Happy Thanksgiving!

     Hello! I hope that everyone had a good break and was able to eat some good food, or buy something at a great deal! We are getting closer and closer to the end of the semester and it's somewhat scary to me honestly. Everything went by so fast and it went much smoother than I anticipated! I'm very excited about my capstone project and I feel like things are going in a good direction! I hope my classmates are also doing well with their thesis or capstones too. 

    I will admit, I never thought I'd get here. When I graduated high school in 2017, I never expected to really get very far or feel successful. I had a half assed plan to go to community college, get an art degree and then flounder about afterwards. But here I am, a Museum Studies major working on my capstone project. Another thing I never expected was to actually make friends. By nature, I'm extremely introverted and have severe social anxiety which is partially under control thanks to medication. I hadn't really had "friends" since about middle school and in community college did not manage to make any friends. When I first came to RIT as an Illustration major I didn't make friends either. Honestly, it looked like Museum Studies was going to be the same at first but I finally feel like I do have friends within the major that I enjoy talking to. It's been awhile since I've actually hung out with people. All I can say is I am very grateful for the Museum Studies program and all the wonderful professors I've had along the way. I don't know if this was too personal but I felt as if it needed to be said. 

    Anyway, I started writing this as a distraction from my other assignments but I do enjoy writing here and reading other classmates' posts. Hope everyone has a lovely day.

- Von Stevens

    This is Little Miss Penny! I went to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving and this is her dog! 

Exhibit Updates and Abstract Changes!

Hi all!

I’ve made lots of exhibit development progress! My exhibit will be centered around ~6 key concepts derived from sources in my literature review. These concepts–Constructing Identity, Fashion and the Body, Selling Self-Expression, Production Methods, Eurocentricity in Fashion, Fashion as a Cycle–will shape the physical layout of my exhibit and connect to its interactive elements. To create dialogue between exhibit objects and contextualize historic pieces from the Susan Greene Costume Collection, I will be incorporating modern clothing from my personal collection into the exhibit. These may also be included in hands-on events at the exhibit reception, allowing visitors to interact with exhibit objects without the concern of damaging GCV&M collection items. I’ve also decided to create a smaller digital exhibit, both as an additional interactive element to my project and as a means of documenting the physical exhibit beyond its lifespan in University Gallery.

Along with my exhibit progress, I’ve also rewritten my abstract and adjusted my research question to better align with my project. My abstract now reflects my project’s emphasis on the value of interpretation and visitor connection and asks how historic collections can be effective, relevant tools for combating misinformation. This change has given me a much stronger sense of direction with regard to my thesis work! I’m excited to continue working on my project and will be posting another update soon on my revised thesis proposal.

On a non-thesis note, the Independent Study project Caitlin McCabe (a 2024 MUSE grad!) and I completed on WITR's CD collection was recently featured in RIT’s University Magazine. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to share our work, especially in an article written by another MUSE grad, Felícia Swartzenberg! :) Please check out Felícia’s article here: https://www.rit.edu/news/witr.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Riley

Slight Detour in Idea!

     Hello again! I am here to inform you all on updates and changes I've made to my original idea. Though the central idea of human remains in museums is the same, I will be focusing on the display and ethics behind museums along with four specific case studies: mummies, bog bodies, cadavers, and Body-World exhibits. These case studies are all remains, but in different forms that continue to be displayed around the world facing controversy and ethical dilemmas. 

    This project is all research based so I don't have exciting news to share about places I visited recently or people I've talked to, but I can talk about what I've read. For example, Body-World exhibits would use real bodies usually prisoners of war in their displays, without getting permission from the relatives of the deceased. To keep bodies preserved, a method called plastination was used where clear resin was pumped into the tissue and later hardened, preserving the remains and putting them on display. 

    I also briefly talked about in my first blog post how I went to Museo Egizio in Torino, Italy and that is what inspired me to choose this topic. Mummies are possibly the most displayed form of remains and can be found around the world in numerous institutions. The lack of ethical guidelines reside from the fact that the remains are ancient and no one can give consent on their behaves. If we're being completely honest, most people go to museums to see mummies as they are so popular, so getting rid of them could be detrimental to museums and their visitor count which is another reason they are displayed. 

    More will be discussed in my next post as I just wanted to give you all a little insight to my research as I changed the majority of my idea! 

                     Photo of plastination from https://www.sandiegovideoproduction.com/plastination/

    

Visiting the Livingston County Archives Part 1

 I recently visited the Livingston County Historian’s Archives to research The Castle on the Hill and collect memory aids for my oral histories. I would first like to thank the County Historian, Holly Watson, and Deputy Historian, Madeline Friedler. They both were extremely welcoming and willing to answer any questions I had. I had never done my own research at an archival repository, which was quite overwhelming at first. I am so thankful that Holly and Madeline helped me narrow my research scope down. When I arrived, they had pulled a large reference book, a research binder, and also pre-loaded digital photographs on a laptop for me. I looked mainly at the digital files, but the research binder also had some interesting information. I was especially interested in the Castle on the Hill photos from when the Landmark Society visited in 1989. The pictures showed the hotel deteriorating and vandalized. I had seen vandalism in the hotel before, but not this early, and also not documented formally. I also did not know that the hotel was in such a deep state of disrepair this early on.

1989 Landmark Society- Sanitarium roof, East and south elevations, looking NW, Courtesy of Livingston County Archives

1989 Landmark Society- Sanitarium first floor lobby, looking east, Courtesy of Livingston County Archives

I never knew that the Landmark Society visited The Castle on the Hill. I was unable to find the specific reason why the society visited, but I assume that it was to assess the viability of the site to become a landmark. The Castle on the Hill never became a landmark, and I am interested in learning more about this visit. 

This is one of the many exciting things I encountered at the archive, and my next post will share more of my thrilling finds in the next post! 

Click here to see the website and resources the Livingston County Archives provides!

Thesis and Closing Semester

     Hello everyone! The weather has been so grey and it is hard to stay motivated this time of the year, but we have almost finished this semester. Completing my literature review and proposal (for now) was a major accomplishment and something I was excited to check off my list.

    Developing timeline for my thesis was a very helpful aspect of the proposal process and one that will keep me on track for the rest of the semester and break. I will be visiting the MAG again after Thanksgiving break but for now I am editing my literature review and proposal, working on my final projects and assignments, and my law school applicatio
n. I am excited for a small break from school and seeing my family, hopefully it will give me renewed energy to complete the semester.

    Before the end of the semester I am going to decide which of two directions my thesis will go in based upon my visits to the MAG and research I have been doing outside. I will either be adding to provenance research the MAG already has or I will be developing a way to make what they do have ore negating and accessible. 

My study buddy Arlo

Anyways that is all for now enjoy your breaks and keep working you got this! Enjoy this photo of my cat Arlo who I made hold this highlighter for me while I studied.

-Kaitlyn

    

Egg Tempera Updates! From Renee Guerin

 Hello, Everyone!

It has been awhile. I hope everything is going well as we all wrap up this fall semester. As I have continued in Research Methods, I have developed my literature review and proposal, and am continuing to work on refining everything for faculty to read. I had a fun time planning out my timeline, as it gave me a better sense of what needed to be done, and what I have to look forward to going into winter break and the upcoming spring semester. One of my focuses from my timeline is the planning and preparation of the egg tempera paints and substrates.

I am currently researching natural, ethically sourced pigments, and comparing them via price point and shipping timeline. One source I am leaning towards is Koo Schadler, because of their affluence in the tempera painting community today, as well as the publications they have disseminated on the internet. I am also considering things such as sourcing natural earth pigments myself locally, in order to keep with consistency of where the materials are exactly coming from. Something I need to be aware of is time constraint, and how plausible it is to source, dry, and grind all these materials by myself if I went down this route.

Finally, I have started to research a selection of tempera paintings for the recreation process. While I haven’t narrowed it down yet, what I am primarily looking for is: skill level, time constraint, additives that may be included, time period, substrate, scale, damaged or non-damaged, and further. This is a concise version of a checklist I am planning to create and use in dwindling down the potential works. Overall, everything has been going smoothly, thus far, but I am looking forward to a nice relaxing break with my dogs!

Free from Midterms and My Lit Review (For Now)

 It is far too dark outside and I miss the sun, but that's Rochester in the Fall and Winter for you!

I am back from midterms, and to keep you updated on my thesis, I have finished my lit review. Kind of. It's far from perfect, but it definitely approached good, and for something Dr. Decker says will never be or feel completely finished, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I hung my survey flyers yesterday, and am totally not refreshing every hour to see if anyone has submitted a survey, which was a major relief and step forward for me in this project. I am also working on my thesis proposal (eek!) which is coming along much smoother than I imagined, although if my tech issues with google docs have anything to say about it, there might be a few more unseen bumps than anticipated. After the proposal, it's going to be revise, revise, revise. That lit review I mentioned? I forgot a key part that I should probably include, because having a thesis paper about visitor behavior and familiarity without mentioning the previous research done doesn't seem like a good idea if you know what I mean.

All in all, I've got a lot more writing to do to get this thesis past the good stage, and I've got a lot of waiting to do as well. Good thing I've got a bunch of sources I need to reread (and a google form to refresh)!

Yours in silly times, sleep deprivation and cat withdrawals,

Nic

Pete chilling on his heated bed (I MISS HIM SO MUCH)

Updates and you have a little over 7 days...(The Ring reference)

Who else is feeling good about their thesis and has 9 fingers? 

Never do I! 

hahaha...I know, hilarious. But in all seriousness, if you are feeling lost, tired, or like you're not doing enough, you're not the only one! These feelings are natural and in fact, normal. 

I also feel weird talking about my thesis topic on our blog, because who wants to hear it? But I guess I have to get used to it because that is what we'll be doing in...9 days with our proposal and all of next Spring :) 

My topic has expanded from the beginning of adding ramps to historic houses, to just focusing on a new walkway at the GCV&M for a more accessible time for visitors! 

I have learned way too much about pavements...and gravel...

What is something your research has you researching that you didn't expect? 

Comment below! ~