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Skeleton of blue whale at Natural History Museum was held by newspaper

Newspaper and plaster of paris can hold bones together for over 80 years? wow!

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The Secret Lives of Early Modern Cabinets

This post was written by Nadia Baadj, Assistant professor of Art History & Rosalind Franklin Fellow at University of Groningen and former V&A Research Fellow What kinds of secrets do early modern cabinets hold inside, behind their locked doors, hidden drawers, and endless maze of compartments? Far from static pieces of furniture, the examples on […]

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Network visualisations and the 'so what?' problem - Open Objects

Provocation: digital humanists love network visualisations, but ordinary people say, ‘so what’? I've collected feedback from three years of teaching infoviz

Great explanation of the importance of network visualizations

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The Incredible Electric Eric: Rebuilding a Lost 1920s British Robot

By all accounts, the debut of the UK’s first humanoid robot was a startling affair.

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A Memorial to Hollywood Star Hedy Lamarr, a Founding Mother of Modern Tech

If you’ve heard of Hedy Lamarr, it’s probably in connection to her dramatic and scandal-laden career as a Hollywood film actress of the 1930s and ‘40s.

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How User-Friendly Are Museum Image Rights?

If you’ve ever considered downloading a digital image of an artwork from a museum’s website, you probably know rather well that the world of copyright is an incredibly murky and difficu…

LOVE this project. I've researched a little about how museums overstate exactly what their copyrights are on their terms of use, sometimes in part because they don't know what the actually copyrights are, or they don't want to see users profit off their objects, or even because it's simply easier to state the most restrictive copyright applies to all their digital photos. In some instances, like if the digital representation is as realistic as possible, museums might not own any copyright over the photo at all, though artists do if their art is not yet in the public domain (see Corel v. Bridgeman case). At the same time, making this type of information publicly available is very time-consuming, so I can understand why it's not as high of a priority, especially for more resource-drained institutions. Also, how much would it change things to have labels read as metadata? I bet metadata standards would progress much more quickly if this were the case. :)

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Danish National Gallery Removes the Word “Negro” from 13 Artworks’ Titles

The National Gallery of Denmark (or Statens Museum for Kunst, SMK) is removing dated, potentially offensive colonial terminology from the titles of artworks in its collection.

I've recently been looking at how to decolonize American museums, particularly in museum databases, by removing terms that no longer reflect modern thinking, so I applaud the steps from the Danish National Gallery (which I got to visit last summer). Having a field for former titles do reflect some of the artists original intentions. I wish more museums would follow suit.

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French Museum Faces “Cultural Catastrophe” After Storage Vault Floods

Recent heavy rainfall in France has led to dangerously high water levels, but while some Paris museums have managed to safeguard their collections, staffers at the Musée Girodet found themselves fa…

Oh no :(

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Third copyright lawsuit filed against Richard Prince for appropriating Sid Vicious photo

The artist is accused of using a London photographer’s image of the Sex Pistol’s bassist in an Instagram work

Oh that Richard Prince....

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ISIS Hacks Arkansas Library Association Website

(KARK) The Arkansas Library Association is at the center of an online attack by the terrorist group ISIS. The Association says hundreds of members' information is now the hands of the militant group.

Wait, really?

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44th Annual Meeting – Textiles Session, May 16, “A Material Disaster: Preservation of the Muppets,” by Sunae Park Evans

Dear Children of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Fear not, our childhood has been well preserved. You may have been concerned to hear our Muppet friends were suffering from the ill effects of aging and, I

The conservation of Muppets. Who knew it would be so complex to preserve them?

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o)

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Louvre and Orsay shut down due to flood threat

Both institutions have enacted emergency plans to protect works, as days of rain put the country on high alert

I've seen a lot of others post about this as well. But in my collections management course, I had the privilege of learning just how invaluable emergency preparedness plans can be, so I'm happy to hear that the Louvre and Orsay are putting their plans into action. Hopefully they will share with the world their success story after the floods recede.

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New Google Project Aims to Put the AI in “Artist”

Can artificial intelligence create art?

Pretty interesting concept to think about. I’ll be curious how well the A.I. does on making art.

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Why Museums Are Granting Google Free Access to Their Collections

Google Cultural Institute recently revealed that it has engineered the creatively named Google Art Camera: a custom-built camera intended to capture “ultra-high resolution ‘gigapixel&#8…

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Despite Protests, Paris Auction of Sacred Native American Objects Goes Ahead

Despite calls for a halt from US government officials and tribal leaders, EVE (Estimations Ventes aux Enchères) auction house went forward yesterday at Drouot Richelieu in Paris with a sale that in…

“I think they think that we’re extinct people, and we’re treated as such by other countries"