History..... Taking it to the Streets?!?!

            In an article search I recently found and interesting article titled."Disruptive Objects, On the Streets." I have pasted the link below. Now, I’m not sure if this applies to you archives people out there, but it definitely has an interesting argument for museums. Put on your hipster hats and prepare to read about an innovative idea for museums.

            In this article Rainey Tisdale creates an interesting logic with her suggestions of historical geo-tagging and the development of 3-D printing and how that can be utilized by museums to take objects to the streets. Her logic is that if visitors are not coming to museums can we bring museums to the visitors? Can we take our collections out to the streets and to the public?

            The most obvious argument against these questions is one of the thousands of potential conservation methods. Almost any conservator, preservationist, or any history wise person would scream if they saw George Washington’s uniform out on display on a New York City sidewalk, even if it was under glass. These are 100% valid arguments. But, the concept of this idea is still attractive. By engaging the individual at his/her own level more objects would come into public view and maybe, just maybe, more people would gain the knowledge that these objects offer. In-your-face museums, would be an interesting route to take.

            But, perhaps we don’t need to truck Washington’s uniform out to the street. What if we put a reproduction out there? Would that be equally effective? We loose authenticity, but it is still engaging. Maybe that would spike enough interest for someone to take their family to see the real thing. This is the idea that Tisdale is offering, to a point. Tisdale points out that geo-tagging has advanced. This is a method in which by using a mobile device app someone can see what a location used to look like. Additionally Tisdale points out that 3-D printing may be used to recreate reproductions of objects that could be put out on the street. These 3-D printed objects combined with reproductions are expendable. People can handle these objects and engage their sensory faculties. At the end of the day what’s important is engaging individuals and educating the public.

            This is not the traditional approach, by any means… its not even close to the traditional approach for museums. However, it is obvious that traditional museums aren’t doing so great in making themselves attractive to the public; so, its time to be innovative. If our main goal is to teach people, then lets take exhibits to the people. These exhibits, though, have to be interactive and that means not everything can be behind glass, nor should there be word after written word scrolled on an exhibit label. Tisdale’s idea is to freshen up the way people look at history and maybe we will have museum patrons flooding our doors once more. 

Article: Tisdale, Rainey. “Disruptive Objects, On the Streets” City Stories. http://raineytisdale.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/disruptive-objects-on-the-streets/.