Presented at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Council of American Jewish Museums (http://www.cajm.net/annual-conference). Based on the research exhibition "Case Study No. 3 | Sound Objects," created at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, in 2012-2013 (http://bit.ly/sound-objects).

1. Cultural Objects
in the Age of Digital access
Francesco Spagnolo, PhD
The Magnes, UC Berkeley
CAJM, NYC 2013

2. CASE STUDY No. 3: SOUND OBJECTS
http://bit.ly/sound-objects

3. CASE STUDIES
Research-based Exhibition Series
@UC Berkeley
• Foster collaborative research around museum curation
• Enable innovative/unintended uses/interpretations
• Experiment with modes of digital documentation

4. Modes of Digital Documentation
• Online texts and images
(scribd.com; flickr.com)

5. scribd.com is a social media platform for sharing written texts

6. flickr.com allows to share and collaboratively annotate
images
(also allows to geolocate images, add dates, and other kinds of
metadata…)

7. Modes of Digital Documentation
• Digital
documentation of
research and
curatorial work
(zotero.org ;
linoit.com)

8. linoit.com is a platform that allows to share and work
collaboratively with annotations

9. zotero.org allows to annotate online bibliographic resources,
share them, and work collaboratively

10. Modes of Digital Documentation
• Content Management
Systems as
aggregators of digital
content:
• CMS (magnesalm.org)
• Drupal (magnes.org)

11. IDEA@ALM is a Collection Management System that integrates archive,
library and museum metadata schemata with embedded social media content
(Above: IDEA@ALM used at magnesalm.org to describe a painting
alongside a Google Maps Streetview of current location depicted in source)

12. Drupal is a content management system that allows to aggregate
and broadcast a variety of sources (database, social media, crowd
sourced content, etc.)
(Above: Drupal is used at magnes.org to aggregate content from flickr.com,
scribd.com, and soundcloud.com locally generated content)

13. Digital exhibitions may
integrate:
1.Exhibition display
2.Database records
3.Images (flickr)
4.Texts (scribd)
5.Sounds (soundcloud)
6.Videos (youtube/vimeo)
7.Planning (linoit)
8.Research (zotero)
9.Website hub & database
(drupal)

14. Research-based exhibitions
encourage to examine:
1. Relationship between cultural objects & digital
surrogates
2. Modes of re/presentation & interpretation
3. Status of "online exhibitions"

15. Sound Objects project components:
1. Teaching & Research
• UC Berkeley seminar on multi-disciplinary study of
Jewish liturgy (texts, sounds, music, objects, architecture,
body language)
• RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

16. Sound Objects project components:
2. Innovative Theoretical Approach
SOUND STUDY OF SYNAGOGUE LIFE
more at:
performingtexts.wordpress.com
bit.ly/sound-objects

17. Sound Objects project components
3. Curatorial Selection & Documentation
• Integrated use of database + social media platforms
• "Standard" research --> exhibition labels
• Visual documentation --> exhibition images
• Audio documentation --> exhibition sound clips
EXPERIMENTAL CURATORIAL PRACTICE:
"PLAYING" (HANDLING) OBJECTS

18. Sound Objects project components
4. Presentation on-site & on-line

19. Research Results
Part I
• PLACING
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
CULTURAL OBJECT & DIGITAL SURROGATE AT
THE FOREFRONT
• ENHANCED PROXIMITY (hear sound/evoke use,
history, context...)
• ENHANCED MEDIATION/DISTANCE (object
/display case / hand-held device /software (app) / wireless
or cellular connection / server and/or cloud)

20. Research Results
Part II
• MODESOF RE/PRESENTATION & INTERPRETATION
OF CULTURAL OBJECTS
• AUDIO
& VIDEO (not just text & images) as DIGITAL
SURROGATES
• AUDIO
& VIDEO (not just text & images) as DESCRIPTIVE
METADATA OPTIONS
• (NARRATIVE) ROLE OF UIs (USER INTERFACES) and
APPS

21. Research Results
Part III
• QUESTIONING THE STATUS IF "ONLINE
EXHIBITIONS"
•A DIGITAL NARRATIVE entirely based on narrative
capability of UIs (ontological approach)
•A META-COLLECTION: collection of hybrid digital
surrogates and associated descriptive metadata
(epistemological approach)

22. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
• More sophisticated UIs & Apps: better metadata manipulation
• New(ish) platforms (Zeega, Popcorn Maker...) aggregate digital
surrogates and metadata in less linear ways
• Ontology and epistemology get closer
Impossible to separate:
Research from Presentation
Metadata from Narrative