I did a small piece of work with the Audience Development Coordinator at Derby Museums, revising the online audience feedback report. This is provided to the Trustees and staff through out the museum to give people an opportunity to see what is being said about the Trust’s venues.

The original format was a number of reviews from Tripadviser, copied ad verbatim into a text document. it was quite lengthy and only pulled content from one online source. It was also getting difficult to present a broad spectrum of the feedback as so much is now being generated.

I started out by completing a review of just where people were leaving feedback and reviews about Derby Museums. Looking over the full breadth of sources might give an opportunity for insight.  Another consideration that I had was to give the report some structure, interest and meaning. An opportunity to pull trends or insight out over a month-by-month basis or even comparing one period to another.

Originally I began to work in a Powerpoint presentation, as it allows different layouts to be easily achieved. I worked at pulling in images, and looking at the top level trends mentioned in the reviews left for the month I was examining.  The report become quite long, and when I submitted it for feedback we realised that firstly the font was quite small and the report too unwieldy. Jane and I had a chat and decided that using a Word document was acceptable and so the summarised information was included in a new document.

A final format of one side was agreed, with a number of sources consulted each month. Overall I look at Google Reviews, Facebook amalgamated pages and also the managed page, Twitter statistics, and finally the Tripadvisor reviews that were our starting point.

I’ve been able to work on this task over time, I’ve begun to notice some patterns. For example, that reviews tend to drastically change when there is a specific event on that is going to pull in a large number of visitors, such as the half-term holidays, or the Georgian Christmas event. I’ve also been able to include some suggestions to improve content around the web to help with audience engagement, such as checking that the pages created by Facebook Derby Museum Trust venues have the correct addresses.

So, as of March 2016, the format is sorted and it is a regular job that I have to do. If you’d like to see an example, please click here.

 

Valentine’s Day was the first day of 2016 that I remember being sunny and warm. I decided to go for a trek around Elvaston Castle grounds and found an amazing deserted old farm complex that was obviously part of the original house complex. The detail in the buildings was beautiful, and much of the original farm machinery was still in situ. I think it is such a shame how the estate has been under-managed. There was masses of potential there, but much of it’s building now I guess are beyond reasonable repair.

Here are the photos I took:

 

 

 

 

A few pictures taken of the team developing the space for the Joseph Wright project lab at Derby Museum until the 28th February.

 

I decided to try a second visit the to the Nottingham Contemporary last weekend, after reading good things about their children’s activities. I invited one of my friends from Derby Museums along, who also has a son slightly younger than M as another point of view.

The first time I visited I had more of a general look round, taking in the architecture (which is nice, with great links to the Nottingham lace making industry), the cafe and the shop. The shop has got some lovely things in it, but seemed to tend towards the pricier end of the spectrum for what could be sourced far more reasonably elsewhere.

This second time, my first with son, was a chance to see things from a more in-depth point-of-view.

We visited the activity for children first, located on the second floor. It was billed as ‘matchbox art’. Essentially creating larger pictures into many smaller ones, by cutting them up and sticking them onto the sides of the box. It has lots of creative possibilities, creating puzzles or replacing parts of the picture with something else, for example. Materials were laid out and we were directed to a seat to make a start.

After about 5 minutes, the activity supervisor came rushing up and said that we were using the wrong materials  Matchboxes? Magazine pictures? Glue or scissors? Between welcoming other families she explained over a further 5 minutes that the activity has a limited budget, and that the matchboxes we could use were the ones with paper wrapped around them, not sticking to the boxes directly like we had begun to. Not a problem, but there was nothing explaining this and plastic bags of boxes left open on the table, giving the distinct impression to help yourself. It was a real shame, as the kids had started to explore the possibilities of decorating the insides of the box, creating art surprises, and so forth. Plus being interrupted midway was a distraction it itself. We recovered but for me the activity lost a bit of sparkle, mainly because when you took away the paper wrappings you were left with something that looked pretty deflated, which was a shame. When we walked around the exhibition we also realised that there was a great link to some of the artwork on show. This wasn’t made clear at the time, and I feel that an opportunity was missed here.

We visited the exhibition space next. The show was billed as ‘Monuments should not be trusted’, bringing

“together over 30 leading artists and groups from the “golden years” of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – the period between the early 1960s and the mid 1980s.

Over 100 artworks and artifacts illuminate the key contradictions of this single party state – built after WWII on socialist principles, yet immersed in “Utopian consumerism.”

There was a vast range of artworks, over 100, spread across 3 spaces, and broadly grouped into themes of Public Space and the Presence of Tito, Socialism and Class Difference, Comradess Superwoman, and Utopian Consumerism and Subcultures. The mix of media was good, with sculpture, photography, film, paint and historical objects all included.

Unfortunately I found the gallery experience itself unsatisfying. Considering the venue included a family activity on the day, there was nothing outside the Comradess Superwoman gallery indicating that some of the content might be unsuitable for younger visitors or cause offence. Images included topless women in quite suggestive poses and could be considered pornographic, albeit on the softer side.

My son and I are used to being quite free in a gallery space. This exhibition was of contemporary works, which was probably less accessible, however certain aspects, such as a large monolithic sculpture in the corner that my son and I were placing peek-a-boo around the side of was not cordoned off in any way. Despite this we were asked by one of the assistants to ‘step away and not touch’. Several times the assistants approached us to point out that the display cases were tall, narrow and with extremely spindly legs, and seemed to be at risk of falling over. Not great with younger children around. Some of the head-sets for the film were were deafeningly loud when put on, with no concern given to the visitor’s hearing.

I have always tried to teach my son to be respectful and considerate towards others, however we are very used to being playful in a museum space, and as such with consideration given for the needs of visitors of all ages. I really didn’t feel this was the case with the Nottingham Contemporary exhibition. The staff spent a long time hovering nearby and after the third of fourth reminder about what to do (or not) I decided to give it up and head downstairs for a drink.

The cafe had a buzz to it, but was not decidedly busy. We ordered a coffee, a peppermint tea and my son chose a piece of cake from the display. After waiting over 10 minutes for 2 drinks to be delivered (the server behind the counter seemed to be rather vague about his work) we discovered that the cake has been left in the air for so longer as to render it inedible. Unfortunately this fact has been disguised by a thick layer of icing.  I returned what was left of the cafe to the counter and waited for another 5 minutes to ask for the bill, ignored by the 3 members of staff who were working there at the time.

All in all, I wasn’t that impressed. The kids activity was great, but the links with the exhibition were not obvious. if you visited first as we did there was nothing describing the inspiration. The gallery experience was mediocre, with little signage or allowances made to adapt for children of families. Although the staff were not unfriendly in their approaches, continuous intervention does begin to become tedious and off-putting, You have to ask yourself could a better job not have been done in the space set up? At least put up some signs for crying out load.

The cafe, don’t bother. There are umpteen better places for coffee and food outside the gallery doors.

I think I will go again, but certainly not with child in tow and definitely not without checking what the exhibition is by calling in advance.

 

 

 

Here is what has interested me in the last few weeks online:

• A library of ‘things lets you borrow interesting stiff as well as books – looking at how public buildings can become more useful and reinventive n the 21st Century.
• A Kickstarter funded PC game explores grief and allows a developer to come to terms with the death of his child.
• A round up of the 3rd annual ‘Digital Culture report from Ash Mann
• An entrepreneur moving from the Art Sector to producing mindfulness apps says his goodbyes.
• The first ever CGI animation interacts with live actors on stage in Shakespeare’s the Tempest
• The development of the Royal Opera House London into a digital offering designed to reach new audiences
• Amazing article on the use of cultural and museum audience communication engaging with the Tate as a case study
• The Barbican redesigns their online booking process with user needs central
• Stop Motion animation grows up – traditional animation experiences a resurgence whilst benefiting from new tech too.
• Ghosts in the camera – easier to read it…
• Victorian flirtation cards – which just rock 🙂
• Design a wig – hilarious and historical at the same time.
• Great thought piece on museums and digital in 2016
• Service design in museums and culture – more important than ever.

Enjoy.

Just a quick update this evening. I’ve signed up to the University of Leicester Museum Studies MA MOOC ‘behind the scenes at the 21st Century Museum’. Today I got a little more under the skin of the re-interpretation, understanding how the project has been conceived and how the feedback on the Project Lab had been actualised into the final solution.

Things are still very much in flux. Like I said before, because the work has to be completed during closed hours, so we are essentially double handling in places – taking some items out of cabinets to put them back in again.

The vinyls are gradually being replaced for plain white backgrounds and the proto-type stands made from acrylics are being used to display some of the items in the week between work sessions to give the public a chance to feed back and the experience to bed in – for both the co-production team, other staff and visitors.

Today I assisted with some packing and organising storage. As well as trying to document the process more, as you shall see below.

 

On the 11th January The co-production team began the work to reinterpret the ceramics exhibition in the Derby Museum cafe. The team, led by Andrea H-J, had been collecting feedback on the display for a while, both via Twitter and in person from Project Labs and general feedback left in the cafe.

As the work involves removal of the ceramics from the cabinets it can only be completed on a Monday when the building is closed to the public. I’m really excited to be able to assist; up until now I have only been involved in shorter term projects. This will be the first longer-term work I will have the opportunity to experience – the first time to see the curation, cleaning and documentation process from start to finish.

On this first day I have been mainly cleaning and preparing – keeping the space tidy, removing vinyl lettering from the cabinets, moving items in and out of stores, conducting some research on books suitable for the seating area. It’s great to be able to observe what is going on, and to be honest it was pretty similar, in fact nearly identical, to the visual merchandising and display work I tried when in uni’. The main difference is the cost of the items on display and the amount of documenting and auditing work that must take place as pieces are moved and displayed.

All being well I’m planning on helping every Monday. I’ve taken a few photos to document the process. I think it’s always great to see what goes on behind the scenes. It’s such a chance to see the pieces from an unusual point of view, such as from directly above or juxtaposed in odd groups it would be criminal not to capture some of the process…

If you’re interested in seeing the finished work, it is due for completion by the end of February. You can also follow the hashtag #DMCeramics on Twitter, and contribute a mug shot if you like.

 

So I cleared out the house this weekend. Mark and Mylo exited, leaving me with 12 months of accumulated crud to tackle, with a huge side helping of Christmas presents and and holiday icing dirt to finish. What an appealing prospect. Well, from the point of view of being an autie it was. One of the things I get genuine pleasure from is restoring order from the chaos, and man things had got chaotic over the last 2 weeks.

We live in the same building as my partner runs his business from, as well as having a toddler, our living space has to be multi-functional. We have a fairly modern house which includes a through living room cum diner so can’t even designate one of two spaces for working and the other for living. Over 48 hours our living room is a lounge, dining space, photographic studio, office, exercise room, playroom, and dispatch bay. Keeping the oasis of calm I relish is all but impossible, so we have all had to compromise a bit. The main one I ask is that we practice toy rotation. At any time about 60% of Mylo’s toys were packed away, but we still had too many. Christmas was just the straw that broke the camel’s back so, everything came out, got sorted, and packed into plastic storage boxes (a bargain from Aldi, half the price of Homebase). It was a strange feeling of space having a house with no toys in it – a phenomenon not experienced in over 3 years.

I decided to go for it and tackled a few more jobs. Everywhere has been spring cleaned – no dust balls. I took all of the extra stuff that has been stored in the main bedroom when we moved my son into his new room 10 months ago. We were still co-sleeping until recently, but have made the decision to let him have his own room, and on the whole it has been a success. Now all his clothes, treasure and books are organised. The wardrobes have been turfed out and a few hideous shirts belonging to my partner have gone to a better place in the charity shop down the road. Luckily he rarely reads this blog and would give up before this point so I should be safe. Two sets of drawers have been moved downstairs, one to store the business odd and ends in the living room, the other TBC. My son’s room has been cleared and I’ve bought the paint to decorate; a lovely shade of blue called Javan Dawn 2. I also found an indoor Jasmine looking forlorn in the reduced section which smells divine –  now located on my desk whilst I type. So much nicer than a Glade plug-in. I also put together a bunch of stuff from around the house that will really brighten up the living room. It ended up being a bit brown and beige – not a look I rate excessively.

I’ve been spending a bit more time on myself recently. I have been growing my hair. It just reached my shoulders and I think that it has brought out more of my femininity.  I put some earring in for the first time in age and have even found time for make-up! If you see the image in the side panel you can see how short my hair was 3 years ago. I think it was just a reaction to being so busy, with moving house and being really ill, renovating a property with a 3 month old, anti-social neighbours for 2 years. You name it, we did it.

My last treat to myself was a BurgerKing. Real food resumes tomorrow and I haven’t done a scrap of shopping since Christmas Eve. I’ll leave you with the hilarious proofread fail I spotted on the menu.

Happy New Year!

 

 

So I feel about twelve years old at the moment. Just got back from watching the latest Star Wars movie and it was totally amazing. The writers have managed to fit three movie’s worth of references into one feature film. There was patricide (down a bloody deep shaft) comedy, wobbly musicians, a new improved R2D2 type robot, a planet blasting mega-weapon! Amazing new actors joining the line up of old favorites; Han Solo, Chewie, Princess Leia and the robots.

This is Star Wars but on steroids, Star Wars for the 21st Century! It’s 20 times bigger than the original series (there’s a handy CGI 3D image comparing the new Death Star to the old to illustrate this)  and as much a film showcasing the best technology and skills as the first trilogy. I know that I’ve used far too many exclamation marks, but I have been waiting 17 years for this film after the disappointment that was the prequel trilogy. I was raised on Star Wars and Star Trek – next cinematic stop the Star Wars rebooted movie 😀 😀 😀