Primarily for my library & literary geek friends

[drwex]

NPR did a fascinating piece on art conservation as public display. Seems the newly reopened Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery have a new area with floor-to-ceiling glass walls behind which visitors can watch conservators doing their daily work. Apparently they get to wear custom aprons designed by Isaac Mizrahi.

Back when I used to inhabit the Media Lab we did much of our work behind similar glass walls, referred to as "fishbowls" and frequently plastered with signs like "Please don't feed the graduate students." The signs mostly amused visitors but really annoyed the Lab PR staff who had to give tours of the (in)famous place. Clever research groups plastered their glass with pretty pictures and work samples to amuse and distract passers-by. I mean, how exciting can it be to watch a bunch of scruffy grad students banging away at keyboards?

The Smithsonian experiment also reminds me of long ago when tamidon and I used to go out often to dinner and glass-walled kitches were all the rage. She used to sniff at the notion of cooking as performance art, though the wild popularity of the Food Channel and this weekend's animated conversations over the utter fascinatingness of Alton Brown might lead one to think differently. I have to wonder, though, if there's really so much "fascinating" stuff in conservation as the Smithsonian is making it out to be.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it appears that the Dewey Decimal system of library cataloging is still alive. I thought Library of Congress designations had wiped out Dewey, but apparently not. Harper's Magazine published this list of new Library of Congress subject headings that received Dewey Decimal numbers last year. The list includes such topical gems as "Exaggeration (philosophy)", "Middle-aged sexual minorities", and "Video wrestling games".

coslinks pointed me to a YouTube page with a "music video" called Tyger, inspired by the William Blake poem The Tyger. The video is a cool mix of animation, live action and puppetry. I used to have a link to a good analysis of this poem but I lost it many years ago and simple Google searching isn't helping me. If someone knows of a good page that annotates or comments well on this poem I'd love to read it.

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i think much of it isn't that the activity is 'fascinating', but that the observer can see themselves as part of the process -- "oh, i saw them working on that..."

not to mention the allure of "insider"-ness, where you see things that are *perceived* as not being available to everyone. (the basis for much of the discover/history channels' programming at times)

[mizarchivist]

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it appears that the Dewey Decimal system of library cataloging is still alive.

shakes head I should say not. They're systems that are useful in specific environments. Dewey's always been public-library/browsing centric while LC is the choice of the bigger academic places. I doubt Dewey would ever go away.
I think it'd be really fascinating to watch preservationists/ conservators work. But I would.

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the Nymph Fishing and Street Gutters topics, myself.

[heinleinfan.livejournal.com]

David and I went to DC this past weekend and we saw the Enola Gay, it's on display at a branch of the Air and Space museum that's well away from The Mall.

David's father said that the first time he actually saw the Enola Gay was at the Air and Space museum that is on the mall. They were doing a "watch people work" exhibit on plane restoration and he said he looked over and just sitting there, with no signs or anything, just kinda, waiting for it's turn to get repainted, was the nose section of the Enola Gay. He said it shook him up a little. I think it would me, too.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

If it's not going anywhere (which I agree with), then I would call it still alive. I'm actually quite surprised that drwex didn't think so, because most town public libraries and schools use the Dewey Decimal System, and I'd think drwex would take his kids to the local library....then again, just because you go to the kids section doesn't mean you go to the other sections....but yah, my first experience with LC was in college, and as far as I know it's relegated to academia and study, whereas Dewey is relegated to (as mizarchivist said) public libraries and secondary school libraries.

As for watching folks work, I've had webcams set up where I work (and recently was thinking of putting one up in my current job). For whatever reason, people close to me like to "check on me" during the day and will grab a photo, or IM me saying "you look tired" or whatever. I guess it's kinda like lj, but instead of reading what one chooses to show, they can see me (or what I look like every few seconds/minutes). That's my choice; I might be annoyed if someone forced me to do that.

[drwex]

I thnk that's a good point. "Fascinating" is really just an advertising word, which doesn't adequately describe the reasoning and experience of the tourist/visitor.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

The head librarian at my HS alma mater is desperately campaigning to switch to LOC. For many years now. 200+ y/o schools don't, apparently, make decisions on the fly. Evar.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

The Dewey Decimal System die? Never. It's so much easier to use than the LOC (though also more limited). I use the DDS for my library. If only I could afford the updated version.