Some background
\- Carl Hogsden, research associate at the University of Cambridge, and curator at Museum of Archeology and Anthropology
\- Also works for CARET
\- Sits beside Antranig
\- Rebuilt the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (MAA) using open source technologies (just finished implementing a few days ago\!)
\- Responsible for curating exhibitions at the museum
    - Tries to squeeze in technology wherever possible into the space
    - When he first joined, all the MAA had was an iMac in the gallery space
    - Now they have loads of screen, some (all?) of them touch screens
\- He's interested in using web technology to have work in the museum connect with source communities (source communities are "the communities from which museum collections originate")
\- Interested in using web inside the physical space to have things interact with each other
\- Want to bring "local knowledge" into the museum
"Assembling Bodies" exhibition
\- One of their current exhibitions is on the human body
\- 12 or 13 different departments at Cambridge University contributed to this; all those departments were somehow related to the theme of the body
\- Each department gave their own interpretation, representation, visualization of the body (e.g., ultrasound, DNA, art, etc.)
\- Also about how machines become extensions of the body
\- Miniature exhibits within the exhibition, each with its own theme, corresponding to the different departments
\- Would like for visitors to take objects out of the gallery (virtually), combine and interpret the exhibition in their own way
\- Would like for visitors to build relationships among the objects on the website, and then bring that into the museum space when t hey visit
\- Exhibition went live in March 2009, will be up for two years
\- By autumn 2009, as a second stage, they want to somehow inject the web into the physical space
\- Users creating their own themes, and relatedness of objects, and sharing that
\- Exhibition space is \~70 metres in length, \~6 metres wide
\- 12 or 13 different areas (each corresponding to the miniature exhibits/themes/departments)
\- Every object in the physical space is on their website
Some ideas
\- Visitors could prepare what objects they want to see in the physical space before coming in
\- Visitors create mini, personal collections of objects \[seems to be a reoccurring theme in our museum conversations\!\]
\- Visitors sharing their own interpretations of objects
\- In the near future, the collections management system could collect information from invited researchers, etc. outside the museum, and visitors in the further future
\- Carl would find it interesting to see what objects visitors find interesting
\- (and evidence for finding what visitors find interesting in the gallery)
\- Museums collect stuff together; would be interesting to see how visitors would form their own collections, and engage with the physical space with that
\- Still rare to see integration between the web and physical space in museums \[another reoccurring theme in our conversations with museums\]
\- Functionality/experience of the website often ends there, and doesn't make it into the physical space
\- The web is 2D, the physical space is 3D, and integrating the two isn't always easy
\- They run a post-grad course in the museum
\- Collecting in and of itself is nice, but even better would be a reason for collecting
\- Encourage visitors to collect "because" of something, instead simply collecting a bunch of objects they arbitrarily like