Week Ten

Friday 09 December 2011: Readings in Pearce, Latour and Mauss. Admittedly concentration is not all it could be. In effort to regain focus am adopting a ‘new system’ for organisation of notes. Took a moment to respond to a friend’s request for help/advice on writing a museums-related project proposal--happy to do it but worried that I may have hindered more than helped. I woke up to find that my Twitter layout is ‘new’ and was at first worried that it was still hacked but have since discovered that admin seems to be automatically placing some of the accounts on the new profile style.

Thursday 08 December 2011: Polishing and publication of write-up to ‘The Attic’ of journal report for Dr. Albeti’s seminar visit. My Twitter and Facebook accounts seem to have been secured.

Wednesday 07 December 2011: Was informed today of paternal grandmother’s death at 4AM this morning. Attended Brown Bag Seminar with Dr. Sam Alberti on the subject of medical museums. Drafted the report for 'The Attic' about the seminar and sent the draft to certify some of the facts with Dr. Alberti. In addition to all other complications, online Twitter account appears to have been hacked; Twitter administration is ‘sorting’ the situation.

Tuesday 06 December 2011: Found possible angle/avenue for support of thesis of ‘gift’ as inherent to certain types of objects.

Monday 05 December 2011: Readings in Pearce, Latour and Mauss. Descriptive diagramming of possible convergence of spatial contingency and cultural interpretation towards the agency of objects (or again, perceived agency of objects . . . though am attempting to show that there is inherent agency within some objects; mono-mythic, objects-of-agency condition blended with popular media, resulting in the creation of a sort of ‘meta museum object’). Am allowing this problem ‘to rest’ while I return to the main subject of display dynamics as gift exchange.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources. Scheduling for monitor readings. On Saturday a number of us from research went on a ‘Museum Crawl’ hosted by Dr. Amy Barnes. After an invigorating day, we adjourned to a lovely dinner at Shivalli’s to ‘debrief’. This was absolutely essential to the well-being of the more sensitive among the PhD candidates after having discovered the infamous ‘Tiger Snuffbox’.

Week Nine

Friday 02 December 2011: Readings in Pearce, Latour and Mauss.

Thursday 01 December 2011: Library research study day; primarily Pearce, Latour and Mauss.

Wednesday 30 November 2011: Library research and Brown Bag Seminar with Kate Hill about ‘York Castle Museum’.

Tuesday 29 November 2011: Supervision meeting with Sandra. Went up to main campus to request appropriate letters of student exemption for council tax forms. Sandra sent out an inquiry to the general PhD community regarding:

Media coverage for Arts and Humanities Research Council funding. The precise criteria was along the lines of did anyone have a ready example of:

1. Media (presume news coverage, video, social media . . . blogs too?) coverage

of

2. Student projects: funded by AHRC but NOT with collaborative doctoral award

and with

3. NO external partner.

I personally was not able to come up with much and I don't think it was a matter of not looking in the 'right' places. I believe this criteria describes a currently unusual circumstance.

There are case studies listed at the AHRC for small grants that appear to meet the specified criteria in some cases. Most of the cases I found that seem to meet the criteria have not been reported in mainstream media or documented in video. Additionally, many of the reports I have found reported by the AHRC itself or are published by the researcher in the form of a personal blog.

In cases where there is a collaborator such as the BBC, a commercial, media-savvy collaborator or major institution, I observe that there some news reports (Royal Manuscripts research for example). Does this suggest that we in research are not the best at marketing or publicity? I'm also wondering if the economic climate means that collaboration is more the norm, as well as 'trusting' university-based _project groups_ that have professorial leadership? I was sorry not to have be able to contribute to Tallack's research.

I was also informed just before midnight of a bereavement: my godmother Nancy Hall.

Monday 28 November 2011: Preparation for supervision and ‘reconnoitering’ of general objectives. Reviewed current resources and updated the comprehensive annotated bibliography. There are still quite a few resources that I haven’t properly explicated. I need to set more focussed time aside to distill and properly cite quotes (and arguments) for future use.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources. Scheduling for monitor readings.

Copasetic?

Twitter got back to me quite suddenly and swiftly. Everything seems to be okay now. I am very grateful for that.

Breaking Radio Silence for a Moment While Missing the More Tenuous Connectedness of Things.

This is a test of the KEBS; this is only a test . . .

There was a time that the Gmail account was the Gmail account, Twitter was Twitter, Facebook was Facebook, Youtube was Youtube. Now with the 'ease' of 'associated' accounts--such as Gmail with Youtube, it's 'one stop log on' . . . except of course, if for example the Youtube you favour is not associated with the Gmail account you favour. There is also this tricky business of passwords. If you change a password for one account it would appear you might be changing for another account. Not very convenient. Sometime simplification actually complicates things. Right now, I can't sign into my Twitter account because it won't accept the information that I KNOW is the right information. Under the circumstances it may be a glitch, or the account may have been hacked or perhaps, I myself don't understand what is associated with what (in terms of account apps and passwords; I may have inadvertently changed my password for an associated account without realising it).

The reason I made the password changes at my Twitter is that for some time now, I have felt that at some point, my account had been quietly compromised. I had reports from friends that I was blocking and/or dropping them when I'm quite certain I've never blocked or dropped them. This is the sort of thing that some hacker might do, just because it is annoying and because they can.

Growl.

Moreover, it will be days apparently before this gets sorted. Until then, I am in 'radio silence' mode in-so-far as my Twitter account is concerned. It may sound silly but this is a serious challenge to necessary communications in graduate school. I suppose it does afford me an enforced time period of productivity away from social media networking but I am quite worried about this.

If my account has been hacked, or was previously hacked . . . what was the hacker doing in my name, that I don't know about? It is disconcerting. I'm going to try posting this to Twitter and see if it automatically works (the way my mobile has been working) . . . Then I am going to not post anything at all to twitter until further notice.

Evening Update: updating by mobile did work once, but then did not (work) the next time I tried. It is all disquieting. At least the seminar I went to this afternoon was pleasant.

Week Eight

Friday, 25 November 2011: Arrived back in Leicester at about 2AM. I phoned relatives in the USA to wish them well on the occasion of Thanksgiving. After getting the first full eight hours of sleep I’ve had in the past ten days or so, I spent the day catching up on social media and working on journal entries, photos and many other ‘networking’ activities. I posted an ‘Open Letter to Nottingham Contemporary’ regarding their Weber exhibitions; there is some dry humour intended and I hope the ‘letter’ makes them smile (should the curatorial staff of NC ever read it).

Thursday, 24 November 2011: London Research: Royal Manuscripts at the British Library.

In my opinion there were a few logistical flaws but overall, this was a very well administered exhibition. In the visiting population there was some diversity of ages present but the range primarily consisted of thirty-somethings and older. There was very little cultural diversity observed in the visiting population while I was there. Though it does not directly impact my work I did observe that the joy of seeing beautiful things, of learning how they are made, seeing the humanity of the subjects and therefore being able to place one’s own life in context enhanced a personal sense of well-being (at least, it did do this for me and I don’t think I was not alone in that experience). I was also profoundly aware of how the dim lighting which is meant to protect the manuscripts also has the impact of calming the visitor.

I have written and posted a more extensive response to this exhibit posted as an entry into the ‘Living in Leicester’ journal.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011: Brown Bag Seminar: Speaker: Kevin Harris, Local Level Title: 'I Didn't Know I Could': Museums and Young People Looked After’ Sheila Watson, Marianne Tseliou. I missed this due to illness/migraine induced by sleep deprivation from noisy new neighbours.

Tuesday, 22 November 2011: Nottingham: Psychology of Objects.

Due to the train schedule between Leicester and Nottingham I did not get to stay for the panel discussion. The presentation by Dr. Paul Camic, ‘Things, Stuff and Rubbish’ was immediately applicable to my current research. Dr. Camic believes that objects have agency.

His main points were:
1. Objects are expressive and evocative—this is not necessarily a verbal process, he mentioned artist Joseph Cornell, and writer/researcher Edmund de Waal (Hare with Amber Eyes),
2. Objects are extensions of self—we need our things to get through life and our things change us (although he did not mention McLuhan, this is really what his point here was about),
3. Objects form and re-inform mentality--objects are important to rational learning processes and to emotional development,
4. Objects are relationships—we maintain objects and this necessitates relationship with the object and with other people as well.

In further support of his belief that psychology should review its perspective regarding the agency of objects Camic also discussed: Thompson (‘Rubbish Theory’ from 1979), Winnicott, Ingold (goings-on of things), Searles, Miller (‘Social Life of Things’) and many others. I am hoping to get a chance to discuss his ideas with him at some point in the future.

The current exhibitions were also quite interesting. They are based upon the concept of a cabinet of curiosity, of different scale; the concept of oneself being a curio in a large cabinet of curiosities known as the world. I will be posting an extended review in the ‘Living in Leicester’ blog.

Monday, 21 November 2011: Recorded monitor readings and conducted research.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources. Scheduling for monitor readings.

Week Seven.

Friday, 18 November 2011: Working on focus paper one.

Thursday, 17 November 2011: Working on focus paper one.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011: Working on focus paper one.

Tuesday, 15 November 2011: 6-7PM Working on focus paper one. There was a Museum Studies Hall Meeting Seminar; I missed this session.

Monday, 14 November 2011: I have acquired my University library card! Also, was visited by a Raven this morning. I believe it was a male, so I shall say ‘Mr. Raven’ had a huge piece of breakfast in its beak; it tilted its head at me and I could almost swear that it winked at me. I ran to get a camera device but by the time I had returned to the skylight, the raven was gone. The monitors are averaging a little colder and drier than they have been of late. Today I found some fascinating seminar videos based upon film footage from 1970s about interpreting ritual.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources. Scheduling for recording monitor readings. The above image is from a documentary called 'Buck' that is about a man that survived an abusive childhood to become, well, essentially a 'Horse Whisperer'. In the documentary they discuss the idea that the activities with learning how to cooperatively train the horses amounts to training for the human on the other end of the lead rope. Buck travels across the country giving workshops in the non-violent management of horses but all of the participants are very clear about how participation in the programme changes them as much as the horse. What they learn about cooperative behaviour transfers to all of their other relationships and work tasks. It seems to me that this type of change in being may also happen to people when they experience objects in museum context or when they contribute to the knowledge-base for a museum exhibition.

Week Six

Friday, 11 November 2011: Armistice Day 2011 (two minutes of silence; missing Papa very much today), visa application process completed with student welfare, university registration completed. Monitor readings. Research. *Lease renewal (not not immediately research related but without a home, completing the research might prove difficult).

Thursday, 10 November 2011: Emails about new plan for monitor readings and filed report of current data results of environmental monitoring to support Sandra’s meeting with New Walk Museum.

Wednesday, 09 November 2011: Brown Bag Seminar Britta Z Geschwind ‘Ethnology and Gender in Swedish Museums’. Though the topic of gender was discussed, this was actually more about the use of space in the museum in general and perception of hierarchal relationships within the museum context (primarily as evince at the information desk and in the gift shop).

Tuesday, 08 November 2011: Research. Final documents for visa application.

Monday, 07 November 2011: Monitor Readings and Research.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources. Scheduling for MR.

(Please note that the stills used in this entry were extracted from an interesting, filmed discussion about public ritual. The seminar originally took place in 1976 . . . more about this next week! Thank you.)

Week Five.

Friday, 04 November 2011: Review of Research Day at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Thursday, 03 November 2011: Research Day at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Wednesday, 02 November 2011: Preparations for Post-YSP Research Day.

Tuesday, 01 November 2011: Report of supervision session two sent.

Monday, 31 October 2011: Access obtained for intensive research day at the library.

Weekend: Research at home--review of online resources.

Week Four

Friday, 28 October 2011: Exhibition Photo Session at Museum Studies.

Thursday, 27 October 2011: RESEARCH and write up of supervision.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011: Supervision Session Two followed by Tea in the Attic: Historical Distancing.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011: Generic Skills Training for Researchers Day.

Monday, 24 October 2011: 10AM Listening in on Sandra Dudley lecture/seminar: ‘Art Objects’.

Weekend: Saturday--Attended Oxjam (briefly) and conducted general research. Sunday was committed to ‘housekeeping’ (long overdue)! I saved the Environmental Monitoring Wiki as a screen save image and as an MS Word document before editing it for use for next week.

Week Three

Friday, 21 October 2011: Numerous volunteers for environmental monitoring of new exhibit are scheduled! I am very grateful for this. Today I caught up on research and journal work. I reviewed my current schedule in terms of time and resource management.

Thursday, 20 October 2011: Field trip to the British Museum. Support of MA’s in need of technical advise for use of the pilot-project field work ‘Ethics’ app and use of tablet computers. Briefly met with Dr. Jonathan King. Listened in on a master class regarding the Enlightenment Hall guided by Kim Sloan (Curator of the Enlightenment Hall, British Museum).

Wednesday, 19 October 2011: 9:30AM I attended the Exhibitions and Collections Management Committee Meeting, in the Projects Room. I met briefly with supervisor after committee meeting to arrange for our next supervision session. 10AM Richard Sandell ‘Museums’ Social Roles and Responsibility’. In the afternoon I attended a training Session for tech support of the MA programme field trip to the British Museum. I attended a SSCC meeting in the Collections Room from roughly 4-5PM. I nearly missed the refresher course in the evening and am concerned that the amount of time it will take for me to regularly complete the work to feel comfortable in that setting, is more than I can afford.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011: Painting the audio pedestals that accompany the exhibition.

Monday, 17 October 2011: 10AM Richard Sandell Lecture/Seminar ‘Engaging the City’. Commencement of monitoring the display cases. I sent the requested report and review for the first supervision to my supervisor today.

Weekend: General research, working on report for next supervision. Discovered that a group at University College London is doing work related to the subject of my thesis.

Week Two.

Friday, 14 October 2011: Today included a training session with research librarian Evelyn Cornell. It was a very helpful session. What I gathered most from this session is the importance of keywords and how little has been written in my topic area using the keywords I have currently chosen. This does not prove that there is no previous research but rather that the subjects has not and is not discussed using the terms that I am currently using. It is possible that no work has actually been done but that remains to be seen.

Thursday, 13 October 2011: A few of us in the PhD programme crashed the MA programme’s field trip to Sheffield’s Weston Park Museum. I had a wonderful conversation with John Brodley and Kim Street about some of the projects they have currently in the works and what they find most rewarding in about the recent projects that involved co-production.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011: In the morning, I enrolled for refresher courses ‘Language at Leicester’. In the afternoon I worked on an installation with Bridget Telfer from Royal College of Physicians then in the evening attended ‘Tea in the Attic’ with other researchers in the department. For this month ‘Tea in the Attic’ manifested as a lovely discussion led by Ceri Jones on the topic of how to take care of health and sanity while succeeding at doctoral research at Leicester. Thank you Ceri!

Tuesday, 11 October 2011: The Induction Ceremony and Welcome Reception was very useful. I think everyone in attendance felt well supported by the university.

Monday, 10 October 2011: After my visa consultation in the morning I participated in a deinstallation and I had my first supervision with Prof. Sandra Dudley. It was very constructive, pleasant and focussing! I’ll be writing up a report of session this week. Next time we will be discussing the dimensions of the research plan and implications of research.

Weekend: General research, working on report for next supervision.

University of Leicester: Week One.

Week One: Many thanks to the advanced researches for hosting a lovely introductory week of evening dinners and pleasant social occasions.

Friday 7 October 2011: Noon Pre-Seminar Seminar then Seminar with Viv Golding project. Visa Renewal Workshop. Reception for Faith Trail Project at New Walk (5:30 reception for the Faith Trail followed by impromptu graduate discussion at the Landsdowne, followed by ‘The Pub’ at New Walk--fascinating discussion of contextual relationships between social and physical attributes of spatial experience in the interpretation of objects; we also ran into colleague Jenny in debate about the relationship between language and experience in terms of magical realism as juxtaposed to what is generally classified as science fiction.)

Thursday 6 October 2011: Review for tomorrow and photocopies of Faith Trail Brochure. I emailed my supervisor to make appointment for the first supervision meeting.

Wednesday 5 October 2011: Brown Bag Seminar in The Collections Room with Reiji Takayasu of Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science. After the meeting, set to organising of the Collections Room and collections closet (this was a very enjoyable experience I was happy to do).

Tuesday 4 October 2011: General Meetings for Postgraduates and Researchers at the University of Leicester. Getting used to new email accounts etc. Had a lengthy interview with Student Welfare for the renewal of my student visa (somewhat complicated and expensive in light of new laws passed during the summer). There was also an introductory session to the marking process at Museum Studies, University of Leicester.

Monday 3 October 2011: 2:15 Collections Room: Introduction to Museum Studies at Leicester.

Pre-Term Weekend: Meditation and gentle stretching exercises to calm pre-induction nerves.

*Please note that the photo used for this entry was not taken by the author. It is the official website photo for the Museum Studies Department website at the University of Leicester.