Blog Post 2 - The age old question; is this cool enough?

Hello!

As I've been thinking about my thesis I found myself in a weird "is this idea cool enough" feedback loop that wasn't productive at all. I spent the last 3 weeks trying to get away from that to really focus on the things that I know I love and am interested in. So far I have three main ideas separated into three major topics, music, food and language.

Music and its impact on people has been something I've been interested in my whole life and i'm always trying to figure out ways to incorporate music into my life and my work. I feel like my idea for music is my weakest but here it goes anyway! If i were to choose this research area i'd like to research how music can be incorporated into museum engagement to enhance the visitor experience and expand their knowledge.

Food is obviously an important part of being alive and every culture has their own food traditions. Personal food traditions, intangible heritage, and how cultures can be embraced and maintained through food traditions is something I have done research on for my own culture and I'd love to expand on that and figure out how food can be incorporated into the museum/public history experience to preserve cultural heritage.

Language is also major and nearly everyone on Earth has language unless you've quite literally been raised by wolves. If I were to do this topic I would focus on how language use can impact visitor experience and I would try to explore ways that museums and other cultural institutions can adjust their language use so that they can be accepting and welcoming of the broadest swath of visitors. This would not only include educating staff on speaking to visitors but also expanding the languages offered in museum interpretation.

I really like all three of these ideas and would happily spend a year researching and writing about them but its almost decision time! I'm sure I'll be confident about my choice when I finally make it, but ask me again in a few weeks.

Senior Thesis and Research Question

The working title for my thesis is "The Effect of Accurate Reproductions in the Research Environment: The Use of 3D Facsimiles in Replacement of Fragile Objects." The question this thesis will answer will be "what are the implications of creating and using accurate reproductions of objects for the research environment for in person and online use?" The object that will be featured in this thesis will be picked from the Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts Collection's vast resource of rare books and objects with the help of Dr. Galbraith. I will try to work with The Construct - that I have recently visited - to scan fragile objects in three dimensions. If a book is chosen as the featured object, it will be reproduced online as well as a 3D object. As a purely digital object, this data can be used to give access to these materials online on the Cary Collections website. To make an accurate reproduction of a book as a replacement object the surface of the cover and spine will be scanned with the 3D scanner and printed if it has a notable topography such as the bolt book. Its pages will be photographed and printed in a high resolution. To use this item as a replacement object the pages will be bound and the 3D cover will be adhered to that foundation. After, the way these objects are interacted with will be recorded and analyzed. I can also look in to creating a perfect copy of an deteriorated object to show what the object might have look like when it was first created or look into printing the final object in a 3D press that uses layers of paper rather than plastic.