Object(ive) Data: Collections, Databases and Museums

Catalog description

Museums and galleries can inspire awe with the objects and materials they put on display. From the histories of their making, through their preservation over time, objects in museum collections tell stories and reflect larger legacies of movements and change. It is the role of museum staff to extrapolate themes and concepts from their collections, collating information and different interpretations which are recorded in museum databases. Databases allows museums to document objects, but what more can their data do? Can data help museums reevaluate the significance of their objects and collections as a whole? Does the data alone tell a story? And does it come with its own limitations and biases? In this TIDES course, students will have the opportunity to investigate the benefits, challenges, and constraints of managing museum’s collection data. Following a brief grounding in the history of museum collections from both an art historical and a collections management perspective, students will progress through weekly conversations and site visits that illuminate the practicalities, perks, and pitfalls that can emerge at the intersections of historical materials and data analysis. Alongside these components, students in this course will gain “hands on” access to a selection of objects from the Newcomb Art Museum (NAM) as they work to research and draft thematic object checklists as a capstone to our course that can potentially be published as a resource for others on campus.