Handbag, or no handbag?

Today I stood in front of Manor at the Piazza Dante for a good 20 minutes while waiting to meet my partner for lunch. Simply out of curiosity, I started comparing the number of women vs. the number of men who carry purses, handbags, backpacks or some form of container for their personal belongings. A random sample of 10 (5 men, 5 women) was chosen: every third person who passed by the ash tray was counted until his/her gender quota was filled. Not surprisingly, only 1 out of 5 men carried a backpack and all women carried a purse or a handbag.

It makes me wonder, what is it in our culture that causes such phenomenon? Is it simply the influence of popular culture/fashion? If women tend to carry purses or handbags to hold their belongings, where do men's belongings go? Can we take advantage of such kind of behaviour in the field of cultural heritage?

We came, we saw, we conquered...TEC-CH

Update: Photos from thesis defence now available on Flickr!

The past week was one that was intense and liberating at the same time for some of our TEC-CH Master students. As the conclusion of their graduate studies careers, Joao-Paulo, Susanna, Paola and Miriam defended their theses at the University of Lugano. Their thesis topics, naturally, circled around the theme of technology-enhanced communications for cultural heritage, but yet they are individually special and present distinct aspects about the field.

Using Brazilian music as a case study, JP presented the importance of weak ties and popular hubs in the world of Web 2.0. Susanna, on the other hand, discussed the use of multimedia applications in the Archaeological Park of Populonia. Paola took a broad look at the Swiss museum industry and surveyed their uses of technology. Last but not least, Miriam discussed an inter-communicative online PR system designed for art exhibitions, using the case of the exhibition Piet Mondrian: Depiction to Picture at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, as her departure point.

Well done (former, and forever) TEC-CHers! Congratulations to our fresh graduates.