GeneratorMania

It is not only about images. I have run across a blog that pretty much links to all imaginable online generators. For fun (such as Nietzsche family circus generator), self-esteem (the motivator), mocking web 2.0 (I have stopped to the web 2.0 logo creator, here is what it can do:

..playing with shapes (Modern art generator) or sounds, or sounds & text (Singing email generator, converts your text to singing messages) and soo many others..
For an extensive list, see the Generator blog. Have fun!

Museums in 3D worlds: Second Life

Apart from the king web 2.0, Second Life has been one predilect subject of discussion in the 2007 edition of the Museums and the Web conference, held in San Francisco, in April.
What can museums do in a 3D world? Second Life residents collect and display, museums are created out of passion and can exhibit real artworks or amazing new virtual ones, play with what the virtual allows and the real world does not contain, and above all offer visitors in virtual museums new ways of interacting with exhibits.
Museums increasingly use the virtual 3D world as field for museographic experiments. The Exploratorium in San Francisco created a virtual museum called the 'Splo, offering visitors/avatars new ways of experimenting science and perception. Walk from the Sun to the moon to see how eclipses happen; fly through the solar system; experiment lack of gravity.
Interesting aspects arise also from the surveys carried on visitors in the 'Splo: it appears that visitors developed a high degree of identification with their avatar, so that impressions and sensations they experience through avatars are actually experienced and take effect also in reality (jumping on a trampoline gets visitors dizzy!!). See the paper presented by the Exploratorium team at the M&W 2007.

More about the 'Splo

For an overview of museums and their activities in Second Life, you may check the paper of R. Urban, P. Marty and M. Twidale, from the Universities of Illinois and Florida at M&W 2007.

UNESCO Project "sound of our water"

Ilze's presentation on the National History Museum of Latvia

Ilze started on Wednesday, April 4th, the series of student-to-student presentations, meant to encourage sharing the professional and academic experience of TEC-CH students, prior to their coming to study at the USI.

Ilze talked about The National History Museum of Latvia, where she has been working for several years in the PR department. Ilze's presentation introduced the way the museum is run, the collection and the collecting policy, the exhibitions and some concrete projects she has been working on together with the PR department.

The presentation touched also key moments in the history of Latvia, especially during and after the fall of the Communist regime.

For a short tour of the beauties of Latvia today, check the promotional video "Welcome to Latvia".

Training Package "Running a Museum": Launched by UNESCO

UNESCO responds to the needs of museum professionals in developing countries, by launching a museum studies training package meant to improve knowledge and competencies on running a museum. The package contains a Trainer's Manual and a Practical Handbook.

Download Practical Handbook
Download Trainer's Manual