Steve Schwolert, the Exhibit Coordinator at the
Austin History Center, recently sent along some interesting comments about the
differences (and similarities!) between museums and archives that I'd
like to share with ExhibiTricks readers. As you'll see, Steve also sent
along some cool photos and descriptions of a simulated
Kinetoscope that
he's made using iPods!
Enjoy what Steve has to say below:
The
Austin History Center is not, strictly speaking, a museum. We hover
somewhere between museums and libraries. We are, rather, a research
institution that collects archival documents (records of all types,
including over a million photographs, films and videos). It is a
distinction that most people miss who do not use archives on a regular
basis. Exhibits in our setting function to educate, promote our
collections, and as a vehicle to encourage citizens to donate archival
materials that record Austin’s history. Through our exhibits, and
Community Liaison program to underserved communities, we’ve unearthed a
number of significant collections that record our area's history. In
many cases, it is unusual to have a vibrant exhibits program in archives,
unless perhaps you are one of the big boys like the
Harry Ransom Center
or the
National Archives. Though we rely on the skills of all our staff
for research, I am the entire “official” exhibits staff. I do all the
design and fabrication as well as the promotional graphics.
Figuring
out how to make the distinction between archives and museums clear is
something we at the Austin History Center are working on all the time.
We need better “elevator speeches” and have put some effort into
marketing ourselves in the last couple years. All that said, I get a
lot of good ideas and inspiration from being a “fly on the wall” around
people in the museum world. So the long and short is that there is some
crossover, but archives are still a bit different. I will say that
with the success of our exhibits program in the last few years, exhibits
are now a core service whereas they used to be ancillary/optional.
Creating
exhibits for an archive is unique in that we deal with 2D “objects”
almost exclusively. Any 3D artifacts are usually more complimentary of
the materials we collect – photos, documents, letters, architectural
drawings, maps, film and video. I often joke that my world is one of
arranging rectangles. Coming up with ways to present the materials in a
dynamic way is always challenging. But we have found that exhibits
serve to help us expand both our place in Austin’s cultural community
and as a vehicle for expanding our collections, with our overall goal
being to collect, preserve and provide access to the primary source
materials that record our local history.
I am notorious
for trying things I’ve never done before, so with our latest exhibit
called
“The First Picture Shows: Historic Movie Houses of Austin,” I
wanted to give our visitors a sense of what it was like to watch movies
in a context that has vanished. Giving a broader context in which to
set the stories found in a local archive is something we try to do in
each exhibit. Reading the ExhibiTricks blog inspired me in this way,
and so I thought “why not?” and built a version of the Kinetoscope – the
first device created by Edison and widely distributed in the US for
watching movies. Edison actually imagined it first as a way to generate
interest in his Phonograph, and thought movies would only appeal to a
viewer more like an arcade entertainment. Edison’s Vitascope projector
came along in 1896 and was the first system that was commercially
successful in the US.
Our Kinetoscope runs on iPods –
two for digitized Edison films from the
National Archives and one for
audio, all set to loop continuously. The iPods (Nano, 3rd and 4th
generation) are AC powered using adapters and have been running
continuously for well over a month now with no signs of quitting. The
two iPods for films are rigged in a box approximately 12” deep with a
glass magnifying lens scavenged from older magnifying glasses inserted
halfway between where the viewer looks and the iPod itself. The boxes
are then mounted into a sleeve inside the cabinet which I can remove as
needed.
One concern was with accessibility, so unlike an original
Kinetoscope, I made a window in the front of the cabinet for those who
cannot look in from the top. To loop the media, I simply put the films
and music into a playlist on iTunes and set it to repeat. The audio is a
recording of an old piece of Ragtime piano music from our collections
composed for the opening of
Austin’s Paramount Theater in 1915.
Ironically, movies, not to mention music, are moving back to the
individual experience of the personal device much like the Kinetoscope
was in its day. Maybe Edison understood something about film that only
the technology of our era has been able to actualize.
We’ve
discovered that movies really hit a nerve with just about everyone, and
so we have created a way for visitors to contribute their own “Movie
House Memories” by giving them a place to post them in the exhibit. I
am periodically posting these memories on our
Facebook page, taking that
conversation one step further. Our tagline is “Discover Your Story”
and it is my desire to create experiences that bring viewers deeper into
our shared history as a community by sharing their own story. When a
collection is donated to the archive and then used for research, this is
exactly what is happening. Figuring out how to reflect that in our
exhibits is “the dream” you might say. And I want that experience not
only to be insightful, but fun. That’s why I built the Kinetoscope –
for fun. Why not?
Thanks Steve! You can find out more about the Austin History Center by visiting their
website or by checking out their
Facebook page.
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