Post 6

Oof, what a semester, quite a few changes to put it lightly, and I'm not just talking about this thesis. But that outside stuff is irrelevant for this post, what is relevant is how this here thesis has changed since the beginning of the semester. At the beginning, I was WAY too broad, just decided "VR and AR in museums" and unironically thought something like that was good. Well, I found out real quick that it wasn't good in any capacity, unbelievably broad, and simplistic. So narrow it down to "VR and AR impacting visitor engagement", but still a bit too broad. Ultimately, I settled on Augmented Reality and its impact on visitor engagement. While I still don't want to completely gut VR from the paper, the presence of VR serves far less as my core argument and more as to create a distinction, to establish in my paper what I mean by "augmented reality", as I found that some people get the two a bit muddled. A very small portion of this long thesis, in the grand scheme of things, yet important enough to keep.

Growing Pains

This semester has been a whirlwind. Thesis research was relatively general for the first two months, as I wasn't able to meet someone from the exhibition I wanted to partner with until the beginning of November. After this initial meeting (and meeting with my primary adviser) I realized that a project like the one I was undertaking wasn't really what I would be passionate about. Fortunately it was relatively simple to shift my focus toward the art case studies I had been looking at as part of my literature review, since of the research I had done was still relevant. The only trouble now is getting the research on to the page and developing a strong voice throughout my literature review.

I have been working to find more and more sources that give me further insight in to the topics I have chosen so that I can develop those sections of my literature review. I have been receiving unfathomable support and guidance from my two thesis advisers who are helping me hone my focus and organize my thoughts. I am enjoying finding out more and more about the depth of controversy in each of my case studies and I feel much less overwhelmed than I did with my initial project. It's getting to be crunch time so I'm focusing on really getting the facts in place so I can develop my argument and really put forth a strong thesis proposal. 

My main focus moving forward is developing a stronger understanding of the methodology I should be using to evaluate my case studies and develop the best practices I've been trying to develop in the first place. I am hopeful that this will simply mean looking to the resources I have been reading and looking at the various methodologies implemented in other evaluations of topics related to my case studies. 

 The case studies I intend to focus on now are: Sh[Out]: Contemporary Art and Human Rights (2009), Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture (2010), David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night (2018)

Evolving Thesis

After speaking with Denise from Seneca Falls Women's Rights National Historic Park my topic has changed from the confluence of science and history to looking at how the Erie Canal impacted the movement of people and how that led to the movement of ideas and reform in Seneca Falls. I'm going to be researching the topic thoroughly and providing them with my thesis at the end so they may use it to develop an educational program and tour. We will discuss next week the possibility of pairing me with a ranger so I can work with them during my thesis to begin making the program and tour. So while I have moved from science to history, my goal of creating educational programming has remained.

Erie Canal at Seneca Falls. Image from http://www.nycanals.com/Seneca_Falls

We did also discuss the idea of looking at how the Erie Canal impacted the biodiversity of Seneca Falls, and I may incorporate that, but we generally moved away from it to keep the scope of the project within what I can manage. Depending on how things progress, I may choose to look into that as well. I'm considering writing about both the ecology as well as reform history and then just developing a program/tour on one of the topics.

Thesis so far.

This has certainly been a wild ride. I've often been finding myself getting extremely caught up into the inner workings of an early thriving and functioning underground metal scene and breaking down the culture and processes of the genre and how it has evolved that I often forget to explain the simplest of things like differences between sub genres or names of bands. It is a whirlwind of information on a topic that has largely existed through means of oral history and word of mouth. Still it has been a lot of fun to research for sure. I've been an active part of the metal scene since I was a teenager and I'm still learning new things.
I am hoping to add to a subject with little to no prior scholarship. As states previously the genre has largely functioned and thrived on word of mouth and oral tradition so not much has been written down. For a genre that has existed since roughly 1965-1967 it's surprising that not much has been written down, or at least to me it is. I am hoping that this thesis can actually evolve into an actual museum down the line, but until then I still have a lot of work to do!

Blog #6

 My thesis project has not changed drastically, just a few minor adjustments. Originally, I wanted to research the process of creating a new museum. Applying what I learned from my sources to my museum about Buffalo Sports. The museum was going to be solely about the history of Buffalo Sports and famous athletes. I’m still going to continue this idea but enhance it. I became curious about the impact that this museum would make on Buffalo’s community. I found some readings that praise major renovations within the city and how it provided social, economic, and political benefits. I began to think that the creation of my museum could have that same effect. Slowly include the role of sports fans into my museum, such as community collaboration.

As you can see my project isn’t just going to be a museum retelling the sports memories but also how this institution will celebrate the fans, as they help create Buffalo’s community. I still wish to incorporate artifacts from Buffalo’s famous athletes as well as mementos from Buffalo Sports History, but after talking to several members of the community and listening to their suggestions, I would like to add another aspect to my museum. It should be a gathering place. A place for celebrations, both past, and present. For this reason, I would like to incorporate a restaurant and sports bar. 

    This not only allows for young children to learn about the history of their teams while watching them in the present, but it also brings a sense of nostalgia to the older generation of fans. I feel as though the combination of both past(through artifacts) and present(through watching live games), will give Buffalo Sports fans a sense of comfort and overall happiness upon visiting. Based solely off the opinions of other fans since the commencement of my research, it seems as though a multi-purpose museum such as this would be the ideal spot to gather and watch as one, as Buffalo continues its quest for a championship.

The evolution of my thesis

Since the first time I voiced my thesis idea, my project changed significantly. Originally, I thought I wanted to create a sensory-friendly toolbox that one could use in any museum across the country. I had a very large, vague and well-intended idea to provide sensory-friendly games on an app that could enable people to experience a museum without having to go during special hours or on certain days of the week. After a lot of discussion with my adviser and app consultant, I realized that making a large, general app containing only games and music wouldn’t be able to accomplish my end goal, and I may not be able to accomplish it period because of the large scope. Now, I’m focusing on creating an app for one area of one museum, Strong Museum of Play, that not only provides games and music, but also a social narrative, a sensory map, and other helpful information about the museum. I also now plan to go beyond just making the app and hope to conduct focus groups where individuals with autism and their family members can interact with the app and give me feedback so I can make suggestions for further improvements.

While much of my project is set in stone and concrete, my final stage, the focus groups, is where I see the project truly evolving. Based on my research, this app should be successful and helpful for people on the spectrum, but I won’t truly know that until I actually have people interact with it. I hope it won’t, but the app could be a failure. As the project moves forward and evolves, this determination will steer my paper in one of two ways: creating an outline of what a successful app for individuals with autism looks like and evaluating the effectiveness of personal technology in helping increase accessibility, or outlining what didn’t work and provide insight from my personal experience on how apps aimed at making museum experiences accessible can be tailored to best serve the intended audience.

The research never ends...

One thing I’ve learned through working on this project is that the research process truly never ends. Every time I think I’m close to being done, I find a few more things that could be improved with more research and more sources.

So far, I've learned a lot through my research, one of the most important things being the intricacies of autism spectrum disorder. Because of my experience interacting with my little cousin Leo, I thought I had learned a lot about what autism spectrum disorder was. However, I truly had no idea about the finer details. I knew that Leo had trouble with communicating, staying focused on the appropriate tasks, and sitting still for too long, but I didn’t know why he has difficulties with these things. Learning about the difficulties people with autism have with sensory processing gave me a concrete answer as to why Leo, and other people on the autism spectrum, have this issues. Knowing why people with autism react negatively to certain stimuli is the only way I can effectively craft an app that helps individuals cope with these negative, overwhelming feelings. Without this knowledge, my project would fall short and seem incomplete.

I still need to learn more about what museums, in particular, are doing for individuals with autism. Thus far, I’ve found a lot of information about sensory friendly days and pre-visit materials the museum provides for families of individuals with autism, but I haven’t found much on the use of technology within a museum to increase accessibility. I’ve found a lot of information about apps and online programs that help facilitate communication and interaction for individuals with autism, but only one of them can specifically operate within the space of a museum. As I continue researching, I hope to find more sources discussing accessible technology for people on the autism spectrum within the space of a museum.

From Concept to Project

Over the past semester, my thesis project has taken new forms, and developed in ways I didn't expect.  When I first brainstormed my idea it was nothing more than "3D printed reproductions and touch," and I've done a lot of adjusting to that core idea over time.  The first main issue I faced was to determine what exactly it was I wanted to find out.  Are 3D reproductions sufficient stand-ins for a real object?  Do visitors want to touch objects?  Will the fake object enhance their experience?  After a lot of thinking, research, and discussion with my advisers, I settled on exploring the topic of whether or not 3D reproductions fulfill the desire of a visitor to touch museum objects.
I also changed the scope of my project over the course of the semester.  I initially imagined setting up my display case somewhere on campus, but am now working with the Rochester Museum and Science Center to select and scan an object from their collections, and put it on display at their institution.  I think this will provide me with better data, and will give me a wider variety of objects to choose from.
Additionally, my desire to create an accurate facsimile has led me to consider methods other than 3D printing to create the reproduction of my selected object.  My choice of reproduction method will depend largely on what object I chose, which is also the next step for my project.  I'm looking forward to moving forward with my project, and seeing where it continues to develop!

Depending on what object I select, I might end up using something such as a CNC Milling machine to create my facsimile rather than a 3D printer.  This machine removes wood to create an object, whereas a printer adds material to create.  Image source

Blog Post VI: From Conceptualization to Fruition

The main topic of my thesis has remained the same, but throughout the past few weeks, I’ve gained more clarity on how to approach my research project. At the beginning, I knew I wanted to focus on endangered languages in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the case studies of the main body of my thesis. Therefore, I wasn’t quite sure what case studies or examples to discuss in my literature review without being redundant. I decided to just do some general research on language preservation and revitalization as a general subject/area of study. Ultimately, this ended up being a successful strategy because I found some great core readings on the subject which helped shape my lit review. A couple of my sources were written by linguist Leanne Hinton, who mentioned a few workshops here in the U.S. involving Native American tribes and museum institutions, which I discuss in Blog Post V. I had heard of these before in my own personal research during the past year, so I thought it would be great to discuss them as examples of current museums efforts in the U.S. which will set up a nice segway into a discussion comparing and contrasting them to my case studies in the U.K. Furthermore, I’ve been inspired by one of my linguistics classes, Evolving English Language, to include a section about the spread of English and how it affects other languages. Overall, not overthinking or narrowing my initial research and keeping my mind open have really helped my process.

I can see my thesis evolving quite a bit as I uncover how much information there is about Celtic languages (Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh). If there ends up being a lot of information to work with (concerning policy, community programs, museum efforts) I may end up just focusing on one of the languages and delving in deep. If there is not a significant amount of information, I will have to figure out how to best survey language preservation and revitalization efforts. However it ends up, I’m excited to see how cultural institutions can help and hopefully present some novel ideas and methods to both fields (museums/linguistics).

This is a diagram I found after searching in Google "Celtic Languages." The map, from the Brilliant Maps site, is helpful to situate oneself as to where the languages in my case studies are mainly located. It also includes some statistics, although they are not cited.

Blog #6: Reigning it in

     Since I first conceptualized the topic for my thesis I've had to reduce the scope of my research tremendously. Initially, I had hoped to discuss the entire German community in Rochester, which currently consists of eight members of the Federation of German American Societies (FGAS); down from 13 member groups when I first became affiliated with the FGAS in 2002. This loss of groups due to members aging out and not being replaced by younger members is what initially attracted me to the issue to see what could be done to preserve membership in the various groups. After researching the issues faced by one FGAS member group, the Schuhplattler Verein Heidengold (SVH) it became clear that to try to discuss every member group would be too large of a task for my thesis, so I decided to focus solely on the Schuhplattler Verein Heidengold. That in itself has presented more than enough content to complete my thesis.

     I had also conceptualized going in to depth as to the tanzen (dances) and tracht (clothing) that the SVH present as being authentic to the Allgäu region of Germany that they represent. While I still plan on addressing these points, I feel that I will not necessarily need to go in to the detail that I had originally planned on to still get my point across about the means that the SVH go to in order to ensure that their representation is trustworthy.

     I believe that an examination of the entirety of the member groups of the Federation of German American Societies is important to ensure the continuance of German heritage in Rochester and will suggest in my thesis that it be researched for future work.

Progress Report

Hello everyone! As some of you may recall, my thesis questions are: Why build a sports museum in Buffalo, New York? How will a museum add to the city of Buffalo’s revitalization project? I wanted to provide a brief recap of my senior thesis topic and the progression of my research process. I began my research by studying the history of Buffalo, New York. Then I dove into reading materials that reminisced about various sports teams that developed in Buffalo over the years. Lastly, I will look at studies that were conducted on the topic of regional identity through sports. 

    So far I have learned that Buffalo was a mega-industrial city in its prime, due to its natural harbor, the power source of Niagara Falls, and the construction of the Eire Canal. The features previously mentioned turned Buffalo into a major merchant/transportation hub, because of its role in international trade with Canada and connection to the mid-west. Industries flourished under these conditions such as Lackawanna Steel, Larkin Soap company, George N. Pierce’s automobile company, and several flours, cereal, and beer companies throughout the city. While reading a book called The Golden Age of Buffalo Sports, I found out that Jackie Robinson played in Buffalo frequently and people were quite excited to see him play. Also, Buffalo’s baseball team, the Bisons, had two uniquely deaf players. I have just begun to read about the case studies that were conducted on sports fans, stay tuned for updates. 

    What I still need to research on, is the sports teams, the Sabers, the Bandits, Braves, and the FC Buffalo. I want to conduct a survey where Buffalo Sports fans answer questions pertaining to a possible creation of a Buffalo Sports Museum. The survey will be a collection of 5 questions available on both paper and online. I plan on attending the Bills and Sabers tailgate parties that happen before home games. Then I can add this survey to my research paper!  

What I've learned so far

Heavy Metal culture is a lot more expansive than I expected previously. The subculture of Heavy Metal has grown exponentially since its incarnation in the late 1960's. The name "Heavy Metal" and the distinct sound of the music has its origins in the steel and metal working industries in Britain. The development of the scene and the community has also been a rocky and long winded journey in and of itself. There are distinct differences in the European and American metal communities and how they hold festivals and their presentation of Heavy Metal in everyday culture.
What I still need to know is more inner workings in how festivals are held and how that affects the communities and towns around them. I am also looking into correlations on the environments of the cities and towns Heavy Metal originated in. Also putting more research into current scholarship and exhibitions done on the genre and its history.
The research has been a lot of fun to do and I'm having a great time discovering more about the community and music I love so much.

Fig 1. Rob Halford and Ozzy Osbourne, two of the original members of the bands Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Link to photo origin

What I have learned so far

I have been reading a lot about science education in a broad capacity. Many of the articles discuss the importance of setting for children to learn. In particular, how just being in an out-of-classroom location may help students stay engaged as well as how more specific experiences can broaden how students make connections. I've also learned about how active learning often promotes working in groups. One article was about how nature walks allow for a family to work through an idea together and occasionlly helps different family units come together in a discussion or activity. Other articles looked at how scientists and public educators can come together in collaboration. These discussed at how scientists can ensure the public is getting up to date material as well as how museum professionals can help reframe that information out of scientific jargon for a broader audience.

Students on a nature walk. From savorsnoqualmievalley.org

The next type of article I will be searching for and reading through is how living history museums and other historic sites have introduced science education and in particular the challenges they face. I will also be looking for articles related to effective signage for nature trails. Throughout our coursework, we have discussed how didactic signs have been used and are used within museum walls and I am curious to see if there is a significant difference of opinion for nature trails.

What have I learned?

One of the wonderful aspects of my research is that I have chosen a topic I am extremely excited about and that I have been developing my knowledge of for the past few years. My classes have provided me with a strong knowledge base to build my thesis and my summer experience at the Newseum in D.C. gave me a level of knowledge I never thought I would have. The time I spent working with materials related to the gay liberation movement has provided me with a scaffold of information that I know is important to the movement. Since starting my thesis research I have learned how difficult it is to develop a literary review that is concise yet informative. I know which main points I want to address, such as the exhibitions Hide/Seek and Mining the Museum, visitor engagement, social activism, and the democratized museum. yet I am still struggling to develop a strong understanding of the organization of my literary review.

This past week I was able to meet with the woman coordinating Rochester's 50 at Stonewall, Christine Ridarsky. We spoke about the content of the exhibition, which is currently in development, and where my thesis may interplay with the exhibition. As our discussion progressed it became clear that I would be looking at developing a program, digital interactive, and a visitor engagement survey to engage Rochester's community in a discourse about sexuality and identity. I have looked to my wonderful friends from the LGBTQ community to assist me in this. I am hoping to develop a committee of students to help me develop an inclusive and educational program and interactive that represents the community as a whole. Though I have a strong knowledge of the history of the gay liberation movement and I have heard countless explanations of the expansive spectrum of LGBTQ identities I understand that facilitating this discussion means providing a platform for those in the community to share their unique experience.

The nature of my work on the exhibition means that I must include a review of the field of visitor engagement in my explanation of the democratized museum as well as the importance of scaffolding exhibition content with programming to facilitate community discussions. I think the only thing I am currently struggling with is organizing all of these ideas in to a cohesive literary review. The majority of my information has been gathered, its just getting it on to paper.

Oh the things I have learned

Over the past week I have had to completely change my thesis topic due to my original project being cancelled by the institution I was originally working with. Whereas my project originally was going to focus on digital archives for a small institution, my new project will allow me to assist in the creation of a digital exhibit telling the story of the Erie Canal in Rochester. I am very excited about this opportunity and refocusing my research on my new topic has opened up a whole new world of information related to digital curation. More than ever before I am starting to understand the importance of a digital presence for museums and other cultural institutions. I have always believed that the power of the internet can be a great way for museums to connect with their visitors but I am now understanding that it is much more than that. Digitization and digital exhibits allow unprecedented access to collections for sure but it also aids in the conservation of said collections. The conservation of artifacts and knowledge from the past will allow for future generations to learn more about history than ever before. Additionally, I have learned much more about the Erie canal and its effects on the City of Rochester. As a native resident I knew that the Erie Canal turned Rochester into the one of the first and biggest boom towns of the west but I know now exactly how much the canal helped to build "The Young Lion of the West". I have had a crash course in all of these topics over the past week but there is still much more research to be done. 

There are many things that I still will need to address in my research on this topic. My research on the history of the Erie Canal is not complete yet and there is more information out there that can help to build a better narrative of the Erie Canal and its effect on Rochester. Additionally, I will need to do more research on how to best tailor the digital exhibit to comply with New York State educational standards as this exhibit is meant to be used in a classroom setting. Finally, I need to do more research into accessibility and how to make the online experience available for all people. I have done a lot of work on this topic but there is still much to be done!

Learning about my topic

As I conduct research for my thesis, I'm struck by how rather than focusing on one specific topic, my project seems to be overlapping several broad topics.  This has caused me to break down my sources into four main categories: touch, facsimile, 3D printing/process, and visitor engagement.  All of these topics are crucial to completing my project to the extent that I wish to, and each are giving me important insight into my project.  3D printing/process are helping me to understand what exactly it is I need to do in order to scan and print a successful 3D model of an object, while touch is making me consider why people might want to touch a museum object, and whether a facsimile seems to fulfill those needs.  Facsimile is giving me historic insight into the role of object reproductions in museums and the reception they tend to receive, and visitor engagement is making me think about how I can best study if facsimiles fulfill the desire of a visitor to touch the objects.  All of this knowledge is important for me to complete my thesis, but the different topics have made it a bit difficult to gather and sort through my sources.
For my thesis, I still need to know a little bit more about how I can best conduct a visitor engagement study.  I keep on weighing different methods of collecting visitor feedback, as well as how I can quantitatively measure the impact my object has on their desire to touch.  However, I'm not sure if this decision can be made through just research alone, or if I need to talk with other people about their thoughts as well.

I've found it helpful to physically group my sources into their categories.  It helps me keep track of how many sources I have for each, and what the different literature on a specific topic is.

Blog Post V: Learning Along the Way

For my literature review, I am defining language preservation and revitalization as a movement and looking at both its accomplishments and its shortcomings. An overview of the field is necessary before delving into the relationship between museums and linguistics, so readers will have a better understanding of how and why languages become endangered and what linguists are currently doing to remedy this. In addition, by exploring the past and current works of linguists, I can see where there are gaps and how these gaps can potentially be filled by cultural institutions. For example, I have learned that “recordings of natural conversation, rules of address politeness, turn-taking, and other discourse aspects of endangered languages are few and far between” (1). Given that oral histories are an important archival resource, museums and archives can be great places to store recordings of conversation and culturally important stories/folktales that will assist language revitalization. In addition, linguist Hinton points out that “linguistic documentation that assists revitalization must be user-friendly for the community and oriented toward language education” (2). The idea of being user-friendly and for the community directly aligns with the missions of museums. Cultural institutions are all about accessibility, and data accumulated by linguists must be usable and understandable to people who aren’t linguists in order to make use of them in their communities.

Furthermore, I am learning about what organizations are currently doing in the United States to contribute to the language revitalization effort. As I’ve mentioned in Blog Post IV, there is the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages, which provides endangered language communities access to language archives with the goal of recovering and reviving their languages. I previously thought that this was the only program, but it is actually one of many, just sharing the name and general goal. It is modeled after the Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous California Languages, hosted by the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and the University of California, Berkeley. Moving forward, I still need to know what efforts are being done in Ireland and in the United Kingdom as I will be focusing on the Celtic languages for the main case study of my thesis. I’ve found some great potential resources on language policy and revitalization efforts for the Celtic languages which I will focus on after finishing my literature review.

Lastly, one other interesting thing I’ve learned about through my Evolving English Language class and through one of my thesis resources is the debate surrounding the spread of English. Minority languages can become endangered as a majority language, like English, is favored and learned. Many people, like Jay Walker who gave a Ted Talk called “The World’s English Mania,” see the spread of English as a good thing, as it paves the way for what Walker claims as “a future where the world has a common language to solve its common problems.” I’m interested to learn more about the pros and cons of a world common language and how it might affect lesser spoken languages.

Screenshot from the Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous California Languages, highlighting some of the services offered. Hinton's name is also mentioned, as she is an important figure in language revitalization and whose journal articles I am referencing in my literature review.

Notes:

(1) Leanne Hinton, “Language Revitalization,” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23, (2003): 46.

(2) Hinton, 54.

Blog Post 5: A Better Understanding

One of the things that I've discovered through all of my research on schuhplattler verein (German shoe slapping dance groups or "societies") is that the Schuhplattler Verein Heidengold really is a rare thing; not just in the Rochester area, but worldwide. There are only three groups in the United States that represent the Allgäu region of Germany that are a part of the 76 member vereine Gauverband Nordamerika, of which most organized groups are members. Part of the reasoning for this is the geography of Germany. The Allgäu region is mountainous, so travel to other towns and cities was not common for those in the region. The result of this is that not many were exposed to their tracht (clothing) or their region specific dances.


Although I knew they existed, another thing that I discovered is the website of the Allgäuer Gauverband der Gebirgstrachten und Heimatverine -hereafter referred to as the Allgäu Gauverband.(Website is available in English by right clicking on the body of the page and selecting Translate to English). The Wageggler Börwang-Haldenwang, one of the 45 member clubs of the Allgäu Guaverband visited the United States (Buffalo, NY to be precise) and attended a event put on by the Gauverband Nordamerika called the Gaufest back in 2017. Building relationships with the Wageggler as well as the Allgäu Gauverband can go a long way in helping to preserve authentic tracht, customs, traditions, as well as other aspects of the region.

Another thing that I learned while doing research is how to create the umlaut character while typing all of these German words!! ;)  The umlaut is used to indicate a different vowel quality. If you are not capable of creating the umlaut character, it is appropriate to represent the difference by using the vowel with the addition of "e". For example, ö would be written as oe. However, it is more accurate to use the umlaut whenever possible. Umlauts can be found with ä, ö, and ü in the German language. While this will not be addressed in my thesis, I feel that it is important as it lends authenticity to the writing.


I've also learned how the city of Munich promotes their world famous Oktoberfest. This also leads in to what I still need to know- how this knowledge can help Rochester German societies. Can they apply the principles that Munich uses to make their Oktoberfest not necessarily a world famous event, but an event that will perpetuate the German culture in Rochester?

Immenstadt in Allgau

Photo courtesy of Zaineb Chelly

 https://sites.google.com/site/zeinebchelly/cool-stuff