Invisible Cities

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination — The Harvard University Gazette

Worth reading. The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination — The Harvard University Gazette.

THATCamp & Museums

I loved T. Mills Kelly's thoughts on Edwired about the museum taking in digital objects of individual collectors into its collections. It generated so many strange images in my mind, including whether the relationship between a donor of a digital object and the museum would be exclusive. Mostly, though, I am struck by the continued fetishization of the object in museums, as we discussed at THATCamp. There is a kind of sacrilization of the "real" going on in response to digital history. In some respects, this same sort of concern is being expressed about landscapes as well. I am not sure that I disagree that the physical universe--the artifact or landscape--are important. And, I think the comments (by Jeff K of All that is Solid) are right on about that--notably that we have not quite figure out how to render digital objects. But, I am not sure that we've done that completely well with print items either.

Indeed, I am not sure that casting it is an either/or proposition as so many museums continue to do is quite right. For example, digital objects are different manifestations of the object, just as photographs are. They are part of its descriptive universe, not the entire universe.

Also, overstating the sacred qualities of the object reinforces extant power relationships, between big and small institutions. The digital universe—especially with the increasing availability of open-source, free tools like Omeka—offers a way to break down the distinctions between large/small and well-funded/modestly resourced institutions by creating a more even playing field in terms of digital representation.

Many of the same the same challenges that face museums in terms of digitization are also faced in studying three-dimensional landscapes, which many argue need to be experienced in order to be truly understood. But, I think that we can curate cities, much like we curate objects. Digital history can contribute to the process of reshaping landscape history--which has happened with our Cultural Gardens website. We've had thousands of visitors in the past year--probably more than the actual site--from over 70 countries, countless queries, contributions, and newly created links/conversations about the Gardens. None of that has happened in over twenty years, except among a small group of Clevelanders. We have not been able to keep up. My sense is that this has happened for lots of our colleagues studying landscape but also using the web creatively in museum contexts.

I am not sure, though, that libraries/archives are out front in really digitizing objects, nor are their digital dilemmas really much different than those faced by museums. Books, paper, maps and so forth *are* three-dimensional objects in the same way that artifacts are. Both begged to be handled and touched. For example, when we digitize Sanborn maps we lose a sense of when/if they included "pasteovers"--those little features added (by literally gluing new building details on top of the original map) later that are visible because they are slightly raised. Likewise, even with photos and pages, physical details can be critical. Either we have forgotten this aspect of paper or over-stated the differences between books/paper and artifacts.

Finally, I am not sure that I agree completely with Jeff’s solution that large institutions help small institutions with digitizing and cataloguing their collections. I work with lots of small institutions that fear being subsumed by the catalogues of large institutions. They want to retain their autonomy and often cannot afford the expensive cataloguing systems and/or procedures taken by large institutions (which frequently cannot keep up with their own catalogs.)

I like the sentiment, though. But, it seems to me that more productive and helpful collaborations could be created by sharing preservation resources, storage, and exhibition space (both way more expensive than digital resource development). And, in fact, the large institutions might themselves need to get out of their reliance on expensive/inaccessible archival systems and adapt something more interactive—that dangerous “tagging” that our students prefer to serious metadata.

Great conversation at THATCamp.

American Social History Online

I love this photo, which I found on American Social History Online.

I was searching for images of suburbs, homes, and families, between 1945 and 1970. It captures the sentiment of the moment, evoking the nuclear family of that age. I learned much more about American Social History Online while participating in THATCamp at the Center for History and New Media.

It comes from the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection at the University of Indiana Archives: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/detail.do?pnum=P10954

Cleveland: How Questionable Loans Created a Cleveland Slum | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

Check it out. Cleveland's Slavic Village makes the news as an example of neighborhood blighted by the subprime mess: How Questionable Loans Created a Cleveland Slum | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com.

How Epidemics Helped Shape the Modern Metropolis

Disease shaped cities in many subtle and not so subtle ways, from water systems to public health institutions.  Cholera Epidemic in New York City in 1832 - New York Times. Curiously, though, attitudes about the sick--marginalizing them and blaming them--appear to have been based in preexisting societal norms. They demonstrate how those at the margins of society have been blamed for the sickness in different times and places.  To wit, quoted from the article linked above:

"Unlike most upper-class residents, John Pintard, the respected civic leader who was the historical society’s founder, remained in the stricken city. His letters to one of his daughters are included in the exhibition.

The epidemic, he wrote in an attitude typical of his peers, “is almost exclusively confined to the lower classes of intemperate dissolute & filthy people huddled together like swine in their polluted habitations.”

In another letter, his judgment was even harsher. “Those sickened must be cured or die off, & being chiefly of the very scum of the city, the quicker [their] dispatch the sooner the malady will cease.”

Dr. David D. Ho, a biomedical scientist at Rockefeller University, noted the similarities between the views on cholera and the initial reaction to a more recent epidemic that took science by surprise: AIDS.

When the first AIDS cases were reported in 1981, the victims were almost all white gay men. They were treated as outcasts."

For a slideshow of primary documents, see: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/15/science/20080415_CHOLERA_SLIDESHOW_index.html

race and politics

Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M70emIFxETs
read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/opinion/11patterson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

and then review the ad again.

What do you think?

UCI Contacts & Readings

See the attached PDF files for a contact list for UCI: contacts
Also, see the following for Tuesday April 8, 2008.
Leonard Nathaniel Moore's essay on desegregation in Cleveland is here.
Todd Michney's essay on the Hough Riots is here.

Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques (American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)

The reading for tomorrow is:  Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques (American Folklife Center, Library of Congress).

Who Does Your Brain Want To Vote For?

Link: Who Does Your Brain Want To Vote For?.

Have some fun this weekend and take this test, which the Utne Reader's blog clued me into.
Extra points if you can figure out what my profile looked like!

Campus Mail: Plain Dealer Essay Contest for 2008

Link: Campus Mail: Plain Dealer Essay Contest for 2008.

All students past and present in my HIS304 and HIS400 should consider submitting essays.