. In addition to asking the visitors to provide feedback on the prompts, we also asked about their experiences with the new activities/interactives in the room.
Interviewing
11:30-12:30pm
I interviewed a family where one parent used the interactives and had a background in historical African art and the other didn't. The one with the background used the prompts and the other did not notice they were their. They also had two small children. The parents explained that their kids were significantly more interested in the artifacts than they were the interactives.
Lunch
12:30pm- 1:15pm
More Interviews
Maeve and I continued to conduct interviews. Most of the visitors I interviewed did not read the prompts. Some just weren't interested and others could not because they were with children who weren't interested/needed to be watched closely.
Interview Questions
10am-11:30am
Maeve and I worked together to edit the interview questions so that they were appropriate for the art splash audience. In addition to asking the visitors to provide feedback on the prompts, we also asked about their experiences with the new activities/interactives in the room.
Interviewing
11:30-12:30pm
I interviewed a family where one parent used the interactives and had a background in historical African art and the other didn't. The one with the background used the prompts and the other did not notice they were their. They also had two small children. The parents explained that their kids were significantly more interested in the artifacts than they were the interactives.
Lunch
12:30pm- 1:15pm
More Interviews
Maeve and I continued to conduct interviews. Most of the visitors I interviewed did not read the prompts. Some just weren't interested and others could not because they were with children who weren't interested/needed to be watched closely.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Maeve Day 25
On Saturday, Dani came back to work! Yay! We spent a little while adding new questions to our interviews and trying to make them flow well, and we started interviewing visitors around 11:30 AM. I did 15 interviews, some with children and some without. One of the visitors I interviewed was an African man (he didn't specify country) living in Paris who had been in New York for the week and took a detour to Philadelphia after hearing about the Creative Africa show (in the New York Times article). He said he was blown away by the exhibit, which I thought was really cool. It was interesting to finally talk to visitors with children, as most of the people I interviewed last time kept saying how they thought the prompts in the exhibit would be helpful for children or young people.
Maeve Day 24
I also spent all of Friday doing observations. I added another behavior, "F" for pointing (with fingers--P was already taken), because I kept seeing visitors point out specific details to each other while looking at objects. I classified this differently from B, bring to object, because it happened when visitors were already looking at objects together. They would trace the carvings on the ivory, for example, or point to specific objects within the divination kit case. As per usual, most of the visitors came in between 11 AM and 4 PM. I tracked 15 groups of visitors, bringing my total to 34 for the week. I started thinking about possible changes we could make to our interview questions--I wanted to get at how people were reading things together and how they were making use of the interactive elements of the exhibit.
Maeve Day 23
I spent all of Thursday doing observations in the exhibit. I tracked 11 groups of visitors, most of whom were visiting with children. Many visitors seemed very enthusiastic about the Kota figures, probably because of the ArtSplash activity (which is a make-your-own version of the Kota figures). Parents often seemed to be bringing their children into the exhibit to look specifically at the figures, but they would get sidetracked by the tusk, power figures, and sometimes the divination kit. Visitors are much more talkative and actively engaged this week than they were before ArtSplash began--even if they visit without children.
Dani's Day 23 and 24 Reflections
July 7th and July 8th
I spent these two days at home with Monique's permission.
Dani's Day 22 Reflections
July 6th, 2016
Self-care
10am-12pm
I woke up to the news of Alton Sterling and decided to take some personal time before heading to work.
Methodology
12:30pm-1:30pm
I filled Maeve in on what she missed from the Evaluation Team meeting. Maeve and I debriefed on what we'd been observing with Art Splash so far. We then specified which visitor behaviors we wanted to take note of during timing and tracking.
Timing and Tracking
1:45pm-4:30pm
Maeve and I began our first round of timing and tracking. Many of the families I observed were rushing through the exhibit. I rarely saw families split up. In most cases, families went through exhibit together regardless of the children's' ages. I also saw parents having to leave the exhibit because their child began to cry and disturb the other visitors. Parents were also pointing out specific artifacts and features to their children.
I also followed a tour during this time. There was on one white family in this tour. The tour only looked at the power bundles and divination kit. The children were instructed to point out things in the kit that they recognized. They were then instructed to select something from the kit that the would take with them on their journey and explain why. The tour then moved to the Vlisco exhibit. The kids were asked if the fabrics looked "African" and the children unanimously responded saying, "No!" The tour guide did a good job explaining the origins of the fabrics. The children were instructed to prepare for a journey throughout the tour. Their grownups were pretty involved in helping them find objects in the art that they would take with them on their journeys.
I observed 7 families.
Self-care
10am-12pm
I woke up to the news of Alton Sterling and decided to take some personal time before heading to work.
Methodology
12:30pm-1:30pm
I filled Maeve in on what she missed from the Evaluation Team meeting. Maeve and I debriefed on what we'd been observing with Art Splash so far. We then specified which visitor behaviors we wanted to take note of during timing and tracking.
Timing and Tracking
1:45pm-4:30pm
Maeve and I began our first round of timing and tracking. Many of the families I observed were rushing through the exhibit. I rarely saw families split up. In most cases, families went through exhibit together regardless of the children's' ages. I also saw parents having to leave the exhibit because their child began to cry and disturb the other visitors. Parents were also pointing out specific artifacts and features to their children.
I also followed a tour during this time. There was on one white family in this tour. The tour only looked at the power bundles and divination kit. The children were instructed to point out things in the kit that they recognized. They were then instructed to select something from the kit that the would take with them on their journey and explain why. The tour then moved to the Vlisco exhibit. The kids were asked if the fabrics looked "African" and the children unanimously responded saying, "No!" The tour guide did a good job explaining the origins of the fabrics. The children were instructed to prepare for a journey throughout the tour. Their grownups were pretty involved in helping them find objects in the art that they would take with them on their journeys.
I observed 7 families.
Dani's Day 21 Reflections
July 5th, 2016
I updated my journal from home.
- "Look at the different poses. Some are sitting and some are standing." (Parent to child about Power Figures)
- "What do you think these figures are? Why do you think there are nails in there? How would you stand to look powerful? Can you imagine waking up to something like this in the house? Yuck!" (Parent to children about Power Figures)
- "These kind of look like elephants. Elephant people!" (Parent to child about Reliquary Figures)
- "It's kind of scary." (Parent to child about Power Figures)
Observations
- Parents reading prompts to kids. Parents who enter the exhibit reading the prompts to the kids usually stop halfway through the gallery because few children seem interested in the prompts.
- Parents are choosing specific objects to show children instead of bringing them to every object. They're pointing out specific features, leaning in and motioning with their figures.
- Parents are allowing children to play with the activities in the space while they take time to look at the artifacts on their own.
- Families sometimes do the activities together, mainly the puzzle and the cloth pattern activities.
- Parents translate the objects to the kids and explain what they're looking at.
- I saw a parent do the Power Figure activity with her children. As a family, they were striking "powerful poses."
- The Look Again exhibit is still under-visited.
- Children misuse the interactive table.
- There's only one context card in this exhibit. It contains supplementary material about the Power Bundles.
- Children seem to enjoy the Reliquary Figure puzzle the most out of all the activities.
- One of the security guards has been instructed to count how many people visit the exhibit.
- Parents' behavior and ability to engage with the artifacts and prompts largely depends on the behavior and desires of their children.
- Many times, I saw parents rush through the exhibit with their kids and go straight to the Reliquary Figures and leave.
- I heard a few parents decide to leave the exhibit to go do the larger Art Splash activity and come back to the exhibit if they had time left.
- I saw a parent come into the exhibit with their kid after finishing their mask and hold it up to the Reliquary Figures in the back.
- There are a lot more contextual cards in this exhibit than the Look Again exhibit. These context cards explain facts about photography and/or the artists.
- Children are playing around in the open space of the gallery.
- Children are given the option to draw a place they've been or want to go.
- Individual adults visit this gallery more than families/children.
-"That one looks the most western, like something you'd see walking down the street. What do you think this one means? What's your favorite?" (Parent to child)
Observations
- Children and families are instructed to locate the patterns and images on a card on the textiles around the room.
- Children are trying to touch the dresses in the center of the room. The security guard keeps having to tell them to stop.
- There are many context cards in this room.
- No one seems to be engaging with the larger activity posts in the room.
- Children tend to run in and out of the gallery because of how close it is to the larger Art Splash activity in the lobby.
- Child brings mom to look at specific dresses.
- Parent lingers by some dresses while their children run around.
- Children are using their parents' phones to take pictures of the dresses, while the parents reads.
- Someone from the Education Department was giving a small group of adults a tour of the features in the exhibit. They explain that there is something to touch at each island and that the larger hanging screen area was purposely modeled in the style of a classroom. This was interesting to me because of the Education team's insistence on not wanting people to "learn."
- A security guard is counting how many people visit this exhibit as well.
- A child was lying down and watching the screen on the ceiling with their parent. The mothers says, "What do you see?"
- A child is running around and playing with the chairs in the room.
- Most children struggle to sit still and watch the videos.
- 1,892 people in Look Again on opening Sunday
- We're instructed to focus on the self-touring groups
- We should go on a tour
- Make note of when self-touring groups interact with mediated tours
- During timing and tracking, take note of kids' ages, number of children and number of adults
Journaling
10am- 11amI updated my journal from home.
Deeper Art Splash Observations
12pm- 3:30pmGeneral:
I saw few children and families of color in the museum. All of the books in the nook have been changed to children's books and are all related to Africa.Look Again:
Quotes- "Look at the different poses. Some are sitting and some are standing." (Parent to child about Power Figures)
- "What do you think these figures are? Why do you think there are nails in there? How would you stand to look powerful? Can you imagine waking up to something like this in the house? Yuck!" (Parent to children about Power Figures)
- "These kind of look like elephants. Elephant people!" (Parent to child about Reliquary Figures)
- "It's kind of scary." (Parent to child about Power Figures)
Observations
- Parents reading prompts to kids. Parents who enter the exhibit reading the prompts to the kids usually stop halfway through the gallery because few children seem interested in the prompts.
- Parents are choosing specific objects to show children instead of bringing them to every object. They're pointing out specific features, leaning in and motioning with their figures.
- Parents are allowing children to play with the activities in the space while they take time to look at the artifacts on their own.
- Families sometimes do the activities together, mainly the puzzle and the cloth pattern activities.
- Parents translate the objects to the kids and explain what they're looking at.
- I saw a parent do the Power Figure activity with her children. As a family, they were striking "powerful poses."
- The Look Again exhibit is still under-visited.
- Children misuse the interactive table.
- There's only one context card in this exhibit. It contains supplementary material about the Power Bundles.
- Children seem to enjoy the Reliquary Figure puzzle the most out of all the activities.
- One of the security guards has been instructed to count how many people visit the exhibit.
- Parents' behavior and ability to engage with the artifacts and prompts largely depends on the behavior and desires of their children.
- Many times, I saw parents rush through the exhibit with their kids and go straight to the Reliquary Figures and leave.
- I heard a few parents decide to leave the exhibit to go do the larger Art Splash activity and come back to the exhibit if they had time left.
- I saw a parent come into the exhibit with their kid after finishing their mask and hold it up to the Reliquary Figures in the back.
Photography:
Observations- There are a lot more contextual cards in this exhibit than the Look Again exhibit. These context cards explain facts about photography and/or the artists.
- Children are playing around in the open space of the gallery.
- Children are given the option to draw a place they've been or want to go.
- Individual adults visit this gallery more than families/children.
Vlisco:
Quotes-"That one looks the most western, like something you'd see walking down the street. What do you think this one means? What's your favorite?" (Parent to child)
Observations
- Children and families are instructed to locate the patterns and images on a card on the textiles around the room.
- Children are trying to touch the dresses in the center of the room. The security guard keeps having to tell them to stop.
- There are many context cards in this room.
- No one seems to be engaging with the larger activity posts in the room.
- Children tend to run in and out of the gallery because of how close it is to the larger Art Splash activity in the lobby.
- Child brings mom to look at specific dresses.
- Parent lingers by some dresses while their children run around.
- Children are using their parents' phones to take pictures of the dresses, while the parents reads.
Kéré:
Observations- Someone from the Education Department was giving a small group of adults a tour of the features in the exhibit. They explain that there is something to touch at each island and that the larger hanging screen area was purposely modeled in the style of a classroom. This was interesting to me because of the Education team's insistence on not wanting people to "learn."
- A security guard is counting how many people visit this exhibit as well.
- A child was lying down and watching the screen on the ceiling with their parent. The mothers says, "What do you see?"
- A child is running around and playing with the chairs in the room.
- Most children struggle to sit still and watch the videos.
Meeting with Evaluation Team
4pm- 1,892 people in Look Again on opening Sunday
- We're instructed to focus on the self-touring groups
- We should go on a tour
- Make note of when self-touring groups interact with mediated tours
- During timing and tracking, take note of kids' ages, number of children and number of adults
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Maeve Day 22
On Wednesday morning, I finished up my blog posts before heading downstairs to lurk around the galleries. I marked all of the new ArtSplash features in Look Again on the map of the exhibit. It was 11 AM, so there was an ArtSplash tour going through the exhibit. I followed them to get a sense of what they're doing on these tours. At first, it seemed as though the families on the tour had just been brought in to look at the Kota figures as an explanation for the studio project, but then I realized it was actually an organized tour. The tour guide repeatedly stressed that she didn't really know much about anything in the exhibit, focusing her talk on the materials and aesthetic properties of the masks--she actually had to read the tombstone label on the wall to tell the group where the masks were from. She also brought the group to the power figures and the power bundles, where she basically repeated the information on the plaques and flip labels in the sections. She asked the children to guess what the different sizes of power figures might have been used for (or who they would have been used by), what kind of animal they would use in a power bundle (to "harness its powers"), and what they thought the different pieces of the divination kit might mean together. The last stop on the tour was the Vlisco exhibit, where she stressed the story of the Mama Benz, the motif of travel, and the range of expression allowed by the prints. She acknowledged that the company is European, and when a mother asked, "so it's not really even African?," she pointed to the fashions in the center as being African designs and said, "I think that's why it's so interesting to have them here, because they're such a huge part of African fashion, and it makes you think about what counts as African!" Throughout the tour, she emphasized the importance of reading labels to both children and parents, saying that if they ever wanted more information, the labels had "more of the story than I could tell you."
After the tour, I walked through the other galleries to see the ArtSplash activities and check out how many families were in each exhibit. I had lunch around 12 and then went over to the main building to photocopy the maps. I waited for Dani for a little bit because I wanted to make sure we agreed on methodology and were covering everything we needed to cover as I'd missed the Tuesday meeting. I hung out in the reading room for a little bit while a family with three kids read some of the books, and overheard one of the mothers talking to her daughter about the book she was reading. The book featured houses with the same type of corrugated metal featured in the photography exhibit, and the mother talked to her daughter briefly about the photographs they'd seen.
When Dani arrived, we came up with codes for the new behaviors we wanted to track:
After the tour, I walked through the other galleries to see the ArtSplash activities and check out how many families were in each exhibit. I had lunch around 12 and then went over to the main building to photocopy the maps. I waited for Dani for a little bit because I wanted to make sure we agreed on methodology and were covering everything we needed to cover as I'd missed the Tuesday meeting. I hung out in the reading room for a little bit while a family with three kids read some of the books, and overheard one of the mothers talking to her daughter about the book she was reading. The book featured houses with the same type of corrugated metal featured in the photography exhibit, and the mother talked to her daughter briefly about the photographs they'd seen.
When Dani arrived, we came up with codes for the new behaviors we wanted to track:
PQ - parent asking child question
K - kid asks parent question
B - bringing someone to an object, either physically or by pointing to it and calling to them
We went back into the exhibit around 1:45, though the first person I tracked came in at 2:08. We decided to keep tracking all visitors to the exhibit and not just families, as there were still a lot of childless visitors coming in--many of whom used some of the ArtSplash additions! It's really difficult to track families. We usually decided to represent the path of the mother on our maps, adding notes when parts of the group split off or did completely different things from their family members. I tracked 9 groups/individuals, three of which were families.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Maeve Day 20
On Saturday, I worked on transcribing interviews and then went over to the museum around 1:30 PM. I lurked around all of the exhibits for a few hours, trying to listen to conversations and observe behaviors. There are four new additions to the Look Again gallery, only three of which are really noticeable. There's an activity by the cups and cloths that asks visitors to design a pattern similar to the Kuba fabrics, a small prompt by the power bundles asking visitors (children) what they would combine for a power bundle, five flaps with more information about the power figures, and a puzzle activity by the Kota masks. While I was there, there weren't a lot of families in the Look Again exhibit, but adults seemed to be making good use of the activities (especially the puzzle--people really love the Kota figures). The behaviors I wrote down were pretty much exactly the same as the ones Dani observed, but I'm really interested by the childless adults (of varying ages) who were using the interactives designed for children and families. The studio activity that day was to make a paper version of a Kota mask--I'm unsure if this will be changing. There were more families in the other exhibits, which could be because the other exhibits are directly adjacent to the ArtSplash studio in the middle of the building. The activities dotted throughout the ArtSplash studio were also interesting. I also noticed that the reading room has many more chairs (most of them child-sized) and is now filled with African fables and children's books, which people were actually reading with their children.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Maeve Day 19
I used Friday morning to transcribe a few more interviews before heading over to the Barnes Foundation for lunch at 12:45 PM. I thought the building was absolutely beautiful, though it didn't look much like a museum. I'd be interested in finding out more about how that whole transition from the original building to the new one went down, but it doesn't have much to do with our research.
Around 2 PM, we met with Blake Bradford, the director of education. I liked his point that not all visitors are going to museums to learn or even to look at the art--I think it's easy to forget that, but it will be especially relevant with ArtSplash approaching. He also talked a bit about context, and how the context for the African artworks is now how they function as part of the Barnes collection. While this was an interesting point, I couldn't help but wonder if it's really true. Do the van Goghs and Renoirs and Matisses lose their context in the space of the Barnes? Of course, there's no information about their importance or movements, but that's not really enough. Especially in the cases of van Gogh and Matisse, their styles are so distinctive that they couldn't ever really blend into a wall, and people are still coming to the Barnes specifically to see "The Postman" and "The Joy of Life." None of the art is emphasized over any other kind, but the African art is relegated to a few rooms upstairs, which does place it in a new context: a context in which it is still separate and strange.
One of the things we've been looking at that Bradford also touched on is how different institutions will give the visitor different ways of learning about objects. This is very obvious in Look Again, where we've already noted the many ways in which the Penn presented objects differently from the way the PMA is displaying them. I really liked the way Bradford described the Barnes as "exploding" traditional museum categorizations by location, time period, or type of art. It was also very interesting to hear about Barnes' involvement with African-American artists and his fixation on the "authentic" or self-taught artist. It reminded me of the jar Summer showed us in the American art wing of the PMA, which was made by a slave and is one of the few things on display created by an African-American artist. I was really glad Bradford touched on the way African art is treated as mastery without masters--it's been lurking in the back of my mind, and I just couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
I loved exploring the Barnes and could have probably spent many more hours there, especially if I turned off my museum studies brain and just soaked in the art. It really challenged me to look more closely at the art and try to find connections between the pieces--it's a much more active, involved style of looking than we've previously encountered. I did find it a bit frustrating at times, as I often felt like I wasn't "getting it" as much as I should be. The African art pieces don't really seem to be in dialogue with most of the collection, but I did love the placement of a Kota reliquary figure next to a Modigliani in room 22--the faces had a shocking similarity to them, and it was really interesting to go back through the rooms and see how the African pieces could potentially be connected to the paintings and other artworks. I overheard a security guard telling two visitors that the white material making up the walls in the in-between hallways contained fossils, and I was fascinated by this subtle play of ancient material in a very modern design. It seemed very true to the goal of the Barnes as an institution. I found myself questioning the placement of paintings throughout my visit, and noticed that the symmetric designs employed in some rooms really brought out more detail in each painting. I also noticed that the paintings hanging over the doorways in the first few rooms were all seascapes, which kind of made me feel like I was going on a long journey through a mystical chain of artistic islands.
The Sun Splashed exhibit was powerful, captivating, gorgeous, and fascinating. I loved the wide range of topics Nari Ward's art explored, and wished I'd left myself more time to really soak it all in. I thought the citizenship piece was really interesting and I wish we'd been able to see how visitors interacted with it when it was interactive (it didn't seem to be at the time, though maybe I was wrong). I thought it was particularly intriguing that the Barnes was hosting this exhibition--of course, it goes well with their collection, but it was really fascinating from a museological point of view. Here is this collection that is incredibly dependent on context, on the artist as a person, and on long, detailed labels in the same building as room after room of aesthetically recontextualized art. It made me wonder about that obsession with authenticity and self-taught artistry that Barnes had, and how Ward's art explores what it means to be authentically American, Jamaican, and black. It was striking to go from the dearth of information in the Barnes galleries to the density of information in Sun Splashed.
Around 2 PM, we met with Blake Bradford, the director of education. I liked his point that not all visitors are going to museums to learn or even to look at the art--I think it's easy to forget that, but it will be especially relevant with ArtSplash approaching. He also talked a bit about context, and how the context for the African artworks is now how they function as part of the Barnes collection. While this was an interesting point, I couldn't help but wonder if it's really true. Do the van Goghs and Renoirs and Matisses lose their context in the space of the Barnes? Of course, there's no information about their importance or movements, but that's not really enough. Especially in the cases of van Gogh and Matisse, their styles are so distinctive that they couldn't ever really blend into a wall, and people are still coming to the Barnes specifically to see "The Postman" and "The Joy of Life." None of the art is emphasized over any other kind, but the African art is relegated to a few rooms upstairs, which does place it in a new context: a context in which it is still separate and strange.
One of the things we've been looking at that Bradford also touched on is how different institutions will give the visitor different ways of learning about objects. This is very obvious in Look Again, where we've already noted the many ways in which the Penn presented objects differently from the way the PMA is displaying them. I really liked the way Bradford described the Barnes as "exploding" traditional museum categorizations by location, time period, or type of art. It was also very interesting to hear about Barnes' involvement with African-American artists and his fixation on the "authentic" or self-taught artist. It reminded me of the jar Summer showed us in the American art wing of the PMA, which was made by a slave and is one of the few things on display created by an African-American artist. I was really glad Bradford touched on the way African art is treated as mastery without masters--it's been lurking in the back of my mind, and I just couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
I loved exploring the Barnes and could have probably spent many more hours there, especially if I turned off my museum studies brain and just soaked in the art. It really challenged me to look more closely at the art and try to find connections between the pieces--it's a much more active, involved style of looking than we've previously encountered. I did find it a bit frustrating at times, as I often felt like I wasn't "getting it" as much as I should be. The African art pieces don't really seem to be in dialogue with most of the collection, but I did love the placement of a Kota reliquary figure next to a Modigliani in room 22--the faces had a shocking similarity to them, and it was really interesting to go back through the rooms and see how the African pieces could potentially be connected to the paintings and other artworks. I overheard a security guard telling two visitors that the white material making up the walls in the in-between hallways contained fossils, and I was fascinated by this subtle play of ancient material in a very modern design. It seemed very true to the goal of the Barnes as an institution. I found myself questioning the placement of paintings throughout my visit, and noticed that the symmetric designs employed in some rooms really brought out more detail in each painting. I also noticed that the paintings hanging over the doorways in the first few rooms were all seascapes, which kind of made me feel like I was going on a long journey through a mystical chain of artistic islands.
The Sun Splashed exhibit was powerful, captivating, gorgeous, and fascinating. I loved the wide range of topics Nari Ward's art explored, and wished I'd left myself more time to really soak it all in. I thought the citizenship piece was really interesting and I wish we'd been able to see how visitors interacted with it when it was interactive (it didn't seem to be at the time, though maybe I was wrong). I thought it was particularly intriguing that the Barnes was hosting this exhibition--of course, it goes well with their collection, but it was really fascinating from a museological point of view. Here is this collection that is incredibly dependent on context, on the artist as a person, and on long, detailed labels in the same building as room after room of aesthetically recontextualized art. It made me wonder about that obsession with authenticity and self-taught artistry that Barnes had, and how Ward's art explores what it means to be authentically American, Jamaican, and black. It was striking to go from the dearth of information in the Barnes galleries to the density of information in Sun Splashed.
Dani's Day 20 Reflections
July 2nd, 2016
Some notable behavior that could be added to timing/tracking include:
Art Splash
The activity that is associated with the Power Figures provided context for the figures and asked probing questions related to function. The activity that's associated with the cloths and cups asked visitors to assemble patterns that resembled those on the artifacts. The reliquary guardian figure activity was missing its pieces, but it seemed to have the same objective as the cloth/cup activity. When I was at the museum, majority of visitors weren't interacting with the activities much. Families tended to spend most of their time doing the larger Art Splash activity in the hall outside. Many people still walked past the Look Again exhibit but I also found that the larger Art Splash activity actually drew people's attention away from all of the galleries. I walked through the other galleries as well. All of the activities either provided context or prompted the visitors to focus on patterns and feel. People didn't seem to interact them much either.Some notable behavior that could be added to timing/tracking include:
Dani's Day 19 Reflections
July 1st, 2016
I found Blake Bradford's description of the institutional vision to be very interesting. In many ways, his description helped me view the PMA and the Penn Museum from a different perspective. Blake explained that an institution can only tell one story at a time. I wonder what role representations of Africa play in how these institutions tell their stories. Although I felt that Blake made a good point about the importance of story-telling, I'd like to push back on the single-story narrative a little bit. Although each of these institutions may feel that they each have a unique and single story, visitors interpret the story based on their experiences and positions in society. In this way, numerous stories can be derived from the collection and how it's represented. I think this notion challenges the Barnes' seemingly less heavy-handed way of representing art. I think Barnes' categories are unique and very interesting in the ways that they force visitors to look at art differently by disrupting their assumptions; however, that doesn't mean that the visitor experience is as "unfiltered" as Blake stated. For example, most of the non-western art were placed in the side rooms, not the large main rooms. The non-western art shared these side rooms with western art; however, even in these seemingly diversified rooms, most of the non-western art was grouped together in large cases, making them distinct from the other art in the room. When placed with Barnes' essentialist ideas of African artists, I think this complicates the story of the Barnes Foundation.
Believe it or not, I really liked this museum. I loved the feeling of being challenged to draw new connections between different works of art. Due to the fact that I was forced to focus on form and tone, I began to be able to recognize the works of specific artists as I walked through the galleries. Although I've never studied art formally, I felt like the way the Barnes represented art taught me how to look at art in a deeper way. A security guard literally had to tell me to step away from the art 3 times because I kept getting too close. As opposed to what's being done in Creative Africa, I didn't have to be prompted to look closer. The way the art was represented in the Barnes drew me in. I liked the use of symmetry and disruption. I also liked the ways Barnes didn't prioritize notable artists and their works, in terms of representation.
Wow. Wow. Wow. I loved this exhibition so much. I love the Barnes for having it. Nari Ward's work touched on everything. Gentrification, citizenship, the American Dream, police brutality, mass incarceration, criminalization, Black masculinity, corruption, healing, hypervisibilty/invisibility, slavery, beauty, resilience, etc. I found his take on citizenship to be the most striking because he seemed so ambivalent. Becoming a citizen really means nothing in a country where people like you are treated as second-class citizens. At the same time, coming from a Caribbean background also complicates his position in the African American community. The exhibition was so powerful. I'm really happy I was able to see it.
Barnes Foundation Trip
Lunch
12:45pm-2pmMeet Blake Bradford, Director of Education
2pm-2:45pmI found Blake Bradford's description of the institutional vision to be very interesting. In many ways, his description helped me view the PMA and the Penn Museum from a different perspective. Blake explained that an institution can only tell one story at a time. I wonder what role representations of Africa play in how these institutions tell their stories. Although I felt that Blake made a good point about the importance of story-telling, I'd like to push back on the single-story narrative a little bit. Although each of these institutions may feel that they each have a unique and single story, visitors interpret the story based on their experiences and positions in society. In this way, numerous stories can be derived from the collection and how it's represented. I think this notion challenges the Barnes' seemingly less heavy-handed way of representing art. I think Barnes' categories are unique and very interesting in the ways that they force visitors to look at art differently by disrupting their assumptions; however, that doesn't mean that the visitor experience is as "unfiltered" as Blake stated. For example, most of the non-western art were placed in the side rooms, not the large main rooms. The non-western art shared these side rooms with western art; however, even in these seemingly diversified rooms, most of the non-western art was grouped together in large cases, making them distinct from the other art in the room. When placed with Barnes' essentialist ideas of African artists, I think this complicates the story of the Barnes Foundation.
Touring the Barnes Collection
2:45- 3:30Believe it or not, I really liked this museum. I loved the feeling of being challenged to draw new connections between different works of art. Due to the fact that I was forced to focus on form and tone, I began to be able to recognize the works of specific artists as I walked through the galleries. Although I've never studied art formally, I felt like the way the Barnes represented art taught me how to look at art in a deeper way. A security guard literally had to tell me to step away from the art 3 times because I kept getting too close. As opposed to what's being done in Creative Africa, I didn't have to be prompted to look closer. The way the art was represented in the Barnes drew me in. I liked the use of symmetry and disruption. I also liked the ways Barnes didn't prioritize notable artists and their works, in terms of representation.
Nari Ward
3:30-4pmWow. Wow. Wow. I loved this exhibition so much. I love the Barnes for having it. Nari Ward's work touched on everything. Gentrification, citizenship, the American Dream, police brutality, mass incarceration, criminalization, Black masculinity, corruption, healing, hypervisibilty/invisibility, slavery, beauty, resilience, etc. I found his take on citizenship to be the most striking because he seemed so ambivalent. Becoming a citizen really means nothing in a country where people like you are treated as second-class citizens. At the same time, coming from a Caribbean background also complicates his position in the African American community. The exhibition was so powerful. I'm really happy I was able to see it.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Dani's Days 17 and 18
June 29-30th, 2016
I spent these days transcribing the shorter interviews. By the end Thursday afternoon, I only had my 18min long interview left.
I spent these days transcribing the shorter interviews. By the end Thursday afternoon, I only had my 18min long interview left.
Dani's Day 16 Reflections
June 28th, 2016
Transcriptions
10-12pm
I worked on transcribing the interviews at home.
Team Meeting
1-2:30pm
We all met with Monique for lunch and to discuss what we found in our interviews. Summer shared what she found in her readings and research.
Touring the Main Building
2:30- 4pm
Summer, Maeve and I toured the main building of the PMA and paid a lot of attention in the new Sachs show.
Meeting with Evaluation Team
4-4:45pm
We met up with the evaluation team to discuss our major findings in the interviews. For the most part, visitors want more context in the prompts. A few visitors also expressed a need for audio and tours of the exhibit.
Transcriptions
10-12pm
I worked on transcribing the interviews at home.
Team Meeting
1-2:30pm
We all met with Monique for lunch and to discuss what we found in our interviews. Summer shared what she found in her readings and research.
Touring the Main Building
2:30- 4pm
Summer, Maeve and I toured the main building of the PMA and paid a lot of attention in the new Sachs show.
Meeting with Evaluation Team
4-4:45pm
We met up with the evaluation team to discuss our major findings in the interviews. For the most part, visitors want more context in the prompts. A few visitors also expressed a need for audio and tours of the exhibit.
Dani's Day Fifteen Reflections
June 25th, 2016
Maeve and I caught up on our blog posts.
It took a while fore Maeve and I to find people to interview. Although there were more visitors in the museum than usual, many of them did not even notice the Look Again Gallery. By noon, we reached our goal of 30 interviews.
I really enjoyed the talk. Although some of the questions were reductive in some ways, Ananias' responses were thought-provoking. He seems to have been very inspired by James Baldwin and quoted him saying, "The role of the artist and the lover is the same. If I love you, I must make you conscious of the things you don't see." In many ways, his work forces viewers to question whatever they think they know about what they're viewing. He explained this saying, "Who told you that in darkness, there's no light? Who told you that if I'm smiling, I'm happy? Being fragile doesn't make you weak." He also talked about how his creativity was largely the result of isolation. He is left-handed and, in his culture, that is viewed as an abnormality. He felt shunned from an early age. His isolation made him question everything. He used photography to heal himself.
Ananias also gave an interesting description of his experience as an African-born artist. He explained that although he travels to meet other parts of himself in other places, traveling as an African is difficult. This made me think about the privilege of mobility and how borders, as tools of social control, regulate who has the ability to take advantage of certain opportunities. It's interesting to think about how inaccessible the world is for some Africans and how accessible the continent has been made for the West. Ananias also described that, as opposed to western artists, African artists are truly self-made. They have to be there own artist, curator, organizer, museum director, conservator, etc. Lastly, I'm really interested in learning more about his work in restoring and archiving the work of Paul Kodjo. He feels that Kodjo's work is vital to preserving the history of Côte d'Ivoire.
Maeve and I continued interviews.
Journal
10am-11:30 amMaeve and I caught up on our blog posts.
Interviews
11:30-1:30It took a while fore Maeve and I to find people to interview. Although there were more visitors in the museum than usual, many of them did not even notice the Look Again Gallery. By noon, we reached our goal of 30 interviews.
Artist Talk: Ananias Léki Dago
1:30pm-3ishpmI really enjoyed the talk. Although some of the questions were reductive in some ways, Ananias' responses were thought-provoking. He seems to have been very inspired by James Baldwin and quoted him saying, "The role of the artist and the lover is the same. If I love you, I must make you conscious of the things you don't see." In many ways, his work forces viewers to question whatever they think they know about what they're viewing. He explained this saying, "Who told you that in darkness, there's no light? Who told you that if I'm smiling, I'm happy? Being fragile doesn't make you weak." He also talked about how his creativity was largely the result of isolation. He is left-handed and, in his culture, that is viewed as an abnormality. He felt shunned from an early age. His isolation made him question everything. He used photography to heal himself.
Ananias also gave an interesting description of his experience as an African-born artist. He explained that although he travels to meet other parts of himself in other places, traveling as an African is difficult. This made me think about the privilege of mobility and how borders, as tools of social control, regulate who has the ability to take advantage of certain opportunities. It's interesting to think about how inaccessible the world is for some Africans and how accessible the continent has been made for the West. Ananias also described that, as opposed to western artists, African artists are truly self-made. They have to be there own artist, curator, organizer, museum director, conservator, etc. Lastly, I'm really interested in learning more about his work in restoring and archiving the work of Paul Kodjo. He feels that Kodjo's work is vital to preserving the history of Côte d'Ivoire.
Interviews
3ish-5pmMaeve and I continued interviews.
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