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.