our process.

So, if you care to know why we created this page and why we chose to construct it in this particular way, read on…

our vision . . . aka our homework.

We created this site as a project for a course entitled “Museums and Technology,” we were tasked with creating a new media project that was in some way related to Allison Smith and her work commissioned by the IMA, “On Procession: the Donkey, the Jackass, and the Mule.” We chose to look at Allison Smith past work in relation to her current project. At first, we envisioned this site as something that would have been much more encyclopedic and more closely related to the style of an exhibit you might see in a traditional museum. We were influenced and inspired by several things that helped us move this project in a new direction

conversations. influences. under the influence.

Our first realization was that using new media we had the ability to create an experience and environment that cannot be found in the traditional museum. We wanted to create something that was accessible to people outside of the art world or academia. And we wanted to initiate a conversation… thus the name.

One inspiration for the project is the Wikipedia model and the idea of the democratization of knowledge. Wikipedia gets a pretty negative wrap, especially in the academic world. But, there is something positive to be said about a community of people coming together and contributing the creation of a body of knowledge.

creation and control.

We wanted to explore this idea in a museum type setting. One reason it interested us is because museums are so afraid of spaces that they cannot fully control. Have you ever been to an exhibit were you could freely add information or even felt comfortable suggesting that something should be added or changed?

beer. yeah.

We also wanted things to be really informal. This came mostly from our own experiences. After our first few project meetings made their way to the pub we found that in this relaxed setting over a beer or three we had our best and most interesting conversations. This is what we are trying to recreate.