Museums & Technology

Superhighway Scholars: Calling all 4th Graders

May 16, 2008

We asked SAAM's Patrick Martin, to write a post about a new Web initiative from our museum’s Education department: Superhighway Scholars. Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii If you listen closely, you can hear it. It’s that...

SAAM Launches Photography Podcast

April 15, 2008

William Christenberry's Green Warehouse—Newbern, Alabama We just launched a new podcast in our museum series about our photography collection and exhibitions here at SAAM. The American landscape has always been a rich subject for photography. Our photography curator, Toby Jurovics,...

Kogod and Flickr

February 1, 2008

Photo of Kogod Courtyard by Tom Klancer via Flickr DCist observes that the Flickr response to the Kogod Courtyard has been enthusiastic. Judging from a selection of Flickr photographs, the response to the light available in the courtyard has indeed...

Seeing Things (1)

January 2, 2008

This is the first in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. In the museum, I like to take some time away from looking at the art to look at people, especially people when they’re...

New Flickr Group for SAAM/Renwick

November 16, 2007

SAAM's got a new Flickr group. There are already some great pictures of our new courtyard, which opens to the public this Sunday (November 18th) at 11:30 a.m. Look for us wearing our Eye Level buttons and bring your camera!...

Two New Podcasts

September 28, 2007

We have launched two new podcasts this week: an audio podcast, The Prints of Sean Scully, (whose exhibition is on display at the museum until October 8) and our first video podcast on our Lunder Conservation Center. Take a look...

Awards for SAAM New Media Projects

June 13, 2007

SAAM New Media projects have just won two MUSE awards from the American Association of Museums. The MUSE awards recognize excellence in the use of media and technology in museums. Our Luce Center Web site and kiosks won gold in...

Second Life Meets First Life

March 30, 2007

I was bound and determined to avoid Second Life as long as possible, but it seems just as determined to invade First Life. Slart is the newest front: a critical magazine about Second Life art, it's currently published in-world (as...

SAAM's Second Podcast

February 9, 2007

Dust Bowl by Alexandre Hogue Ninety years from now, when America begins to reflect on the past one hundred years, what will our descendants think of the early part of the 21st century? And how will artists define the era?...

Lighting the Joseph Cornell Retrospective

February 5, 2007

We asked SAAM's lighting designer, Scott Rosenfeld, to discuss his thinking as he lit the exhibition on Joseph Cornell currently on view in the third-floor galleries. To fully reveal Cornell's boxes, traditional gallery lighting above the cases was supplemented with...

Eye Level's First Anniversary!

November 29, 2006

On this date last year we launched Eye Level. Just for fun, here is a visual index of all our posts -- 121 if you're keeping score. (Some date back a little farther than a year: when we launched we...

The Initiative

August 25, 2006

Included on the Smithsonian Photography Initiative Web site: Terry Evans, Fairy Ring #2, Fent's Prairie, 1979, Ektacolor print, 15 x 15 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation, 1989.38.5 After the New York Public...

LA Times: Now on Exhibit, the Blogger's View

August 2, 2006

Los Angeles Times discusses the new world of museum blogging For a behind-the-scenes look at museum blogging in general and Eye Level in particular, take a look at Now on exhibit, the blogger's view in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. Writer...

Museum Lighting: How We Do It

July 24, 2006

Color Field Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Scott Rosenfeld: "I think the entrance view works well. All three artworks, Anne Truitt's 17th Summer (left), Paul Reed's #1D (center) and Gene Davis's Wall Stripes No.3 (right) read as dynamic fields of...

A Friday Afternoon Toot

May 19, 2006

Earlier this month we announced our new kids’ Web site, Meet Me at Midnight, with a nine-year-old’s impressions. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but this week we got word that our site was picked as a Macromedia/Adobe...

Meet Me at Midnight

May 4, 2006

Meet Me at Midnight, a new art game for kids (midnight.si.edu) Today we are launching Meet Me at Midnight, an interactive art mystery Web site for kids. It's perfect for eight- to ten-year-olds and is meant to be a fun...

Eye Level Wins MUSE Award

April 28, 2006

Eye Level has won a MUSE Award from the American Association of Museums—we took home a silver in “Two-Way Communication Projects.” COSI Columbus took the gold in this category for its videoconference In Depth: Autopsy, SFMOMA and Antenna Audio received...

Best of the Web

March 30, 2006

One of our "big" ones: Campfire Stories with George Catlin. The Museums and the Web conference announced the winners of its Best of the Web competition Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. All the winners are listed below, but the one...

Museums and the Web Wake-Up Call

March 25, 2006

An archetypal mobile superuser. It starts very, very early. I thought I was beginning to understand this job just a little bit. We talk to curators and educators about art, listen to the public, and generally get excited about things...