#museum things

[populus-grandidentata]

Child in the dinosaur gallery: I wish my head was as big as a T-Rex

[julihurts]

It's the opening of my museum exhibition tonight! Two years I've worked for it and now I finally get to celebrate it.

I'm a bit nervous though but my partner told me I should wear my fancy shirt that was part of my Jaskier costume last year and what can I say, they know me well

[extemporaneousmusings]

8/5/19

No pics today bc my phone was on the edge of death all day and stayed on my desk the entire time.

I’m still adjusting to having to work 9-5 at the museum. It’s so fucking engaging and enjoyable but I’ve also been super stressed and exhausted by it.

We’re pushing up against a big deadline next week in terms of object choices so it’s been a crazy 2 days. Once that is in, I am hoping that I’ll be able to spend some actual time researching, instead of frantically compiling lists from a database I’m only just starting to learn.

We also did a bunch of storage stuff today which was dope but I’m still adjusting to the different tactile experiences you have with archaeological materials in a museum setting. (I haven’t been officially object trained yet and I’m dying.)

Here are 3 things I’m looking forward to: reading about 19th century Achmaenid ‘fakes’//getting to pick Ev’s brain about maps AND hard to read inscriptions//learning how to exist in a non-academic space with a team of almost exclusively dope female colleagues

[extemporaneousmusings]

18/4/19

Pictured: colorful seascape sculpture constructed from recycled material//a visualization of geological time as a spiral (fucking genius from both a conceptual and graphic design standpoint)//vestigial rails

Ian and I had a lovely day downtown! We each chose a smithsonian and split our time between the two. I’m formulating a post on curating exhibits on the process of collections, which was a big theme in what we say today, and possibly also one on Zuni pottery, we shall see!

[extemporaneousmusings]

6/11/18

I am forking wiped, jesus. Today I: TA-ed, formatted my notes from last night and wrote a list of sites and themes to do more research on, went to the museum for a long meeting about the re-instal,* went back to campus for seminar, voted, overlapped for a whopping 17 minutes with E, and then collapsed onto my bed and feverishly kept refreshing the NYT live elections results page for about 2 hours.  

I’m going to try and finish the book I started yesterday. I’ll update the stats later. Most of the heavy chronological stuff was in the first half, so I’m hoping that the second half goes quicker. 

Update/Stats: after struggling I switched to Osborne and didn’t finish the Dickinson...I managed a chapter (26 pages) but I am just gonna call it a night.

*it was great and productive and extremely mentally taxing. Wenner and I came up with an idea about doing a section on the transition from the Bronze Age to Iron Age in the various cultures/regions we have represented in the near eastern collections. (literally what I've been reading abt for comps, freaking of course. have u ever noticed that the stuff u read sometimes pops up really immediately and unexpectedly in other fora/conversations) Anyway, I’m really stoked about it slash it would solve a bunch of problems we’ve been having conceptually. Hopefully our collaborators will agree, though...this is the tricky part of this project. There’s a lot of institutional and political differences wrapped up in it. 

[extemporaneousmusings]

2/7/2017

Cloke and I saw the François Vase today in the Cycladic Museum. I was undone. It is so much more beautiful in person than I had even begun to imagine.

This vase is THE most famous and important object in the field of Greek vase painting and iconography. I have been fucking dreaming of seeing it in person for seven years, since my first into to Greek Art course in undergrad.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the exhibit it was in; the show juxtaposed ancient object with Cy Twombly’s work (he was a super famous modern artist). I am all about creating dialogue through space and time with thematically connected objects, but I found the show to be under-curated, and not very impactful. The gravitas engendered by the François Vase was just leagues above anything else on display and the whole thing just felt so unbalanced.

I’m bummed the show itself wasn’t my favorite, but seeing that vase in person was just utterly spectacular. If you’re in Athens and have the chance, for sure go see it!

[xadisax]

[populus-grandidentata]

I got asked today if paintings in an exhibit were ai generated.