Museums and the Web 2000

When is the next
Museums and the Web?

Archives & Museum Informatics
158 Lee Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4E 2P3 Canada

Far Flung: Distance, Creativity, and Collaboration

Keith Braafladt, Science Museum of Minnesota, USA
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, US

www.smm.org/greatestplaces/mirage/

Session: Demo Session 1

Is real collaboration possible over distance? What qualities are essential for a good collaborative project? How can internet technologies (as well as snail mail, conversations, and time alone) foster communication and collaboration? How can artists, museum educators, and web developers work together, and what can come of these projects?

Keith Braafladt, Learning Technologies Group of the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Margaret Pezalla-Granlund, artist and museum educator, will demonstrate The Mirage Observer (www.greatestplaces.org/mirage) and a in-process project on mapping. We will discuss our experiences with collaboration and the creative process over distance informed by our experiences working on these two projects. The LTG sees technology as a way of facilitating collaborations with creative people and as a tool for developing ideas into projects. The LTG has demonstrated that collaboration across distances is not a limitation if full use is made of the available technologies -- both "high" and "low". We are interested in talking with other museum educators and web developers about ideas for projects and processes, and ways of making these kind of artist-museum collaborations possible.