What I'm Learning From My Thesis Research

The vanguard field of Digitization is one that is broad yet specialized. Most of my research consists of descriptions of procedures and technology such as the article "Digital Three-Dimensional Modelling of Donatello's David by Frequency-Modulated Laser Radar." On the other hand, some authors focus on the implications surrounding the accessibility and variety of the World Wide Web as defined by the paper “The Future of Museums in the Digital Age: New Models for Access to and Use of Digital Collections." Most researchers are worried about what laser, scanner or camera to use while others focus on how to monetize their digital collection. Along with this focus on the feasibility technology, authors such as Francoise Benhamou and Victor Ginsburgh of the paper “Is There a Market for Copies?” look in to whether reproductions can be used to deceive the art world as forgeries and if preservation through this method is detrimental becasue of it. Overall, on the technological side, I have learned what I should look for when scanning an object to make sure it is an accurate reproduction and how to 3D print. On the theory side, I learned how to organize and upload this information on the internet in a way to preserve its authenticity and increase its accessibility.

I have a handful of things I wish to know other than the feasibility of 3D scanning and printing archival objects as replacements which is the basis for my thesis. Some questions I still have include, can I 3D scan a book and upload it to an archive's website without the author's knowledge? If I need permission and the author is deceased, when does the content become public domain? The answers to these questions ensure that I would not run into any legal trouble while pursuing my thesis. I also would like to find out what is the best practice to scanning pages in a book. When a book is bound, a camera is unable to capture a flat surface as it might have it if the object was a singular piece of paper. The only way to solve these questions is through continued research and that is what I aim to do.

Potential topic

Since I want to explore a career in Museum Education, I think I’ll write my thesis about a topic related to the field. Specifically, I want to focus on adult learning in nonformal environments. I wrote a paper for Dr. Lent's class about the same subject, and I want to examine it further. 

There is a definite gap of academic research focusing specifically on adult education in museums—most of what I found was about children and school groups. To narrow my topic further, I think I’ll write about a specific underrepresented adult demographic, like seniors or adults without college educations. Museums claim to be centers for lifelong learning, so the academic research should reflect that. Seniors and retirees make up a large part of museum visitors, members, and volunteers, yet I can't find much about how to accommodate their educational needs. I'd be interested in a project that addresses this issue.

Introduction: Elizabeth Gwilt

Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth Gwilt and I’m a fourth year in the Museum Studies program. When I first transferred into the program, I didn’t have a clue about which specific aspects of museum work appealed to me. But now, after taking more museum classes and learning from my own experience, I can say that I’d like to focus on the field of Museum Education. Examining how people learn in museum settings is very interesting to me. I’d love to learn more about methods for assessing learning, and how to design programming that meets visitors’ needs.

My first internship experience took place at the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa, Florida. Although I had a great experience, the small museum lacked an education department, so I hope to find another internship that can support my interest in education. In the meantime, I think my thesis will be related to education somehow.

My Thesis Topic

My senior thesis topic is going to entail aviation, military history, and the cultural landscape of soldiers and pilots. The main focus will be on original artwork by servicemen and servicewomen on the front-side of aircraft, referred to as “nose art” after the section of the machine which serves as the surface for application of paint. First popularized during the then-nascent aerial combat of the Second World War, this art has remained a staple of many different militaries' culture, and has changed over time as the decades progress. My thesis will recount the history of this medium, as well as the culture of service that leads to the practice. Digital resources of images of this art will be invaluable, and my research will draw from multiple different repositories from different institutions, such as the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and the National Museum of The United States Air Force. My research will also include primary sources from servicemen, enabling me to accurately analyze the perspectives and views behind the different kinds of art one can see on the noses of aircraft.

Thesis Topic

As I discussed in my post from early September, I've been working with a team of mechanical engineers on the Uncommon Press project, which will culminate in the creation of an English common press for the Cary Graphic Arts Collection. I have decided that I will use my experience and participation in this project as a starting point for my senior thesis. More specifically, I plan to focus on the way in which the finished press can be utilized by individuals outside of the RIT and printing communities. The idea to hone in on this area arose through conversations with various individuals, including Dr. Decker; I've been asked multiple times, "what's the end goal for this project? Is it just to have a wooden press in the Cary's collection? Will it be accessible to the general public?" I think these are important question, which deserve to be answered.

One could certainly reason that creating the press just to say you have one is an expensive and largely unnecessary endeavor. Since wooden common presses, whether they're originals or reconstructions, are quite rare, I would counter that there certainly is value in creating it so that it can be placed alongside newer, cast iron presses in the Cary. Still, that might not seem like a sufficient reason, so I plan to dig deeper, and provide at least one answer to the question: "How can a reconstruction of an English Common Press be used to benefit the public?" Currently, my brief answer would be to say that the press could be used as an educational object for students, likely those in middle school. To support my answer to this question, I plan to utilize historical data & publications related to the subject of the English common press, current scholarly reports and articles relating to education, information gleaned from the curriculum of a local school & interviews with its teachers, and my own knowledge gained from personally working on the project. It's my hope that through researching & writing my thesis, I will be able to come up with a formula through which a variety of schools could utilize any reconstruction of a common press as a contextual device to better educate their students.

Thesis Topic

My thesis topic will be examining how museums handle displaying culturally sensitive objects. My thesis will focus specifically on the Rochester Museum and Science Center and will be a case study of how they go through the process of handling and exhibiting the Charlotte carousel panel. I do not yet have a working title title for my thesis, but have been attempting to throw some ideas around about that and should have one worked up by next week. The research question my thesis will address is "What are the best practices museums should abide by when exhibiting culturally sensitive objects?" I will attempt to answer it by doing the case study of the RMSC and by doing research on other institutions that have experienced similar issues. I will also be looking at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture to see how they have attempted to handle this problem. This is still a working question, and may be a bit broad, but for the moment, I think broad is good because it will encompass more research, and I can always narrow it down at a later point if necessary. As for research, I have found a number or journal articles that deal with this subject matter, and have compiled many newspaper articles and online commentary dealing with the carousel panel directly. I have attempted to make contact with some staff members at the NMAAHC and am currently waiting for their replies.

Senior Thesis - Chris Fisher

"Fiddle Tunes in Western New York and the People That Play Them" is my (very much a working) title. I plan on discussing not only the history of this music in the country but also the region. My intention is to find a group of people that are keeping the tradition alive in Western New York and record them in a podcast format. In the podcast, we will hear a version of the song played by these people and I will then talk about it, perhaps going into its history as well as discussing the relevance that the song has to this region. There are several notable scholars of this sort of music in the area, namely, the elusive Professor James Kimball. I have also attended several bluegrass jams in the area already to get a feel for exactly what sort of traditional songs are still being played. These have proven to be very useful, not only in terms of helping me learn more about the songs, but also in helping me build a network of people that could prove useful to this project.

Thesis topic

For my senior thesis topic, I have chosen food to be an overarching theme. Specifically, how museums are using food and alcohol to attract new audiences through experiential events. So far I have narrowed it down to an area that I have found little information about. I would like to look at the appropriateness of the use of these alcohol and food driven programs. There are areas on the spectrum of appropriateness that some museums do not pay attention to and tend to abuse this opportunity to gain attention that does not always fit their mission. An article that I was inspired by was this one here. Understandably, there does not seem to be many scholarly writings about this due to the recent shift with many museums. They are still piloting several of these programs and working through kinks that continue to pop up at museums across the country and presumably around the world.