About Me

My photo
Web person at the Imperial War Museum, just completed PhD about digital sustainability in museums (the original motivation for this blog was as my research diary). Posting occasionally, and usually museum tech stuff but prone to stray. I welcome comments if you want to take anything further. These are my opinions and should not be attributed to my employer or anyone else (unless they thought of them too). Twitter: @jottevanger

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Pivoting like it's 1999: introducing "Collection Distractions"

So, although I finished serious work on my PhD over a year ago and in theory have more time to blog, and despite the fact that I have plenty of things I want to write about and plenty more I probably should tell you about (things are busy at IWM), the clear fact is that I don't. I've just not got the energy, and I'm using my time to, well, have a life. Part of the problem is that I can't write briefly, but I have a plan. There's something that's a constant source of inspiration and which I frequently want to share, namely the things I stumble across in IWM's collections. I'm no historian and I will not be trying to instruct or talk with any authority; equally I'm not Retronaut, and may be tempted on occasion to dig a little deeper or add some context (within my limited ability). The things that catch my eye do so for all kinds of reasons: sometimes it's that shock of disruption to assumed knowledge, in the way that Retronaut aims to do; sometimes it's a moving story or a comment from a user; sometimes it's simply an engrossing film or an amazing artwork; and all of these are seen from the vantage point of an amateur (though learning every day). In due course I will also try to find a way to promote some of the things that have been done with our collections by other people/organisations and indeed to try some new things myself - it's been a while since I played with collections data and content. So if I'm true to my word you can expect more frequent, quick-and-easy posts showing you things I would hesitate to term "treasures", given the nature of IWM's subject matter, but which can nevertheless be extraordinarily profound, moving, beautiful or sometimes horrifying. Let's see how it goes.

No comments: