My Plan

Over the break I intend to go to the library and check out most of the materials that I need for my thesis paper and take further notes on what I could use in the final draft. I also intend to work with my advisors, and search online, asking how I can create an exhibit base on my topic. A major part of my thesis is creating an outline for an exhibit based on what the city of Rochester's role was during World War 1. I want to show both the contributions that the service members made in Europe and highlight the actions taken by the city here on the home front. I want to show what was going on in the war such as the battles then focus on the individual members from Rochester who served so the people viewing the hypothetical exhibit would be able to learn about their city's history and how Rochester was an active part in the Great War. Hopefully with time dedicated solely on my thesis paper, over the break, I will be able to gather more information and may even gain a head start on the final paper before the beginning of the next semester.

Intersession - Back to the Burchfield

Over the winter break, I plan on taking advantage of the time and location to make at least one visit to the Burchfield Penney archives to continue my research. My research will be driven by the direction my advisors and I decide to go in went we all meet together for the first time on Thursday. A major point of my thesis to resolve is determining what software I will use to develop my database. This discussion is critical to have now in order to make sure it can be supported by the archives. Additionally, the end users will have to be considered - is this going to be used by the archives only or will it be publicly accessible? The answers to these questions will likely lead to proposal revisions and may result in a section being added to the literature review. Research questions to continuously keep in my mind are what categories to include and the what is the scope of the artists' careers that I would like to include. Hopefully, the additional research and consultation will allow me to actually start constructing my final deliverable.

Winter (not-really-a-)Break

Over the winter break I plan on revising my literature review and reviewing what I’ve read to find the strongest connections to my thesis topic. In doing this, I can begin to create a clearer outline of how my thesis will be laid out and what I will focus my writing around. In this time I will also begin forming a set of public history values/goals from what I’ve read, so that I can have a standard to compare to the podcasts I will be examining. Speaking of the podcasts themselves, in this time I will also be listening to and taking notes on the podcasts in my case study (Hardcore History, Backstory Radio, The Memory Palace, More Perfect, and Fall of Rome). As far as allocating time to these goals, I believe that many of them may be achieved simultaneously, as in reviewing my current readings I will find my strongest connections, create an outline, and pick up on the values and goals of public history that I want to focus on. Also, I already listen to podcasts all the time, so swapping my usuals out for these specific podcasts will fit into my established routine.

One of the biggest thing I want to focus on in this time though is a bit of a new direction in my research. I’ve been assuming all this time that podcasts are a form of public history and have been seeking to examine how they function as such. While I still believe and aim to do that, I have been wondering recently if podcasts function as well as a sort of accessible form of academic history. While you could say that that is what public history is in itself, I wonder if the podcast does not give an entertaining and accessible platform for audio essays that seem to take on a more academic form rather than strictly public? Or that more immediately connects the two realms? This could just be a quick tangent in my research or a new direction of focus, but either way I intend to determine this over the break so that when the new semester begins I can fully concentrate on writing rather than exploring every new idea.

It has been an interesting start to my thesis so far, and I look forward to the upcoming break and semester! Let’s see if I ever want to listen to a podcast again after this project (hint: I definitely will).

LINKS
Every time I try to hyperlink something, Blogger encounters an error, so here are just a few links to the webpages of the podcasts I will be listening to:

Hardcore History: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
Backstory Radio: http://backstoryradio.org/
The Memory Palace: http://thememorypalace.us/
More Perfect: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolabmoreperfect/
The Fall of Rome: https://fallofromepodcast.wordpress.com/

Plans for Winter Break

I am looking forward to Winter Break to get a decent amount of headway on my thesis. This semester has been full of difficulties when it comes to being able to put enough time into my project so this break will be a wonderful way to get thoroughly into this project. I hope to expand on my lit review during this break and go to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to look at their Latino Archives to learn more about the Puerto Rican community in Rochester. I also hope to begin reaching out to various members of the Puerto Rican community in Rochester, including the Ibero-American Action League. I also hope to begin work on my ideas for the interview, including an interview guide and beginning to find people who would be willing to tell me their immigration stories. I would like to also get in touch with some of the local colleges cultural and diversity efforts to reach some of these people.

Scheduling will be the most difficult thing in this upcoming break as well as the semester with work and holidays coming up. I hope to be able to work around all of this and really focus on my thesis. This project is one that is so incredibly important to me and the fact that I have not been able to put in my full efforts and time into this is a struggle. I am incredibly excited to be able to give this project the work and devotion such a project deserves. 

Over break I hope to stay in contact with my primary adviser Dr. Michael Brown and with Dr. Carroll so that my Interview guide and ideas are all complacent with the Oral History Associations best practices as well as being culturally sensitive and relevant. I think this break will be a great time for me to truly focus in on my work and meet with the relevant people and cannot wait for it to start. 

Intersession Plans

I recently met with Deborah Stoiber my secondary advisor at the Eastman Museum and we discussed my thesis and possible case studies. While talking case studies she pulled up several student projects that could work. We went into the basement of the mansion and pulled out seven binders of past student projects. Deb allowed me to take all seven. My work for the end of the semester and into intersession includes me reading over the student projects and deciding if any of them will work for case studies. I am also planning to meet with another employee at Eastman to talk over financial records and what I am allowed to look at regarding my thesis. Deborah will be gone most of January so it will be difficult to go back to the museum over intersession but I hope to nail down my case studies before she is gone and before spring semester.

Winter Plans

Over winter break I plan to build upon my lit review by going over each review and writing 2 pages- one page for my detailed opinions on what the author(s) had to say and one page for how I think it relates to my thesis. The goals is to refine my lit review and begin formally writing a draft of my thesis in a manner that isn't so daunting. From here it should be easier to lay out what my thesis will look like more accurately; I will also be able to spot gaps in my writing easier. If I do 2 a week for 3 weeks (sorry, Xmas is designated family/me time), I'll get 6 done and make a significant dent. I think I'll focus the articles that focus on public markets/ RPM.

Pictured Above: The RPM local farmer and vendor on October 7th (Photo taken by me)

The other big thing I would like to do is visit RPM on January 2nd, 6th, 9th, and the 12th. On the 2nd and the 9th, I want to conduct interviews with RPM officials and/or vendors, which is easier to do on quiet days (Tuesdays), than on the weekends. The 6th and the 9th I will visit the RPM for participant observation- critically analyzing my experience, the behaviors of other visitors, and the overall atmosphere of RPM on those two days. From these I will write brief field reports detailing what I have learned.

Please let me know what you think of this plan; whether its too much or not enough. I'm more than willing to make changes if they will be more beneficial to my thesis. 

~Kayla

Winter Break Plans:

The work I do on my thesis over winter break depends mainly on what sort of feedback I get next week during critiques. Hopefully, I will have minimal changes to make to my literature review so I can focus my energy on break to doing more research on Massimo and Lella Vignelli and the history of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. I am planning to complete the first draft of the section of my thesis focusing on the history of the Vignelli's, the establishment of the Vignelli Center at RIT, and a description of the scope of collections at the Vignelli Center. If I am way ahead of the game then I will also make plans to interview Jennifer Whitlock over winter break, but I won't know until after the critiques next week.

Looking Forward

As we come to the end of the semester, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I can accomplish over winter break for my thesis project. I will be spending most of break at home in Poughkeepsie, so I would like to do my full assessment of the Kodak Archive before the end of the semester. I have a conference call scheduled with my former supervisor, Kristin Williams, next week to discuss goals for the project so I will have a clear direction moving forward and I will be able to tailor my recommendations to Kodak's needs.

My last day at Kodak during our winter internship, January 2017. Looking forward to getting back here soon! (picture taken by Alex Serpikov)

I will be using my free time at home to revise my thesis proposal and continue to gather sources. I will also be reaching out to some professional corporate archivists, both local and around the country, to hear their thoughts and advice on my approach to this project.

This has been a whirlwind of a semester, and I am looking forward to continuing my research and writing moving forward!

A Glance Back and a Short Look Forward

Well, this is it.  The end of my first semester of thesis work.  It seems like only yesterday that I was struggling to sort through all of my potential thesis ideas, yet here I am today, with my initial proposal submitted for feedback, writing my final post of the semester (and of 2017, I suppose).  While I have accomplished a lot over the course of the semester, my work on this project is far from finished and a good deal of it will have to be accomplished over the upcoming winter break.  This will include conducting interviews with members of the RMSC’s staff and local Native communities, before performing at least one (although it will probably end up being several) thorough survey of the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit, with what I have been told in the interviews in mind (I already completed an initial, cursory survey over Thanksgiving Break).  I will also use this time, and the resources that have been provided to me by Kathryn Murano, Senior Director for Collections and Exhibits at the RMSC, to take a more focused look at the history of Native American collections and representation at the RMSC, in order to better understand how this exhibit fits with its fellows across the nation (as briefly outlined in my most current draft of my literature review).

With regards to finding the time to work on all of this, I will, of course, have to work my interviews and exhibit surveys around the various winter holidays that are coming up, and I have a strong suspicion that, in some cases, I will have to wait until at least just after New Year’s to make any major headway with regards to interviews.  Thankfully, I will be fairly flexible in my ability to take time to interview people, as I will be staying in Rochester for the entire break and have a semi-flexible work schedule during that time.  Because of this, I am not worried about setting a schedule for my thesis work at this time, as it will be easier to work around other people’s schedules than my own.

I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped me with this process and my project thus far, including Dr. Tamar Carroll, Kathryn Murano, and Dr. Juilee Decker, and wish everyone happy holidays.

While many of the photographs from my recent survey of the Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit turned out very dark due to the low lighting in the exhibit, my friend Skye Tryon did take this picture of me at the RMSC with a taxidermied pangolin, an endangered African and Asian mammal similar to an armored ant eater.  The pangolin is part of The Science of Ripley's Believe It or Not!® exhibit, which is on display at the RMSC until January 2, 2018.

One and The Same

When I had began to think about how I would tie something I really enjoy (The Rochester Public Market) into my thesis, my intial point of connection was diverse visitorship within the local community. While that hasn't changed in the broad sense, my the visitor/ audience that I thought that RPM was a place for mostly disadvantaged or marginalized peoples, and thus my paper would focus on how the RPM cultivated diverse visitorship purely through interacting with the large part of the population that's looked down upon. I had thought it was revolutionary, how much the Rochester apublic Market dedicated to serving those who wouldn't always be able to return the favor. I had seen museums as institutions that had constantly failed in promoting local audience participation and RPM as this champion of public servitude (to be fair, this is only my second semester in this major and I have yet to take a fair amount of the muse classes). Through my classes and research this semester on both Museum and marketplace methodologies on visitorship, I have found a lot of overlap in terms of   structured engagement planning.

Furthermore, I have learned that the market is not just a place for the marginalized or disadvantaged; many well-educated, financially stable, and mentally sound people see the market as a breeding ground for entrepreneurial spirits; which caused my first shift in my lens of focus for my thesis plans. Others go to the market because the informal communal nature of it all reminds the visitor of 'the good old days' or 'true-American values' (real or actualized); thus markets can carry on aura of historical and cultural importantance, promoting popularity, uniqueness. and visitorship. All of those aforementioned things listed are realizations that museums already have or attempt to act/ capitulize on, to varying degrees of success. I'm excited now that I have found the true reach of public market audiences and the overlap between museums and markets, as I feel that before my insight would have come across as one dimensional.

 I feel like museums and marketplaces have similar lists but different priorities when it comes to engaging large and diverse visitorship. Identifying the specific ties an institution has to its self as an organization and the ties it has to the audience as public servants are thoughts that have been on my mind recently as part of the realization of professional similarities between the two. Subsequently identifying which ties are stronger and why/ to what end? What is the successful combination of low barrier/accessibility and structured authority that will result in a diverse audience that conducts themselves in appropriate manners?

Oh how things have changed

From the start, I had a general idea of what the subject of my thesis would be but was unsure how to narrow down the subject to a relevant topic. I first started with digital restoration but that topic ended up being too broad and complicated with technical terms. With a little help from the Eastman Museum, I changed my topic from digital restoration to the topic of a selection of films to be preserved (what has and had not been preserved) along with how this influences the film canon. Revising my literature review before submitting the complete proposal will most likely evolve my topic a bit more and help me come up with a title for my thesis. Meeting with my primary and secondary will further change my topic with the feedback they give me on how to change and expand on information. I hope to get their thoughts on what films to use as case studies as to what is reasonable to study in a short time. Research on my case studies will produce results that are bound to change the direction of my thesis but that won't occur until after January break.

Evolution of my thesis

At the beginning of the year, I had a pretty clear idea of my research question. Although the main premise of my thesis hasn’t changed much, my sources have. I had gathered a lot of research that was mostly relevant, but as I progressed in my research process, I found a whole new set of sources that are directly related to museum schools, their defining characteristics, and their curriculum. My current bibliography looks very different from only a couple weeks ago, but I think it’s for the better.

As for the project side, I had initially envisioned doing a series of observations at a local museum school. But with the input from my classmates and advisors, I have decided to also do classroom observations at a traditional public school, so I can compare the two. The specifics of my project will likely change, as I’m still in hammering out details with both of the schools. But I’ll definitely have a clear outline in the next week or so, and I’m looking forward to finally visiting the classrooms.

Old Questions, New Directions

So far, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much literature has been written about business archives. American Archivist has devoted many entire issues to the topic, which were key in helping me develop my bibliography and lit review. In fact, my only real issue with writing the lit review was parsing out which sources were the most important for me to include.

The biggest problem I’ve run into so far is focusing in on a clear angle for my thesis. My discussions with Dr. Schlombs have been very helpful in this regard. Over Thanksgiving break I will be polishing my lit review and putting my proposal together, as well as continuing to do research. The week after Thanksgiving I will be traveling over to Kodak to interview some people involved with the archive project. In order to develop a collections plan and a list of recommendations for the archive, I first have to get an understanding of what Kodak’s own goals for the project are. If they are able to put forward the resources to build a professional, up-to-standard archive, then I will make recommendations for how they can go about doing that. If they are not able to devote the necessary resources for the project at this time, then I can make recommendations for alternative solutions based on the level of control they wish to retain over their collection. Once I gain a clearer picture of what Kodak wants their archive to be, then I am certain the other pieces of the project will fall into place.

Tying Up Loose Ends...

I am pretty comfortable with the amount of work I've accomplished with my thesis thus far. However, I do have more research to do specifically on the history of Massimo and Lella Vignelli, as well as the Vignelli Center. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I am going to check out a few more books related to collections management policies and archives to look over during break. Friday, Saturday and Sunday I am housesitting for my mom, so I am planning to set up shop in her apartment and use that time to clean up my literature review, and also to complete the ending of it. I also will be working on completing my thesis proposal during the break, including coming up with a title.

If you give a student a research question, they'll ask for sources and sources and sources...

As the old story goes, if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for milk, and then a straw, and then a napkin, and on and on and on....and this has been what researching for my thesis has been like. A few questions at first have evolved over thirteen weeks into what feels like hundreds, and although I can't answer them all, they have pushed and nudged my thesis into all kinds of different directions.

In the beginning I asked myself, "how do podcasts function in the realm of public history?," and it seemed simple enough. The idea was to figure out what podcasts accomplish, then see if that fits into what public history accomplishes, but I think you can tell where things start getting a little muddy. Public history is something that, through my research, I have come to realize is very malleable and rather undefined. If you break down the term you understand that it quite literally is history, usually applied by historians or academics, made available for the public, but that encompasses so many things! My task then was then not only figuring out the nature of podcasts, but of public history itself.

This has since changed my research from focusing solely on podcasts, their creators, and their applications. It has led me to incorporate ideas on public history; it's history, it's goals, what it is, and what it can be. This is not to say my thesis will now be a manifesto on the nature of public history, but it means that it has gained a more specific angle that I will be approaching the work of podcasts from. This is not so much an evolution of my original question, since it primarily remains the same, but it gives my topic a more defined path to follow. I see it being a lot easier to focus my hundreds of other questions into elements of these two guiding questions: "What are the goals of historically minded podcasts?" and "What are the goals of public history?"

From "Thoughts" to "Defrost": The Evolution of My Thesis Project Thus Far

A lot can change in thirteen weeks, and that has certainly been the case for my thesis project.  When I initially conceived my project, I intended to devise ways to redesign or alter not one, but two, of the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) Native American history exhibits (Native Peoples of the Americas and At the Western Door) to bring them in line not only with the other exhibits at the RMSC, but also with the RMSC’s mission to “[stimulate] broad community interest and understanding of science and technology, and their impact — past, present, and future — on our lives.”  The changes I envisioned were largely thematic and one possible solution I wanted to put forth was the potential deaccessioning of the RMSC’s Native American materials to an institution (or institutions) with a more appropriate mission(s).

However, as I began to discuss my ideas with others and read sources for my literature review, it became apparent that there is a much larger issue to be addressed with regards to Native Peoples of the Americas and exhibits like it, specifically the representation they provide of Native Americans and their diverse cultures.  Most Native American exhibits in smaller, traditional museums like the RMSC are outdated, not just in appearance and modes of presentation, but in the ideas they present about Native American cultures.  Many institutions have exhibits that have not been thoroughly reviewed and updated since the 1950s or even the 1900s, when the belief was that Native Americans-- and their cultures-- were going extinct and needed to be preserved, thus resulting in the “freezing” of Native American cultures.  While this is not necessarily the view espoused by the RMSC’s exhibits, the exhibits still depict solely “frozen” cultures, rather than historical and modern representations together.

Because of these revelations, I have elected to shift my topic to focus on ways that the RMSC can “defrost” Native Peoples of the Americas (the older of the two exhibits, with many more “frozen” depictions of cultures and outdated methods of representation).  My goals moving forwards are to conduct a detailed survey of the current exhibit in order to understand specific areas and design elements that need to be addressed, speak with museum administrators and staff to gain a better understanding of how they might envision the exhibits be redesigned or altered, and take a deeper look into methods of redesign that have been put forth by other museum professionals, historians, and Native American activists.  The end results of this work will most likely take the form of a proposal for the redesign of the Native Peoples of the Americas, to be submitted to collections and exhibitions staff at the RMSC for their consideration as they move forward with redesigning some of the museum’s exhibits over the next 5 years.

Corporate Archives: Preserving the past in a fast-paced environment

Since my last update, the scope of my project has somewhat shifted. The more I was researching corporate archives, the more I became interested in the field in general. Quite a bit of research has been done regarding the unique purpose and function that corporate archives possess, but there is still much to be uncovered. The field is relatively new (the first business archive was established by Firestone in 1949) and corporate archives are still few and far between compared to the number of archives in general in the United States. For my thesis, I would like to chronicle the history and significance of corporate archives, as well as compile a list of best practices established in the field and apply these to the Kodak Archive. This will result in a collecting plan and set of recommendations which will allow Kodak to expand and improve their archive if they choose to do so.  

Through my research, I am learning more about the history of corporate archives, as well as why they are often not seen as a necessity for a company. The business world is very different from the museum/non-profit world, and every facet of a company needs to justify its existence by proving it will help make the company more efficient and more profitable. Because of this, much of the literature about corporate archives has to do with establishing a dialogue between archivists and businesspeople to help companies understand the benefits of preserving their past.

I have selected Dr. Corinna Schlombs as my primary thesis advisor, and her research in the field of technology history has led her to make many connections in corporate and business archives. Through her contacts, I’m hoping to get in touch with the archivist at IBM and possibly visit their corporate archives in Somers, NY (which happens to be very close to my hometown). This would be an excellent opportunity to view one of the largest corporate archives in North America and gain firsthand insight into the functions of the collection on a day-to-day basis. I will also be doing more research into the specific best practices that have been established at successful corporate archives, as well as general preservation recommendations for the specific materials that are housed in the Kodak Archive.

Rochester in World War 1

Since handing in our bibliographies I have done more research into Rochester's efforts in World War 1. From what I have found the original RIT campus, called The Mechanical Institute, trained soldiers and Red Cross members in technical skills that they were able to use in Europe. These included optical repairs that allowed them to replace and repair broken lenses on cameras and binoculars that were necessary for officers and recon pilots to view enemy positions. The University was not the only one helping to contribute to the war effort in Rochester, there were several local companies that went from manufacturing consumer goods to war time equipment. These companies included Kodak, and Bauch and Lomb, just to name a few of the more well known companies in the city Rochester.

There were also several Rochester natives who went off to war, many of which were Mechanics Institute students or alumni. Many of whom would go off to fight in many of the final key battles in the war. However just like in any war there are many who do not return home, there is a plack in the RIT Library of ten names of soldiers who went off to war and never came back. There are even more men from Rochester who died and their names can be found in the Rochester and Monroe County Service Record. The book is full of the names of those who served and died from a variety of different causes. These soldiers will make it into the thesis paper and their actions in war will be remembered by new generations.

I hope to gather more information on what the people of Rochester did during the war so I may learn, and show, people the actions of this city when America went to war.

Artpark: What Makes the Experience Democratic?

The essence of my research has been to what extent Artpark functioned as a democratic experiment within the 1970s. However, defining what makes the Artpark experience "democratic" in the first has become problematic. After all, "democracy" is a word with many philosophical and functional connotations. Is it the way artists were selected to complete a residency that is democratic? Or is it how theoretically any member of the public could access the site-specific art and interact with the artist, effectively breaking down the studio walls? The artistic process itself could potentially be framed as democratic as well, especially if artists had control over where and how they executed their ideas.

These were questions I had in mind when I made my visit to the Burchfield Penney archives for research last Friday. Jennifer, the project archivist for the Artpark Archival Collection, told me that approaching the question from certain angles (such as how Artpark and its artists were funded) would require extremely intensive archival investigation. Therefore, she suggested to focus specifically on how Artpark functioned as a democratic experiment only for the artists involved. A topic of interest would be examining the types of institutions representing these artists before they were selected (were they artist-led?). The documents I looked over on Friday provided a good starting point for this investigation. The Visual Arts Program catalogs provided useful biographical information for the artists who currently have little to no presence online. A study conducted in 1978 by Arts Development Associates also revealed significant information, such as how only 30% of artists came to Artpark through a personal connection. According to the study, this proved that Artpark was "not a closed shop." The documents also provided a consistent account of Artpark's vision for the arts in its early years: to encourage the realization of experimental ideas in the arts and to engage the public in unorthodox ways.

Situating Artpark in a greater historical context has provided some interesting insights as well. Artpark was one of many efforts during the late '60s and 1970s to free art from the traditional gallery space, or, as Brian O'Doherty calls it, the "white cube." Artpark was far from being the only alternative art space in Western New York during the 1970s. Hallwalls, which was founded in 1974 (the same year Artpark's programs began), also dedicated itself to featuring innovative works from young artists at the time. I am also researching federal and state funding for the arts during this time period and how that may have influenced Artpark's operations. 

The Burchfield Penney Art Center, the location of the Artpark Archival Collection

Mi Historia: Focusing in

Since the beginning of my research into Mi Historia I have decided to narrow down my focus for this project to college aged, Puerto Rican Immigrants in the Rochester area. The reasoning behind this is to be able to not only finish this project in a timely manner but also to focus on a large community in the area. I have learned that Rochester has an enormous Puerto Rican population, particularly for its size and about their importance in the city. It is a population with strong roots and advocacy dating back to the first migrant workers that came here. However, I still have a lot to learn about this community in the present and not just in the past. I hope to connect with some of the local activists in the area and have accumulated resources about Puerto Rican immigrants in particular to learn more about their culture and migration to the United States.

Film Preservation: what has and has not been preserved

Since last class, my topic has changed from focusing on digital restoration to a focus on what films have been preserved and what has not, along with how this influences the film canon. 

Throughout my research, I have discovered which archives ended up with the silent films from 1912-1929. The major archives these films are housed include the Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House, and UCLA Film & Television Archive. There are a number of films that are lost or incomplete. Many lost films are ones that have decayed over time, have been misplaced, or are in private collections. Much of the focus during the 30’s-50’s was to save the most important films which caused less important films to decay and become lost. There is now a need to create a program to repatriate U.S. feature films from foreign archives due to the fact that many silent films only survive in foreign-release versions. I have also learned the basics of film preservation and how to identify films that do not have titles or unknown dates. 

I still need to gather information on specific case studies of films from the George Eastman Museum and assess their state of preservation. Of the surviving silent films, which ones or have all been digitally restored? Regarding the Library of Congress film registry, I want to do more research as to what is happening with the films not yet on the registry and what happens to the films once they do get put on the registry. Lastly, research into the preservation status of the films that do remain. 

Museum school learning experiences

In past Museum Studies classes, we have briefly talked about the concept of museum schools. The research process for my thesis has brought me to a much deeper understanding about the history of the museum school model, as well as the finer details of the learning experiences this model provides.

I had always just assumed that museum schools have higher rates of student engagement, because of the use of objects and interactive methods in their lesson plans. However, I learned that “engagement” is a difficult value to measure. But my research has introduced me to the idea of metacognition and multiliteracies, which are reoccurring themes in the field of museum schools. When students create their own exhibitions at the end of a unit to show what they’ve learned, they are thinking about how best to present the information to visitors, so they can learn too. Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” is a higher-order thinking skill that has been successfully integrated into several museum school curriculums.

Although I’ve also done research about the New York State public schools and the Common Core standards, I still need to learn where museum school strategies could potentially fit into that system. I think once I talk with public school teachers during my observations and interviews, I’ll have a better idea of the limitations and opportunities within the Common Core curriculum.

Defrosting Native Peoples of the Americas

Before I get to the assigned prompt of this post, I feel that it is important to announce that I have slightly shifted the topic of my thesis work.  Again.  I believe this is either the third or fourth time I have done this since I began to work on this project, but as I conduct more research, I keep finding myself forced to further refine and alter my topic.  To review, I had originally intended the focus of my project to be on the ways in which the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) could alter or redesign its Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit to conform to the museum’s mission and visitor expectations, and ultimately whether or not the exhibit belonged in the museum at all, or if its contents should be deaccessioned and transferred to another, more appropriate institution.  However, it has been pointed out to me that, given the nature and history of the Native American collections held by the RMSC, this exhibit will, at least for the foreseeable future, be a part of the museum, and deaccessioning its contents and the rest of the collection is not a viable option at this time.  Between this revelation and points raised within my sources, I now intend to focus on how the RMSC can “unfreeze” Native Peoples of the Americas and modernize it to make it better match the other exhibits at the RMSC, rather than trying to force it to conform with the mission, present or future, of the institution.

This brings me to my research, which has not so much taught me anything new as it has confirmed my prior knowledge regarding the origins and methods of display of Native Americans in science and natural history museums.  18th, 19th, and early 20th century European and white American ethnocentrism and perceived racial superiority resulted in the placement of Native American remains and artifacts into science and natural history museums so they could be preserved for later study.  However, the anthropologists and scientists who did this were only interested in preserving native cultures at a point of pre-European contact, thus essentially (and in most cases, inaccurately) “freezing” Native American cultures at a given point in time, making it seem as if members of those cultures were not still alive, well, and adapting to a rapidly evolving world.

While the authors of most of my sources rightly call for the “unfreezing” of exhibits on Native Americans and greater inclusion of Native American voices in the exhibition design and redesign process, they offer no practical suggestions for museums and exhibition designers who would like to move forward with defrosting their Native American exhibits.  No mention is made of ways to rewrite wall text, or integrate modern examples of native cultures alongside static presentations of their predecessors.  What this means for my research moving forward is that I will have to devise my own methods for the RMSC to use to unfreeze Native Peoples of the Americas, based on input from museum staff, members of local Native American organizations, and visitors to the exhibit, as well as my own knowledge of exhibition design and visitor engagement techniques.  I would also like to include a possible exhibit layout or some other visual form of proposal for changes to the exhibit, in addition to just a list of recommendations of what to do to the exhibit.

Digital Film Restoration

The focus of my senior thesis is on digital film restoration. Digital restoration is a complex process done through a computer program that requires training to master. A film technician works on the film and the restorer is present to supervise the work to keep the film looking as close to the original as possible. From the sources I have found, digital restoration is expensive and I am curious to find out what makes it expensive. What type of training and work goes into digital restoration and who’s involved. I am going to explore and possibly email interview several archives that practice digital restoration and discover what types of technology and methods they use. Find out which of the archives are more technologically advanced. I will focus on a few select archives in the U.S. such as IPI, George Eastman Museum, NYU, and UCLA. Case studies are going to be a big part of my thesis, I’m going to use films that have already been digitally restored and ones that are in need of being digitally restored. I want to be able to answer the question of what qualifies a film to be digitally restored or traditionally restored?

Close Readings

Ever since high school, I have been told to always use academic sources for any paper but never taught until college how to properly close read an academic source. Most times I’m skimming readings and only retaining most of the information. While reading the two sources I found, I was focusing on finding arguments and evidence that pertained to my thesis topic and looking past the fluff in the sources. I have learned that academic sources are structured in an organized way with sub-topics. Finding important information is easier with academic sources than a website. 

From research methods, I have learned how to recognize citation formats and what type of formats are best suited for certain types of papers. I have also formed the habit of looking over the citations to see where the author found their information and possibly visit some of their sources. The two academic sources I found were both on the topic of digital film restoration and both used interviews as their main source of information. I found that a lot of quality information came from the interviews since it is straight from the source and not another academic article. One source interviewed multiple archives in Europe to compare restoration techniques. The other source interviewed a restoration technician on his background in film. I ended up getting better information from the source that interviewed the technician. His stories were more personable and interesting, he told details about movie studios that aren't normally mentioned such as how they used to store their films; in a storage room with a hole in the roof and no temperature and humidity control. I find that interviews have less dry information than other types of research methodologies. 

TURCI, ARIANNA. "The use of Digital Restoration within European Film Archives: A Case Study." The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists 6, no. 1 (2006): 111-124.

Belton, John. "Getting it Right: Robert Harris on Colour Restoration." Film History: An International Journal 12.4 (2000): 393-409. ProQuest. Web. 10 Oct. 2017.

Mi Historia so far

For my senior thesis I am focusing on an online oral history exhibit. This exhibit will focus on young, adults of Latin descent in Rochester, specifically on their immigration stories. I hope that by allowing the narrative to be held by those whose stories these are that we can shift the power narrative. Often times when we hear about immigrants in our political climate it is nothing but negative and often false ideas of what it means to be an immigrant. I also hope that this project will help educate people and maybe open their eyes a little bit more. The reason I am focusing on young adults ages 18-25 is because we hold the future in our hands. Everything that is happening in the US right now, all of the legislation and rhetoric, is going to directly affect this specific group of people for the foreseeable future, so their stories should be told loudly and proudly. Although I am focusing on young adults in Rochester at the moment, I hope to expand this project later on to include a wide variety of people from all over the country. This story is an important one to tell, especially for me as an immigrant myself.

Relationships Within Artpark and the Question of Its Success as a Democratic Art Space

For my senior thesis project, I intend to develop a relational database of the artists in residency at Artpark throughout its history. I will map out and visualize the network of connections between artists, staff, and the museums and art institutions these artists passed through both prior to and after their time at Artpark. A broad goal of this project would be to better understand the complex interpersonal and institutional relationships involved in the network and how it has evolved over time.

To compile information, I will use annual visual arts program catalogs from the Burchfield-Penney's Artpark Archival Collection as well as other easily accessible, inventoried materials including media releases, surveys, and administrative employee credentials. For example, from the surveys it is possible to tell which artists recommended other artists to come to the park, and from employee credentials it is possible to discern how the staff’s outside institutional relationships may have influenced the network of artists over time. Another dimension we are interested in would be determining the relationship between artists who were selected for the “major project” category (formed for avant-garde artists) and the "crafts" category and how the balance in the numbers between each category has changed over time.

An extensive historical chronicle of Artpark and its significance among outdoor sculpture park has been conducted through the former UB gallery exhibition “Artpark 1974-84.” The thesis for this contextualized Artpark as "a radical experiment in artist-public interaction and site-specificity that successfully balanced a populist mission with the creation of experimental art”(Firmin 2010).  According to curator Sandra Firmin, the park welcomed artists of diverse backgrounds and allowed them to experiment with art in a spectacular geographic and mythic location. By uncovering the complex network of relationships between chosen artists, staff, and outside institutions, my working research question will be to determine to what extent Artpark adhered to its populist principles. To what extent was Artpark turly the democratic arts program it aimed to be?


Artpark 1974-1984

Firmin, Sandra Q. Artpark 1974-1984. Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.

Senior Thesis Description

My senior thesis project is focused on creating an exhibit that shows the role Rochester played in World War 1. This is not just about the service members who went off and fought in Europe, but also the people who made weapons and equipment used on the Western Front. My goal is to tell the untold stories of the Rochester war machine that worked through the war aiding the Americans who were fighting in Europe. I want to focus on the response of the city and how fast the local industries were able to adapt for war and the hesitation of the citizens willing to join, at first, when they discovered America was at war. I want to tell this story so that people can have a glimpse into what happened when Rochester answered the call to war. I hope that with this exhibit I will be able to tell the modern day citizens of Rochester the acts of bravery and ingenuity that the cities inhabitants had during WW1 and how that can translate to today.

I will be able to gain help from the local Military History Society of Rochester to gather information on much of what I will need for the exhibit. I will also use the R.I.T. Archives to gather further information on what the school did during the war and which members of the student body joined the military and whether or not they came home.

Doing History in Corporate America: A Case Study of the Eastman Kodak Archives

My initial idea for my senior thesis project was to create a online exhibit about the Kodak Camera Club (KCC), using materials from the archive at the Eastman Kodak Company that I helped to build for my internship, as well as oral history interviews with former KCC members. Since my last update, my topic has not changed much, but I have been in contact with several individuals at Kodak who have helped me shape and narrow the scope of the project. As of right now, my research question is: How can museum and archival practices be applied to corporate settings (such as the Eastman Kodak Company), and what unique legal, ethical, and practical considerations need to be made when creating an exhibit by and for a private company? I will work with Kodak's marketing department, which is in charge of the newly-created archives, to create an exhibit about the history of the KCC, which at its height in the 1950s and 60s had thousands of members across all Kodak departments.

I am still working to hone in on a concise topic, but my discussions with Matt Stouffel at Kodak have helped me to decide how I want to approach this project, and I look forward to continuing to develop my ideas!

The Ideal Public Servant

Museums are not the ideal public servants that they proclaim to be. More so, I believe that their idea of what constitutes an ideal public servant is faulty or incomplete; even if operating under their parameters of defined success in public servitude. I believe one better proponent and institutional role model of public service is the Rochester Public Market.

In my thesis, I would like to delineate the parallels between museums (that operate alongside AAM guidelines) and the Rochester Public Market (a cultural institution with a high level of public appeal and influence; through analyzing current and past histories and regulations of both. In addition I would identify and synthesize the major reasons and methods of operation that garner the Rochester Public Markets success in revitalization and propagation of diverse economies and public congregation. The Rochester Public Market, for example, has a large amount of teens and culturally diverse audiences flowing through their gates every week; categories of audiences that museums often have trouble reaching. The Public Market also implements many public events/programs to foster a broad community engagement; something that I haven’t seen in many other museums.

Ultimately, working off of accumulated research and conclusions, create a proposal for techniques and other operations that museums could implement to achieve higher success in audience engagement, visitation, and learning; creating a memorable experience. 

Native Peoples of the Americas, Redux: The Plan

Every thesis, or any research project, for that matter, begins with a working research question.  Now, this question may change and develop as research progresses and new information is brought to light or new ideas form, however, it helps to begin with a fairly concrete idea.  In the case of my thesis, this idea was that the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) history exhibits seem out of place, both within the museum’s mission and their physical space.  To narrow this down further, the Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit appears especially outdated (both in terms of theme and method of display) and incongruous when compared to other parts of the museum, even its fellow history exhibits.  This leads me to ask the following question.  In what ways can Native Peoples of the Americas be altered or redesigned to better fit with the RMSC’s mission, both present and future, and visitors’ expectations for the museum and their experience within it?

In order to answer this question, I will need to conduct research in three different areas. To begin, I will review the existing body of literature on the history of display and representation of Native Americans in science museums in order to better understand the history of this practice, as well as how other museums are adapting/changing their Native American exhibits to bring them in line with both their current missions and modern understandings of native culture.  I will then interview key members of museum staff to gain insight into what they view the future direction of the RMSC as a whole to be, and what changes they might envision for the exhibit moving forward.  Next, I will survey visitors to this exhibit about their visit experience within the exhibit, how they feel this experience fits into their overall experience at the RMSC, and what changes could occur to the exhibit to improve their experience.

The end result of this research will be a set of recommendations for the exhibitions and curatorial staff of the RMSC, synthesized from all three sources of research, regarding how best to alter and/or redesign Native Peoples of the Americas, if and when it becomes a priority to do so in the near future.

Thesis Update: Independent Study and a Slight Change of Focus

        As noted in my last post, I spent the spring semester completing thesis work required for my Fine Art Studio degree, which meant that I would have to finish my Museum Studies thesis as an independent study course this semester, under the advisement of Dr. Decker. The completion of my BFA degree went well, but I still didn’t have much of a break after the semester ended; I was selected to present on the Uncommon Press at this year’s meeting of the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), and accordingly continued working on my thesis in May and June, albeit with a shifted focus. 

        Originally, I intended to examine original or reconstructed objects which can be found in various cultural institutions, such as the press, through a lens which combines object-based, interactive-based, and interpretive-based educational lenses. For the conference presentation, however, and ultimately for my actual thesis, I decided that it would instead be more beneficial to focus on the way in which such objects can be utilized as touchstones for STEM education.

Daniel Krull presenting at ALHFAM 2017
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Juilee Decker)

        At this point, I've turned in my first in-progress draft, which has been edited by both my readers - Dr. Decker and Dr. Steven Galbraith, curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection. I'll soon be submitting the next iteration, which will include an expanded and edited section about applications of STEM educational standards, and an updated literature review, which will be better-aligned with my updated focus. Once I've turned in this new version, I'll also be writing a new blog post. I'm planning to outline some of the actual ways in which I correlated the Uncommon Press and its use to STEM education and common core standards, so stay tuned.